Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Chosen Chains	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 12198 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and I am not making any money from this story.

Chapter List
- 7
- 8
Harry woke up when he heard the door to Snape�s rooms shut.
He listened with a frown, and decided that Draco must be out of the rooms when
he didn�t hear him moving around.

�� That�s probably a bad thing, Harry
thought, flinging the blankets back and sitting up. He knew Draco had been
killingly angry when he sent Harry to bed. Harry hadn�t been worried because he
thought Draco could keep his temper under control with that same icy lightness
he had shown Harry when they were fucking.

�� Draco?� he
called, stepping into the central room.

�� Do let him
do as he wishes,� a drawl said from behind him. �He has taken a potion and will
act better without you there at his side. Trying to hold him back will simply
make him impatient of restraint, and your presence will inflame him to
demonstrate that he can protect you.
Let him go, and he will extract a powerful but not overwhelming revenge.�

�� Harry
turned to Snape�s portrait. He wondered if it would lie, and then decided it
probably wouldn�t. If Draco was really in danger, the portrait probably would
have already flickered away, in fact, to watch out of another frame.

�� You�re
sure?� he asked dubiously.

�� Snape
leaned on his cauldron and sneered at Harry. The cauldron wasn�t bubbling,
which Harry thought was a first since he had come back to Hogwarts.

�� Not entirely sure, Potter, as no one can
predict the future,� Snape said. �And do not
bring Trelawney up to me.� From his shudder, Harry thought Dumbledore�s
portrait must often have done that. �But it is my belief that Draco needs to do
this himself, to confirm, if only in his own mind, the�unusual�relation to you
he has taken up.�

�� Harry
turned away, flushing and pulling on his hair. He had forgotten that Snape,
along with all the other portraits, knew about his sex with Draco in the Room
of Requirement.

�� How
unusual,� Snape said to his back, with the light, almost bored tone that meant
he was preparing some masterpiece of malice. �How wonderful� that a Potter would prefer to
be dominated rather than dominating others.�

�� Harry shook
his head quickly. �It�s not that,� he said. �I know what you�re talking about,
and I�m different from those people.�

�� But not so
marvelous that a Potter would claim uniqueness,� Snape said, from the sound of
it telling the walls.

�� I�m not��
Harry fell silent and moved to the other side of the room. Draco had laid the
glass shard in the middle of the table. Harry stared down at it and wished he
had written notes about what the potion was. At least that would convince Harry
that Draco was justified in getting as angry about what Covington had done as he�d sounded.

�� Why should I argue with Snape? He would only
find some way to twist my words around anyway, and I�d rather save my efforts
for someone who actually deserves them.

�� You are
unusual,� Snape said flatly to his back. �Do not accept that, and it would make
Draco miserable. I would rather not see him miserable.�

�� Harry
turned back and glared at Snape, good resolutions already forgotten. Draco
might have to live with a portrait frame cracked down the middle or a canvas
that had caught fire. �D�you think
I want to make him miserable? But I
won�t be the slave or the pet that you�re thinking of, either.�

�� How do you
know that is what I am thinking of?� Snape moved so that he was standing beside
the bookshelf, but made no pretense of reaching for a book. He studied Harry
without blinking, in fact. Harry concealed a shudder over that fact and decided
there were some advantages to being paint.

�� Because
you mentioned domination first,� Harry said, and had to keep his fingers from
curling around the shard. He might destroy important evidence that Draco needed
to analyze later. Or he might cut his fingers. It was strange to think that
Draco might be more upset about that than about the destruction of evidence. �And
then that you don�t want him to be unhappy. Apparently he needs a slave to be
happy.� His voice curdled in his throat. He didn�t believe that, but then
again, Snape had known Draco longer.

�� You have
become sensitive to the nuances of words at last,� Snape said. �Is it any
surprise that you still interpret them wrongly?�

�� Harry
refused to look up, and tapped his fingers on the table to ease his impatience
and anger. Draco couldn�t be far ahead. If Harry left now and went with him, he
would at least know what he planned to do. And, really, wasn�t his place at Draco�s side? Their sexual relationship didn�t
mean that Harry had to keep away from him because Draco had chosen to �defend
his honor.�

�� He had
started to reach out for the door-handle when Snape spoke again,
in the neutral tone Harry had once heard him use to tell Hermione that her
potion was correct. �Draco needs a focus for his intensity. He has found a
suitable one in you. I would prefer that you not destroy yourself when that
would deprive him of his focus.�

�� Harry
blinked. Snape looked as if he was trying to keep from chewing on his tongue,
but he had actually spoken the words, and they seemed to be true. That they
weren�t about Harry�s welfare but Draco�s wasn�t the
point. Of course they would be about Draco�s welfare, because Draco was the one
Snape cared about.

�� The one
Harry cared about, too, come to that.

�� Isn�t his
brewing focus enough?� Harry asked. �He�s told me about some of the things he�s
doing with experimental potions��

�� No doubt,
in truth, things he did two or three years ago,� Snape interrupted. He had an
air of relief, as though he was launching vitriol to relieve an itch that had
built up when he admitted Harry might be good for something. �It would take him
that long to simplify the concepts so that you could understand them.�

�� Harry
ignored this, and had the satisfaction of seeing Snape look exquisitely
frustrated. �Well, isn�t it focus enough? Why would he
need someone like me, if he has such an all-consuming passion?�

�� Snape
sighed hard enough to make the portrait frame swing on the wall, or at least it
looked like it. �Because potions are not people,� he said. �And because they
cannot give him someone to fuck.� He paused and tilted his head. �Unless he has
delved into areas of research that I cannot see him having an interest in,� he
murmured, attention caught. �Perhaps I should encourage his interest, however.�

�� If they
would be dangerous to him, then you can�t,� Harry said.

�� Snape gave
him a faint, distantly amused look. �How do you imagine that you could stop
me?�

�� Harry held
up a hand without answering. The anger was slow to come, but not the magic, and
if he couldn�t call up flames as devouring as the normal ones that resulted
from his rage, he doubted Snape knew that. He held out his hand towards the
portrait and watched as Snape stilled, his eyes fixed on the fire.

�� You have
made your point,� Snape said at last, though he apparently had to swallow bile
twice before he could speak.

�� Harry
lowered his hand. �I meant it,� he said, not dismissing the fire yet, because
he wanted Snape to take him seriously. �I don�t want you to encourage anything
that would be dangerous to him. I want�I want him safe. I want him happy. If I
can achieve that only by walking away from him, then I will, but you haven�t
proved that I can do that yet. In fact, you�re speaking as though I�m necessary
to him.�

�� It was his
turn to have words catch in his throat. He didn�t know what he felt at the
moment, tossed back and forth between emotions and conclusions, reactions and
facts. He wanted to stay with Draco. He didn�t want Draco in trouble. He still
had trouble accepting the truth about himself. That truth seemed to be
something Draco desired, or that made him desire Harry, so Harry wanted it to
stay the same. He shook his head sharply and closed his fingers down,
eliminating the fires.

�� Trust that
Draco will restrain himself,� Snape said then. He was no longer chewing on
ashes, and when Harry looked up, he had come forwards to lean on the edge of
the portrait frame. �He has played these games for far longer than you have.
The Ministry woman might feel that she must fight for her life with you there,
given that you wounded her. She will be less cautious around Draco, and he will
get further with her.�

�� To the point of killing her?� Harry murmured, but he no
longer felt as much need to open the door and storm after Draco.

�� Snape shook
his head. �He would not do such a thing when he understands the cost�and the
cost will remain in his mind even when he is most angry.�

��

�More than I can do,� Harry had to
admit.

Snape sneered, but seemed to
consider the straight line too perfect to take advantage of. �In the end, you
will be avenged, and Draco�s need to protect you be assuaged, and the Ministry
woman under control.� He paused thoughtfully. �In truth, this may be the best
thing that could have happened.� He ignored Harry�s snort. �I do not mean your
enslavement. I mean the Ministry acting in such a way that Draco does not need
to hide behind the polite walls of politics. Until this moment, all their
offenses against you were too far in the past to merit revenge. Now, he can do
something that should result in the Ministry reopening Hogwarts as you desire,
or at least making a bargain with you.�

�He�s going to take Covington as a hostage,
and then bargain with them?� Harry hazarded.

Snape laughed. Harry jumped. He
hadn�t imagined that he would ever hear a full and free laugh like that from
Snape�s throat, without a hint�well, all right, this had a hint�of the malice that Snape seemed to feel all the time.

�� Watch and
learn from a master,� Snape said, turning back to his cauldron. �I can see part
of the reason why Draco likes having you. You will be a pleasure to educate.�

�� Harry made
some weak protest, but he knew it was weak as he made it, and that Snape had
talked him into waiting. Not because he was afraid, he knew; he could have
handled Covington.
But because he trusted Draco, and because he wanted to
show that he trusted Draco.

�� He went
back into the bedroom, to lessen the temptation to talk to Snape again and ruin
the fragile accord that subsisted between them right now or touch the vials and
destroy something, and found himself looking at the gloves
that Draco had enchanted to bind his hands the other night. Harry flushed and
turned his head away, but then looked back, his breath quickening.

�� It would do
no harm if he�

�� Right.

�� He picked
up the gloves and held them for a time, turning them over, then
slid them onto his hands. The enchantment Draco had placed on them didn�t
activate without his presence, but Harry could still feel the tight clutch of
the leather, and had to close his eyes as a thrill passed through his blood.

�� This might�

�� This might
be all right.

*

�� In the end,
Draco found Covington
by the simplest means. He only had to summon a house-elf and ask it where she
was, promising that he had a healing potion to relieve the pain in her hand.
The elf squeaked and scraped and bowed, and told him that she was in an office
on the sixth floor that apparently served as her private infirmary.

�� Draco
reached it and spent some time considering his potion, wondering if he should
hide it or pretend that his lie to the elf was the truth. In the end, he shook
his head and pushed the door open. He was too angry to practice effective
subterfuge, and Covington
would never trust a potion that he offered her now.

�� Covington was holding a
mangled mess of a hand over a cauldron, wringing the skin around her fingers
back and forth with her good hand, apparently trying to bleed it out so that
she could use the blood to create a healing enchantment. Draco admired her
steadiness of mind. He didn�t know many wizards who would automatically try to
do something so time-consuming and magic-consuming when they were wounded.

�� He shut the
door behind him hard enough that she would hear it. Covington started and
turned towards him, half-crouched as if she intended to cast a spell�though
since her wand was on the floor beside the cauldron, Draco wondered how she
would have done that.

�� Goodness,
Mr. Malfoy,� she said, with a wide, false smile. �You startled me.�

�� It was the
first time Draco could remember that she had neglected to call him Potions
master Malfoy. He didn�t think it was deliberate, so much as the pain catching
up with her and making her forget about details. He stared to walk forwards,
one hand on the vial that he carried in his pocket.

�� What�s the
matter?� Covington
straightened up and stared at him with a displeased expression, the kind that
she might use on a house-elf who had interrupted her lunch. Her mangled hand
remained above the cauldron. Draco had to admire her focus, too. She never lost
sight of what was really important�in this case, healing herself.

�� The
problem,� Draco said, deciding that he could explain to her, since she wouldn�t
have long to resist, �is that you tried to enslave my partner.� It was a
simpler word than many that came to mind, and perhaps not quite true. But then
again, he could say that Harry was his partner for the duration of the
investigation into the riddles. He stopped in front of her and looked at the hand.

�� He told
you how this happened?� Covington�s
voice held nothing but curiosity. Draco wondered if she didn�t know as much
about the connection between him and Harry as she thought she did.

�� Yes,�
Draco said. �And you shouldn�t have done it.� He met her eyes, wanting to see
the dread gathering there.

�� Covington pursed her lips
as if she didn�t know what to make of that. �I certainly shouldn�t have done it,�
she agreed, and gestured with her head to the dripping blood. �I learned a
lesson about trying to use a potion on someone I am unprepared to fight. I
remain uncertain�and curious�why it is your concern, however.�

�� Draco shook
his head. He would have to speak some more of the truth to make her dread, he
saw, and then he would have to move fast, since he couldn�t chance her getting
away and using what she knew. �It is my concern because I have control of my
partner for my own purposes. He trusts his health and safety to me, in some
ways. And you have violated that. You tried to take control of him.�

�� Covington�s eyes, for a
moment, reflected nothing but astonishment. Draco nodded. Yes, her knowledge
had not extended as far as Harry had assumed it had. She knew something about
Harry, but not how close they had become.

�� Then he saw
the fear he had been longing for. Draco smiled and held up the vial. �If you
swallow this,� he said, �then I don�t need to cause you more pain than Harry
already has.�

�� You�re
mad,� Covington
said. She took a step back and faced him squarely, but Draco wasn�t blind to the
fact that the step had carried her closer to where her wand lay on the floor.
�You must be. Did you really think that
you would get away with threatening me?�

�� A threat
that comes true cannot be classified as a threat any longer,� Draco said. �And
you have spent your time threatening both me and Harry since you came here.�

�� Covington shook her head.
�This would mean open warfare with the Ministry,� she said. �And you�re not
that stupid. They won�t stand for someone imprisoning, torturing, or poisoning
their employees.� Again she moved a step backwards.

�� I prefer
the term coercing,� Draco said. �And
it doesn�t matter what they call it, if they never find out about it.�

�� He sprang
forwards while Covington
was still trying to process his words and locked his arm into place around her
throat. Covington
raised her bloody hand to fend him off, and Draco closed his teeth on a hanging
strip of skin and whipped his head sideways. She screamed in pain, taken
off-guard by the jolt that went through her.

�� And, more
to the point, opening her mouth as wide as it was capable of going. Draco had
the cork out of the vial already, a deft sleight-of-hand trick that he had
perfected to impress his clients. The potion passed into her throat, and Draco
slammed his hand across her lips after it, to prevent her from spitting it back
out.

�� From the
furious look in her eyes, she was holding it in her mouth instead of
swallowing, and she promptly began turning her head from side to side, seeking
a way past the barrier of his palm. Draco had one free hand, though, and that
hand nestled his wand against the bottom of her chin. He tapped it. �Glutio,� he said.

�� The simple
spell, meant to help patients with sore throats swallow their medicinal
potions, did its work. Covington�s
muscles contracted, and the potion was gone. Draco took his hand away and
stepped smoothly back. The noise of the struggle might bring someone, and he
wanted to show that he hadn�t hurt her if they did show up.

�� Covington shivered and bowed
her head as if huddling before a strong wind. Draco watched critically, nodding
when he noted a slight green undertinge to her skin.
That was a sign of the potion working, and he hadn�t wanted to test it until he
saw the signs begin to appear.

�� Lift your
left arm,� he said.

�� Covington�s left arm shot
above her head. She stared at him in horror and dawning revulsion, and Draco
smiled sweetly back. He hadn�t perfected the sentient potion that would let him
command the bodies of hundreds yet, but this was the next-best thing. It would
operate when the person who had swallowed it was away from him, too, and it was
undetectable to anyone who might run the standard tests�which definitely
included the Potions staff of the Ministry, not known for innovation.

�� You won�t
speak to anyone of this,� he said. �Your throat closes if you try. You will hurl yourself down the nearest flight of stairs if you try
to write something. You needn�t stare at me as if I won�t do it,� he added
scornfully, because Covington�s
eyes were fixed on him in something that might have been shock and was
certainly horror. �I will. I have no compunctions about hurting someone who
hurt Harry.�

�� Covington shook her head.
Draco wondered if he should allow her to speak, but he couldn�t see what it
would gain to keep her silent at this point. When someone
else was watching, yes. �You may speak,� he said.

�� You�must
have a desire that I can give you,� Covington
said. Although she had to feel the alien thrum of the potion traveling through
her by now, she still managed to smile. �We understand each other, I hope? We
have both been Slytherins. You must have desires that your Potter can�t grant
you.�

�� Draco
studied her, not sure whether he was more surprised or impressed that she was
still trying tricks at this late time. �You have nothing I want,� he said. �You
might have granted me something when Harry was still uninjured, but you didn�t
think of it then, and you�ll give me anything I want now.�

�� The
Ministry will not trust me if I start advocating for you,� Covington said. Her voice remained clear and
quiet. Only her wildly darting eyes let Draco see how much she was affected at
the moment. �You still won�t get what you want. On the other hand, release me
from this slavery, and I might be�grateful.�

��

Draco laughed outright then. �You
won�t be,� he said. �I know your kind. You�ll smile and thank me prettily while
you�re in front of me, and then try to stab me the moment my back is turned.
You�ll be too enraged by what I did to you to agree to a reasonable bargain.
Come, come, don�t look like that,� he added, cruelly enjoying himself, when
Covington stared at him in dismay only until her face smoothed itself out under
his instructions. �I�m someone like that myself. That�s how I understand you so
well.�

Covington looked as if she would have liked
to cry out, but Draco clenched her throat down briskly on that, and stood there studying her for some time. Then he began to
give her her commands, one by one, all of them so
clearly worded that there was no way she could get around them�unless she
wanted to commit suicide. Draco had to admit that he wasn�t able to guard
against all the contingencies of that.

�You will not speak a word of this
to anyone without your throat closing. You will not hint about it to anyone, or
your throat will close. You will walk at once to the nearest staircase and fall
down it with no attempt to save yourself if you write anything. You cannot
gesture the truth without losing feeling in your hands. You will resist mightily
if someone attempts to interrogate you with Legilimency. If someone asks you
why you are so agreeable and accommodating now, you will answer that House
loyalty to Slytherin compels you.�

�I could lose my position with the
Ministry,� Covington
whispered. �What use would I be to you then?�

�� Absolutely
none,� Draco said, and gave her a smile that made her flinch. �Unless as
someone to punish. So you should make sure that you don�t lose that position.
It�s the only thing sparing your life at the moment.�

�� Covington closed her eyes.
The sweat stood out on her forehead, thick as blood.

�� Draco
tapped his fingers thoughtfully against his lips, and then said, �You�ll
remember that I�m in your veins now, I trust? Are there any other chains that I
need to set on you?� He would be reluctant to give her extra commands. He
wanted her working for their interests with some faint hope that she could free
herself, not bound in utter desperation. She might decide to betray them, or
try it, because one way or the other she would be free from the slavery, and
Harry and Draco might have to work with someone who would be even harder to
deal with.

�� Whimpering,
Covington shut
her eyes more tightly and shook her head.

�� Good,�
Draco said, and paused again, until she opened her eyes and looked at him.
Draco clucked his tongue. �I take no pleasure in doing this. I wouldn�t have
done it at all if you hadn�t threatened Harry. Keep that in mind, if you want
to take revenge. I have potions that can do worse things than this.�

�� Covington�s face said she
didn�t believe him, because she couldn�t imagine what would be worse than this.
Draco laughed. �I�m a Potions master,� he said. �Think about that, and think
about all the ways that nightmares can come true.�

�� She turned
her head away from him, shuddering. Draco nodded. �Remember,� he said. �There
need be no long-lasting consequences from this if you can control yourself.
When Hogwarts is open again, and Slytherin House restored to its proper place,
then I�ll retract most of my restraints, and you can go back to your normal
life.�

�� The potion
will leave my blood?� Covington
whispered.

�� Oh, that?�
Draco asked casually, as if he hadn�t anticipated the question. �Oh, no. It will stay.�

�� Covington stared at him in
sick horror. Draco knew what she was thinking: that she would have to live with
the fear for the rest of her life that he�d be bored someday and decide to take
control again.

�� Draco let
his masks drop for a moment, and all his hatred and contempt burn in his eyes.
This was what he did to people who
preyed on those he loved.

�� Covington hid from that
fury. Draco nodded, murmured, �So glad we understand each other,� and left.

�� His fury
cooled to a slow burn as he did so, and it occurred to him that he and Harry
should be able to work on the riddle with few distractions now.

*

�� Nothing
makes sense.�

�� Harry
winced in sympathy and touched Draco�s back cautiously. Draco had acted
simultaneously self-satisfied and easily ruffled since he came back from
punishing Covington,
and the only thing he had told Harry for certain was that she wouldn�t bother
them again. Harry hadn�t even offered congratulations, because Draco pinned him
with a piercing stare each time he opened his mouth. Perhaps it wasn�t
something he wanted to talk about. Perhaps he was feeling a bit ashamed of
himself, if he had used the violent or coercive means that Harry suspected him
of using.

�� But he
leaned back into Harry�s palm and sighed out what seemed to be most of his
tension, so at least that part had to
be all right.

�� Why
doesn�t it make sense?� Harry asked, when a few
minutes had passed with him touching Draco and Draco staring at the list of
suggestions in front of him with his eyes half-lidded.

�� The riddle
seems to be talking about a place that rises,� Draco murmured. �That ought to
make it a place easily visible on Hogwarts�s grounds. But it can�t be a place
inside the school, or someone would have stumbled over it by now. Yet all the
candidates on the grounds are objectionable for a number of reasons.� He turned
abruptly to Harry. �Have you thought of anything else that could have mattered
to Dumbledore?�

�� No,� Harry
said. �I didn�t know his past all
that well. I learned more about Tom Riddle�Voldemort�during my sixth year, when
I was studying with him, than I did about him.� He hesitated, then added, �I learned more about him after his death. But I
can�t think of anything that would be relevant here.�

�� Really?� Draco�s eyes were more piercing than they had been
when Harry tried to speak to him earlier.

�� Harry
nodded firmly. �Most of the things I learned about took place far away from
Hogwarts, anyway. I don�t see how they could contribute to riddles or memories
on the grounds.�

�� Hmmm.� Draco swept his gaze back to the list of trees and
sites in the Forbidden
Forest in front of him
and frowned again.

�� Harry
cocked his head. �Why couldn�t it be somewhere inside the
school? The fireplace in the Slytherin common room was inside the
school, but that doesn�t mean anyone stumbled over it before now. This could be
another half-deserted place. Remember that the school�s been shut up for six
years, without any kids running through it.�

�� Draco made
a restless motion with one hand, which looked an awful lot like a dismissive
motion. Harry tried to hold his temper and wait for the reply. �The only
possible candidates are the towers. We�ve been up to Ravenclaw Tower.
I think we would have found something there. And Covington has told me that the Ministry
investigated the other Towers, because they wanted to add safety wards to them.
They didn�t find anything.�

�� Do you
know how closely they investigated
them?� Harry asked. �The only wards I saw on the Towers were ones that people
could have put up there flying on brooms. If no one�s been up there on foot��

�� Draco went
still. Then he turned around and said, �Harry, that�s an idea I never would
have had.�

�� Harry
flushed with pleasure, knowing as he did so that the pleasure he took from
Draco�s compliment was far more than he would have taken from it if someone
else had given it. He shook off the thought and said, �Well, do we know? We�d
have to look at them all, I think, and go over every inch of them with a wand,
but it�s a start.�

�� Draco
nodded and stood up. �And I think we should begin with the North Tower.
The reference to eternity could easily be to the Divination classes that were
held there.� He made a face. �Not that it pleases
me to go through the ruins of Professor Trelawney�s old office, but it�s
the most likely candidate I can think of. Plenty of people at the Ministry, my
father told me, thought Divination was a waste of time. It�s probable that they
haven�t bothered to clear out the classrooms and clean the Tower itself, since
they aren�t planning to offer Divination.�

�� Harry took
a deep breath. He felt dizzy, as if he were standing on a mountain with wind
blowing around him, but that wouldn�t get him out of saying what he had to say.

�� Draco.�

�� At the
sound of his voice, Draco paused again and turned around with a curious frown.
�Harry, is something wrong? You sound that way.�

�� I don�t
think it�s the North
Tower.� Harry wanted to
put his arms around Draco, but once again, he wasn�t sure how Draco would
receive that gesture. Better to stay where he was for right now and make his
case. �There�s no reason for it to be dark in memory, or for the riddle to talk
about fire above and fire below. I�think it�s the Astronomy Tower.
The stars are the fire above. The fire below would come from the models of the stars
that Sinistra kept in her offices, or maybe it was
just a generic reference to the fireplaces. But�you know why it would be dark
in memory as well as I do.�

�� For a
moment, Draco�s face was grey, and Harry wondered whether it was really only
fear of talking to Snape again, and shame, that had kept him away from Hogwarts
for this long. Then he shook his head and seemed to return to himself with a
snap. �No,� he said. �That can�t be it. The riddles were set up before
Dumbledore�s death. They had to be. There would be no reason for the Tower to
be �dark in memory� then.�

�� Ah, but
there would be.�

�� Harry
started. He had been so focused on Draco that he hadn�t realized Dumbledore had
come into Snape�s portrait frame. Snape was standing off to the side, looking
rather put out. Dumbledore leaned forwards, hands all
but braced on the frame, and studied Harry steadily.

�� I can
remember that I�he�brooded over Grindelwald and what had to be done to stop him
on that tower,� Dumbledore said. He caught Harry�s eye. Harry nodded silently
back. He was going to keep what he�d found out about Dumbledore and Grindelwald
to himself, at least until a reason came along to reveal it.

�� Draco,
Harry saw, had noticed the exchange and seemed to be frowning about it. Knowing
him, he would demand an explanation sooner rather than later. Harry tried to
keep from shaking his head ruefully and focused on Dumbledore instead.

�� And there
is one more way that the riddles could have been changed,� Dumbledore
continued. �My former self trusted Severus�s former self absolutely. Severus
could have altered the last riddle before he died.�

�� Yes, he
could have,� said Snape from the portrait behind Dumbledore, his voice so flat
that Harry had no idea what he was feeling. He wasn�t sure it would have helped
much more if he could have seen his face. Snape was in one of his
uncompromising moods, the same way he�d been when Harry had tried to question
him two years ago. �But I have no memory of it, if he did.�

�� Dumbledore
reached back and made a patting motion with his hand. For some reason, his eyes
were fixed on Harry. Perhaps he just
wants to make sure I really won�t betray his secrets, Harry thought. �I
know, Severus. I simply wanted to alert them to the possibility.�

�� He was on
the Tower, too,� Draco said, in a dreamy voice that made Harry turn to him at
once. Draco�s face was pasty. He looked more like the boy Harry had known than
he had since he�d been that boy. �But he couldn�t know that I would be the one
uncovering these riddles. Weren�t these riddles made to be solvable by anyone?�

He was appealing to Dumbledore,
Harry saw, his eyes beseeching him to say that the Astronomy Tower couldn�t be
the answer because he was so desperate not to go up there again. Dumbledore
bowed his head for a moment and closed his eyes before he nodded. He saw
Draco�s pain and was trying his best to acknowledge it without hurting him too
badly all over again, Harry thought.

�� Yes,�
Snape�s voice said. �But my former self was paranoid enough to have decided
that the riddle was too easy. Or perhaps he intended you as his choice to solve
it all along. That would be like him.� There was pride in his voice now, for
some reason, Harry thought.

�� Draco stood
there without speaking, gaze turned so inwards that Harry wasn�t sure if he
would notice if Harry waved a hand in front of his face. Not that Harry was
about to try. He was fairly certain Draco wouldn�t find that funny.

�� I�ll try,�
Draco whispered. �I will. But I can�t
promise that I won�t collapse.�

�� I�ll be
there,� Harry said. �You won�t collapse, because I won�t let you.�

�� Draco
started. I think he forgot about me, Harry
thought as he turned around again. That
should probably be insulting, but he can make up for it if he remembers me now
and takes advantage of the offer of support.

�� You don�t
understand,� Draco whispered in a hiss that seemed to start from the depths of
his chest. �You can�t�you don�t know what that night means to me.�

�� I know,�
Harry said. He would have said that the memory wasn�t all that prominent in
Draco�s recollections of the school if someone had asked, because he hadn�t
seen him mention it or react to it so far. And the memory of the battle on the
Astronomy Tower had been slotted in, for Harry, along with all his other horrible memories, something that
he remembered in nightmares, but that had to wait its turn alongside the images
of Sirius�s death, his mother�s death, Cedric�s body, Voldemort coming back to
life, and Hermione�s screams as she was tortured. �But I can be there for you
anyway.�

�� Draco
studied him further, bending in as though he wanted to emphasize the difference
in their heights. Since that difference was less than nothing, Harry glared
back staunchly, until Draco whispered, �You can�t. You�re not strong enough.�

�� Are you about to start that nonsense of
thinking of someone who likes to be bound in bed isn�t as strong as his
partner?� Harry demanded in a carrying voice. He didn�t care if Dumbledore and
Snape overheard, since they already knew most of the details of his and Draco�s
sex life. �If you are, then I�m walking out the door.�

�� Draco
crossed his arms. �It has nothing to do with that,� he said, though the faint
flush along his cheekbones declared he was lying. �It simply means�you have so
many issues to deal with, including your anger. What happens if you get angry
on the Tower? Then I�m left trying to soothe you and myself at the same time.�

�� There�s no
reason for me to get angry there, unless someone tries to harm you,� Harry
said. �And I�ve had a lot of practice in holding back anger for a short time,
until I can get to someone who can help me.�

�� Draco�s
eyes flashed, even with everything else going on. �I had better be the only one who helps you with that, in the
future,� he said.

�� Harry
licked his lips and tried to ignore the melting sensation in his stomach. It
wasn�t excitement, or at least he didn�t think so. �I know,� he said. �You will
be. I was saying?�

�� Draco
nodded curt permission to go on.

�� My anger
can express itself in magic, or in intense physical activity,� Harry said. �And
I think there�s likely to be more than enough physical activity for me, given
that we�ll face another fight to the death on the Tower.�

�� Draco lit
up. �That�s true. We will.�

�� You like
the idea of that?� Harry asked, and then realized he was being stupid. Draco
would probably welcome anything that could create a new memory, and thus a new
association, with the Tower in his mind at this point.

�� Yes,�
Draco said, and no more. He turned back to the portrait frame. �You�re sure
that Professor Snape could have changed the riddle after you set it,
Headmaster?�

�� I trusted
him absolutely,� Dumbledore said softly. Harry tried not to think of the basis
of that trust, of the fact that it played on Snape�s guilt over failing his
mother. �I�m sure.�

�� Draco
nodded and turned away. Harry followed him, only pausing to make sure that he
had his wand before they left the room.

�� Draco
strode along the corridor with his jaw firm and his eyes shining in a fashion
that promised horrible consequences for whoever got in his way. Harry followed
him for a few minutes, but when Draco turned in a direction that wasn�t going
to lead them to the hospital wing or Ron and Hermione�s rooms, Harry coughed.
�Aren�t we going to bring Ron and Hermione in on this?� he asked. �We could
probably use their help against whatever�s living in the Tower.�

�� We�ll be
able to handle it,� Draco said, without looking around. If anything, his stride
grew longer.

�� We don�t
know that for certain.� Harry tried to keep his voice calm. Sometimes, Draco
got on his nerves something awful, although Harry hoped those incidents
wouldn�t be as frequent now that they were sleeping together. �It would make
the most sense to bring them along. Do you want me to��

�� Draco swung
around on one heel. Harry blinked. He had to admit that he hadn�t realized
Draco�s eyes could glare that fiercely. Draco would have made a good Auror, he
thought inanely, and then shook his head to get rid of the fantasy.

�� How much
more plainly do I have to say this?� Draco�s lips were slightly parted, his
hands clenched into each other. �I don�t want someone around who I don�t trust, when I�m going back into a place
that means as much to me as this one does.�

�� Harry
winced. He should have been able to guess that for himself. �Oh,� he said
quietly. �Yeah, that makes sense.�

�� Doesn�t
it?� Draco faced up the corridor again, his voice
calming into a curious flatness, as if yelling at Harry had used up some of the
nervous energy. �But that means that Weasley and Granger will just have to live
without the glory of joining us.� He hesitated so short a time that Harry
wouldn�t have noticed if he hadn�t started watching Draco a lot more closely
than before. �Unless you want them to be involved, of course.
Unless you�d rather join them for the evening than me.�

�� Harry
frowned at the back of Draco�s head. This mattered to Draco, and it mattered to
him, but he wished he had better words than he did. As it was, Draco was likely
to accuse him of sounding sentimental or false.

�� But while
Harry couldn�t say yet if he loved Draco, not for certain, or even liked him
very much outside of bed, he knew what he said next was true.

�� There�s no
one I would rather fight beside than you.�

�� Draco
half-lowered his head, and his eyes fluttered once, seen from profile. It was a
minute hesitation, smaller than the one before his mocking words, but it was
enough for Harry, who followed him in contented silence.

�� And who saw
that Draco hesitated one more time, to swallow, before he took the stairs to
the Astronomy Tower.

*

�� Draco was
climbing through stone and shadow. He knew that. Harry�s idea that no one had
been up to the Astronomy
Tower in some time was
correct. They passed through a set of wards that were meant to keep students
away�Harry destroyed them with scornful ease�and dust flew around them with
every step. Draco was aware of all those things, and more alert than that,
waiting for the moment when the death trap promised by the last riddle would
explode around them.

�� But he was
also sixteen years old, and racing up to the Tower with his heart in his
throat, caught between excitement and terror. It had worked! He had let them
in! But now, he had to go up here and hope that the last part of the plan was
in place. He had to kill Dumbledore. He had to do it, this time, and all the nerves that he could feel trembling
in the backs of his hands would just have to shut up.

�� Draco could
remember being that young. He had never understood the people who said they
couldn�t. Of course, most of those people didn�t have fear and shame acting
like a permanent fire to sear the sensation into their heads.

�� He came out
on top of the Tower, in two years, in two times, and turned his head from side
to side. He had thought for sure that the ambush would happen on the steps of
the Tower, and why not? It was only sense that the creatures or the wards that
were part of the trap would attack them in a confined space that would make it
harder for them to fight. Severus and Dumbledore wouldn�t have wanted just anyone surviving a fight to the death
and getting hold of the last keyword.

�� Instead,
though, they stood in the open air without a sign of anyone or anything to
oppose them. Draco frowned and glanced at his feet, prepared to see the stones
cracking apart in lines of fire. Then he looked up again, in case a predatory
bird stooped from above.

�� Nothing.

�� I don�t
understand,� he said slowly, and turned back to Harry. �Perhaps you�re wrong
and this isn�t the right Tower after all?� Joy leaped up in his heart at that
possibility, hotter and more important than what he had felt when he was a boy.

�� Harry was
gone. Instead, Draco found himself staring into the eyes of a sixteen-year-old,
his blond hair slicked back from his forehead, his hand trembling on the wand.

*

�� It was as
though time had turned backwards and Harry was once more on the Astronomy Tower as he had been all those years
ago, standing silent and mute and invisible under Dumbledore�s spells.

�� Exactly like. He could see Draco in
front of him as he was, with his eyes wide and his skin waxen but his strength
and his age showing�and as he had been, with his skin so pale that he looked as
if he were going to fall over at any moment and permanent lines of stress tied
together around his mouth.

�� Between
them both stood Dumbledore, his expression so sad that Harry felt a ripple pass
through his heart, stirring it as nothing but anger and his feelings for Draco
had stirred it in years. This was the real man, not the portrait. Harry
wondered how much of the animosity he felt for the portrait came about because
that shadow of Dumbledore would never be able to replace the real thing.

�� Harry
reached out, and his hands passed through both Dracos.
He shouted, but neither one heard him.

�� They saw
each other, though. Harry couldn�t doubt that, because the teenage Draco let
his eyes dart away from Dumbledore and to that older version of himself with
uneasy fascination. Then he backed up and lifted his wand, as though he thought
he could prevent a vision from attacking him that way.

�� D-don�t
come near me!� His voice cracked when he stuttered, and Harry could see the
utter humiliation beaming in his eyes. The sudden pink on his cheeks probably
came more from embarrassment than anything else. �I�m warning you! I�ll cast a
curse, and I know Dark Arts!�

�� Harry
darted a glance at Dumbledore to see how he would respond to that. He looked a
little more grieved, but otherwise he only stood there, watching and listening.

�� Harry
reached out again. If he was seeing this vision, there had to be some way he
could affect it, wasn�t there? And it wasn�t as if they were in a Pensieve.

�� Unless�

�� Harry had
paused to think about that, and almost missed what Draco�his Draco�responded to the boy they had both known. Draco�s voice
was soft and hoarse, and full of something that Harry thought was wonder and
yearning. �I�m you. I�ve lived through what you�ve lived through right now.
It�s going to be all right.�

�� The
teenager stared at him. Then he shook his head. �You�re something that he sent, to test me!� he said. �Or
you�re something that the old man is trying to do, to distract me.� He turned
away and focused on Dumbledore again. �Why did you bring him here? Send him
away again. You can�t trick me.�

�� Harry had
to close his eyes at the pride in his voice. He was sure that he hadn�t sounded
much different when he was a boy, but it was still painful to realize that
someone could be so young.

�� Or do I only think that because I know
what�s going to happen next?

�� This was
not my doing,� Dumbledore said, voice older than Harry had thought it would be.
Of course, how much did he remember of that night on the Tower, seven years
ago, compared to Draco, who seemed to remember everything? Harry was beginning
to think that they stood in Draco�s memory, and that was the reason for the
perfect detail on the people and the stones of the Tower. �This is a doing of
the future or the past.� He shut his eyes and sighed, though his lips wore a
faint smile. �Or a doing of dreams. I cannot be sure,
and that makes it hard to concentrate.�

�� The teenage
Draco looked at him angrily, as though to say that everyone should be able to concentrate when it came to something
about him. Harry remembered that expression, and that attitude. Fuck, Draco
still had it. He had thought that he should be different from Harry�s other
lovers, although all of them had been content with a quick fuck or the money
that Harry could give them, or both.

�� It has to
be yours,� the boy said, but less sure now. He turned to Draco now and made a
rude noise. �You can�t be my future,
can you? You don�t look strong enough.�

�� Draco shook
his head and seemed to come to life. �You have no idea what you�re talking
about,� he said, his voice soft but controlled, rather than breaking out
furiously the way Harry thought he would if he was faced with a past self this
ignorant. �I�m your future the best way it could turn out, without being dead
or in exile or in Azkaban.�

�� The boy�s
face lost all its color again. �No,� he whispered. �No, he�s going to win, I
know he is.�

�� No need to translate the �he,� Harry
thought, and he could only imagine that that must be even more
true for Draco, who would remember every sensation of this moment with
clear and painful intensity.

�� He�s not,�
Draco said. His voice was calm and quiet, cool, the same tone that he used
sometimes to give Harry orders. He must hope that he could reach his past self
this way, Harry thought, and then wondered why. If they were in the middle of a
memory, then Draco wouldn�t be able to change anything. �You always knew that.
I know the secret moments of doubt that you�ve had in the middle of the night,
doubt that you�re doing the right thing, for yourself or your family, even if
you obey his crazy demands. I am you.
All your thoughts are mine. Why shouldn�t I know this?�

�� Shut up!�
the boy screamed, and swept his wand up and down. �Just shut up!�

�� Dumbledore
coughed and said something that Harry lost in the sound of the teenage Draco
casting curses. His Draco darted
around them and then got behind the boy, pinning his arms to his sides and
saying something low and urgent into his ear.

�� Harry
couldn�t stand it anymore. It had been bad enough to be imprisoned once outside
this event, when he couldn�t help but thought he might have been able to if Dumbledore had let him intervene. He
wasn�t going to let it happen again. He began to circle the edges of the Tower,
looking for the passage into the memory that Draco had found.

*

�� Listen,
you little shit,� Draco said. He knew it would get the boy�s attention, because
no one except the Dark Lord and other Death Eaters had ever spoken to him like
that at that age, and even they usually used more deferential language,
concerned about offending Lucius through his son. �You have no idea what you�re
doing. This is a mistake that you�ll regret for the rest of your life. Professor
Snape wasn�t trying to steal your glory when he told you that you couldn�t do
this alone; he was telling you the simple truth, and offering his help. Put the
wand down, and everything can be different.�

�� He was
barely aware of what he was saying; the words leaped through his lips and
hurried into his younger self�s ears without anything like a plan. He had to say them. His mind was spinning
with memories overlaid by the new reality that seemed to be taking place around
him, and if he had a chance to make a difference and change some of the
consequences that stemmed from that night, he would.

�� Of course,
he might cease to exist if his past self really did act differently. Or he
might lose his relationship with Harry, or his Potions mastery, or the knowledge
that he had gained from Severus, or anything else beautiful and pleasant that
carried him through his days. One of the lessons that his parents had made sure
to teach him young was that anything beautiful and pleasant had a price that
must be paid for it, and goodness and evil�in the sense of personal
benefits�were linked together in a thousand ways. You had to suffer through
education and the torments of homework and boredom and repetition in order to
learn how to cast powerful spells. You had to listen to people you didn�t like
or respect or pay your dues until you arrived in a position where they would
have to listen to you. You had to spend money and time making
potential allies trust you. There was always time to be paid, if nothing
else, and the list of prices went on. Draco knew that
he might be condemning himself, and perhaps Harry and Dumbledore, to a price
that he couldn�t bear.

�� But he
couldn�t help himself. The instinct was too strong, to intervene and tell himself how it was and
how it should be and offer the
benefit of superior experience to his younger self. To take
the shortcut, if he found it.

�� That was
the Slytherin way.

�� The boy
struggled against him, all angles and elbows and legs and ribs. Draco
remembered himself that way, and he wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.
He tightened his arms instead, and kept whispering. He no longer heard what he
said; he wasn�t sure that he would have wanted to. The important thing was that
he kept his voice running, and the boy struggling against him was, for the
moment, still in his grasp. He still had the potential to change things,
somehow. Draco had to believe that, or he would have given up and simply sat
down and laughed in despair.

�� Someone�s
hands touched him.

�� Draco started
and reared back, intent on throwing off the unknown attacker much as he was intent on throwing Draco off. And
sure enough, the boy squirmed free a moment later and faced him, panting, eyes so brilliant and angry that Draco winced in spite of himself
at what looked out of them.

�� Then he
realized that Harry was standing beside him�Harry, whom he had somehow missed
at the start of the memory, or the vision, or the dream, or whatever it was that surrounded them here. Draco knew that he wanted it to
be time-travel, but he also knew that it was more than likely not to be.

�� Harry?� he
whispered. �Where did you come from?�

�� From right
over there,� Harry said, nodding at what looked to be the empty stones of the
Tower. Hadn�t Dumbledore been there a moment ago? Draco wondered, but he didn�t
have the time to look, because he couldn�t turn away from the brilliant
conflagration of Harry�s eyes. �I was locked outside the memory at first, and
then I went back down the stairs, came up them, and thought of the exact same
thing you were probably thinking about, that night. I think the trap Dumbledore
and Snape set was triggered to go off when that happened.�

�� Draco shook
his head. He was still upset and shaken, and he still didn�t understand most of
the thoughts that wanted to rush through his head. �I don�t�why the fuck would they want to create a trap
like this if they knew the chances were excellent that someone they trusted would walk through it?�

�� I don�t
know,� Harry said. He kept his voice low and soothing and didn�t turn to look
at the boy Draco could feel watching them with wide eyes. �But perhaps they
couldn�t be sure of the kind of people we would be when we came back. Perhaps
they had to be sure, before they started to let us into the secrets.�

�� Draco was
about to protest that that was ridiculous, but he stopped with a grimace. Yes,
he could see Severus being paranoid enough for that, and Dumbledore thinking of
it as one of his insane �tests.� Draco had no idea what Dumbledore would still
be testing them for, when he was on the brink of death in this memory or knew
that he was going to die soon as he was constructing the riddles, but that
seemed to be his way.

�� Yes,�
Draco said. �Fine. All right.�
He gestured at the teenager who had an odd expression on his face, anger mixed
with complex sadness and frustration. Draco wondered why, but had the feeling
that he wouldn�t like the answer that he could feel rising in the back of his
mind, and didn�t pursue it. �But what are we supposed to do about him? Why are
we here�now�at this time, whenever we are? How are we supposed to break through
this and get the keyword to the wards?�

�� What are
you talking about?� the boy demanded, his eyes darting back and forth between
them. �Why is Potter with you?�

�� I�m his
friend,� Harry said, his hand pressing down hard on Draco�s shoulder for a
moment, as though he wanted to make sure that Draco didn�t break away from him
and go to embrace the boy.

�� And
lover,� Draco said. He wouldn�t let Harry deny that to anyone, not even a
vision. He rested his hand on Harry�s and glared challengingly at his teenage
self.

�� The
older�younger�Draco blinked and stared at the ground. Draco shook his head. The
complexities of time-travel had always made him dizzy. He hadn�t even done well
at the Arithmancy equations concerning it.

�� Oh,� the
boy whispered, or Draco thought he whispered. Harry had started talking, and in
the wash of those words, he lost the quieter sound.

�� I don�t
know if we�re supposed to break through the memory in any way,� Harry said. �I
think we�re here for a different purpose. I was outside the memory at first,
and couldn�t break through until I stepped in a certain place on the stairs and
thought as hard as I could about what you would be
feeling when you walked up here.� His arms tightened around Draco. �I think
we�re here to help you get over some of the trauma that you�re feeling.�

�� Draco
stared at him, then snorted. Harry could come up with
some fairly ridiculous theories, but not even Draco had envisioned anything
that ridiculous. �No. That can�t be.�

�� Why not?� Harry turned and paced behind Draco, making Draco
tense automatically. He let his hands pass in soothing motions up and down
Draco�s spine, and Draco relaxed despite himself, and despite the audience of
one teenage boy and one dying old man, both of whom he kept an eye on. �If they
cared enough to make sure that only we�or you�could gain access to this secret,
then why wouldn�t they care enough to try and bring you past this moment? Heal
you of something that even you admit still affects you?�

�� Still
affects you?� The younger Draco�s voice was intolerably high-pitched when one
was trying to think, Draco thought. He shut his eyes, but he could still hear
the voice, persisting in shrill tones. �What�s going to happen?�

�� Many
things,� said the vision of Dumbledore.

�� Draco
resisted the temptation to tell the old man to shut up. It wouldn�t help
anything. He swallowed and said, �But I don�t know the way to get over it. What
am I supposed to do?� And now he was whining, he thought in disgust a
moment later. He bit his lip sharply and forced himself to stand there, quiet,
while Harry thought.

�� Well,�
Harry said. �I could think of a few things. First, what was it about this night
that traumatized you the most? I know that one of the reasons it took me so
long to get over the fight with Ron and Hermione was that they�d been
everything to me, once. There was no one else in my life who
mattered so much. Was there something like that here? Was Snape�Professor
Snape�so important to you that you couldn�t take what you thought of as his
betrayal?�

�� Draco let
out a sharp laugh, and then controlled himself. �What do you mean, Potter?� It was easy to slip into
calling Harry that again when he was faced with this very physical reminder of
his past. �The whole situation was
the traumatizing thing. I was supposed to kill. I couldn�t kill. I saw someone
who had been Headmaster of the school I was in for the past six years die, and
I knew that other people were fighting, and possibly dying, down in the school
because of me. And then we had to run, and I knew that the Dark Lord would be
less than pleased with me because Severus had done my task instead. The whole
night is a long miasma of anger and betrayal and fear.�

�� Harry
wrapped his arms around Draco, living, warm, solid arms that Draco could hold
to. It took a long moment for him to find the necessary courage, but in the
end, he leaned back and let himself be supported. Harry kissed the skin under
his ear.

�� Draco knew
his younger self would be staring in horror and hatred and�yes, he could
acknowledge this, remembering some of the thoughts that had risen to the
surface of his mind when he looked at Harry�perhaps envy. He had never thought
specifically of being Harry�s lover at that point, that he could remember, but
he had certainly wanted to be closer to him than he was, and was jealous of
those who were.

�� Then start
thinking of ways that would let you live with yourself,� Harry murmured. �Do
you consider yourself a coward for running, the way I screamed at Snape that he
was?�

�� Draco shook
his head. �Running was the only reasonable thing to do in that situation. I was
more scared of what I was running to than what I was running from.�

�� Harry
nodded against his cheek. Draco felt the crisp rustle of his hair, and
concentrated on that instead of his memories. �What about killing? Were you
disappointed that you couldn�t bring yourself to kill Dumbledore?�

�� Draco licked
his lips. He knew the truth, and he knew what he wanted to say. The truth might
make Harry think him a horrible enough person that he wouldn�t be interested in
talking to Draco again.

�� Then he
told himself not to be ridiculous. He had already forced his way into Harry�s
confidence and his bed. If Harry backed away from him because of Gryffindor
morality, then Draco would simply win him back once more. And after the way he
had been willing to curse his best friends, Draco no longer thought him as delicate
as he had once been.

�� I was
disappointed at the time,� he said quietly. �And I still am, I suppose. I
wanted to show that I had what it took to be taken seriously by the other Death
Eaters. Someone who couldn�t cast the Killing Curse mattered less than some of
the vampires the Dark Lord was recruiting as allies.�

�� I didn�t
cast the Killing Curse, either,� Harry said at once, his voice low but
comforting�all the more comforting because it was hard, factual, as though he
didn�t really care about Draco�s feelings. �Remember? I defeated the Dark Lord
with a simple spell that a second-year could have used. That a second-year did use, more than once,� he added, probably
thinking about the way he had used it.

�� But you
didn�t have to,� Draco said. �The Elder Wand�things worked out the way they did
in a strange fashion. Without that coincidence, you would have had to use it.�

�� I know,�
Harry said. �But I don�t spend a lot of time thinking about that, because
that�s not what happened.� His arms
tightened. �And you should know that the reason that situation occurred is
because of this night on the Tower. I said that much when I was dancing around
the Great Hall with Voldemort, remember? You made my victory possible.�

�� Warmth hit
Draco and spread all around the center of his chest like a breaking wave. He
reached up a hand that trembled and settled it on Harry�s arm. He had never
thought about it�he had never thought about it that way.

�� Even my thoughts are stuttering.

�� He had been
angry enough at himself over this night for the reasons he had stated to Harry,
but also because it had seemed such a waste.
What did he gain from confronting Dumbledore before the others arrived? Nothing, either the glory of the kill or credit for courage, not
when his arm had lowered.

�� But to know
that he had made Harry�s victory possible, that he had contributed to saving people, to doing something grand that
people still praised Harry for�

�� Draco bowed
his head and smiled slightly.

�� You have
my smile,� the teenager in front of him said.

�� Draco
blinked and looked up. Strangely, he had almost forgotten the boy over the last
few moments. He had been absorbed in hearing that he was important to Harry,
and from there, his mind had started to spread in other, new directions. Such
as that this new claim he had on Harry, this new importance he had registered
in Harry�s life, wasn�t so new after all, and he had the right to say that he
had always been there.

�� Their
connection ran deep, and Draco never needed to feel like an alien or an
intruder, the way that Weasley and Granger�s sometimes hostile gazes said they
considered him.

�� Is this what�s coming?� the boy Draco whispered, his gaze
locked on their joined hands. Draco imagined, with a sudden flash of empathy,
what he would have felt if someone had told him that Potter was willing to be
intimate with a different version of himself�just not Draco as he currently
was. �Really? Can you promise me that?�

�� I don�t
know,� Draco said gently. �I don�t know that your future is going to be the
same as mine.� He didn�t know if the boy was real, come to that, if he was back
in the past or only in the falsely constructed memory that Harry seemed to
think Dumbledore and Severus would have left as the bait for a trap. �But you
could make a future that�s even better, in your own way, if you just try.�

�� Harry
nodded encouragingly past his shoulder. �You have to be willing to try,� he
echoed.

�� Draco
arched his head back and kissed Harry. Those words had undone him. Harry had no
reason to remember this younger Draco fondly; the words he had spoken to
comfort and soothe Draco just now were the words to an acknowledged lover. They
didn�t know if this Draco was real. But
he had tried, anyway, with compassion that was one of the reasons Draco felt
bound to him.

�� In love with him?

�� Who knows, yet.

�� The Tower
appeared to pivot around them. Draco felt as though the stones were melting
beneath his feet and then reforming themselves in interlocked patterns. He
would have stumbled or at least sought support, but Harry was there, and he had
one hand locked into place beneath Draco�s hip and one arm around his
shoulders.

�� The night
tingled with a thousand stars. Draco opened his eyes and saw the teenage Draco
of the past lowering his wand, his face filled with uncertainty.

�� He also
caught a glimpse�though it didn�t matter as much to him as the former image did�of
Dumbledore staring at them with deep delight and satisfaction, nodding his head.

*

�� Harry gasped
and opened his eyes. They stood alone on the Tower now, the stars blazing
softly overhead, the memory faded like a dream. He looked cautiously around,
wondering if it was possible that there were two traps up here, and they would
have to face the second in a fight to the death at any moment.

�� But then he
thought of what might have happened to Draco if he wasn�t there, and accepted
that there was more than one way to fight to the death.

�� Draco let
the kiss go reluctantly, leaning heavily on Harry. His eyes were dark in the
way that Harry had only seen them in the bedroom so far, and when Draco reached
up and pushed shining fingers against his cheek, he gasped, half in shock. It
seemed that Draco was aflame with desire, right here, right now.

�� Thank you,�
Draco whispered.

�� Harry
nodded. �You�re�welcome,� he said, and hoped that he managed to say it without
his voice cracking. He had, right? He didn�t want to check to make sure. �And
now, don�t you think we should look for the riddle and the keyword?�

�� Only keyword, this time.� Draco�s fingers stroked his
chest, heading teasingly towards a nipple for a moment, and then pulling back. �This
is the last riddle.�

�� Harry
blinked. �Right,� he said. He had known that, too. God, he was out of it, and he didn�t know why. He
wasn�t the one who had had to face his past self or have a major revelation
about himself today. He pulled Draco upright and
looked around for another bubble containing a twist of parchment like the ones
that had held the riddles and keywords so far.

�� One moment
it wasn�t there, and then it was. The bubble appeared with a shimmer and a
gleam like that of soap bubbles, and Harry bent down to retrieve it. Draco�s
hand glanced over his arse on the way. Harry grunted, half in shock, and stood
up to glare at him.

�� Draco
shrugged back unapologetically. �You know what I want, Harry,� he said, and his
eyes shone like the bubble. �You�ll have to be a little louder about making
your own desires heard.�

�� Harry shook
his head and dragged him off the Astronomy
Tower. He had questions
to ask Dumbledore�s portrait, and a conversation to have with his best friends.
And he and Draco needed to decide how they would handle the Ministry�s demand
that would doubtless come for them to turn over the keywords to the wards.

�� And after
that�

�� He and
Draco would have to speak. Harry had no idea what he was feeling right now, no
idea if he would want to continue their relationship or not. Perhaps, yes, as
long as he could feel desire.

�� But Harry
knew how quickly desire could burn out. Every time he had had sex in the last
few years, he had felt free of it the moment he had come and his anger had
calmed down for the next few months.

�� Every time except for the
last time.

�� Harry
physically hunched to chase the thought away from him. He would get Draco to
the bottom of the stairs first, and
then he would worry about the other problems.

*

�� I told you
that it doesn�t matter,� Draco said patiently. He had to wonder at how thick
Harry could be. He had seemed smarter than this when they were up on the top of
the Tower.

�� Then he
remembered that this was the same man who had let the disapproval of his best
friends ruin his life for years, and snorted softly.
Yes, well, he could see traces of that man in the stubborn mask that faced him
now.

�� It�s��
Harry shook his head and stuck out his lower lip. Draco knew that he probably
only did it because he was thinking, but it made him want to bite Harry. That, and the memory of those words
Harry had spoken on the Tower, were enough to make him hard again. He
had to turn his attention to the wall and examine it attentively so he wouldn�t
embarrass himself. �Someone has to
notice what you�ve done to Covington,
Draco. Your potion may be undetectable, but she won�t act like herself.�

�� She will if I command her to cover up what happened and act as
though she�s normal, except for obeying my instructions,� Draco said. �Here,
her reputation as someone who keeps her goals silent and her methods
slippery�someone who was in Slytherin�will work against her. They might not
understand what she�s doing, but they�ll assume that she has a long-range goal
in mind that will benefit herself, no matter what it
is. Advocating that they open Hogwarts again and start to hand control over to
the school governors and the professors won�t be the strangest thing an
employee of the Ministry has done. In fact, I�m sure there are factions in the
Ministry who favor that and will support her.�

�� Harry gave
him a faint smile. �I reckon you�re right,� he said. �I never bothered to
understand politics much.�

�� You don�t
need to, now,� Draco said comfortably. �You have me.�

�� Harry
paused, his brow furrowing. Draco sighed in disgust. �Yes, you do. Unless
you�re going to let your friends� opinions influence you even now, and you�ll
shove me away so that you can embrace them.� He didn�t care about the jealousy
in his voice. That encounter on the Tower ought to have taught Harry that he
was important to Draco, which meant Draco didn�t have to expend as much effort
on hiding his emotions.

�� It�s
not�that,� Harry said. �Not exactly.�

�� I hope it
isn�t some renewal of the shame of being with me, either,� Draco said, as
quickly as he could.

�� No,� Harry
said. �But I have to wonder if you�ll want to be with me when we�ve fucked a
few more times.� His face turned red. �I can�t change that much, Draco. I don�t
have the sexual experience you do. When you realize that you can find someone
else who can match you, when you�ve had me a few times, will you really want to
stay with me? That�s the problem with a relationship based primarily on lust.�
He tried to laugh, but the laughter caught in his throat.

�� Draco
reached out and put a hand on Harry�s cheek, turning his head back and forth.
Harry fell silent but kept his obstinate eyes locked on Draco�s face. Draco
wondered for a moment what it would be like to live with such pessimism, hating
what you had to do to keep yourself under control and alive, and, when you did
finally find a solution to the problem, having to think that it wouldn�t last.

�� Draco had
gone through horrible things in his life, but he had been an optimist compared
to Harry. Amusing, when you considered their various
histories.

�� Or perhaps simply
understandable.

�� Listen to
me,� Draco murmured. �I will stay with you. We�ll work on your anger together.
We�ll discuss other means of relating than pure sex. I�m willing to believe
that it will be difficult, yes. But I am not willing to give up.�

�� Harry
jerked a little, as though he wanted to remove his face from Draco�s palm but
didn�t have the physical strength to do so. �I didn�t�I didn�t say I would,� he
muttered. He seemed interested in all these subtle distinctions, Draco thought.
He didn�t know why. As he saw it,
only one thing was of importance, the fact that Harry wanted to go away and
Draco didn�t want him to. �But I�ve started out with the best intentions in the
world sometimes, always thinking when I walked away from each new bed that I
wouldn�t need the fucking again, and something always proved me wrong.�

�� That was
your problem, then,� Draco said, his hand itching to slap Harry. He managed to
keep the urge down, but the temptation filled his lungs like heavy smoke. �You
thought this would end. You thought of the fucking as the means to an end and
no more. You didn�t want to build a real relationship.�

�� Harry�s
eyes fired, but still he didn�t move away. �You might be right,� he said. �But
it�s presumptuous and arrogant to think that you�re the one who will make me
different, isn�t it?�

�� Presumptuous
and arrogant is me,� Draco said, and
leaned forwards to capture Harry�s lips. Harry held stiff and stubborn against
him for a moment, and then leaned forwards with a little moan and kissed him
back.

�� Draco pulled
Harry closer still and whispered, �You can touch me, too. You don�t have to
wait for an engraved invitation.�

�� Harry
groaned hungrily and reached down to grip and stroke Draco�s cock. Draco rested
against the wall, shutting his eyes so that he could focus on the sensation
more strongly. Harry�s fingers were too quick and too rough and pulled in ways
that made Draco squirm and hiss in discomfort. But it hardly mattered when
Harry�s breath also rasped against his cheek, hushed and violent, and his eyes
were fixed on Draco�s face whenever Draco looked.

�� Draco came
in triumph, and kissed Harry again as Harry spelled his pants clean. Then Harry
muttered, �We just turned to sex again. We can�t use that to solve every argument.�

�� No,� Draco
agreed, fluttering his eyes reluctantly open. He would have liked to go to
sleep in Harry�s arms right there, but he knew that it wasn�t a good idea. �Just most of them.�

�� Draco��

�� Dropping to
one�s knees and taking Harry�s cock in one�s mouth was an excellent means of
shutting him up, as Draco discovered a moment later.

�� I know there are going to be problems, he
thought in the moments before he lost himself completely to the taste of slick,
salty skin. But unlike Harry, I refuse to
worry about them until they get here. That�s all.

*

�� Oh,
Harry.�

�� Harry
smiled uneasily. Hermione could sound like that for lots of reasons. She might
disapprove of the sex flush that Harry could still feel on his face. Or maybe
she knew what Draco had done to Covington
and disapproved of that. Or maybe she saw the determined set of his jaw and
feared what he would say.

�� All of those involve disapproval or fear, Harry
thought as he leaned down to kiss her cheek. Maybe that should tell me something.

�� He sat down
next to her and cast a glance at the bedroom door. Ron�s snores came from
behind it, familiar from their time in Hogwarts as children.

�� As children. I can�t go back there, not now that I�m an
adult.

�� How�s
Ron?� he asked.

�� He�s
fine,� Hermione said. �Only a bit tired from some of the potions that he had to
take. And if you had waited for him to be fully recovered, then we could have
joined you in finding the answer to the riddle.�

�� Yes, her
voice was as reproachful as her face. Harry shifted uneasily and wondered what
he could do or say to appease her. Then he shook his head. Why should he worry
about appeasing her? He had come here to say a certain thing, and he had
already known that Hermione wouldn�t take it well.

�� I don�t
think it�s going to work,� he said.

�� Hermione
frowned. �What? Finding the riddle? But I thought you already did, from that
look in your eyes.�

�� Harry
experienced a crawling sensation in his skin and shook his head again. Once, he
would have been happy that Hermione could read him so well, or at least
accepted it as a natural consequence of their friendship. Now, it bothered hm.
Why was that? Why should it trouble him that she had a friend�s privilege?

�� Listen,�
he said. �I�m not coming back to the wizarding world. I�m going back to the
edges when this is done, to resume my old job.�

�� Why?�
Hermione asked softly. �We could find you a place to live. We could find you
another job.� Her eyes were already bright with the planning for Harry�s
future. �And someone you could work with�I mean, if you wanted to�to�solve your
other problems.�

�� I know you
could,� Harry said, and tried to ignore the feeling that crept like a finger
down his skin. What he was doing would hurt Hermione and Ron, but he had to do this, in hope that it would
help them all later. �But, Hermione, I don�t want that. We can�t go back to
what we were as if this row had never happened. I want to give myself some time
to get used to not despising my own actions, and I need time and privacy away
from you.�

�� Hermione�s
mouth fell open. But she either hadn�t absorbed the implications of his words
fully, or had decided not to let him see her pain. She shook her head. �Harry,
I don�t know what you mean.�

�� Most of
this is my fault,� Harry said. He was willing to admit that. �I thought you
were partially right. I didn�t want help for my problems, but I did think they
were problems, even when I was indignantly telling you that they weren�t.� He
frowned at the floor. It was hard to say this, which was one reason he had come
to speak to his friends without Draco. Draco would want to speak for Harry, so that he could protect him,
and as nice as the impulse was, Harry couldn�t let him do that. �Then I tried
to repair our friendship too fast, by forgiving and forgetting everything. But
I haven�t. I still look at you, and remember what you said, and resent your
interference in my life. And I wanted�I wanted to demand other things from you
when we had that reconciliation conversation, and I didn�t. Even though I had
told Draco I would.�

�� He ordered
you to demand them, I reckon, and you didn�t.� Hermione�s voice was shrill, the
color in her cheeks high. Only someone who knew her�or had known her�as well as
Harry did would see the trembling tears behind her eyes. �Don�t you see that�s
a good thing, Harry? He shouldn�t be
able to control you like a slave.�

�� No,� Harry
said. �I wanted them, I thought of them on my own, and I didn�t say them. I was
worried about hurting you. But�to heal, Hermione, I have to stop worrying as
much about that. And then I can start worrying about it again. I was trying to
be friends with you, these last few days, on false terms. I was relieved when
you weren�t working with us. I was tense and anxious when you were.�

�� Hermione
stared openly at him now. �Harry,� she whispered. �Even Malfoy got along better with us than that.�

�� Harry
nodded. �But he didn�t have the history with you that I did,� he said. �The
close friendship, and then the splitting apart.
You�re�you�re all mixed and tangled up in my head with the parts of myself that
I despise, Hermione. I think I�m slowly getting over them, but it�ll take more
time and more work than I thought it would when I tried to charge back into
friendship with you. I want to go away.
The thought of talking with Ron fills me with dread. I�m fearful of the time
when you start interfering in my life again. I don�t trust that you won�t.�

�� You don�t
trust us, in other words.� Hermione�s fingers knotted together.

�� Harry shook
his head. �No. And you deserve to be trusted, at least
if you really are the kind of people I always thought you were when we were at
Hogwarts together.� He took a deep breath. He knew what he had to say, he
thought he did, but it didn�t excuse the way that Hermione seemed to flinch as
if from blows. �I really do want to trust you,� he whispered. �I promise. But it�ll
need more time. There was nothing,
for two whole years, except my brooding on the thought of how much I hated you.
And now�I want your friendship back again, but I can�t have it, not the way it
was. I�ll go away for a little while. I�ll owl you. I�ll visit once a month or
so, and then make it more often. But right now, with everything else I�m trying
to keep in mind and get used to and reconcile, I can�t do this, too.�

�� Hermione
gave a complicated mutter in which Harry could only pick out the word �weak.�

�� Yes, I
am,� Harry said, and smiled a little as she gave him a look of shocked
surprise. �I know. I wouldn�t have been able to admit that a while ago.
But�Hermione, I do think you�re right about some things. I don�t know why I�ve been so angry since the
war. I still don�t. I only know what soothes it, and that I think Draco can
help me permanently, when no one else has been able to.� He winced, paused to
shoulder the burden, and then pushed on. �Maybe you�re even right that the
abuse I endured, and the manipulation, had something to do with the way I
express my sexuality. But I can�t think about that right now. I�m too close to
it. I�ll have to go away, think, and approach it carefully. And I can�t give up
Draco. I can�t.� Harry thought he had done a good job, yesterday, of hiding how
much the idea of Draco leaving him dropped him into utter, cold desolation. But
he had believed that was what would happen. He had needed Draco�s denials
otherwise, but he hadn�t been fishing for them.

�� What
you�re telling me,� Hermione said, pausing several times along the way as if
she thought that Harry would speak up and contradict her, �is that it�s complex.�

�� Harry
smiled at her. Sometimes, after all, she did know the right words. �Yes.�

�� Hermione
took a deep breath. �I think that it would be better if you worked with
Mind-Healers,� she said. �You gave up on them too quickly, Harry, and you were
too convinced that you either had no problems or that you had to handle them on
your own. You can try again.�

�� Harry
listened to the echo of her words in his head, and then smiled in wonder. He no
longer felt the fear and resentment he would have a short time ago. He could
consider what she was saying more objectively.

�� Because he
knew he would be going away, and he no longer felt compelled to be her friend in the way he had a few days ago, when
he had thought he was going to repair everything, change everything, go back to
being exactly as he had been.

�� He wasn�t
their friend exactly as he had been. The relief he felt when he thought of
leaving them behind at Hogwarts, and the way he hadn�t missed them when he and
Draco went to the Astronomy
Tower, said that.

�� Maybe I
can consider that,� he said. �It�s something I wouldn�t have given much
consideration to before, just because it was your suggestion. But with some
time and distance, then it might sound better.�

�� Hermione
went very still. Harry wondered if his complaints and threats were finally
becoming real to her, now that he was speaking them in a calm, happy voice and
not begging to be brought back together with his friends.

�� This is
your dream, though,� she said. �Hogwarts is your home, Harry. You�ve told me
that more than once.�

�� I�ve had a
few years to find another home,� Harry said. �I wouldn�t call the house I have
now perfect, but I like what I do, and I�ll do it even better when I don�t have
anger preying on my mind most of the time. I�ll have Draco, and that changes a
lot of things. I can come back to Hogwarts for visits, but I don�t need it to
be my home anymore.�

�� I thought
you did,� Hermione said. �I thought you always would.� Harry discovered that it
was hard to make out emotions in her voice.

�� Harry
shrugged a bit. �Well, now I don�t. I hope that you and Ron stay here, though.
I think you�ll be great teachers, and someone will need to watch and make sure
that the Ministry doesn�t try to take over again, the way they�ve done in the
past. You and Ron are vigilant. You�ll think of some way around them if they
do.�

�� Mate? What�s going on?�

�� Harry
turned. Ron had opened his bedroom door and stood there on the threshold,
staring at Harry. He paused to wipe some sleep away from his eyes, then came
closer, his gaze fastened questioningly on Harry�s face.

�� I�m
leaving,� Harry said. �I hope to visit and to owl you,
and maybe you can come and visit me when you feel you�re ready. But I don�t
think I can stay here. I was trying to recover a fantasy of friendship. But
fantasies are easy to break, and not so easy to fulfill.�

�� Ron paused.
Harry wondered if he was injured; as with Hermione�s tone, Ron�s face was hard
to read. But then he shook his head and said, �I�m glad.�

�� Ron,� Hermione hissed urgently. She
seemed to think that Ron�s declaration would hurt Harry�s feelings.

�� Harry
smiled at his best friend, though�his first friend. He couldn�t forget that, no
matter how much solace he found with Draco. The problem was that it couldn�t
keep meaning exactly what it had to an eleven-year-old child, either, because
he was no longer that child. �What do you mean?�

�� We�re
adults now,� Ron said. �We�ve made lives here, and our peace with the Ministry,
but I don�t think you can.�

�� Harry shook
his head. �I don�t want to, anyway. Maybe I could, with a lot of time and
effort, but I�m not willing to invest that.� He hesitated, then
added, �I�m willing to put a lot of effort into building a new friendship with
you two, though. Just not in resurrecting the dying corpse of
the old one.�

�� Ron nodded.
�The dead should stay dead.� He crossed the room and clasped Harry�s hand.
Harry looked up fearlessly into his face. His dread of Hermione had melted
away, and he no longer felt the weary impatience that he had around Ron in the
last week, as though he was waiting for the next hurtful thing to emerge from
his mouth and could do nothing else around him. Now, he could see that Ron had
good qualities, was clever in his own way and protective of Hermione and
Hogwarts, was grounded in and committed to the wizarding traditions that Harry
had left behind. It was the life that Harry had once imagined he wanted.

�� But it
wasn�t his life now. It was best to leave and build the good parts of that life
into a new, stronger one when he could.

�� I can�t
say that I�m surprised, either,� Ron continued. �You know that we can�t accept
Malfoy, and you need him.�

�� Harry held
back the immediate response he wanted to make to that, and then finally said,
�I hope that you�ll be able to accept him someday. But it�s best if you have
the chance to get to know him through my owls and a few visits. We can�t expect
you to get over your animosity towards him at once, and I don�t expect him to
accept you just like that, either. It�s the reason that I didn�t let him come
with me,� he added, deciding that it would do them no harm to hear that. �I
knew that he wouldn�t be able to hold back on the insults, no matter how much
he might want to be mature.�

�� I don�t
think that desire is very strong,� Hermione muttered.

�� Ron was the
one who flashed her a chiding look and nodded to
Harry. �I can see that, mate. I can�t say that I understand your choice, and I
think you�re wrong about how soon we can accept him. But I don�t know that for
certain.�

�� Harry
nodded back and stood up. Nothing had to be certain yet, he reminded himself.
The future hadn�t arrived. Ron might be right, and Harry would have to keep his
friends and his lover apart. But nothing had been proven on that score. They�d had only a few days of close
association, and those were in circumstances so tense that Harry didn�t blame
Ron for being gloomy.

�� Thanks,�
he said quietly, shook Ron�s hand, and hugged Hermione. She hung on to him
tightly, and Harry thought she would have retained him if she could, but Ron�s
hand on her shoulder made her step back.

�� I just
hope this isn�t a mistake, Harry,� she said.

�� Harry gave
her a temperate smile in return and shut the door of their rooms behind him.

*

�� Draco
closed his eyes for a moment, and then smiled. He could feel the control that
the potion gave him over Covington as a tight, thrumming bond stretched between
the two of them, like a cord he could pull on to manipulate her limbs. He
turned his head up to face the ceiling and exhaled slowly, then nodded once and
sent forth the commands that made her stand up and turn around to face the
gathered professors of Hogwarts and the witnesses who had come from the
Ministry. The words that formed in her mouth and then spilled over her tongue
were of Draco�s making, and though some of the witnesses from the Ministry
exchanged uneasy glances and shifted as if they didn�t know what to make of
this, they didn�t surge forwards and start shouting about treachery.

�� That meant
they had won, Draco considered.

�� Hogwarts
was once the greatest school of magic in the world,� Covington said. �It has been closed for the
past six years as we sought to make it safer and redress some of the errors of
our predecessors.� Draco could feel her sweating. This was the part where she wanted to say something completely
different. Doubtless there would be a lot of that in the speech that was coming
up.

�� Draco
didn�t care. She had paid the price for attempting to hurt Harry. She ought to
have known what stupidity she was performing even as she inflicted it on
herself.

�� Dumbledore
was the greatest Headmaster Hogwarts has ever known,� Covington continued, �but he was not
perfect.� Draco had decided to go with that tactic in the end, as fun as it would
have been to make Covington
praise Dumbledore without reserve. Someone would have become suspicious if she
did, and Draco never intended to have his meddling discovered. �He would have
urged us to think carefully about our actions in the future, because there is
little else more damaging than damage to education and the future of our
world.�

�� The crowd
nodded. They were grouped around the lake in front of Hogwarts, and Covington was standing on
a boulder. She looked around as though she was concerned that not everyone
could hear her. Draco was the only one who could feel her shifting against the
bonds that tied her, seeking desperately for some way past them.

�� There was
no escape, and in the end, she fell back into despair and continued with the
patter that required nothing of her but her tongue and lips.

�� In the
future, we shall be more careful about what we teach our youngsters. Houses
will not be permitted to stay apart in isolation and prejudice. Professors will
bring them together and teach the ideals of the Founders�as well as the proper
historical context of those ideals. We can no more live by purely Gryffindor
rules than we can live by purely Slytherin ones, but all children should be
allowed to have pride in their Houses.�

�� More judicious nodding. Covington turned to face Hogwarts and drew
out the silver key to the Headmaster�s office that the keywords had released
from one version of the Room of Requirement, once Harry and Draco had spoken
all four together in front of the door on the seventh floor. The Sorting Hat
and the Sword of Gryffindor had been in the same room. Draco had been amused to
see the way Covington�s
eyes shone when she lifted them out. Even enslaved to Draco, it seemed that she
didn�t forget her love for luxuries and powerful artifacts.

�� We will go
forwards into a new future,� Covington
said. �With the Ministry working closely with the Headmaster and the school
governors, there is nothing we might not accomplish. And I am pleased to
announce that the first Headmistress of the school will be none other than the
candidate we are sure Headmaster Dumbledore had meant to announce, had he
lived: Minerva McGonagall.�

�� The
Ministry flunkies� mouths hung open. McGonagall herself looked shaky and pale
as she climbed up to receive the key from Covington.
But she had been the best choice, Harry and Draco had both agreed, and
Covington would be able to come up with the right lies to convince anyone who
was shocked of the validity of her choice�the popular perception of Dumbledore,
the need to acknowledge the continuity of his choices, and so on.

�� Congratulations,�
Covington said
with a stiff smile.

�� McGonagall
took the key and examined it for a few minutes. Then she visibly straightened
to take up her new burden. Draco shook his head. That was Gryffindors for you,
always thinking they had to do their duty no matter what. McGonagall could have
refused and gone on to a peaceful, quiet retirement, but neither Harry nor
Draco had ever really thought she would.

�� Better her than me,� Harry, standing beside Draco in the third
rank of watchers, muttered.

�� Draco
nudged him hard with one shoulder. �You would be a disastrous Headmaster,� he
whispered. �They�re supposed to last a few decades at least, and you would get
yourself killed flying around the Astronomy
Tower, or something
equally ridiculous.�

�� Or they�d
find me bound to a bed and fucked to death by an overeager Slytherin,� Harry
murmured back.

�� Draco
couldn�t help the way his hand shook for a moment on Harry�s back. And when had
his hand got there? He couldn�t remember reaching out. Harry only cocked his
head wisely and fastened his eyes on McGonagall again. She was making some
gracious speech now about how this honor was unexpected but she would do her
best to support the burden and do a good job. The people around them were
applauding politely, for the most part, but Draco could hear genuine enthusiasm
among them.

�� The
Ministry will support the new Headmistress,� Covington said, with the assurance of tone
that said she would personally take over that task.

�� Draco
chuckled. She struggled more fiercely than ever when he made her say that.
Harry winced beside him, and Draco glanced at him.

�� I just
wonder if it�s right,� Harry said, his eyes fastened on Covington. �To make her a
slave for the rest of her life.�

�� Draco shook
his head. �That�s what she would have done to you. Unless you think that she
would have had a qualm of conscience in a few years. But even then, would she
dare to release you? The first thing you would have done was turn on her. By
that point, your anger and your magic would have built up to the point where
they needed the release.�

�� Harry
grimaced, but not in a way that said he resented Draco�s presumption. �I know,�
he said. �I know that you can�t release her for the same reason.�

�� Draco
smiled, glad that Harry had seen the drift of his argument before he had to
make it. Harry wasn�t unintelligent. He simply didn�t allow himself to exercise
his intelligence much. Too much hanging back when he was young and trusting
Granger to come up with pronouncements and explanations, Draco thought.

�� Well, no
partner of his was going to do the same thing. So far, Draco had demanded at
least one exercise of Harry�s intelligence every day, and he intended to go on
doing the same thing for day after day.

�� Until Harry
left him, perhaps, or started realizing that Draco admired him for more than
his ability to gasp when fucked.

�� Yes,�
Draco said. �Perhaps it�s more than she deserves. Perhaps she would have done
something more than Obliviate you
afterwards, to keep herself safe, so that she could release you. But I don�t think so. I think that, once you
were leashed, the Ministry would have found you too convenient and supportive
to let go. They must have told you more than once that you would do them, and
the whole of the wizarding world, good if you just let yourself be chained.�

*

�� Harry
chuckled in spite of himself, and the discomfort
curling through his gut. Yes, they had told him that, and in almost the same words.
�Do you think they don�t have consciences, then?� Like you? he almost added, but he knew
that wasn�t the case. There were some things Draco wouldn�t do; he did have a
sense of right and wrong. But he saw no reason to leave an enemy alive at his back.

�� Draco
snorted. �I think they�re political. A political advantage like the
Boy-Who-Lived is too great to let go.�

�� But you
aren�t trying to use me that same way,� Harry said, with a ripple of
discomfort, but feeling at the same time that Draco had to have thought of this before Harry brought it up. �Why not?�

�� Draco
turned to face him, and seemed to dismiss Covington
from his mind, despite the fact that he must have told her what to say. His
hand curled around Harry�s wrist and dragged him closer. Harry flushed, with
more than embarrassment, but with embarrassment on top of that. He hated the
fact that a simple touch could excite him so much.

�� Because I
know that you wouldn�t stay with me if I tried to use you without your full
cooperation,� Draco whispered. �And I want you to stay with me more than I want
any petty political gain that I might win with your help.�

�� Harry
swallowed and nodded. It was an answer he understood, appreciated, even; the
difficulty was in believing that it was true. He had shoved away people before
Draco because he hadn�t wanted to go through the pain of finding out that it
wasn�t, as well as because he had been ashamed of what he was and what he
desired.

�� Draco ran a
tender hand down his cheek. �If you�re going to leave me,� he whispered, �I�d
hope that you�d tell me. Trust me that much. I would be angry, but I already
know that I couldn�t hold you back.�

�� Harry
raised his eyebrows. �Why?�

�� Your magic
is so much stronger than mine,� Draco responded, giving him a strange look, as
if he couldn�t believe that Harry didn�t know that.

�� Harry
smiled. In some ways, it was good to have a Slytherin lover, one who wasn�t shy
to acknowledge power imbalances.

�� Which is,
among other things, what makes it so wonderful to watch you crush the impulse
to conquer and yield to me instead,� Draco finished, with a self-satisfied
smile.

�� Harry
rolled his eyes. And then there�s this
side to having a Slytherin lover.

*

�� I didn�t
expect it to work out this way. My dear boy. I did
hope that you would find your way back to Hogwarts, but under rather different
circumstances.�

�� Harry drew
a deep breath as he faced Dumbledore�s portrait. Complicated emotions stirred
in his chest. He wanted to say that he understood Dumbledore�s concerns, but
despised them; he was beyond the simple boy who could be manipulated to find
his happiness and the greatest good. And then he wanted to turn his back and
walk away without another word. Hermione was right. Surely the old man�s manipulations
had contributed to at least some of his anger and his inability to fit in.

�� But the man
who had done all that to Harry was dead. Harry had come closer to him in the
memory trap that waited at the top of the Astronomy Tower
than he had in this portrait, who was only a fragment
and a lesser version, not the whole man repeated over again in miniature.
Dumbledore had been wise and brave and clever and foolish all together. This
portrait had little power to make himself as wonderful
and as terrible in the eyes of the living.

�� I came
back,� he said. �And I think that now I�ve come back once, I�ll visit more
often. It was this place of fear to me, and I didn�t think that I could do
anything to change what the Ministry would do. But now that I�ve been here once,
it will be easier to come back.�

�� Dumbledore
nodded and touched his beard as though he was thinking. �And�forgive me, my
boy, but I must ask this. Are you going to sacrifice your chances of a normal
life to a life with Mr. Malfoy?�

�� Harry gave
him a sweet smile. �I gave up all chance of a normal life long ago, sir. You
gave it up for me, when you put me with the Dursleys instead of letting a
wizard family raise me.�

�� Dumbledore
sighed. �I did think that I was doing the best thing, my boy. If you had been
raised in our world, you would have been a pampered prince. They might not have
meant to spoil you like that, but it would have happened. It is never a good
thing for a child when adults stand in awe of them.�

�� But that
happened anyway,� Harry answered
brutally. �They were either in awe of me, or they suspected me of being the
Heir of Slytherin or in league with Voldemort or evil in some other way. After
the myth of the Boy-Who-Lived got spread around, there was no other way for
them to react.� He paused, panting, and realized that Dumbledore was watching
him with sad eyes.

�� I would
have preferred being spoiled and insufferable to being abused,� Harry finished.

�� I did not
foresee that,� Dumbledore admitted sadly. �Please believe that I did not intend it, Harry.�

�� Harry shook
his head. �I know. You had only the best of intentions. But you kept on having
them even when circumstances should have pointed out to you that having them
wasn�t enough. That�s where I distrust you the most, sir. I know that your
original went on manipulating me even after he was dead. I don�t know that
you�ve ever admitted you were wrong.
All the things you�ve said to me since I came here don�t imply it.�

�� Dumbledore
was still. Harry watched leaves blowing through the enchanted window on the
opposite wall and waited until he spoke again.

�� It is very
hard to admit that your weaving of a young life has gone wrong,� Dumbledore
whispered. �Because of all the ruined chances, all the delicate things that you have ruined.
I am sorry, Harry. If I wanted you to have a normal life, I should have labored
harder to give you one.�

�� That was
more of a concession than Harry had expected. He turned back and nodded. �Yes,
you should have,� he said. �And you should have trusted less in the prophecy
and trusted me more, as well as taken
more of an active part in the fight against Voldemort. But I have my life now,
and I�m learning to be contented with it. If some things need to change, still,
I don�t need to be ashamed of everything in
it.�

�� Dumbledore
watched him with bright eyes. �I hope that you are right, my boy,� he said. �I
do sincerely hope that you are right.�

�� Harry
rolled his eyes at Dumbledore�s stubbornness and inability to actually listen to him, rather than raise doubts,
but he could let it go. �Good-bye, sir,� he said. �If and when I visit Ron and
Hermione, then I�ll come and visit you, too.�

�� I will
look forward to that, Harry.�

�� That was
the one thing he had said in the conversation that was likely to be one hundred
percent true, Harry thought, as he shut the door of the Headmaster�s office
behind him.

*

�� You are
making a mistake, Draco.�

�� Am I?�
Draco didn�t look up from packing his cauldron away, but in truth, he was more
curious than he would let Severus see. He had wondered when Severus would try
to discourage him from continuing to associate with Harry. Now and then over
the past few days, Severus had mentioned fleeting hints of Harry�s good
qualities, such as his ability to challenge Draco, but Draco had had no doubt
that Severus still disapproved of Draco�s choice in partners on the whole.

�� Yes.�
Severus leaned forwards against his portrait frame, eyes narrowed. �I have
learned some more about the requirements of a relationship like the one you are
embarking on with Potter. You are temperamentally unsuited to it. Either you
would demand too much of him and make him resent your power instead of trust
you, or you would be unable to be as firm as he needs and let him get away with
too much.�

�� Draco
laughed aloud. �Severus, you do realize that you sound as if you�re talking
about a pet, rather than a human being who has the ability to tell me if I do something he doesn�t
like?�

�� Does
Potter have that much wit?� Severus sneered. �I honestly hadn�t noticed.�

�� Draco shook
his head. �And this is yet another way in which you�re less than your original
was. He would have given little credit to Potter for intelligence, but he still
relied on it, enough that he trusted him to save the world when he was younger
and less rational than he is now. You, on the other hand, act as though any
relationship we have is foredoomed to disaster just because you hate Potter.�

�� Silence,
and then, �You are like me,� Severus said, intensely. �You are more like me
than you think.�

�� There was
a time when I would have taken that as the greatest of compliments,� Draco said
lightly, and laid a stirring stick in the proper slim slot in his packing case.
He could have packed by means of a spell, but he was determined to indulge in
this last conversation with Severus. �Now I know that you mean I�m doomed to
lose the first person I�m truly interested in because that is what happened to
you, and I refuse the comparison.�

�� Severus
caught his breath in what sounded like pain. Draco watched in curiosity. How
much did portraits feel? He had never settled that question to his
satisfaction. He especially didn�t know if this portrait could feel deep emotions,
since he had acknowledged that it was a highly imperfect copy of the Severus he
had known.

�� I am not
my original,� Severus said, after several moments of tense, painful silence�or
at least they seemed painful to him. Draco felt much less than he would have
expected. �I have seen things that he did not, including your strange
fascination with Mr. Potter.�

�� And you
knew some things that he knew,� Draco said. �Did you remember him changing the
last riddle so that it referred to the Astronomy Tower
and the memory trap that I went through there?�

�� Severus�s
eyes flickered in the way Draco had once known would be followed by calm, cold
chastisement. Then he said, �Yes, I did.�

�� Draco
nodded. �That was the hardest of the traps to go through for me, the one I
might not have survived if Harry wasn�t there. He repaid me for being there
with him in the Forbidden
Forest when the centaur�s
arrow struck him. I won�t give him up now. If you�d like to blame someone for
my stubborn clinging to him, you might blame yourself.�

�� The
portrait Severus turned and strode away, beyond the edge of the frame. Draco
waited for a few minutes, but he didn�t reappear. Draco shrugged and returned
to packing.

�� He felt
satisfied, despite the exasperation that the past week and more had given him,
despite the uncertainty in the future of his relationship with Potter lasting,
and despite the fact that he had to control Covington from a distance. He
didn�t mind the power that Covington
granted him. And he could allow her a little freedom in certain actions, as
long as he always kept the prohibition in place that she couldn�t speak or
write or gesture to anyone about his control over her.

�� I�ll have to strengthen the prohibition
against allowing anyone to read her mind, he reminded himself.

�� Coming back
to Hogwarts had been less stressful than he once would have said it was. He had
even managed to work with the Weasel and the Mudblood successfully. And Severus
was not the man he had remembered in portrait form, overwhelming and
stressful�disturbingly like an idol to him, as Draco saw now. He didn�t know
everything. The man who had was dead, or, more likely,
the product of a fevered adolescent�s mind and a few nights on the run.

�� And Harry�

�� Draco
smiled a little as he shut the lid of his trunk. Yes, his relationship with
Harry was uncertain, but he no longer wanted to live in a world studded only
with diamond-edged truths and nothing else. Fucking someone was like brewing an
experimental potion. If he could live with uncertainty and risks in the one, he
could surely live with it in the other.

�� Draco?�

�� Harry stood
in the doorway of Severus�s rooms, waiting for him with folded arms and a
raised eyebrow. Draco walked over and kissed him. He made the kiss forceful on
purpose, and Harry grunted and then leaned into him, nearly bowling him over.

�� Satisfied
that Harry had once again been reminded that Draco wouldn�t leave, Draco
stepped away. �You�re ready?� he asked.

�� Harry
nodded. �I�ve packed everything up. Who knows when my owl will follow me home,
but I�m not worried about her.�

�� His eyes
were fixed on Draco, clearly saying what he was
worried about. Draco took his hand and turned it over, spreading the
fingers. Harry watched him, brow furrowed in a way that said he wondered what
Draco was doing.

�� I trust
your hand to drag me out of danger, the way you did with the memory trap,�
Draco said.

�� Harry
flushed. �That was nothing,� he muttered. �You would have overcome it on your
own if I hadn�t been there.�

�� Draco shook
his head and kissed Harry�s palm. �And I also trust your hand to be bound and
strapped to my headboard,� he said. �Do you understand?�

�� Harry
licked his lips and nodded. �It�s something I never thought I would have,� he
said.

�� But you
have it now,� Draco said in that tone of cool command Harry liked. �Stop
doubting me.�

�� Harry gave
him a cocky grin and leaned in to kiss him back, using more than a hint of
teeth. Draco shivered with delight. While he wanted Harry to understand all the terms of their relationship, it
would have been no fun without the challenge.

�� Come on,
then,� Harry muttered. �I�m more than ready to go.�

�� And they
left the castle, climbing up the stairs from the dungeons slowly. Draco could
still feel his past self climbing along with him if he thought about it, a
terrified teenager who sometimes looked at Harry Potter and envied him, and
sometimes, more terribly, wanted him for himself.

��

Now
I have him, Draco thought, listening to the man breathing beside him.

On the whole�and he thought the
same could be said of Harry�he preferred his future to his past.

The End.

*

Review responses for this chapter
can be found at http://lomonaaerenrr.livejournal.com/4858.html
- 7
- 8
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Chosen Chains