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Nova Cupiditas	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 37321 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and I am not making any money from this story.

Chapter List
- 7
- 8
- 9
Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter
Eight�Numberless Problems

�� Potter.�

�� Draco.�

�� Harry
regretted the curt tone in his own voice. Then again, sympathy and warmth would
have its own problems, considering the curse Draco was under. He kept his
attention on the porridge that he was preparing, but he was also aware of the
steps that indicated Draco was coming further into the kitchen and then
stopping. He sounded tense and unsure from his steps, uncertain of his welcome.

�� That�s probably as it should be, Harry
thought, and kept his wand ready to raise a barrier spell if he needed to do
it. His voice was calm and regular, though, because he had thought of a subject
he could talk about and Draco would probably be glad to listen to. �Two-part
spells are something of a specialty of mine. I wondered why I needed only one
spell to see them but more than one spell to pull them apart or work variations
on them.�

�� Did you.�
Draco�s voice was flat and unencouraging.

�� Harry still
didn�t turn to face him, checking instead that the porridge wasn�t burning and
then casting a simple Summoning Charm on the milk so that it wouldn�t fly over
to him spraying liquid everywhere. �Yes. And since I�ve seen that the curse is
a two-part spell now, I know that I�ll need to develop several spells instead
of only one to cast on it. It�s good to know that the solution is complex. It
keeps us from seeing simple ones in every shadow.�

�� Draco
grunted. He seemed disposed to be uncommunicative. Well, Harry couldn�t really
blame him. He poured a glass of milk for his own, braced himself, and turned
around. �Did you want milk, or something else?� he asked.

�� Draco
looked terrible. His face was thinner than it had been yesterday, Harry was
certain, and paler. His hair spread out over his shoulders with the color and
consistency of a spiderweb. He was swaying, one hand poised as though he would
have to reach out and clutch at the wall for support any second. Harry
swallowed his distressed cry and kept his gaze steady, almost unseeing. He
thought Draco would prefer that to an acknowledgement of his weakness.

�� Pumpkin
juice,� Draco said. �If it must be any liquid other than saliva from your
mouth.�

�� His face
altered suddenly, the weakness burning away as though it had been only a mask,
or a mist. Harry saw the terrible hunger there, and was doubly impressed that
Draco had managed to stay in his bed during the night instead of seeking Harry
out. Of course, with some of the wards Harry had raised, it was possible Draco
had pounded against them and he hadn�t noticed. He swallowed queasiness and
shook his head.

�� I would,�
he said. �If there weren�t strong ethical objections against it, and if nor for
the nature of the curse, then I wouldn�t hesitate.�

�� Draco
rolled his eyes. Harry was pleased to see that his brain seemed to be able to
respond to jokes and make them. It concealed the hunger in his expression.
�Which is just the same as saying you can�t do it at all.�

�� Harry
nodded. �I won�t be a rapist any more than I�ll let them make you into one. And
you would recover from the curse�recover your mind and rationality�for a short
time after you came, but you would feel more disgusted with yourself than
anything. I won�t let that happen, either.�

�� You a rapist.� Draco moved restlessly
against the counter. �If I give you permission to touch me? Any disgust I have
to face afterwards will be better than the burn I�m feeling right now.�

�� Harry shook
his head. He had envisioned this argument, luckily�among the few consequences
of the curse that he had done his best to foresee�and he knew exactly what to
say. �You�re only giving me permission because you�re actually under the curse
right now. You never would if you were in your right mind.� He paused, because
Draco�s eyes, turned to him, were tormented, and added gently, �I know it�s
hard, but it�s for the best, really. This is only another way that they tried
to humiliate you�make you beg for sex from someone with dirty blood.�

�� Draco�s
eyes fired. �I told you not to refer to yourself that way.�

�� Yes, you
did,� Harry said. �Because you�re under the curse.�

�� Draco
turned away, head lowered, licking his lips. �It�s so hard,� he finally
murmured, �to know what�s me and what�s the magic.�

�� I know,�
Harry said, and poured pumpkin juice for him. �We should go back to the Manor
today. You never did fetch clothes for yourself, and you�ll probably feel
better, visiting your parents in a room away from me. And there are books in
the library that I think I could use.�

�� Draco
raised a hand, and then let it fall again. Harry wasn�t sure if it was a
gesture of protest or not. He didn�t intend to find out. He turned back to his
own breakfast and moved out of the way so that Draco could reach his porridge
and juice.

�� Draco
passed closer to him than he needed to so that he could reach the food. Harry
ignored that. He knew that Draco couldn�t help it.

�� He also
knew that Draco would feel better, would feel normal, if Harry wanked him. But that didn�t matter, because of how
badly he would feel after it. Harry had to keep the real Draco, the Draco who
was humiliated yesterday after Harry restored him to himself, in mind. He
couldn�t think of this Draco as the real one, any more than he could think of
Draco as sick forever if this had been a disease.

�� Are you all
right?�

�� Harry was
surprised enough by the question to blink and glance over, although he
half-suspected Draco had only asked it to make Harry look at him. Draco�s eyes
were overly bright, his hands clenched on the edge of the counter. �What do you
mean?�

�� That spell
Weasley cast.� Draco shook his head. �I can�t believe that I only thought of
that now. What effect did it have on you? Are you all right?�

�� Yes,�
Harry said, smiling at Draco in spite of himself. Draco�s concern for him
was�well, touching. Sweet. He could almost forget that it was the result of a
spell, although not for long. �It was a spell that was meant to make the mind
spin and get distracted, instead of focusing on the things around you. But I
had a strong reason to pay attention to the present. So it made my heart speed
up as the conflicting impulses fought in my brain and my body.� He shrugged and
took a spoonful of porridge. �So, ultimately, it didn�t work.�

�� I never
thought to hear you say sentences like that,� Draco said, and turned to his own
breakfast.

�� Harry
nodded. �Keep thinking like that. We can get you back to normal more easily if
you focus more on the things that separate me from you, I think, and make you
remember that you once hated me.�

*

�� But I don�t want to focus on those things.

�� The thought
returned forcibly to Draco as he watched Potter bending over the books in his
library that afternoon, after Draco had arranged with the house-elves for his
clothes to be taken to Potter�s home. He watched Potter�s hair rustling against
his cheek and felt abstract desire; the burn in his chest was so familiar by
now that he could almost forget about it.

�� But he also
remembered the way it had felt to think of this man as Harry, and it was the ease of that moment he hungered for more than
the taste of Potter�s flesh.

�� Draco took
a deep breath and closed his eyes. Relief waited only a few fingerspans� length
away. He had kept himself from intruding into Potter�s bedroom at night�well,
yes, he had gone once, but the wards had stopped him. He�d had to watch Potter
sleeping and think in vain of all the more interesting things they could be
doing instead.

�� But if
Potter would cooperate with him, then neither of them would be a rapist. Potter
wouldn�t be unwilling, and Draco discarded out of hand the argument that Potter
could really force him against his
will, when everything in him craved the movement of Potter�s legs opening to
him, the moment of his head falling back against his pillow.

Potter made a soft sound. Draco
started to his feet, and then realized that it was the sort of noise someone
would make when interested by research, rather than a sexual one. He slumped
back again and closed his eyes, his breath shaky with frustrated longing.

Potter turned his head, and Draco
felt pierced by those green eyes. His cock stirred. He stared at the smooth
skin on Potter�s face and hands, the pale color of his lips, so much that he
nearly missed the words Potter spoke. �Draco, why don�t you go find your
mother? I think that would do you the most good right now.�

�I�m not a child, to be spoken to
like that,� Draco snarled. He could feel the jealousy surging to life in his
chest, a warmer whirlwind than it had been, and it made him wonder what Potter
wanted him out of the room for. Did he intend to use a house-elf to send a
message to the She-Weasel? Draco had told the elves that they were to hold
themselves ready at Potter�s orders, but he would revoke that before he would
allow communication with a rival.

Potter sighed and massaged his scar
as if Draco made his head ache. Draco could feel his defensiveness rising to
the surface and swallowed hard, trying to keep it down.

�� Sorry,�
Potter said. �But I think it would do you good to talk with her. You can�t help
me here, and you�re getting more and more agitated.�

�� Because
you won�t let me have you,� Draco said. He thought Potter was being rather
thick-headed for such a brilliant research wizard if he didn�t know why Draco
was anxious. �For no other reason.�

�� Well, it�s
disturbing me, and I have to work,� Potter said, turning back to the book on
the table. �Will you leave?�

�� Draco
snapped his head down and stomped away, caught between a weirdly conflicting
set of feelings: respect for Potter, that he had shoved Draco away rather than
giving in to Gryffindor niceness and keeping him around when he couldn�t help;
resentment that Potter thought Draco couldn�t stay near him and control
himself; and raging desire to see what would happen if he leaned forwards and
took those pale lips with his own.

�� So far, I�ve done better at controlling
myself today than I did yesterday, Draco thought, wandering through the
corridors that led past spectacular views of the gardens and rooms where he
could sit and doze in the sunlight. Neither of those was what he wanted,
though. The gardens would only have been tolerable if he could have shown them
to Potter and then fucked him on a flowerbed in front of the staring peacocks,
and Draco was quite warm enough already. That�s
unusual, when the curse is one day further advanced than normal.

�� He turned a
corner, and ran straight into his father.

�� Draco
stopped at once, and they stood there staring awkwardly at each other. Lucius
leaned on his cane now, the way he had since he came back from Azkaban. Since
he showed so few physical changes otherwise, Draco wasn�t sure if that was an
affectation or not. Perhaps not, because he did move more slowly.

�� But
mentally, he had changed. He had given up all hopes for himself and pinned them
all on Draco. Draco had to smile bitterly when he considered whether the
Mudblood fanatics who had done this to him could have known that. They were
taking away two lives at once by casting the curse on Draco, a revenge they
wouldn�t have had if they had used it on Lucius.

�� Draco.�
Lucius�s voice was very still. �Your mother told me everything.�

�� About the
curse?� Draco asked. He could keep his voice still himself. He watched a shaft
of sunlight coming in through a nearby window and thought for a few moments.
�And that Potter�s helping me?�

�� Yes.� From
the corner of his eye, although he was mostly focused on the sunlight, Draco
saw Lucius�s hands tighten on the cane. �Son�are you sure that he can help you? Do you think he might be
in with those Mudblood freaks who did this to you? He appeared on the scene
awfully conveniently, from what your mother says.�

�� Draco
turned around, snarling despite himself. �Don�t say that about him.�

�� Lucius
acquired an extra layer of polish and poise, staring at Draco. Draco tried to
slow his breathing down, and discovered it was hopeless. He settled for ramping
his glare up another notch, instead.

�� Ah.�
Lucius bent forwards, over the cane, and studied the floor for a moment. Then
he looked up with intense eyes. �You are under the curse,� he said. �But I did
not know it would affect you this deeply. I thought that it might leave you the
pride due to your blood.�

�� That pride,� Draco said, feeling as though
someone was prying out the words from deep inside him, �would leave me
separated from Harry. That is not something I ever wish to happen. I want to be with him.�

�� Because of
the curse,� Lucius said. For some reason, the further Draco went into the magic
that he knew was overspreading his mind�but was hard to resist, because it felt
so much like his own thoughts�the more relaxed his father seemed to become. �I
know that you felt differently about him once.�

�� Very
differently,� Draco said. It was no hardship for him to acknowledge that. �But
I want to fuck him now.�

�� His father
winced, but Draco thought it was mostly at the crudity of his language rather
than the sentiment expressed. �Very well,� he said. �Then you must continue to
exist under the curse until Potter finds the cure that does not exist.� He grimaced delicately.

�� He�ll find
it,� Draco said. �You don�t know him as I do. You don�t understand what he�s
like or how intelligent he is.� He found his mouth watering as he thought of
exhibiting Harry�s intelligence in front of his father. Perhaps then Lucius
would bow his head and accept the inevitable, that he had a Potter for a
son-in-law.

�� Lucius
watched him with half-lidded eyes. �The curse mimics a certain degree of
insight,� he murmured. �I had not realized that. It persuades you that some things are true, or that they feel true, and
you cannot distinguish between your thoughts and the thoughts of the magic.�

�� I know
that I need Harry, no matter what the reason,� Draco said. �And I know that
he�s far more intelligent than I supposed, far more beautiful, far more
compassionate. Don�t try to take him
for yourself,� he added sharply, suddenly thinking of one reason that his
father might be asking all these questions about Harry.

�� Lucius
laughed and shuddered at the same time. �If you could see into my mind at the
moment, you would know how much desire I have to stay with your mother and see
you, my son and heir, far away from him as well.�

�� Draco
scowled at him, simultaneously satisfied and angry. �Leave me with him,� he
warned.

�� You won�t
find the cure,� Lucius said. �He won�t find the cure. They used this because
there is no cure and they knew it.� For a moment, he leaned more heavily on the
cane and shut his eyes. Draco didn�t understand why his face aged like that.
Harry would find the cure, after all, in spite of his father�s doubts, and then
Harry wouldn�t be held back by these stupid morals of his from shagging Draco.
�And if you were in your right mind, son, then you would thank me for what I�m
about to do.�

�� About to do? Draco looked down and saw
his father�s wand pointed at him.

�� Stupefy,� murmured Lucius, and Draco
found himself sliding down and down into darkness, reaching out and clutching
without the ability to stop his fall, his heart rebounding against his ribcage
with anxiety about what would happen next. It was for Harry and not himself
that he was concerned.

�� Even on the
edge of darkness, he had enough perception to note that that was really an
unusual, unfamiliar situation.

*

�� Mr.
Potter.�

�� Harry
marked the passage in the book he was reading with one finger and looked up,
eyebrow cocked. �Mr. Malfoy,� he said. He hadn�t thought Lucius would come near
him, or Narcissa either. No matter what they owed him for having spoken up at
their trial, or because he was working on finding a cure for Draco, they
wouldn�t want to see the man whom Draco had become a slavering lunatic for.
�Yes?�

�� Nova Cupiditas has no cure,� Lucius
said. His voice was almost gentle. �You would know that if you had spent your
time in true research rather than chasing wild dreams.�

�� I believe
that it does, and I can find it,� Harry said, his fingers tightening for a
moment on the book. But he wasn�t going to allow Lucius to irritate him. Draco
needed his parents� support as much as he needed Harry�s help. �I�ve already
discovered that it�s a two-part spell, made of lust and jealousy linked
together, and I�m researching cures for similar curses, to see if there�s
something there that can help us.�

�� Lucius�s
eyes narrowed. �I have studied the spell intimately in the last day, and I have
run across no mention of such a thing.�

�� My field
is seeing the magical signatures of spells,� Harry said. �I don�t think anyone
else has ever viewed Nova Cupiditas the
way I�ve viewed it.� He gave Lucius a sharp smile and bowed his head over the
book again.

�� Lucius was
still for a few minutes, and Harry hoped he had given him something to think
about. But if he had, it apparently wasn�t enough to persuade Lucius to
actually leave the room, because he leaned over the table and stared Harry in
the eye. Harry looked back, counting numbers to himself to slow his heartbeat
and his breathing.

�� My son is
the most precious being on earth to me,� Lucius said.

�� What about your wife? Harry wondered,
but it was hardly up to him to arbitrate Malfoy affairs of the heart. �I can
see why,� he said instead, and remained still, not flinching, even though
Lucius seemed to expect him to.

�� I would do
anything to protect him,� Lucius went on. �I would do anything to set him free
from the curse. He is the only Malfoy left, now, the only one of us with
anything like a future. I will not see his future stolen from him.�

�� The best
thing you could do right now,� Harry said, �is to find out who the fanatics
might be, and to keep them from stealing anyone else�s future in turn.�

�� I don�t
care about them,� Lucius said. �Only him. And it scores my soul to see him
caring about you, rather than his
family and the future of his line.�

�� Harry felt
his eyes soften. This was a goal that he thought they could agree on. �Yes, I
know,� he said. �It�s not befitting�the person he is.� He had thought to say
that it wasn�t befitting a Malfoy, but then Lucius would probably snap that he
knew nothing at all about being a Malfoy, and Harry wasn�t eager to get into
that row. �When I heal him, then I fully expect him to go back to thinking I�m
a lousy half-blood he would rather not owe anything to and avoiding my
presence. I�m not after staying with him permanently,� he added, wondering if
that was what Lucius was worried about.

�� Lucius gave
him a sharp smile, all teeth. �No, you won�t be,� he said, and drew his wand.

�� Harry�s
hands quivered, but he kept them in place, still thinking of Draco. He had to reduce this to a misunderstanding
if he could. Draco needed all of them, not the one survivor of a duel between
him and Lucius. �I�m not going to suddenly change my mind halfway through the
process and let Draco dirty himself by shagging me,� he said, keeping his voice
low. �That would make me a rapist, as much as it would make him one if he forced
himself past my defenses and took me.�

�� I lied,�
Lucius said. �There is one cure to Nova
Cupiditas. I told you that I had learned quite a bit about it in the last
day.� He leaned forwards across the table, wand coming closer to Harry�s
throat. �One might say the curse has a victim and an object. The victim, in
this case, is my son. The object is you. One can counter the curse by the
sudden removal of the object.�

�� Harry was
smarter than he had been in school, more adult and thoughtful. He knew what Lucius
meant, and he probably wouldn�t have if Lucius hadn�t babbled on about it
beforehand. But that, and the wand, had warned Harry. He flung himself out of
the chair and onto the floor just as Lucius said, almost lovingly, almost the
way that he would say it to a real potential son-in-law, �Avada Kedavra.�

�� The green
light went overhead. Harry rolled beneath the table and cast a charm that would
make it rise up and smack Lucius in the face. He still didn�t want to hurt him,
but he also wasn�t keen on seeing if the strange protection that had let him
survive the Killing Curse twice was going to do it a third time.

�� Lucius let
out a heavy noise as the table struck him. That might have been pain or only
frustration; Harry didn�t intend to wait around and find out. He was on his
feet in seconds, sprinting for the door out of the library.

�� Colloportus,� said Lucius, and the door
slammed shut and locked.

�� Harry
changed the direction of his movement in a smooth instant, springing up and
backwards so that he landed on another table not far from the door. He whirled
around, half-crouched, ready to leap. Lucius was lying on the floor, but he
showed no inclination to rise to his feet, perhaps because a huge, ugly bruise
had spread across his jaw, and his head might still be ringing. His wand
tracked Harry with leisurely grace.

�� Your son,�
Harry began, and then shook his head. It was no good saying that Draco wouldn�t
thank Lucius for killing Harry. Of course he would. The minute Harry�s death
occurred, if Lucius was right, the curse would end, and Draco would be free of
all the unnatural feelings that the magic had engendered. He would probably
regret dealing with the mess that Harry�s murder had caused, but he wouldn�t
regret that Harry was dead as an individual.

�� That
insight made Harry wince, a bit. He would have wished there was some way he
could remain close to Draco, but of course, the Draco he was laboring to
restore would find the memories intolerable and move away.

�� As if I need a reward, Harry thought,
and then Lucius laughed and reclaimed his attention.

�� I�ll go to
prison for killing you,� Lucius said. �I know that. But it doesn�t matter. My
son will remain alive, and free.�

�� Holy shit, Harry thought, staring into
those grey eyes, sleek as hematite. He
means it.

�� That meant
Harry couldn�t stay here. He whirled around and cast a Blasting Curse on the
door that slammed the wooden slab out of place and made it fly down the
corridor. Then he tucked himself up tight to avoid a second Killing Curse,
leaped, landed on the floor, rolled between the gaping hinges where the door
had been, and started running as hard as he could in a crouch down the
corridor.

�� Lucius made
a noise behind him like a hunting hound. Harry lifted his wand and started to
cry out, �Point Me Draco��

�� But no,
that was no good. Lucius must have done something to Draco to keep him out of
the way, or Draco would have been here before now, challenging his father in an
effort to protect Harry. Going to him could mean that he would get hurt from
Lucius�s madness.

�� There�s only one person in the house who can
actually interfere, Harry thought, since
the house-elves will be on Lucius�s side, and I can�t just run off and leave
Draco God knows where and Lucius intent on killing me.

�� Point Me Narcissa Malfoy,� he
gasped, and his wand spun and dragged him to the nearest stairs. Harry pounded
towards them.

�� A sixth
sense, or the Auror instincts, caught up to him and made him kink his body
sideways, just in time, past a curse that boiled
the wood where it struck. Harry swore and took the stairs two at a time.

*

�� SP777: No,
I merely decided they sounded rather silly. ;)

�� This idea
has been in my head for a long time, and I decided that I would rather like a
story about a violently jealous and possessive Draco at the moment.

�� All my
horror ideas are longer than one-shots.

�� W�lkchen:
Harry isn�t very worried about Draco going to jail. He can explain matters to
Ron and keep him from reporting Draco to the Aurors, or so he hopes.

�� And thanks
for reviewing.

�� fudge:
Thank you!

�� mrequecky:
Thank you!

�� chortling
away: Thank you! I don�t know if the jokes will be frequent, considering this
is a deliberately dark story, but it�s good to know that you appreciate them.

�� Harry doesn�t
intend to sacrifice anything. Or rather, he does think that he has to make some
sacrifices for Draco, but they involve putting off what seems an immediate solution
to the problem in favor of a long-term one.

�� Harry doesn�t
know the details of the curse�s parts yet, so I�m afraid I can�t reveal them.

�� And here�s
the update!
- 7
- 8
- 9
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Nova Cupiditas