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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.

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Chapter Seventy-One—Rapid Movements

            “We must act immediately. We dare not waste time in case he already knows that we have taken Zabini captive.”

            Snape’s face was like a wall. Harry glanced away from him and at Zabini, who was now tied tight with ropes of Snape’s conjuring and unconscious thanks to a Stunner. Dash curled at Harry’s feet, watching them all with his head motionless. Harry knew from long experience that that didn’t mean he was motionless; he would explode into the right direction, aimed at an enemy, as soon as Harry ordered him to.

            Yet you don’t want me to kill anyone.

            Harry flinched a little at the sulkiness—Dash really didn’t understand Harry’s desire to leave his enemies alive—and answered Professor Snape instead. “Does Karkaroff know you’re a Legilimens, sir?”

            “He does.”

            Harry blinked. “Do you have to tell each Headmaster of the schools that compete in the Triwizard Tournament about the teachers?” he asked. “I mean, at least the Headmasters of the schools that don’t have any professors here?” It seemed like an odd rule to him, but then, everything about the Triwizard Tournament was odd.

            Snape answered in a voice so cold that Harry could feel it scraping against his skin. “No. He knows because we were once Death Eaters together.”

            Harry started, and heard Draco gasp next to him. “Well, no wonder he wanted to get Blaise to poison Conflagration,” Draco said a second later. “He must have heard that Father was turning against the Dark Lord.”

            “Where would he get that information?” Snape sounded tired. “Your father has hardly made a public announcement of it, and Karkaroff was one who turned against his fellow Death Eaters and condemned them after the war. He is still free because he was the Ministry’s informant. No, Draco, I cannot believe he has gone back to his old allegiance. The Dark Lord would destroy him if he did.”

            “Huh,” said Draco, not sounding convinced.

            Harry met Snape’s eyes. “You recognized his handwriting in the letters in Zabini’s memory?” he asked, and Snape nodded. “What was he asking Zabini to do?”

            “Brew a magical poison that would kill your Dash,” said Snape brutally. “He wants to see your political power fall apart. He told Mr. Zabini that he was particularly concerned about the growth of your strength among Slytherins and former Slytherin students. I believe that was in part a ploy to make Mr. Zabini trust him. Other than to his family and his own life, Mr. Zabini’s greatest loyalty would be to Slytherin House.” He fell silent, brooding.

            “In part?” Draco asked, while Harry just stared down at Dash in silent shock. He could hardly believe someone he’d only spoken to once or twice, and who had given him a pretty high score in the Tasks, could hate him this much.

            If you kill them, then they stop hating you, because there’s nothing left to hate with, Dash pointed out helpfully.

            Remind me to tell you about the human concept of an afterlife sometime, said Harry shakily. And anyway, you’ve met ghosts.

            Dash sniffed with a snap of his tongue. Just because some humans are too stupid to know they’re dead does not mean we need pay attention to them. And ghosts cannot harm us. Karkaroff is welcome to become a ghost if he wants.

            “I think he does fear the growth of Harry’s power among Slytherins and former Slytherins. He would be expected to support it, Headmaster of Durmstrang though he is, because most of our Slytherins have siblings or cousins or other relatives who attend Durmstrang. And note that Harry’s bodyguard for the Yule Ball came from Durmstrang. The Selwyns are people who Karkaroff thinks should naturally fall into his sphere of influence with one of their daughters in attendance at his school. Instead, they turn towards Harry.”

            Harry ducked his head. I wish now that I hadn’t let people think what they wanted about me being Slytherin’s reincarnation. I wish I’d insisted more strongly that I wasn’t.

            You tried, and the Selwyns didn’t believe you. You can’t keep people from thinking what they want to think.

            Harry shrugged and asked, “Why does Karkaroff want to be so powerful, anyway? Does he want to be a Dark Lord?”

            Severus snorted. “No. What he wants to be is politically powerful, respected, in charge of molding and influencing young lives, and with his webs of connection among them even when they are grown and leave Durmstrang.” He paused. “He wants to be what Albus became, in fact. He has never realized that the main reason Albus ascended to that position was his power and his defeat of Grindlewald, not simply because everyone loves the Headmaster of Hogwarts for no reason.”

            “And they should love the Headmaster of Durmstrang,” Draco finished, with a little shake of his head. “When Dumbledore messed up and got revealed as Moody…”

            “Yes, then Karkaroff’s paranoia would have risen,” Snape said softly. “He sees everything in terms of himself and reflections of himself. He would think that where Harry had destroyed one Headmaster, he could destroy another. I would suspect that that is when his letters to Mr. Zabini, perhaps before simply a contact in Slytherin House to understand what Harry was doing and how worried he needed to be, became more importunate and urged him to destroy Harry’s basilisk.”

            “I wonder if it was something else, too,” Harry said. He didn’t really want to interrupt, not when they were spinning out all these political consequences he hadn’t thought to look for, but he did think he had something to say.

            Snape at once turned towards him, and Harry relaxed a little. Yes, Snape still trusted him and wanted to hear what he said, even if it was off-base from what he or Draco thought.

            “Yes?” Snape whispered.

            “Krum came and talked to me in the library,” Harry said. “More than once. He wanted a basilisk egg, and so did Karkaroff. Or they wanted one between them. And the last time, Krum told me there were people on the Continent who wanted to be safe from Voldemort, but he wouldn’t tell me any of their names, because he said it would be too dangerous. I thought he was making it up, and then I wondered if it was some kind of strange way to try and get an edge in the Tournament. But now…”

            “Karkaroff sees having a basilisk as another source of power,” Snape finished, his eyes narrowed in thought. “He wanted one. He wanted to take yours when you would not give him one. And now the possible return of the Dark Lord will be terrifying him. Branded as a traitor, he will not live if the Dark Lord rises.” Snape looked up, his eyes burning. “I would wager that at least one of the terrified people Krum couldn’t speak of is Igor himself. And fear can make a man do things he would otherwise avoid.”

            Harry only nodded, and said nothing. He thought fear had made Sirius do strange things around him, and the Dursleys. But he could never have worked it all out the way Snape had just done, even if he’d already known Karkaroff personally.

            Why did I ever want to enter politics? I can’t do it properly. I’m not that smart.

            If you do not cease insulting yourself, then I might lose control of my fangs, Dash announced. Because I cannot bite you even if you are the one saying those words, so I must go back to the ones who made you think of yourself that way. And those are the Dursleys and Dumbledore and other people more distant. And that means I would be gone a long time. Stop insulting yourself so I can stay at your side.

            Harry shook his head a little. Even Dash had dazzling thoughts that he couldn’t keep up with.

            “Why did Blaise believe him, though?” Draco was asking, his face wrinkled with frown lines. Harry decided not to tell him about the lines. He would be horrified. “It’s not like he couldn’t have talked to me, or other people in Slytherin who decided to follow Harry. They would have told him that Harry was the stronger one, not Dumbledore or V-Voldemort or whoever he thought Karkaroff was.”

            “He thought of Karkaroff as a friend.” Snape was quiet for a moment, and Harry focused on him. He was tracing a crease in the couch near him, and frowning at it. Then he looked up and at Harry.

            “This is the part that I must ask you not to reveal,” he said, and he turned to take in Draco. “Either one of you. As dangerous as Mr. Zabini was when he was trying to destroy Dash, he would be far more dangerous if you let something of this slip.”

            “Blaise was my friend. I won’t tell on him.”

            Harry just said, “I don’t want him to ever hurt Dash again. But I don’t want him to really suffer.”

            Draco stiffened and glared at him. Harry barely kept from rolling his eyes. He didn’t know what Draco wanted him to say. He had just got done saying that he wouldn’t tell on Zabini because he used to be a friend, and then he got upset about Harry forgiving him?

            Draco is complex entertainment, Dash told him.

            But Snape got their attention back by saying, “Mr. Zabini was abused. Apparently by someone close to his mother, although he would not name that person even in his memories, only as he. He was irrationally convinced that this person would find out everything he did and punish him for it.” He hesitated. “And most of his hatred of you, Harry, happened because you pushed for investigations into abused children’s families. Mr. Zabini’s abuser did actually write him and threaten him at one point, I understand, about what would happen if Mr. Zabini’s secrets came to light. So Zabini became convinced that the only way he could end the danger was by eliminating you.”

            Harry winced, more compassion than he had thought he could ever feel for someone who’d tried to hurt Dash thundering through him. Of course. He had known that kind of desperation, himself, and it had taken a lot of different factors to persuade him that he could talk about his abuse to Snape and nothing horrible would happen.

            Zabini had had no one.

            “Don’t do that again,” Draco complained in a sharp whisper, but Harry couldn’t help it. He just touched Draco’s arm and spoke to Snape.

            “You couldn’t get the name of his abuser from his mind?”

            “He is so terrified that he has buried it deep.” Snape stared at Zabini again. Harry understood better why Zabini was asleep now. He’d assumed it was only because Snape had Stunned him, and maybe the majority still was, but after a Legilimency invasion, Harry usually had a headache and wanted to sleep himself. “So while I know his relation to Zabini and his mother, I do not know the name.”

            “Does he matter so much?” Draco was wriggling around on the chair he’d taken. “He tried to hurt Conflagration. He has to suffer for that.”

            “Technically, he was trying to hurt Dash, and his poison affected Conflagration,” Snape said. “If he had remembered the existence of your snake, he might have tried a different way of administration than the bedsheets.”

            Draco sat up, and for a second, his cheeks glowed. Harry winced. That usually came right before an explosion.

            “No one seems to remember it was my flame cobra who almost died today,” Draco said, clearly enunciating each word. “Not Dash, and not Zabini. If you want to sit around feeling sorry for him, that’s your right, but I won’t.” He clutched Conflagration around his arm and stood up.

            “Wait, Draco,” Harry said, standing up, too. He did feel sorry for Zabini, but he felt sorrier for Conflagration, and he didn’t want Draco to go away like this. “I’m sorry. I’ll come with you—”

            “Harry.”

            That was Snape’s guardian voice, as Harry had privately decided to call it. As he hesitated, Draco glared at him, marched out of the office, and slammed the door.

            Snape moved both his head and his hand in a weary gesture when Harry glanced at him. “Draco will recover eventually. His snake did nearly die. Don’t pressure him to have compassion for Mr. Zabini.”

            “I won’t,” Harry said in a bewildered tone as he sat down again. “I mean, I was going to tell him that I understood and he could feel about Zabini any way he wanted to.”

            “While I’m sure Draco would have responded well to your gracious permission,” Snape said, in a voice that stressed his belief in the exact opposite, “he should have some time alone to consider. And we need to consider what we are going to do about Mr. Zabini.”

            “Help him,” said Harry, twisting around to stare at Snape. “I thought—I thought you would want to.” Shock made him a little breathless. “Since you helped me and the others, and he is one of your Slytherins.”

            “Of course,” Snape said, and clasped his hands before him and frowned into the fire. “But we also must consider that dozens, perhaps hundreds, of people saw Dash slithering through the corridors today. Zabini’s memory also included people in the Slytherin common room who saw Dash and Draco take him away. We cannot simply expose his secrets, but we also cannot hide them behind a mask of silence. He will have to be seen to be publicly punished.” He paused, and his face darkened. “And there is Karkaroff, and perhaps Krum. I doubt you intend to let them get away with what they had planned for Dash.”

            Harry shook his head. “No. Only…can we bring them in front of the Wizengamot? Or is that going to be a problem because Dumbledore was Head of the Wizengamot?” He only knew that because Dash had reminded him at the last minute. He just didn’t know enough about politics, he thought in despair. He would rather think about Quidditch, and basilisks, and Draco, and Snape, and surviving the stupid Tournament.

            “Karkaroff does need to be tried. But if we move too openly, he will flee back to Durmstrang, and there he will be all but inviolate.” Snape closed his eyes. “Let me think for a time.”

            Harry waited in silence. The fire filled the room with crackling music, accompanied only by Zabini’s soft breathing. Harry looked at him, then away.

            Is it wrong for me to feel sorry for him? he asked Dash. He did try to kill Conflagration, and he wanted to kill you, but he was abused, like me. And Karkaroff manipulated him. Snape said he recognized Karkaroff’s handwriting on the letters in Zabini’s memory. I’m sure he didn’t have any idea who was really writing to him.

            You should feel sorry for him for a while, Dash said, snuggling his head against Harry’s leg and darting his tongue out as if he wanted to taste Harry’s skin. But you shouldn’t feel so sorry for him that it clouds your judgment.

            You think it has.

            Draco thinks it has, and he’s angry enough to act before he thinks about other things. Speak nicely to him, so he doesn’t have a tantrum. I like it when he amuses me, but his tantrums don’t do it.

            Snape began speaking again before Harry could argue or even tell Dash that he didn’t think Dash should be so amused by something Draco couldn’t help. “There is a way. It will require you to draw even more firmly on the faction that thinks you are Salazar Slytherin reborn. Can you do that?”

            Harry shivered a little at the demanding way Snape stared into his eyes. He didn’t think Snape was reading his mind this time. He was looking for courage and—something else. Maybe being good at politics.

            “If you guide me. I was just sitting here thinking about how I could never have figured out it was Karkaroff, and how to take him down…”

            Surprisingly, Snape snorted. “You were not a Death Eater,” he said. “You had no idea of Karkaroff’s past, or how to use that against him. Even if you had read Mr. Zabini’s mind, you would not have recognized Karkaroff’s handwriting in the letters.”

            Harry nodded, feeling a little better, as Snape looked straight at him and added, “I will not blame you for experience you do not have.” He hesitated. “But I will blame you if you tell me you have courage and then cannot bear these consequences.”

            “What consequences?”

            “So far, your part has been allowed to be largely passive. Other people have spread the rumors of your supposed reincarnation and prowess with the basilisk, and have offered their allegiance. Now you will have to court it. And the press,” Snape added, with a faint grimace, as if he was looking down into a cauldron with a potion a few shades off the color it should be. “You will need to spend more time shaking hands and smiling and perhaps speaking in Parseltongue for others. You and Dash will have to put on a show.”

            That sounds like even more fun than killing people!

            For you, maybe, Harry muttered back, and then stood there and thought about it. Really, he supposed, it was the same as when he had told the tale of his own abuse to the newspapers because he had thought other people could be rescued. This time, other people could be rescued, too. Zabini, and maybe whoever was afraid of the war in Durmstrang and needed to be reassured, if they existed.

            It will be all right, said Dash. I’ll tell you who you should eat.

            Harry smiled, and looked at Snape. “If you guide me, sir, then I think I could do it.”

            Some tension appeared to rush out of Snape, and Harry started. He hadn’t thought Snape would have that much simply to ask him. Maybe Snape was worried about him the way Harry was worried about Draco and Zabini.

            And me, and Snape, and the smelly dog-man, and Dumbledore, and your friends…you worry about people too much.

            Harry chose to ignore that, and told Snape, “I’m just afraid of making mistakes. Maybe I made a mistake in sending Dash after Zabini before we knew what was going on with him. Or not listening to Krum. Except I couldn’t have given him a basilisk egg without a Parselmouth to raise the basilisk. But with you at my side, then I won’t make so many.”

*

            He trusts me. I didn’t have any idea how much he trusted me.

            Severus bit the inside of his cheek to calm down his own exaltation, and nodded slowly. “If you would care to discuss your moves with me, then I think I can keep you from making any of the mistakes you fear.”

            Harry nodded once, before he and Dash both turned around and looked at Zabini. Dash was shadowing the boy’s movements even more than usual, but Severus couldn’t blame either one of them for that. Harry might have lost Dash if the poison had worked. Dash had just learned there were people out there who wished intense harm to his human for gathering the sort of allies they had hoped would protect him.

            Let Harry not die.

            Severus felt as if he wanted to throw up when he thought of it. And even beyond that, there was a cold, clear part of him that looked at Dash and knew what would happen if Harry died before the basilisk did, and as the result of enemy action.

            The slaughter…

            “What about Zabini?” Harry asked quietly. “Is he going to be expelled?”

            “There is not a formal punishment on the books for this kind of offense,” Severus said. “For the most part, students have neither snakes nor magical creatures as pets. The closest school regulation I can think of covers the destruction of another student’s owl, and that recommends a month of supervised detentions and payment to the affected student.”

            “Draco might want payment.”

            “Then we will discuss that with him.” Severus looked at Zabini, and sighed. He wondered when the boy had been abused and how he could have missed him in his initial survey of abused children, but he thought he knew. It had happened long before Hogwarts, and Zabini was not only expert in hiding the signs but would have disdained to ask for help even had it been available.

            Or feared it. Look what happened once he feared people would be looking more closely for it.

            “Okay.” Harry sounded less constrained, brighter than before. Severus hadn’t sensed at all how nervous he was about this.

            I will have to be a better guardian as well as a better Head of House. How long has he been carrying this fear inside him, worried about messing up no matter what he does?

            Or worried that he did not have the right to ask, perhaps. Severus hardened his heart again against Sirius Black and the Dursleys. It would be a long time before he felt like letting Harry go back to Black, if it ever happened. He had taught Harry that everything was more important than Harry’s concerns and fears.

            A knock on the door of his quarters sounded so suddenly that Severus had his wand out before he thought about it. He snarled a little, at both himself and his visitor, when he saw Harry staring at the wand. He put it away and said, “It is probably the Headmistress, wanting to know what has happened with Mr. Zabini and your basilisk.” He moved calmly in the direction of the door, a curse brewing in his head if it was someone else.

            But Minerva’s voice came through the door, steady and full of concern. “What’s happened, Severus? I saw Mr. Malfoy storming along with a snake I assume is still alive, but I couldn’t get an explanation from him.”

            Severus nodded. With the temper that Draco had departed in, that wasn’t a surprise. “We’ll lay the problem before you, Minerva,” he said, glancing back just once at Harry to make sure he wasn’t making a mistake.

            But now Harry was standing tall, and not just because his basilisk was leaning against him and pushing his hip with his head. He nodded.

            Severus smiled and opened the door. He could see why people followed Harry, and it wasn’t only the Parseltongue, the basilisk, and the names of Boy-Who-Lived and Salazar reincarnated.

            That look makes me feel I can do anything.

*

            SP777: Severus certainly wouldn’t dispute it!

            MzPurpleMist: Even more than nations, this will affect schools. It’s an open question now whether Durmstrang can continue participating in the Tournament or whether Karkaroff could be a judge. And it’s all going to be such a mess! (I like messes. They’re plot material).
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A Brother to Basilisks