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Their Phoenix	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Threesomes/Moresomes Views: 68678 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 6
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; that belongs to J. K. Rowling. I am making no money from this fic.

Chapter List
- 1-Their Phoenix
- 2-Part 2
- 3-Part 3
- 4-Part 4
- 5-Part 5
- 6-Part 6
- 7-Part 7
- 8-Part 8
- 9-Part 9
- 10-Part 10
- 11-Part 11
- 12-Part 12
- 13-Part 13
- 14-Part 14
- 15-Part 15
- 16-Part 16
- 17-Part 17
- 18-Part 18
- 19-Part 19
- 20-Part 20
- 21-Part 21
- 22-Part 22
- 23-Part 23
- 24-Part 24
- 25-Part 25
- 26-Part 26
- 27-Part 27
- 28-Part 28
- 29-Part 29
- 30-Part 30
- 31-Part 31
- 32-Part 32
- 33-Part 33
- 34-Part 34
- 7
- 8
- 9
Thank you again for all the reviews!

�� Harry tried
to open his eyes, and found them stuck shut with some gummy substance. Then he
tried to move his limbs, and found they were weighted to the bed. He chuffed
softly in frustration and tried to sit up anyway. He ought to be able to do
that without waving his arms around, or even opening his eyes.

�� No, Harry,
lie still.� That was Ginny�s voice, soft and fretful. �The Healers want you to
stay as still as you can until they�re sure they put all your intestines back
in the right place.�

�� That was
such a strange statement that it managed to distract Harry from his
determination to sit up for a moment. Put
all my intestines back in the right place? What was I doing that�

�� Oh. Of�
course.

�� He relaxed,
and turned his head in the direction of Ginny�s voice. Her hand brushed over
his forehead and her lips brushed his cheek as a quick reward.

�� Did they
cast some spell to make sure I couldn�t open my eyes, either?� Harry asked,
trying to keep his tone as wry as possible. He�d already learned a few things
about Healers from his interactions with them during the Auror training
classes: sound as if you were upset, and they were likely to cast sleeping
spells on you.

�� Oh, no,
that�s just crusted sleep,� Ginny said, and Harry heard her mutter something
under her breath. The next moment, the weight on his eyelids was gone. He
sighed in relief and opened them.

�� The
hospital room seemed oddly bright, until he worked out that he must have lain
in the bed overnight. The sun poured through the open windows, and Harry could
make out the bouquets of flowers already piling up on the tables by the bed, in
explosions of red and white and purple. He snorted. �Don�t tell me. Rita
Skeeter already found out that something sent me to hospital, and those are
from well-wishers.�

�� Ginny
grinned at him and leaned an elbow on the bed. �Got it in one.�

�� She looked
ridiculously happy. Well, Harry thought, he might have felt the same way if he
knew that someone he liked a lot had survived a deadly spell or a gut wound.

�� And then he
stiffened, because he couldn�t believe that he had forgotten this long, no matter what had happened
to him.

�� Where are
Draco and Severus?� he demanded.

�� Ginny stood
upright at once, and her eyes slid away from his face while her cheeks flushed.
She coughed. �I didn�t�Harry, it wasn�t my idea, you realize,� she murmured.
�But there are certain people on the St. Mungo�s staff who�ve lost family
members in the war, and when they realized who Malfoy and Snape were��

�� If they�ve
hurt Draco and Severus, I�m going to kill
them,� Harry snarled, and pushed his sleeves up. To his relief, the phoenix
marks on his arms were quiet, without the burning sensation they would give him
if his bondmates were hurt.

�� On the
other hand, maybe Healers knew some magic that would block the bonds. They knew
all sorts of odd things. He turned on Ginny. �Where are they?�

�� Ginny swallowed
and looked as if she was debating what to answer for a moment, but, fortunately
for her, she decided that the truth was best. �The Healers put them out of
hospital, because they thought they would threaten other patients,� she said
lowly. �I think�I think they may have gone home. Or maybe they�re still outside
the hospital. I don�t know.�

�� Go find
them.�

�� Ginny
blinked, as if wanting to ask why he was so angry about this, but in the end
she nodded and turned away. Harry leaned back on the pillows and swore softly
under his breath, cursing the Healers. Of course Draco and Severus would have protested
being put out of his room, but if they protested too much, then they were likely to end up in Akzaban again, or at
least arrested.

�� Having Kingsley pardon them isn�t enough�not
enough to make them innocent in the eyes of most of the wizarding world. I have
to do something else.

�� The thought
of what that �something else� would be occupied him and the whirling thoughts
in his head while he waited for Ginny to come back.

*

�� Severus
turned towards the door at once when someone knocked. The wards strung across
the front gardens would have reacted negatively if it was someone who wanted to
harm them, but he still picked up his wand. He hadn�t had time to set up the
subtler wards he wanted, which would discriminate between nuances of intention.

�� And he was
a bit on edge, given the hours that had passed without news of Harry. Yes,
there had been no more pain from the phoenix marks, either, which indicated
that at least he had not grown worse, but negative news from a distance was not
the same as seeing the process happen with his own eyes.

�� Draco burst
past him before Severus could come up with the best strategy for answering the
door, and opened it. The Weasley girl stood there, her hand still raised to
knock, her mouth slightly open. Draco snapped at her, flustering her further.
�Well? Is Harry alive? Have the Healers changed their minds?�

�� He wants
you there,� said Weasley, apparently choosing the simplest answer to several of
Draco�s questions.

�� Severus
felt a tight knot he had not been aware that he carried within him relax. When
Harry woke and found them gone from his hospital room, he might have decided it
was their fault, or their choice, and simply not thought anything more about
them for several days. That he wanted their presence was�promising.

�� Get out of
the way,� Draco said, and charged past Weasley. She looked after him with an
expression of indignation before she turned to Severus and raised an eyebrow.

�� I don�t
know how you�re going to get past the Healers who put you out before,� she
said. �He didn�t tell me that part.�

�� I imagine
that he does not know himself,� Severus said coolly, and then stepped around
her. He could already envision several different ways of doing so. The Healers
might at least hesitate when they realized that the Boy-Who-Lived himself had
called for Draco and Severus. They might send someone to his room to find out
if this was the truth, and Harry should be able to convince them.

�� As it
turned out, that was not necessary.

*

�� Draco was
glad that he didn�t have very sensitive ears. Certainly they would have been
damaged by the shouting that erupted from the upper corridors as they stood arguing
with the welcome witch whether she should let them further into St. Mungo�s.

�� They�re heroes, is what they are! Haven�t you
paid attention to a thing the Prophet�s said
since the war? I�m living in a house in Hogsmeade with them, for fuck�s sake!
No, I will not calm down�don�t bring
that Calming Draught near me unless you want to be walking across glass in a
minute��

�� There came
a loud shattering sound. Draco glanced sideways and surprised a small smile on
Severus�s face. Ordinarily, he would have been angry at the waste of a potion,
Draco knew, but it was a small price to pay to dissolve the barrier that kept
them from Harry�s side.

�� I
believe,� Severus drawled, fixing his attention on the welcome witch, �that you
can hear Mr. Potter�s wishes for yourself.�

�� Not to
mention,� Draco added, as the witch drew her breath in to argue again, �that we
were pardoned by the Minister himself. Or do you think you know more about �the
darkness in our souls� than he does?�

�� The witch
hesitated, gave an agonized glance up the stairs, and then visibly gave up and
left it to her superiors to deal with. She waved Draco and Severus past her.

�� Draco led
the way up the stairs. He was younger and moved faster than Severus, or at
least he could tell himself that was the reason. In reality, he knew he had
been more irritated when the Healers put them out than Severus had, simply
because he had less control of his emotions. And he hadn�t seen Harry healed of
that gut wound, either, the way Severus had because he was the one who
performed the spell.

�� The phoenix
mark could be silent all it liked. What really
reassured Draco was the anger that filled the bond like dozens of spitting
cats and the voice that soared out of the room on the Spell Damage Ward ahead
of them.

�� Did you
ever stop to consider that not all Death Eaters are the same? I know the fact
might be too large for your small brain, but try. And I�m told that Healers are better at sensing invisible
things about their patients than this. Had it occurred to you to look for a reason that they might be so
concerned about me?�

�� Draco sped
up. He didn�t think that Severus wanted Harry revealing the existence of the
bond to anyone just yet.

�� He skidded
into the room, and blinked, his eyes taking a moment to sort out the images in
front of him. The flowers were everywhere,
and made it look as if Harry had labored to transform his hospital room into a
tropical jungle. They almost obscured the form of a young Healer cowering in
front of Harry�s bed, holding up his hands as if they could shield him from the
Chosen One�s wrath. On the floor were the liquid and glass remnants of a vial
of Calming Draught.

�� Harry had
risen to his knees, and seemed oblivious of the large red scar that still shone
across his belly. His hands were clenched into fists, his face flushed. His
phoenix marks didn�t shine, but Draco thought they should have; his fury was
practically a light.

�� Harry,
it�s all right, we�re here,� he called, and began picking his way gingerly
across the glass towards the bed.

�� Draco!�
Harry whirled towards him and relaxed with a slight shake of his head. The next
moment, he was tense again, cocking his neck towards the Healer, his eyes
ablaze with indignation. �Do you know what he�s been saying about you? Hullo, Severus,� he added, as Severus stepped
into the room behind Draco. �It�s ridiculous.
I�m beginning to think that those pardons from Kingsley didn�t do a bit of
good.�

��

�A war happened,� Draco murmured.
As little as he felt like defending the Healers, he didn�t want Harry getting
upset enough to tear his wound open. He arrived at his side and helped him to
lie down in the bed again. A glance showed him the Healer had taken the
opportunity to scuttle out the door. Draco exhaled in relief�he didn�t really
want a confrontation right now�and turned back to Harry. �You have to remember
that.�

�Not when they treat you like
pariahs.� Harry snorted like an angry horse and turned to stare into Draco�s
eyes. Draco swallowed a little when he realized how close their faces were.
�Are you all right?�

�Am I�� Draco blinked until he remembered the way he and Severus had
cried out in pain when the Gut Chewing Curse hit Harry. He nodded and stepped
back so that Severus could hold his wand towards Harry and examine the scar on
his belly. �Of course. What about you?�

�If they put my intestines back in
the wrong place, I haven�t heard about it yet. But then, I probably won�t know
until I eat something.� Harry switched his focus to Severus with dizzying
rapidity. �Hello again. Thanks for healing me.�

The words weren�t especially soft
or intimate, but they made Severus pause in his examination of the scar. For a
moment, he and Harry locked eyes. Draco looked back and forth between them,
infuriated that he, as close as he was to both of them, couldn�t tell what
exactly was happening between them. Harry felt soft, and striving for neutral,
but that was about all, and of course Draco had no special, bond-guided insight
into Severus�s emotions.

�� Of course
I had to heal you.� Severus spoke a moment later than he should have, if he was
really unaffected by Harry�s gaze. �We would have died otherwise.�

�� Harry
glanced away, his eyes shuttering themselves effectively, and Draco wished he
could privately inform Severus that had been the wrong thing to say. But Harry
was already going on. �That didn�t happen before, when Ledbetter or one of the
other instructors wounded me with a curse. We have to figure out why it did
now, and what we�ll do to keep that from happening again.�

�� I believe
the bond is altering.� Severus had stepped back from the bed, and seemed intent
on examining a bunch of roses with an eye to their usefulness as Potions
ingredients. �In what direction, I cannot tell.�

�� Not
useful, then,� Harry said. It was Severus�s turn to lower his eyes and
half-flinch, though from the twitch in Harry�s body, Draco thought he might have seen the reaction to his
words. �But we should try to learn everything we can about the bond, so that we
know what it�s changing from.� He
tilted his head at Draco, the bond pulsing with relief at leaving Severus
behind for the moment. �Did you sense any chance in the magic we shared, or
anything like that, when you were wounded?�

*

�� Harry knew
he had hurt Sna�Severus. He knew that. But Severus had hurt him first, and
there was a limit to how many things Harry could think about and do when he was
leaning against pillows in a hospital bed.

�� Draco
frowned, his eyes going back and forth from Harry to Severus as if he
understood their interaction perfectly, which he probably did, and hated it.
Harry shut his eyes a moment. He hated it, too, but the fact remained that
there was just never going to be an easy connection between the two of them. He
should get used to it now.

�� I don�t
think so, no,� Draco said lowly. He hesitated. �Do you think it would help to
brew the Hidden History Potion again?� he asked Severus. �We were able to learn
more about the bond by watching how it formed. Maybe Harry would see something
that we�ve missed. You and I had different insights.�

�� Severus
relaxed. Harry could sense that without having the bonds open to feel their
emotions; it came simply from his knowledge of the man, who would like having
something definite to do, and especially something that concerned a potion. �Of
course,� he said. �I should have thought of that myself. I will begin it at
once, now that I know the Healers have tended Harry well.�

�� He stepped
past the bed and brushed a hand gently across Draco�s shoulder. Draco beamed up
at him in response.

�� And a spike
of jealousy so sharp that it felt as if someone had driven a needle under his
fingernails hit Harry. He stared down at the bed and concentrated hard on his
hands. They could feel what he felt, of course, but hopefully they wouldn�t
understand the source of it.

�� Fuck, he couldn�t understand the source of it.

�� No matter
how much like friends he and Severus became, they simply couldn�t forget the
hatred that had lain between them when Harry was a child. So they had to accept
that and work past it. He thought he had accepted
it. He had reminded himself of it not a moment before, when Severus turned away
from him.

�� He
shouldn�t be envying the gentleness and deep ease of the relationship Draco and
Severus shared. Not only were they more alike, not only had they shared more
together, they were lovers and couldn�t help it. It wasn�t done to hurt him.

�� I don�t understand myself, Harry thought
crossly, and kept his eyes directed at the bed until Severus left. Then he
looked back up at Draco, who regarded him with far too knowing an eye. Harry
spoke hastily so that he could get past some of that.

�� How are we
going to deal with the Healers wanting to put you out of hospital again?�

�� Draco at
once narrowed his eyes and shook his head. �I don�t know,� he admitted quietly.
�The pardon didn�t help. The Healers who put us out aren�t going to give up their
irrational fear that we�ll murder everyone in hospital just because you say so.
I reckon you�ll have to contact the Ministry and ask that we be permitted to
stay.�

�� He looked
perfectly disgusted, and Harry could understand why. This shouldn�t be so difficult. If he really had the kind of
power that people always thought he did, he should be able to say who was and
wasn�t allowed near him. If he didn�t have it, then he was much more like a
private citizen and people shouldn�t worry so much over who he associated with.

�� But
being a celebrity isn�t fun, and you know that. He nodded and said, �Could
you bring me some parchment and ink? The sooner I write, the better. I don�t
even want to know what sorts of stories they�re spreading now about me.� He rolled
his eyes. �And then I�ll need you to bring me a post-owl.�

�� Draco
didn�t move for a few moments, and Harry wondered if he had been lost in his
own thoughts when Harry had made his requests. He was about to repeat them when
Draco said quietly, �There�s no reason to be jealous. We�ll share what we have
with you, willingly.�

�� Harry
winced. �It was stupid of me to feel that way,� he said flatly. �I don�t know
why I did. Drop it, please?�

�� No.� Draco
stepped forwards and reached out to cup his chin. Harry tried to avoid him, but
the healed wound in his gut pulled warningly, and he stopped. Draco tried a
smile as he cradled Harry�s chin and brushed his hair out of his face, but it
faded quickly, overpowered by the intensity that Harry could feel crackling between
them like lightning. �We want to share it,� Draco whispered.

�� He leaned
forwards. Harry found himself as frozen as a rabbit in the shadow of a hawk. He
had an idea what was about to happen, but no idea whether he wanted it to
happen or not.

�� Harry�oh.�

�� Ginny was
standing in the doorway of the room, staring. Harry knew that before he looked.
He jerked away from Draco, his face burning, and winced again as he thought of
the explanations he would have to come up with. Ginny would put the worst possible
interpretation on what she�d just seen, and Harry wasn�t sure she would be
wrong.

�� Get me the
parchment and the ink and the owl, please,� he whispered. His voice was so
choked up. It shouldn�t be, but it was, and like the inconvenient fact that people
expected more out of him because of his fame, he would just have to live with
it.

�� Draco stood
there and stared evenly at him for a moment, as if he couldn�t feel the tension
in the air. Then he ducked his head in something like a nod and turned away,
striding rapidly from the room and past Ginny.

�� They do
want you,� Ginny said, slamming the door behind her. Her color was high. �Or at
least he does. I knew it.�

�� Harry sat
there for a moment, more stunned by the sudden ending of the potential kiss than
by it almost happening in the first place. Then he cleared his throat, and
moved away from the dream world of his fantasies into the one where he had to
deal with inconvenient facts.

�� Yeah, it
looks like he does,� he muttered.

�� Then I
want to know,� Ginny said, moving a few steps closer, her hands balled into
fists, �how I�m supposed to be comfortable leaving you alone with them. I
realize that you have to be close to them because of the bond. I can�t deny
that or change that. But what am I supposed to do?� Her voice was becoming dangerously close to tears.

�� Because he
didn�t know what else to do, Harry stretched out his hands. Ginny came closer
and took them in her own, staring at him through a curtain of hair. Harry
rubbed her fingers with his thumbs and wished he had a neat, quick, certain
answer.

�� I reckon I
can only ask you to trust me,� he said. �Maybe they, or Draco, will try to kiss
me again, but I won�t let it happen. I�ll tell them that I�m dating you.�

�� Ginny
sighed. �That won�t make them back off,� she muttered, but she did seem less
upset. �I think Malfoy could be as persistent as Romilda Vane, if he really
wanted to.�

�� Harry
laughed despite himself when he thought of Draco slipping him chocolates laced
with love potion. �I really hope that doesn�t happen!� He was starting to feel
tired and dizzy from something other than anyone�s nearness, but he really
didn�t want any mistrust to linger between him and Ginny. �And besides, I can�t
imagine Severus wanting me. He and Draco are lovers. He�ll be jealous when he
hears about Draco trying to kiss me. I can�t believe he�d condone it, or let it
happen again.�

�� He was
handling you pretty tenderly after you got wounded,� Ginny said doubtfully. Her
tears were dying now. She wiped them away and gave him a shaky smile. �But
then, you�re pretty want-able.�

�� Harry
rolled his eyes. �He saw me almost die,� he said. �And I think that they die if
I do, though we�re trying to figure that out.�

He pushed away the uncomfortable
thought that suggested itself then: if that was true, how could he be an Auror,
in a career where people would be trying to kill him almost constantly? The
witch�s attack on him in Hogsmeade showed that he might not be much safer in
ordinary life.

�Of course. I didn�t think of
that.� Ginny sounded contrite. She touched the back of his head, the same place
Severus had when he was soothing him to sleep. Harry smiled at her, and tried
not to compare the two touches in his head. �Forgive me?�

�Of course,� Harry repeated back to
her. He stifled a yawn. �What happened to the woman who attacked me?�

�� I think
she�s still here. They needed to reverse the spell you used that turned her to
stone.� Ginny peered at him then, and the shadow he�d seen when he tried to
talk to her on Christmas Eve was back in her eyes. Harry wished he knew what caused that so he could banish it forever.
�What spell was that?�

�� Just an
ordinary Petrificus Totalus,� Harry
said. He was wrestling with sleep now, trying to avoid the temptation to simply
lay his head back and shut his eyes. I�ve
already spent a lot of time asleep, that should count for something! �But I
share magic with Draco and Severus now. That made the spell extra powerful.�

�� Oh.� Ginny
released the word on a little sigh, and stroked his shoulder. �You can go to
sleep, Harry. I�ll get a Healer, and I�ll tell them that Malfoy and Snape
should be allowed into your room.�

�� Thanks,
Ginny.� Harry sighed those words, too. He could feel pain from the wound across
his belly again, and he rubbed the scar. The
bond took one scar away, I reckon I was due for another one. Then he
shifted to his side, trying to find a comfortable position, and shut his eyes.

�� Ginny
kissed his forehead. �You�re too noble for your own good, sometimes,� she
whispered. �I�ll tell Ron and Hermione that you woke up. They were here
earlier, while you were asleep.�

�� She added
something else, about �Professor Snape� and �telling,� but Harry was too tired
to pay much attention. He slipped into a confused dream where he ran from stone
statues tied in glistening ropes the color of intestines, and Draco and Severus
battled for his life with wands made of fire.

*

�� Severus
stepped back from the Hidden History Potion and cast a charm that would keep it
in its current state until he had time to place Harry in front of it and add
the final ingredients. The guardian would emerge immediately when the final
ingredients hit the potion, or Severus would have added them now and then cast
the Stasis Charm.

�� Anything to
keep him working for a few more moments. Anything to keep him from thinking
about what had happened in hospital.

�� Simple
words from Harry should not have the power to affect him. Nor should simple
emotions, like the jealousy the boy had shown when Severus and Draco shared a
reassuring moment together.

�� The
jealousy told Severus there might be hope for a deeper kind of physical
relationship. The words told him there was none.

�� Severus
shut his eyes and tried to resign himself to having no immediate answer to the
problem. He needed both Draco and Harry for that answer, and Harry, at least,
would not be fit to leave hospital for quite some time. Severus had heard the
front door slam when Draco came home earlier, but he had not stopped in the lab
to speak to Severus, and it was not a conversation Severus wanted to pursue at
the moment, either.

�� His world
had become sharper-edged and stranger than any he had inhabited in the last few
weeks. He had thought the most trying time was when Harry refused to
acknowledge the bond, but at least the fundamental certainties of his universe
were still in place then. Severus knew that he hated Harry and that they would
only put up with the bond because they had to.

�� And now�

�� Sharp edges
bristled wherever he looked. Strangeness flooded him and bathed him in a liquid
that hurt like scarlet scorpion venom splashed on the skin.

�� Professor
Snape?�

�� And it
appeared that he was not to have even those moments alone that he required, to
think through the strangeness and smooth the sharp edges back into the
convenient, hard pictures he was familiar with. He turned to face the lab door
and saw Molly Weasley�s daughter standing there, mouth puckered as if she had
swallowed a lemon.

�� It was no
effort to gaze at her without expression. She had been, until recently, a
person who roused little emotion in Severus, which was not the case with Draco
and Harry. Severus had been reluctantly impressed when she tried to resist his
reign as Headmaster last year, and then when she had stuck close to Harry�s side
despite the storm of publicity and proposals he received.

�� But now he
had to consider her an obstacle, and the resentment from that was another
emotion he did not know how to cope with, which he had to feel poking him for
the moment and do nothing about. It was much easier to look at her blankly and
incline his head, encouraging her to continue.

�� You should
know,� Weasley said, taking a step towards him and looking at him with bright,
blazing eyes that reminded Severus of the way she had looked at him last year,
�that Malfoy almost kissed Harry in the hospital room today.�

�� Severus
blinked. What could have prompted Draco
to that display of recklessness? And in a place where Weasley could catch him,
no less, and where there are people who have less than tender feelings about
us?

�� I don�t
think he�ll stop,� Weasley said, in the tone of someone confiding an important
secret. �I trust Harry, but�he just sat there today. I think he�s overwhelmed
with the injury and everything.� She caught her breath, and Severus suddenly
saw her as a young woman trying her very best to cope with her own overwhelming
experience. She was the strong one for the moment, because someone had to be,
but it could not have been easy to see her lover fall down in front of her.

�� I do not enjoy these moments of empathy.

�� But at
least it made it easier for him to understand what Weasley was upset about, and
to manufacture the anger she would expect from him. He drew himself up. �I will
speak with Draco,� he said coolly. �As to why Potter did what he did, you must
talk to him about that.�

�� Weasley
nodded to him, her eyes grim. �That�s just what I plan to do,� she said. �But I
think I can trust him more than you can trust Malfoy.� She hesitated, which
gave Severus a chance to fight down his anger at that. This chit has no idea of the true state of affairs between Draco and
me. �Do you know�is Malfoy really interested in Harry? And if he is, then
why? Why would he be lovers with you and interested in someone else?�

�� Severus
waited a few moments more, so that he could hold back the automatic sarcastic
answer, about whether the Weasley girl was so Gryffindor as to believe that
inherent nobility could counteract human sexual instincts.

�� She was
staring up at him, brown eyes fearful but determined, and touched by a fugitive
sheen of tears�

�� It was so
very easy for Severus to use Legilimency to slip into the mind beneath those
eyes, especially since she had no natural defenses.

�� He found
the answer as to why she was worried about her closeness to Harry almost at
once. Her experiences in the school during the last year were never far from
the surface of her mind, whipping shadowy tendrils through the rest of her
life. She longed to talk to someone about those experiences, and the nightmares
that she still suffered as a result of them. But she thought she had to remain
silent because what Harry had suffered, including the latest attack, was so
much worse.

�� Wrapped
beneath the silence was resentment that she needed to stifle herself like that,
combined with the reluctant acknowledgment that Harry had never asked her for
the stifling in the first place.

�� Draco and
Severus need not make any special effort to break apart Weasley�s bond with
Harry. It seemed as if it would fracture on its own. They had chosen different ways
of coping with the trauma of the war�too different to allow them to remain
together.

�� Severus
slipped back out of Weasley�s mind and gave her vague assurances about Draco�s
interest in Harry, and how no one could ever perfectly know another person�s mind,
and how he would make sure that a kiss did not happen again. Weasley departed
unsatisfied�nothing could have satisfied her completely�but in a state of calm
that Severus only wished he could duplicate.

�� He turned
and stared at the Hidden History Potion. He felt as if he might be in the
middle of a vision caused by the potion himself, but it was a vision
unconnected to any specific event.

�� New
possibilities unfolding. New emotions hurtling down on him, which was painful
after the isolation he had endured for so long. New personalities crowding into
his mind and insisting on being dealt with.

�� But he
could not always have someone to come to him, reassure him, and set him on the
right path. Draco had not come to talk to him about the kiss with Harry. He was
either sulking about it or believed Severus would scold him. Either way, it
would be wiser to approach him gently rather than with a scowl.

�� And that
was what he would do at the moment, Severus concluded, checking the Stasis
Charm on the potion once more and then dimming the torches on the walls with a
wave of his wand. He could do no more here.

�� He took a
quick glance at Harry�s Christmas present, still waiting patiently in a corner
of the lab, and then shut the door behind him.

*

�� When Harry
woke up, Hermione was there. And Ron. And a green-robed Healer who hovered to
the side of the bed with a potion vial in his hand and a nervous expression on
his face. Harry was pleased to see that it wasn�t the one who had tried to give
him the Calming Draught earlier.

�� On the
other hand, he could be one of those
Healers who had tried to prevent Draco and Severus from entering the hospital.
Harry narrowed his eyes. �How do you feel about Death Eaters?� he demanded.

�� The Healer
jumped, then blinked and straightened his shoulders. He was openly fighting not
to blush or lick his lips, Harry thought critically. He had sandy hair like
Neville, a face without any of the thoughtfulness Neville had gained in the
past few months, and bright hazel eyes. �I�I think they should be treated like
anyone else,� he said. �My job is to heal the body, not the soul.�

�� Harry
relaxed. Maybe not the best view, but I
can live with it. �And what does that potion do?� he asked, nodding to the
vial in the Healer�s hand.

�� Hermione
intervened then. �It�s a potion that will prevent scarring from the gut wound,�
she said. �I�ve read about it, Harry. I recognize that shade of purple.�

�� Harry
swallowed the potion without complaint, although it tasted like chocolate gone
putrid. The Healer beat a grateful retreat, and he turned to his best friends.
�Did Ginny tell you what�s been happening? Or did you know?�

�� She told
us, yes.� Hermione reached out and squeezed Harry�s hand. Her face was soft. �I
didn�t know that they�d sent Malfoy and Snape out of hospital.� She shook her
head and lowered her voice. �I think you should tell everyone about the bond.�

�� Kingsley
doesn�t want me to,� Harry grumbled. �He thinks that it would make me even more
of a target, because it would give my enemies two relatively unprotected people
to attack.�

�� Then the
Ministry should pay for wards on your new house,� Hermione said. She had a
frown on her face that Harry usually feared�it often meant she was going to
start talking about house-elves�but this time he found it comforting that she
would probably turn it on the Ministry. �After all, the people who attacked you
haven�t been Dark wizards and Death Eaters. They�ve been people I think the
Ministry would call �ordinary citizens.��

�� Including
the witch who tried to kill me?� Harry shivered a little as he spoke. He�d had
so many other things to think about that he hadn�t considered she could easily
have killed him. �Who was she?�

�� Her name�s
Griselda Huxley.� Ron spoke for the first time. Harry glanced at him, and saw
anger in his best friend�s eyes. At least it seemed to be tamed anger, since
Ron wasn�t stomping around the hospital room and swearing vengeance on a dozen
different people. �And there�s a problem with arresting her.�

�� What is it
this time?� Harry snapped. �Surely they can�t claim that no one saw the damage,
the way they did with Pepperfield. I could probably call seven or eight Healers
as witnesses, not to mention you��

�� She was a
hero during the war.� Ron did hop on his feet and pace back and forth then. He
looked the way he had when Bill almost managed to beat him at chess on
Christmas Eve. �Led some Muggleborn fugitives away from Death Eaters, and
defended them when a bunch of Snatchers almost caught them. According to
Kingsley, it would be a public relations disaster to arrest her. The trial
would be a circus, and there are people on the Wizengamot whose relatives she
saved. They might actually refuse to
try her.�

�� Harry
closed his eyes and clenched his hands into the blankets. He felt Hermione put
a hand on his shoulder and heard her murmur something soothing, but at the
moment, he didn�t care. He had to do
something about this.

�� Something
that would protect Severus and Draco. Something that would stop letting people
think they had the right to walk up to him and do whatever they wanted because
they were disappointed in Harry for choosing Severus and Draco�s company.

�� And the only
thing he could think of was to let people know about the bond. There were
people who would attack them more for that, yes, but there were people who
would attack them anyway, and the
Ministry seemed uninterested in punishing them. And given what Hermione had pushed him to read about bonds
lately, Harry knew there were others in the wizarding community who would
accept them more eagerly. Pure-blood traditionalists would care less about the
fact that the bond was between three people, three men, or a �hero� and two
�villains� than the fact that there was a bond. That would prove that Harry was
a proper wizard and properly settled down.

�� I can�t believe I�m thinking about getting
support from some of the same people who supported Voldemort. But then,
Kingsley was always talking about reconciling people to the new Ministry and
the new world. Maybe this was a way to do it.

�� If the bond
was public, he could stop hiding the fact that he was protecting Severus and
Draco, and stop coming up with excuses as to why he was living with them�a
question he still hadn�t managed to find any good answers to.

�� He would
have a reason to study bonds, which was something he had worried about hiding
when Severus said the bond was changing.

�� Yes,� he
said aloud. �That�s what I�m going to do.�

�� What are
you going to do?� Hermione demanded at once.

�� Harry
smiled at her fondly, and at Ron, who had stopped pacing and come across to the
side of his bed again, his expression anxious. They wouldn�t necessarily
approve of his plan, but they wanted to know what it was, so that they could decide whether they would support
it. Harry knew he was incredibly lucky to have two people so interested in him,
so willing to argue with his conclusions.

�� Maybe I�ll have two more someday?

�� But Harry
quickly rejected the idea. He had told Ginny that she could trust him, and that
meant turning away from certain visions, certain twists in the path that his
life might take.

�� I want to
make the bond public,� he said. Ron�s brow wrinkled; Hermione opened her mouth.
Harry raised his hand. �I think it�ll solve more problems than it causes. Then
I can do what I need to and want to to protect Draco and Severus��

�� Ron
twitched, and Harry realized he hadn�t used their first names in front of Ron
before. He shrugged impatiently and pressed on. He was going to give Ron
something else to get concerned over.

�� I can live
with them openly. I can let anyone who tries to hurt them, or me, know that the
others will be angry about it. The Ministry makes some exceptions for
self-defense, I know. Right now, Draco and Severus can barely defend
themselves, let alone me, because everyone would think they were using Dark
Arts to hurt innocents. But when people know there�s a three-way bond between
us, they�ll have a lot better case for drawing their wands if I�m in danger.�

�� But other
people will target you now, because they know that they can hurt Snape and
Malfoy through you.� Hermione�s frown looked so deep Harry wondered idly if it
would leave permanent traces in her face. �I don�t like your taking on extra
danger, Harry.�

�� Those
people who want to hurt them, and who are willing to hurt me to do it, aren�t
my friends or supporters, anyway.� Harry gave her a thin smile and gestured to
the scar on his stomach. �And we�ve already seen that plenty of the �heroes�
and �good people� are willing to hurt me.�

�� You�re not
just any war hero, mate.� Ron laid his elbow on the bed and stared earnestly at
Harry. �You�re the war hero. Kingsley
might think that you�re forcing the Ministry into supporting two people they
don�t really want to support.�

�� Harry
hesitated for a long moment. He was trying to be more adult about this. Didn�t
that meant he had an obligation to calmly consider the claims of the Ministry,
too, and try to deal with them like an adult instead of a petulant child?

�� Do you
think they�ll manage to try Huxley despite all the reluctance?� he asked
Hermione.

�� She
hesitated, with the kind of silence that told Harry her brain was racing and
she was trying to come up with any answer
to the question, not just one that would give her what she wished was true.
Then she sighed. �Maybe they will,� she said. �But right now, it doesn�t look
like it. She isn�t even in Auror custody. She was allowed to go home. And it
would take a lot of determined effort to get her in a courtroom.�

�� Harry
clenched his jaw. �Then I don�t see why I should accept what Kingsley tells me
and behave like a good little puppet, when he can�t even be bothered to arrest
people who would pose a danger to my life,
never mind Draco and Severus�s.�

�� That�s
right,� Ron said suddenly. His eyes were wide and bright with the shine that
said a revelation had come to him. �Why is he so worried about Huxley�s
reputation when you�re the bigger hero? They shouldn�t have trouble finding
people to try her when you have so much more support than she does.�

�� Hermione
folded her arms and frowned at both of them. �That doesn�t mean Kingsley
doesn�t care about Harry, or that there�s some kind of conspiracy, Ron.�

�� I know
that.� Ron waved an airy hand. �But it does
mean that he�s a lot more worried about Harry�s standing with the general
population than he says he is. And if Harry is just one more hero among the lot
of us, then it shouldn�t matter so much what he does or who he associates with.
I think Kingsley is worried about negative publicity in any direction. But he
can�t have it both ways. Either Harry is important enough to get Huxley tried,
or he�s not important enough to make the Ministry worry about his every
movement. There�s no reason Harry should have all the burdens of a heroic
reputation and none of the advantages.�

�� Hermione
looked faintly impressed. Harry smiled at Ron. �So you�ll support me in this,
then?�

�� Ginny
won�t like it.� Ron�s eyes were somber.

�� Harry
swallowed. �I know. But we�ve discussed it, and she�s said that she trusts me.�
If Ginny hadn�t told them about Draco almost kissing him, then Harry wasn�t
going to mention it, either.

�� How are
you going to get word out about the bond?� Hermione asked, moving on to more
practical matters as usual. �It�s not as if you could grant an interview to
Rita Skeeter and ask her�� And then she stopped, mouth open.

�� Harry
pushed himself up the pillows, ignoring the tug from his stomach. The wound
hurt less than it�d done earlier, anyway. �Why not?� he demanded excitedly. �Why
couldn�t I do just that? We�d make her swear a vow to tell the truth and not
use the Quick-Quotes Quill, first. I think she�d give up on the temptation to
twist my words around if it meant that she got an exclusive interview.� He
snorted. �We might as well make this stupid �heroic� reputation work for me for
once.�

�� But she
might twist them anyway,� Hermione said, folding her arms. �And I don�t think
you should do this without discussing it with Snape and Malfoy.�

�� Harry
laughed sheepishly. �I was getting so carried away that I didn�t even think of
that. Thank you, Hermione. And you, Ron,� he added, looking at his best friend
over Hermione�s head. �Where would I be if I didn�t have you?�

�� Hermione
and Ron flushed identical shades of pleased pink. Harry leaned back against the
pillow and plotted smugly to himself.

�� The news about the bond will get out, and
Kingsley can�t do anything to stop it.

�� And if it causes problems with Ginny, then
I�ll just explain as best I can and do what I can to make it up to her. Who
ever said that I had the right to a relationship free of problems?

�� For the
moment, he ignored the other nagging questions that tried to force themselves
into his mind. There was only so much that he could do at once, and protecting
Draco and Severus was the first priority.

�� It always will be, he thought, and
didn�t realize some of the implications of that thought until later.

��

*

�� Emily
Waters: Thank you! I think Harry gets stronger in this part of the story, and
definitely he�ll start taking back more control of his life from the Ministry.

�� tf: Thank
you! They�ll see what they can learn from Severus�s and Harry�s analysis of the
bond.

�� BloodLust
777: Well, the last part will not be happening, but Ginny and Harry are not
going to end up together.

�� Lilith:
Harry is accepting his growing emotional closeness with Snape and Draco, but
for him, that does not automatically lead to sexual involvement.

�� Byond_repair:
Thank you! I�ve added your e-mail address to my mailing list.

�� Mariko:
Thank you. I can�t say when the getting-together part comes, in part because I
have no idea how long this will be.

ColdWater: Thank you! The Christmas
presents will have to wait for a while yet; I keep meaning to introduce them,
but there was just no room in this chapter.

�� And don�t
worry, I�ll take time with the smut. It would make no sense at this point.

�� Black
Padfoot: Thank you. It looks like the story will be updated on Tuesdays and
Fridays.

�� Alliandre: Thank
you!

�� Snape is
further along the road to reconciliation than Harry, who is still convinced
Snape will continue hating him, but he�s struggling with the sheer unfamiliarity
of everything. Harry�s emotional experience is more varied than Snape�s.

�� I hope this
chapter explained some of what Ginny is feeling. This isn�t a Ginny-bashing
fic, but it is a fic where she and Harry won�t get together, so I hope the
explanation for that makes sense.
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