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Rejoicing In Their Strength	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 9781 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; that belongs to J. K. Rowling. I am making no money from this fic.

Chapter List
- 7
- 8
Thank you again for all the reviews! This is the last part of Rejoicing
in Their Strength. Thanks for reading along.

�� Draco felt
a scream building up in his throat. He was never sure if he actually uttered
it, because at that point, things moved outside him, and very quickly.

�� Harry and
Hyacinth jumped at the same time, their bodies trailing small lines of black
energy of the kind that Draco had felt build up around them earlier. They
soared easily over the silver spearheads, and came down on the other side, much
closer to Lucius, their mouths open so far that Draco could see the red lining
inside their throats before they swept past him and at his father.

�� Lucius
immediately raised a Shield Charm. Harry pulled up in front of it and dashed around
to the side, looking for the place where the Charm ended and he could get
through. Lucius whirled to face him, his wand dancing, his tongue curling
around words that made Draco flinch just listening to them.

�� Hyacinth
put down her head and bulled straight through the shield.

�� Sparks
leaped around her, blue-white and devastating. But though Draco saw a fire
start in her fur and smoke billow into her eyes, she never paused. She drove
on, though her movement slowed for a moment as though molasses had surrounded
her, and the foam dripping from her jaws turned as red as her fur. She roared,
once, a sound that would have been at home in a lion�s throat.

�� And the
shield broke.

�� Hyacinth
snapped her jaws open and closed them again in Lucius�s calf. Draco knew she
could have killed him without much fuss, knocked him to the ground and stepped
on him or ripped his throat open.

�� She didn�t.
Instead, she opened a wound that went all the way through Lucius�s leg and then
jumped back, yipping contemptuously as he aimed his wand at her.

�� Lucius
staggered, but caught his balance a moment later. His eyes were wide and clear
and not at all frightened. Draco saw him aim his wand again and begin to speak
a spell that would blast Hyacinth out of existence.

�� Then Harry
bit his hip from the other side.

�� Draco
wanted to laugh, though the only noise that came out of his throat was a
bubbling one that probably didn�t qualify as amused. He had forgotten that
wolves were pack hunters. Lucius would never be able to face one of them alone.
He would have to deal with two at the least, and probably more than that, the
moment the rest of the pack could get into the house.

�� And it was
all too obvious that Harry had told his packmates not to finish the prey off
quickly.

�� Harry turned
a flip in the air to avoid the spell that Lucius aimed at him, a zigzag
Blasting Curse that dented the floor right near his paws. Next, he crowded in
close, growling in a way that Draco thought was playful. Then he caught a
glimpse of Harry�s eyes, and suddenly the urge to laugh went away.

�� Hyacinth
dodged in from the front, and landed a minor bite on Lucius�s knee, forcing him
to turn around again. For a few moments, in fact, Harry and Hyacinth kept him
dancing, unable to confront them both at once or coordinate his efforts to hold
still, the air full of their snarls and their wagging tails and his flying
blood.

�� Then Lucius
backed into a corner and set up a more powerful Shield Charm in front of
himself. Hyacinth looked about to charge it anyway, but Harry held her back by
laying a paw on her shoulder. Then he used a few heavy brushes of his body to
beat out the fire in her coat and stood studying Lucius with his head lifted
and his ears pricked. His tail waved slowly back and forth, as though he were
trying to study the angles and decide the best way to come at Lucius.

�� Draco
leaped free of his body again, so that he could see from above and warn them if
Lucius did something especially clever.

�� His father
had a bewildered, angry expression on his face, as if he could not comprehend
how the universe could have turned so conclusively against him. Now and then
his hand twitched around his wand, but each time, he changed his mind just as
he was about to cast a coherent spell. His eyes kept darting back to Draco�s
body on the frame of chains. Harry noticed and stepped in between the frame and
Lucius, his head lifted until he and Lucius were eye-to-eye, his growl deeper
and more threatening still.

�� Don�t hold
back on him for my sake,� Draco called. �You can make his death as bloody as
you like. I think it�s the only way I�ll ever truly recover.�

�� Harry
tilted his head to show that he heard Draco, and then moved away from the
Shield Charm, still carefully blocking Lucius�s spell access to Draco. Hyacinth
remained where she was for a moment, snarling, but Harry tugged at her hind
legs and she joined him. Both of them watched from their new position,
apparently to see what Lucius would do. But Lucius remained still. His father
was mad, Draco knew, but not such a fool as to challenge two consummate
predators with great stamina by running.

�� Then Harry
uttered two sharp yelps. Hyacinth sighed between clenched teeth, nodded her
head, and loped over to the frame where Draco hung. For moments, she paused
with the black flares of light coiling around her fangs, and then leaned up and
bit through the lowest of the crystal chains that held Draco in place.

�� Lucius said
something incredulous and garbled. Then he took a step out of the corner, and
the Shield Charm vanished.

�� Harry came
forwards like black wind, his body flattened almost to the floor, his eyes
furious, his teeth bared and shining.

�� Lucius went
down, but from his shrieks, Draco knew that Harry hadn�t simply ripped out his
throat and killed him. He was doing something else instead, and Draco adjusted
his angle several times before he could see what it was.

�� Harry was
eating into Lucius�s belly.

�� He had his
paws sprawled wide, his claws resting on the edges of Lucius�s hips, his head
bowed and his jaws opening and closing, chewing through ragged bits of flesh
and skin. When he shook his head, blood flew around him, and Lucius let out a
scream that had a disbelieving edge to it. He couldn�t accept that such pain
existed in the world, that scream said.

�� Yes,�
Draco whispered, unable to take his eyes from the opening wound and the
glimpses of dark red that he could see through it. �Yes, Harry, teach him to
suffer the way that he taught me.�

�� Harry
ripped out one more bit of flesh, then turned around and lifted his leg. A
splashing yellow stream hit the wound. Lucius convulsed and screamed again, and
Harry leaped lightly from his body and whirled around to face him.

�� Draco
drifted over to hover at Harry�s shoulder. From this direction, he could see
that the wound had stopped bleeding the moment Harry had urinated on it. The
skin even had a marginally healthy color to it. What Harry had said about
werewolf bodies possessing special properties to heal was true.

�� Harry
didn�t want Lucius to die too quickly.

�� He prowled
a few more steps forwards, his body hunched in a way that suggested he was
going to leap off the floor any second, his spine flat and his tail raised and
stiff. The growl coming out of his throat didn�t sound like anything Draco had
heard before. He wondered if it had a special meaning, such as, �You are going
to die with no chance to say your prayers.�

�� Lucius, his
face blank with the overmastering rage that Draco knew he was feeling, raised
his wand.

�� He�ll go
for an offensive spell!� Draco called. �He�s too angry right now to think about
defending himself.�

�� Harry
didn�t seem to have heard him. He walked steadily forwards instead, his legs
rising and falling as if they were the pistons of a machine. His mouth was
open, his eyes so wide and so yellow that Draco found looking at them painful,
like staring at the sun.

�� Lucius cast
a curse that Draco didn�t know the formal name of. He knew it stripped off skin
and muscle in the same blow, and that it hurt more than most of the tortures
Lucius had used on him. He flinched and put himself between the curse and
Harry, not even thinking that his astral body wasn�t physical and couldn�t
block the magic.

�� Harry
growled softly and stepped through Draco, giving him a surge of tingles. Black
werewolf magic was glowing around him, making his legs look larger than they
should and his head seem to float on a sea of stomclouds.

�� The curse
struck him.

�� Draco
opened his mouth to scream�and paused. The curse blew apart in the midst of the
dark werewolf magic, the red struggling madly for a moment against the black
before it faded. Then only spinning red motes were left, and they drifted
farther and farther apart from each other, blinking bitterly until they
dissipated.

�� Harry stood
there, his legs braced as though he�d done nothing more than meet a desperate
charge from a deer whose neck he�d snapped, and looked at Lucius.

�� Draco
understood then. Harry knew perfectly well that he could resist wizard magic
when he really tried, and he wanted to show Lucius that he could. He wanted to
inflict terror on him as well as physical pain.

�� Lucius
dragged himself backwards. The movement opened the wound in his belly again,
and it began to bleed. Lucius didn�t seem to notice. His hand was shaking, and
he couldn�t look away from Harry.

�� Harry
lolled his tongue in amusement.

�� Lucius
slumped sideways as if he�d fainted, but Draco saw his eyes still fluttering
open to stare at the werewolf in horror. Good,
Draco thought viciously. I wasn�t able to
find escape in unconsciousness. I don�t want him to be able to.

�� Harry
lowered his nose to the floor and held it there, so that his face was closer to
being at Lucius�s level. Gradually, he pulled his tongue back inside his mouth
and closed it. Then he, slowly, lifted his lips from his teeth.

�� Draco,
standing to one side now so that he could see better, understood that gesture,
too. Harry was showing Lucius the instruments of torture that would mean his
death.

�� A thump
came from behind them, and Draco looked over his shoulder to see that Hyacinth
had bitten through the last chain and pulled his body from the frame. She stood
guard over it on the floor, panting anxiously as she looked at Harry. Harry
flicked her one glance that doubtless told her to stay where she was, because
she settled down again, her fur almost flat now, one paw resting protectively
on Draco�s shoulder.

�� Lucius
tried to use the moment when Harry was distracted to hit him with another
curse. Harry didn�t seem to need Draco�s strangled shout of warning, though,
since he whirled about neatly on his heels and ducked his head. His jaws met on
Lucius�s wrist.

�� In one
chop, he bit off Lucius�s hand and tossed it across the room, wand and all, and
then turned his head to bathe in the spray of blood from the severed limb.

�� Draco felt
a deep, savage contentment as he watched. Yes. This was the end. After this, he
would be sure that Lucius could never
hurt him again, in a way that he wouldn�t have been if Harry had simply killed
his father with a single bite.

�� Lucius
collapsed against the wall and whimpered. Harry stalked forwards on soft paws,
eyes wide, mouth bared, jaws dripping. He gave Lucius plenty of time to see
that death was coming, and that he could do nothing to stop it.

�� Lucius
tried to shield his face with an arm as Harry leaped.

�� Draco heard
bones crack, skin shred, and a strangled shriek. The arm had done nothing to
slow Harry down, though it had given him something else to bite through when he
tore Lucius�s throat out.

�� Harry shook
his head as though he were killing a rat, and then turned and howled as the
blood hit his neck and teeth. For long moments, he looked like all of Draco�s
more colorful fantasies of revenge, standing there and shining.

�� Then he
lowered his head, shook himself all over, and trotted towards Hyacinth and
Draco.

�� Draco
drifted back with him and looked down at his body. His face was the only
halfway normal thing on it, and even that bore the holes in the cheeks that
Lucius had torn and widened the other day. The rest of his body�Draco shook his
head. It looked as though he had been stripped to the bone over and over again,
and covered with less replacement flesh each time. He knew there was no way he
would ever be normal again. He could spend years recuperating in St. Mungo�s
and not be normal.

�� I don�t
know how to heal that,� he said, and turned to look at Harry. �I don�t think
that you can, either, even if you piss on me.�

�� Harry�s hind
leg twitched, as if he was considering trying it, but then he shook his head.
He glanced at Hyacinth. She gazed back at him, her eyes wide, her ears up, and
whimpered slightly. Draco wished that he could tell what they were thinking.
Fuck, he wished they could talk.

�� I�� he
said, and stopped, because his voice was wavering. Lucius was dead. He was only
beginning to realize what came after that, though. He had his freedom, but it
wasn�t freedom to stand and walk away from the cage he�d lived in for so long. He
had the cessation of pain, but that would only last until he went back into his
body and someone started probing at him with healing spells. He had the license
to use magic again, but that would depend on his being able to lift his arm.

�� What am I
going to do?� he asked helplessly, and turned to look at Harry, instinctively,
as the one in the recent past who had offered him solutions to his problems.

�� Harry gazed
at him with fear in his eyes. Then Hyacinth whimpered again, and lifted a paw,
scraping it through the air in a line parallel to Draco�s body. Harry glanced
at her and showed his teeth. Hyacinth flattened her ears in the way that the
other wolves of the pack did when submitting, but repeated the gesture.

�� What is
it?� Draco demanded. He knew enough to tell that there was an argument going
on, though he didn�t know what it was about. �If there�s something you can do
to save me, tell me what it is. I want to live.
I know that it might take me years to live a normal life again, but at the
moment, it doesn�t look like I�ll ever have that chance. Can you make it more
likely?�

�� Harry
stared into his eyes for so long that Draco wondered if he had forgotten what
they were talking about. Draco swept a hand dramatically at his body. �We need
to make a choice soon,� he snapped. �Without the healing magic that my father
regularly gave me, then my body will simply decline and die. I had the
impression that you didn�t want that to happen.�

�� Harry
blinked and lowered his head. Then, watching Draco closely, he opened his jaws
and held them above Draco�s shoulder.

�� He didn�t
have to do anything else to tell Draco what his argument with Hyacinth had been
about.

�� Draco
caught his breath and blinked several times. He expected to feel tears prick
along the edge of his eyelids, but of course he wasn�t going to feel that in
his astral body. He expected to feel fear, even terror, but he felt only
excitement.

�� You could
make me into a werewolf,� he said.

�� Harry
immediately backed away from Draco�s body and tossed his head to show that he
wasn�t happy about doing this. Then he sat down like a large, tame dog and
watched Draco with heartsick golden eyes.

�� Draco
drifted towards the floor and sat down as best as he could when he knew that he
would inevitably drift a bit above its level. His gaze went back and forth from
Harry to his body. He looked at Hyacinth then, and she bobbed her head
enthusiastically and scraped her paw along the floor. Draco knew that she
approved, probably because she thought he made Harry happy and it would be
easier for him to do that as a werewolf.

�� The rest of
the pack, having sent up a single howl of triumph from beyond the wall when
Harry killed Lucius, was silent. If they knew there was a possibility of
this�and Draco thought they probably had�they didn�t seem to have any
objections.

�� Draco
closed his eyes and began to reason aloud. �I would suffer the same
discrimination from society that you do, even if I learn how to balance my
human and wolf, because no one will believe that I can do anything of the kind.
I�ll be able to tell my secret to very few people other than the pack. I�ll
struggle with the wolf, the hunger, the physical need, that you told me about.�

�� Harry gave
a small growl that Draco took as confirmation. He opened his eyes and looked at
the floor through his transparent fingers.

�� You told
me that the change takes away minor magical talents, too,� he said. �Your
Parseltongue. Celia�s ability to become a Metamorphmagus.� He could hear his
breath quickening, and didn�t care. This was the most important decision he had
ever made. He was allowed to be a little excited about it. �I won�t be able to
astrally travel any more, whereas I might if I kept my own body.�

�� Harry
extended his head and bobbed it up and down in an exaggerated nod. Then he
rubbed his nose against Draco�s cheek, using enough magic to make the contact
physical, before he pulled back.

�� So much to
sacrifice,� Draco whispered. Then he reached out and laid a hand on the
forehead of his physical body, though of course he couldn�t feel it.

�� But I�ve
been sacrificed for so many reasons already,� he said, �reasons that were none
of my choosing. My father stole my peace and my body. I won�t sleep without
nightmares for the rest of my life. I�ll always have scars. I�ll always have
disabilities. And I don�t know that that�s something I could put up with, when
I�ve got used to the freedom from pain that my astral body gave me.�

�� Harry moved
a step forwards. He growled again. Draco nodded to him. �I know that there will
be the pain that comes from changing into a wolf,� he said. �But that�s nothing
compared to what I�ve already put up with.�

�� He smiled,
and lifted his hand to touch Harry on the head. The fur was soft against his
palm one way when he stroked it, rough the other, and stiff and matted in some
places because of the blood. Harry watched him all the while as if Draco was
the one with the power to rip out his throat, his body shaking slightly.

�� I�ll be
with you if I�m a werewolf,� Draco whispered. �How could you ask me to make any
other decision?� He leaned heavily against Harry. �Bite me, please.�

�� Harry was
quivering as he took a step forwards and lowered his head. Draco clung to him
as long as he could, then leaped back into his physical body. He didn�t think
it would be a good idea to be caught outside it when the change came.

�� Agony
assaulted him from every direction. Draco fell back, writhing. He wanted to
scream, but he didn�t think he had the strength. He could feel the life leaving his body, no longer dammed and held at bay by
Lucius�s healing magic.

�� Harry�s
jaws crunched down and through his shoulder, only another note in the symphony
of pain.

�� And then,
something new happened.

�� Draco felt
searing warmth radiate away from the bite. With the heat came the sensation of
another mind forced through his body, a new blood transfused into his veins,
and a second being awakening within him.

�� The new
being did not like the fact that the body it shared was in less than peak
physical condition. It rolled over twice, gathering power, and then Draco cried
out in wonder as grey clouds engulfed him.

�� He felt his
bones taken and molded in godly hands. His body quivered, stretched, and
relaxed. He bent and flowed into anguish again, but it was a new kind of
anguish, blinding white, and he seemed to ascend steadily towards the sun as it
swept through him. His back arched and lengthened, his face responded with its
own lengthening, and he shuddered and kept on shuddering, the tremors traveling
to the ends of his limbs, or what was left of them.

�� New
knowledge dropped into his mind. These were the ways to hunt; these were the
ways to leap and change direction in midair; this was the secret of running on
four legs. This was the link to the full moon, and this was the way he would
relate to other werewolves. Draco stood under a waterfall of secrets, and felt
them transform him into a new person mentally as well as physically, giving him
a replacement for the spells he had forgotten as he sustained brain damage
under Lucius�s tender mercy.

�� The new
being found the brain damage inside his skull, and burned it out, cauterizing
the wounds and raising new channels in their place. It was the most
awe-inspiring thing Draco had ever felt. He cried out again, and this time the
sound emerged from a new place in his throat and with a new depth to it.

�� He shook
his head and stood up on shaky legs. He looked around, sniffing, his eyes
appreciating new shades of color, and then tottered forwards so that he could
see himself in the shattered remains of the glass vials Lucius had set out.

�� A lean
silver wolf looked back at him. He was only a few inches shorter than Hyacinth
or Harry, but the aura of power he carried within himself was more compressed.
His eyes looked like the yellow light that sometimes covered the sky before a storm.
The fur along his ruff and streaming back towards his flanks was grey tapering
to white. His ears lifted and lowered with deadly grace; he showed his fangs,
and they were whiter than his fur.

�� He took a
step sideways, eyes on the reflection, and it did not hurt to walk.

�� Draco knew
that, usually, victims of a werewolf bite did not change immediately; their
first transformation would come with the next full moon. But the magic had probably
seen no other way to spare his life than by taking him immediately into his new
body. Meanwhile, at least if Draco remembered the magical theory behind
werewolves right, his human body was resting in what was essentially another
dimension, and would heal of its wounds by the time the sunrise came.

�� He was
free.

�� And he had�

�� He turned
his head to the side, and Harry was already there, slamming into him with a
shoulder and rocking him on his feet. Draco lifted his head, and, for the first
time, their tongues twined together in the open air.

�� Harry was
looking at him as if he were the center of the universe.

�� Draco knew
there would be problems to come. Among other things, there were the questions
the Aurors would ask when they found Lucius dead, and the hunt they would
surely launch for werewolf packs. Harry�s pack would have to be careful to
attract no attention for a time and leave no trace of themselves that could be
linked to the killing. Draco knew they probably already had arrangements set up
for when they became human again and could cast spells, but if not, he would
suggest it.

�� For the
moment, he did not care.

�� He was
free, and he had Harry.

�� He lifted
his head and howled, the sound rising
chill and pure and whole from his toes. Hyacinth joined him a moment later, her
voice smug.

�� Then the
rest of the pack sang from the base of the wall.

�� And last of
all came Harry, his voice surrounding and captaining and chasing the rest of
theirs, thick with strength, thick with rejoicing.

�� End.

*

�� YaoiObsessed: I hope you enjoyed
the ending! Or both liked and despised it. ;)

�� PantiesAreOverrated:
Thank you!

�� Dezra:
Nope, this is the last chapter.

�� polka dot:
Draco didn�t want to think up an attack that Lucius might see through as a lie;
Lucius would hurt him then.

�� ShiroKage:
Here it is. Hope you enjoyed it.

�� Thrnbrooke:
Here it is.

�� mrequecky:
Maybe it will sound for more people in the future!

�� rafiq: Yes,
good call.

�� SP777: 1)
Thank you! And 2) No.

�� DuckieSongbird:
Well, here�s the ending, so no need for pouting. ;)

�� Justmine25:
After a long day of dodging your assassins, here is the chapter.

�� TemporaryCriminal: Thank you so
much! I hope you like the ending.

�� lily:
Thanks!

�� FallenAngel1129:
I really am sorry! But I do think that I wouldn�t have done justice to the
ending if I�d been rushing to cram everything into a single chapter so that I
could post it that day; I would have wanted to leave some details out.

�� PaC: I don�t enjoy tormenting
people! That was just the natural place to stop. *innocent* And thanks for the
review.
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Rejoicing In Their Strength