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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
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Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Nine�Time and
Time�s Ending

�� It would
benefit you to give in to me and save yourself this useless flight.�

�� Lucius said
that from behind him just as Harry reached the first wide turn in the stairs.
Harry only had a second to judge from his voice where he was before a curse came flying between the bars of the banister and tried to
cut him in half. Harry splayed himself sideways across some stairs and avoided
it.

�� The
banister on the other side didn�t. It cracked and hissed, and then flames
sprang to life. House-elves squeaked as they appeared around it, occupied with
dousing the fire. Harry flinched, but they didn�t seem to spare any attention
for him. Lucius probably could have commanded them to hurt him easily, Harry
thought, and sprinted on up the steps, away from them.

�� Why did the
Malfoys and other pure-blood families have to have these grand staircases that
curved and turned several times before reaching the next floor? Harry was out
of breath by the time he finally sprang off the last step and arrived in a wide
corridor with a door open at the far end. Of course, being a research wizard
didn�t lend itself to as much exercise in the healthy fresh air as being an
Auror or a Quidditch player would have, and most of Harry�s exercise in the
last few days came from avoiding rape or murder.

�� From behind
the door came a woman�s voice singing accompaniment to the notes of a piano.
Harry paused for a moment, leaning against the nearest wall, and stifled the
temptation to laugh. This song and his desperate flight from Lucius didn�t even
seem to be part of the same world.

�� But a curse
made the large rug at the top of the stairs fold itself up and shrivel away to
nothing, and started Harry�s run again. He burst into Narcissa Malfoy�s private
music room at the same moment as she hit a high note, on both instrument and
voice, and the world around him vibrated like crystal about to break.

�� Harry
barely had time to see one glimpse of a startled Narcissa swinging around to
stare at him, and to note the brightness of the walls and the fresh, pale wood
of the stool on which she sat. Even the piano was white instead of black, and
the sunlight pouring through the windows made him blink.

�� Mr.
Potter.� Narcissa�s voice was not welcoming. She sat upright on the stool as
she though she was a queen brought to judge a recalcitrant criminal. �What is
the meaning of this?�

�� Your
husband is trying to kill me because he thinks that will release the curse on
Draco,� Harry said. �He says that he�s willing to go to Azkaban for my murder
if it will keep Draco safe. You have to stop him. Can you stop him? Will you?�

�� The speech
sounded better in his memory later than it did at the time he gave it. His
voice stuttered and rustled, and he had to stop to gasp in between several of
the words. Narcissa�s face reflected, he thought, more distaste for the manner
of his delivery than for what he had to say. Indeed, she was watching the sweat
on her carpet from his hair and the bottom of his shirt long before she seemed
to register what he was saying.

�� Then Lucius
called his name cheerfully from the corridor, and Narcissa rose to her feet
with a small shake of her head. �This cannot be permitted to go on,� she said.
�I said that Draco should die with dignity. His father is trying to take that
choice from him.� She gave Harry an oblique look. �And so are you, but in a
less noisy manner, since you will inevitably fail.�

�� Harry
swallowed. It was an odd reason to feel grateful for her help, but it seemed
that she did mean to help him.

�� Narcissa
closed the door of her music room and twitched her fingers on her wand. A
powerful ward sprang up, though Harry could only feel it through a sudden
silence and pressure on his ears rather than see it. He shivered. He knew how
strong such a spell could be. He had to wonder what kinds of things Narcissa
had done in this room that required everyone below to remain ignorant of them.

�� Draco�s
mother turned to look at him. Harry sought, but didn�t find, a trace of the
warmth he had seen in her during that moment in the Forbidden Forest
when she had saved his life. She stood there like a marble woman with jewels
for eyes. Her hair hung in a long plait down her back, a thin, precious gold
that was too pale to be real.

�� Lucius has
not been right since he came back from Azkaban,� she said, stepping around him
and towards a white couch with an ivory table at either end. Cautious, Harry
followed her, wondering if she would spring a different trap on him at any
moment. �He has not done something so vicious and stupid before, however. I
suppose this means I will have to confront his madness.� She sighed in the
manner of someone whose prized dog had pissed on the carpet.

�� Then she
turned around and stared at him. �Why did you not cast a spell that would stop
him, Mr. Potter? I know you are capable.�

�� Harry held
back a little frown. She had been there in the Forbidden Forest
at the moment of his �triumph� over Voldemort as well as at the duel in the
Great Hall. She ought to know better than anyone that he wasn�t a wizard of
enormous power and deadly skill. �I didn�t want to hurt Draco�s father,� he
said. �Draco might never forgive me.�

�� Narcissa
paused and stood there with her face held to him in perfect profile. Perhaps
she thought he would treasure this memory or something, Harry decided. Then she
shook her head. �How ridiculous, Mr. Potter. You should worry about defending
your life before you worry about his feelings.�

�� I worry
about both,� Harry said stubbornly. �I came to you and risked you turning me
away or turning you against your husband, after all.�

�� Narcissa
shook her head slightly again. �It makes me wonder if Lucius is right about his
belief that the object should die to preserve the victim�s sanity,� she murmured.
�It makes me wonder if you would be willing to die, if that was the only way to
free Draco.�

�� Harry took
a deep breath. He still expected the wards to shatter and Lucius to come
bursting through at any moment. This quiet, still, bright room was too far away from everything that had
happened to him. He had to reconnect the two halves of his life somehow, and a
violent disruption from the darker part seemed like the likeliest way.

�� But
Narcissa went on watching him as if she did not intend to be disturbed, and
Harry had to answer her. He shook his head back. �Not�really,� he said. �I�m
sorry for Draco, and I want to give him the chance to preserve his integrity
and who he really is. But I won�t do that at the sacrifice of my own life. I
have goals and dreams and friends that have nothing to do with him.�

�� I am sorry
to hear that.� Narcissa�s eyes were enormous, and probably as dark as they
could be given their light coloring in the first place. �Though I do not
believe in your ability to find a cure, I would think that only someone as
madly committed to the curse�s victim as the victim is to him would stand a
chance of finding it. If one existed,� she finished, with a calm nod that made
Harry�s brain hurt.

�� I don�t
want to give up,� Harry said. �And I think accepting death would only be
another form of giving up. I might as well let Draco rape me, because that
would ease him of a bit of the lust and might give us some more time to find
the cure. But I won�t, because I know that it would destroy him, and me, in
other ways.�

�� Giving up
is not in your nature,� Narcissa said. �I wonder if they knew that, the ones
who cursed him?�

�� I don�t
think they thought it through,� Harry said shortly. �Otherwise, they would
never try to curse him to desire someone whose research is in experimental
magic. They must hate him so much�to use that curse�that they wouldn�t want to
give him a chance of finding help.�

�� Or they
thought you hated him, too,� Narcissa whispered. �That you
would glory in the chance to destroy one of your oldest rivals.� She
lowered her chin. Her eyes were bright again, but direct and challenging in a
way that Harry hadn�t felt with Lucius�s curses. �Have you ever hated like
that, Mr. Potter? I wonder. I wonder if you�re capable of it. Hate like that
can create marvels as well as problems, and desperation, like the desperation
driving you to aid my son, cannot match it.�

�� Harry
couldn�t speak out of sheer astonishment for a few minutes. Then he snorted and
said, �I�m sorry. Are you honestly saying that I can�t win because I can�t hate
enough?�

�� It is one
means of succeeding,� Narcissa said. �One I am intimately familiar with.� She
turned her head to the side as if listening to something, and Harry did, too,
thinking that Lucius might burst through one of those large, lit windows. But
there was only the silence, and the brightness, which Harry was starting to
think of as potent forces in themselves. �I would feel
more at ease, I admit, if you played by the laws and the rules that I am
familiar with.�

�� Harry
sighed. �Will you defend me from your husband, Mrs. Malfoy? I�m at a loss as to
what to do otherwise, I�ll admit. I don�t want to put Draco in the position of
having to choose between me and his father.�

�� Narcissa�s
pale eyebrows rose like the wings of gulls. �Why? You must be aware that he
would inevitably choose you because he is under the curse. You cannot be afraid
of his losing his partiality for you overnight.�

�� I�m afraid
of what the choice would do to him in the future,� Harry said quietly. �After he is restored. Family is everything to him, Mrs.
Malfoy. I don�t want him to have to decide against it, even if he only makes
the decision because he�s not in his right mind.�

�� Mrs. Malfoy
was still. Then she said, �For the sake of your investment in my son�s future, which
I honor, I will help you, Mr. Potter.�

�� Harry
sighed again, this time in relief, and started to thank her. Narcissa held up a
hand on which a slender silver ring shone. �Do not thank me. We are all fools
together, and foolhardiness is not, in and of itself, an honor.�

�� Harry
started to respond to that, in turn, and again Narcissa interrupted, but this
time she seemed to genuinely listen to something beyond the wards that Harry
couldn�t hear. Her face drew tight, and she moved at once towards the door of
the music room and dismissed the ward with another finger-flick.

�� Ma�am?� Harry trailed her. �Is something wrong?�

�� A ward
like a small silver bell rings to alert me that someone has cast an
Unforgivable in my home,� Narcissa answered. �It rang now.�

�� Harry tried
to burst past her, but she held up her wand and shook her head. �I shall go
first, in case my husband tries to renew his vow to kill you.�

�� Harry
gritted his teeth and followed her trailing robe down the stairs. He wanted to
say that he was less afraid of Lucius right now than of the idea that Draco
might have cursed his father, but he was sure Narcissa knew that, and didn�t
care.

�� Let that not have happened. I want Draco to
come back to his family welcome and proud, disdaining me, because that�s the
way he should be.

�� If he felt
a twinge at the thought of Draco disdaining him when he was trying so hard to
help, well, it was inevitable. And Draco�s mental health was worth more than
stupid little feelings Harry might have.

*

�� Draco
watched as his father writhed under the Cruciatus, and felt nothing but the
darkest and most intense satisfaction he had ever experienced.

�� Sometimes a
small part of his memory flashed up to the surface of his mind like a fish rising
through water. He remembered how his father had looked at him with pride, had
taught him lessons, had stood by with unfaltering patience and a look of cool
boredom until Draco came up with the right answer. Yes, that had happened.
Draco could acknowledge those facts in the way that he acknowledged the
influence of the wind and gravity.

�� But in the
face of what he had seen happening,
and heard from his father�s mouth�Lucius casting curses at the wards that
wrapped his mother�s music room and swearing that he would destroy Harry�Draco
had no hesitation in using the Unforgivable. He would have used something else,
but this was the most painful spell he knew.

He prowled in a circle around
Lucius now, coldly contemplative, wondering what he should use next. Perhaps he
should lift the spell for a time, in fact, because he hadn�t given Lucius a
chance to tell him whether Harry was hurt or not, and that was wrong. He ought
to think more of his partner�s injuries than doing injuries in return, he
decided, and canceled the curse with a swish of his wand.

�Draco.�

�� Draco could
feel the delight that surged through his body in response to that one word.
Harry should say it more often, he thought as he spun around and faced him.

�� Harry stood
at the bottom of the grand staircase with wide eyes and a hand reaching out as
if he wanted to either grab Draco and drag him closer or keep him at a
distance. Draco knew what interpretation he wanted to put on the gesture, so he
let his imagination choose for him and stepped forwards with a smile. He would
get as close to Harry as Harry wanted.

�� I was too
late,� Harry said. �I wanted to keep you from this.�

�� Why?�
Draco asked. Another step, and he was within range of
Harry. He took his wrist in one hand and spent a moment smoothing his fingers
back and forth, admiring the fineness of the bones and the tightness of the
tendons, before he pulled Harry closer still and fastened his mouth in place
over Harry�s lips.

�� Harry
didn�t kiss back nearly as long as Draco would have preferred, breaking free to
stare at him with some mournfulness. �I didn�t want you to curse your father,�
he said.

�� Why not?� Draco ran a proud, possessive hand up Harry�s
flank. He could use more feeding, Draco thought. He was too thin, and while the
slender look was all very well in a research wizard, Draco intended to see that
Harry did more with his life than pure work. Draco had enough money to permit
Harry to see dozens of exotic places. He would buy Harry dragons� eggs and
elephants, if that was what he wanted. They would meet Veela and sirens with
impunity. Once he had fully secured his claim on Harry, Draco would fear no one
stealing Harry�s attention. They would be one, and Harry�s desires would be
Draco�s. �I would be happy to do anything like that, and more, for you, Harry.
Don�t you know that by now?� Maybe
the problem was Harry�s lack of certainty rather than Harry�s lack of
knowledge, though, so Draco took Harry�s face in his hands and gazed into his
eyes. �Don�t you see the sincerity in me?� he whispered.

�� Someone
cleared their throat. Draco whipped around, more irritated than he could say
that someone would interrupt now.

�� His mother
stood behind Harry on the stairs. She had her wand in her hand, aimed vaguely
in Harry�s direction. Draco put his body between them, and then paused,
thinking. His mother had obviously been in the music room upstairs. Harry had
run there in search of shelter. Then the wards had gone up.

�� They had
been locked there in privacy, where no one could see�or hear�them.

�� Draco aimed
his wand back at his mother. For a moment, shock made her face paler than it
had been. She raised a hand, fingers splayed, and laid
her wand on the floor. Draco nodded. �A few steps further back from him, and
you�ll do well,� he growled.

�� His mother
retreated. Harry was tugging on his shoulder, but Draco couldn�t help him right
now. He was more focused on keeping what was his, and keeping Harry from an
obvious danger. His mother might know fewer painful spells than his father, but
she knew some more dangerous ones that affected the mind and the emotions, and
might wrest Harry away from him.

�� Draco,�
Harry said, voice so anguished that Draco turned around again. He couldn�t
stand that level of pain, even to keep Harry safe. He cupped Harry�s cheek and
stared into his eyes.

�� What?� he
asked. �Tell me what you want, and I�ll do it.�

*

�� Harry
closed his eyes because he was afraid that he would start weeping. He had
hoped�he had hoped that it wouldn�t come to this. That Draco wouldn�t hurt anyone
else before Harry could manage to remove the curse, and that he would be able
to go back to his life without his relationships unduly disrupted. Cursing Ron
was horrible, but Draco and Ron had never had a relationship to speak of. His
family was different.

�� Instead, he
had cursed Lucius and threatened Narcissa.

�� And Harry
was no longer sure the Malfoys were sane enough, or at least had standards
enough like his, to forgive Draco because he was under the curse.

�� Draco,� he
said. �Are you going to listen to me?�

�� I never
want to do anything else.� Draco�s eyes burned with anxiety as he dipped his
head. He seemed to think that he would see Harry better from up close.

�� Harry
swallowed. He reached up to frame Draco�s face with his hands in turn, ignoring
the hiss from Narcissa. He would have to hope that she would understand why
this gesture was necessary to calm Draco. At least she ought to glimpse the
necessity for keeping quiet in the glare of naked hatred that Draco directed
her way.

�� These are your
family,� Harry said quietly. �Your father and your mother.
Even if they threaten me, I don�t want you to attack them. They�re only doing
what they think is best to protect you.�

�� Draco froze
like a dog on a leash, trembling with eagerness. It was long moments before he
said something. That actually made Harry hopeful. He thought that his words
might be sinking home.

�� Then Draco
shook his head slightly and asked, �Do you agree with�my father?� He gave
Lucius the name reluctantly, Harry thought. �Because I won�t let you commit
suicide to save my life. My life would be worth nothing without you.�

�� I like my
life,� Harry said. �I don�t want to die. I won�t sacrifice myself to that
extent for you.� Draco beamed at him, and Harry had to look at the floor so
that he would have the strength of will to continue. It was seductive, he
thought, being the focus of someone�s every thought like that. He hadn�t wanted
to acknowledge it, especially not in his conversation with Narcissa, but it
was. He had given attention to certain goals in the past, like defeating
Voldemort, and he knew that he had become the focus of people�s fantasies. But
he also knew that Draco couldn�t care less about his heroic reputation.

�� He always
had to remember that this was a curse and Draco would have killed himself
before he touched Harry like this willingly.

�� But I am
going to do lots of other things,� Harry said. �Things you might not like. I�m
going to ask you to treat people decently, and realize that they don�t want to
have sex with me.� He gestured to Narcissa, who was watching them closely. �She
doesn�t want to touch me. In her
eyes, I have dirty blood, and she�s married to your father, someone much more
to her taste.�

�� Draco
tensed again. Harry thought he could see Harry�s persuasion and the relief of
being free of a rival fighting in his mind with the curse�s tendency to suspect
everyone. Then Draco shook his head and said, �People can�t despise you,
either.�

�� Harry
wanted to laugh, but didn�t, because he knew the laughter would end in
hysteria. �I can�t control what other people think about me, Draco. I can try
to influence their thoughts in a positive direction, sure, but I can�t make them like me.�

�� With me
around, you can.� Draco drew Harry towards him, sheltering Harry in the curve
of his arm, while he seemed prepared to aim his wand at Narcissa again.

�� Harry
looked at her with a grimace. He didn�t know for certain what result keeping
Draco around his family might have, but it seemed increasingly likely to be a
bad one. �I�m sorry, ma�am. I�ll have to take him away. I hope that your
husband manages to recover in time.�

�� Narcissa
brushed past them, Draco�s wand tracking her unerringly, and knelt down next to
Lucius, robes puddling gracefully around her. Her
hand rested on Lucius�s chest. Her cold blue eyes stayed on them, though. �Will
you report him for attempting to kill you?�

�� Draco
snarled. Harry pushed down hard on his arm and shook his head. �That won�t
help,� he said. �I have to worry about solving the problem of this curse before
all else, not pressing charges.�

�� We don�t
have to press charges,� Draco said. �Of course not.�
Harry glanced up, hoping, and Draco smiled down at him before giving his
parents a cold glance. �I can simply kill him, and that will defend you.�

�� Harry
sighed.

�� I
understand.�

�� Those words
made Harry look back up. Narcissa was nodding to him. �I understand,� she
repeated. �I comprehend the nature of the curse now, and why you believe that
Draco must be cured rather than
removing his object.� She didn�t want to say that Lucius had tried to kill
Harry again, Harry thought, not with Draco already at the snapping point. �They
have tried to humble and humiliate us. They will not succeed. You may count on
my support, Mr. Potter.�

�� Harry swallowed
air, and then said, �Thank you, Mrs. Malfoy. Will you look through the books
here to see what you can find concerning Nova
Cupiditas? I don�t think it�s safe for us to come
back here for some time.�

�� Or, at the
very least, not healthy,� Narcissa said. She might have smiled, but perhaps the
brightness in her eyes was due to a different cause. Certainly her lips didn�t
move. �Go.�

�� Harry led
Draco out of the house, and found him happy to be led. His docility worried
Harry, but no more than the fact that he showed no regret for cursing his
father. He was destroying his life, bit by bit, Harry thought�which was what
the Muggleborn fanatics had intended all along, although they had probably
thought the destruction would happen sooner.

�� I have to help him. No matter what it takes,
short of my death or murdering an innocent.

�� They
Apparated back to Harry�s house and walked in. Harry aimed for the lab, hoping
that Draco would consent to enter the warded circle again while he was in this
calm mood. Then perhaps Harry could find another spell that would return him to
his right mind.

�� If he could. It hadn�t escaped Harry�s attention that the
periods of Draco�s lucidity were already shortening, and becoming harder and
harder to restore.

�� He had
reached out for the top of the stairs before Draco spun him abruptly and
pressed him against the wall. Harry stared into his eyes, and Draco gave him a
deep, rich, soothing smile.

�� I went
about this the wrong way,� he said. �I attacked you instead of seducing you. No
wonder you thought I had rape in mind.�

�� This isn�t
you,� Harry said, and weighted his voice with as much quiet force as he could.
If he could keep reminding Draco of who he really was, then that might help
more than anything else would short of a real cure. �You hate me. You have to
remember that. You�re a member of one of the oldest and proudest pure-blood
families. You have to remember that.�

�� Draco shook
his head, smiling. �I used to be like
that. Now I�m like this. I love you, Harry.�

�� Harry was
still gaping at him when Draco added, �So here�s my try at seducing you,� slid
a tender hand behind his neck, and pressed a gentle but insistent tongue into
his mouth.

*

�� Cathartes: Don�t worry. Harry is a bit more balanced than
he used to be, and doesn�t intend to die. He�ll keep on keeping on.

�� fudgebaby: Here you are.

�� SP777:
Narcissa is more sane than Lucius, but they�re both
very different from the kind of people that Harry pictures as loving parents.

�� WallFlower: She�ll do her best.

�� W�lkchen: Lucius was reading different books�Darker ones.

�� I know the
ending of the curse and the story, both. I�m really not sure how long it will
take, though.

�� Vibora: Thank you!
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Nova Cupiditas