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A Brother to Basilisks	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 85172 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 15
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this story.

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Chapter Ninety-Seven—Moony’s Intrusion
“Why are you here?”
Lupin didn’t pay any attention to Severus. His every bit of being was obviously focused on Harry. Harry moved an uncertain step forwards, and batted Dash’s head aside impatiently when Dash tried to loom in front of him.
“Professor Lupin?”
“You can call me Moony. Or Remus. It’s the least I can do for you. I want to help, Harry. I don’t want—artificial barriers coming in between us.”
Harry swallowed. Severus only watched. If Lupin was going to ignore him, then Severus would wait to see what else he ignored. If it included signs of Harry’s discomfort, then Severus didn’t care how much his ward objected, he was going to get in front of him and make sure Lupin did nothing untoward.
“Why did you come back?” Harry whispered.
“To help you. I realized it was selfish of me to run away and act as if—as if I was condemned forever because I almost bit you.”
“That should have been enough to condemn you forever.” Severus hoped he made those words come out with the right tone. It was hard to tell over the frantic, furious pounding of his pulse in his ears.
Lupin ignored him again. So did Harry. “But you didn’t feel guilty about it?”
“I do. It was important for me to come back and face the guilt—and ask what I could do to make up for it.” Lupin held very still, and Severus thought he saw his nose working to catch Harry’s scent. That only made Severus’s impulse to snatch the boy away worse. “Maybe that’s nothing. But if it’s something, you only have to tell me.”
Harry did turn to Severus, finally. Severus held his face neutral. His hands trembled, and he thought Dash turned his head towards them, but it was too small a movement for him to be sure of.
Dash is here. He will not let Lupin harm Harry—and his protective instincts are even more finely-honed than mine.
That made Severus move a little backwards as Harry said, “What do you think he can do to make up for it?”
“You don’t know yourself?”
Harry’s smile was faint and thin. “I’m not used to having the chance to decide.”
“Send him away. There is nothing.”
“We can use him the way Draco said, though,” Harry said, speaking as if Lupin wasn’t in the room and he didn’t care if he overheard. Severus saw Lupin’s body start, but he was listening intently. “To show people that we like werewolves and can make a place for them. That will be the connection to the Dark we need, for some people.”
“What are you trying to achieve?” Lupin asked, his voice as calm as it used to be when he was there in third year.
“Setting up a third side in the war,” Harry said, and he turned back to Lupin. His faint smile had become something far more real. Severus had to remind himself of times he had received something even broader to keep from feeling jealous. “We need to show people that we aren’t going to roll over for the Ministry, but we’re also not Voldemort.”
“Rumors were circulating among some of the more sensitive Dark creatures I met that there was a Dark power rising in Britain,” said Lupin. He’d turned pale. “So that’s true, then?”
“It’s him, he’s back, and he resurrected himself through the mental link I have with him through my scar.” Harry, to Severus’s relief, did at least stop short of telling Lupin about the soul-connection and the Horcrux. “I want to unite some Dark and Light families. There are people who will want to follow us because Dash has the soul of Salazar Slytherin—”
“What?”
Dash turned his head back and forth as if acknowledging invisible cheering crowds. Severus swallowed a snort. It wouldn’t do to reward the bloody basilisk for the tricks he pulled.
“That’s true,” Harry said with a nod. “And he has some of Slytherin’s memories. And he can inspire people, but I need to be able to do that, too. There were people who thought I was Slytherin reincarnated for a while, but that wouldn’t be enough to bring everyone along even if they still thought it.”
“What about the Light?”
Do not expose all our political plans to him, Severus wanted to say. Only the thought that Lupin wouldn’t have much political power on his own if he betrayed them made him hold his tongue.
“There are people like Lughborn who already have a connection to me. And we’re going to say that we want to do Dumbledore’s real work, the work that he was doing before he started losing his head and relying too much on controlling me.”
“The work of the Light,” Lupin whispered.
“Yes,” said Harry. “Fighting in the way Dumbledore might have. Gathering people together and directing them against Voldemort.” He was so earnest, Severus thought, that he might have won the heart of a hardened werewolf like Greyback. “But we won’t get anywhere if some of the Dark people don’t trust us, too. And that’s where you could come in.”
Lupin hesitated. “I don’t know. I might hurt you more than I help you once people realize that you have a werewolf on your side, Harry.”
There. I knew that he did not mean his supposed resolve to aid us in whatever way he could.
“You won’t. Because you won’t be teaching in the school the way you were last time, and you’re not going to bite anyone this time, or even threaten to.” Harry glanced at Severus. “Severus will brew Wolfsbane for you, won’t you?”
“Severus.”
“I am his guardian.”
That was news Severus would have expected Lupin to know, but he still got an incredulous gaze as blank as sun on ice. Severus returned his gaze, and said nothing. He would indeed brew the Wolfsbane—he nodded when Harry looked at him again—but nothing would keep him from probing for Lupin’s weaknesses.
If he found one of them, and split it wide open, then Lupin would have to leave. And Severus would not be at fault.
“And if you even look like you’re going to try and bite someone because you didn’t take the Wolfsbane or didn’t shut yourself away properly, then Dash is going to kill you with his gaze, the way he wants to.”
Severus blinked. From the way Dash twisted around Harry’s arm, that had been a statement Harry had no choice about making. He was frowning at his basilisk. But his voice was strong as he said it.
Lupin winced a little. “I won’t forget again.” At least he was not going to protest that he deserved something more than this treatment.
“Good,” said Severus before Harry could speak. “In that case, I will brew the Wolfsbane.” He nodded to them both and walked towards his potions cupboard. He wanted to get started right away, even though the full moon was only a few days past. He would have a full supply, for several months, by the time it came around again.
And as much as it itched at the back of his mind like someone scratching his brain, he knew Harry and Lupin needed time alone to speak.
At least Dash will be there.
*
“How do you really feel to see me, Harry?”
Harry stared at Lupin’s golden eyes and listened to his voice and wished he could say something other than what he did. But he also knew that Lupin would probably want him to be honest. Sirius had. “Strange.”
Lupin relaxed and chuckled a little. Harry didn’t think he would do that if he could know what Dash was thinking about him right now. Then again, Dash could possess Harry’s voice and say it if he really wanted to. That he only remained alert at Harry’s side said a lot about Dash’s own tolerance.
“I never meant to do what I did.”
Harry tensed his shoulders. “That doesn’t make it right.”
“I know. And then I ran away, like a coward.” Lupin shivered as if the memory of that night still haunted him. “But I’m here now. If you need me to show other people how you’re sort of Dark and have werewolves on your side, that’s all right. I can do that.”
Harry eyed him cautiously. Lupin sounded sincere, and Dash would have let Harry know if he didn’t smell that way, but Harry had to admit he wasn’t sure about this. What if Lupin thought he was being truthful, and then he broke and ran when something else he didn’t like happened?
I will make him regret it.
Harry had to nod in response. “All right. I’m going to—I’d like to talk to you again and trust you, but it’s going to be a while. In the meantime, I think you ought to live in Sirius’s house in Hogsmeade. That will be close enough to let me talk to you if I want.”
Lupin smiled, but he appeared to be a little shocked. “You’re not living there? Even knowing that Severus had taken over your guardianship, I thought he would want to use…”
Harry had to snort. “Of course not. You know he hates Sirius. And I couldn’t stay there after knowing that Sirius knew something about me he only told Severus when he basically went and yelled at him until he did.”
“What was the thing?”
Harry didn’t need Dash’s furious hiss next to him to know how bad an idea it would be to tell Lupin about the Horcruxes. He eyed him, then shook his head. “Not right now. Maybe later, when I can trust you more.”
“Of course.” Lupin hesitated. “I would still have thought Severus would let you have your room in Sirius’s house, though. You know Sirius decorated it just for you.”
He is already trying to lure you away from your Snape. Dash curled his tail in a circle on the floor; no one besides Harry knew how bad a sign that was, though. I do not like him. I will eat him if he persists.
Harry shook his head and kept one hand fastened on the back of Dash’s neck so he couldn’t get away easily. “I didn’t want to stay there. Not without Sirius. And not when I knew Professor Snape would be unhappy.”
“I do understand.” Lupin’s voice was soft. He looked as if he might say something else about Professor Snape, but he decided against it. “What do you want me to do first?”
Here, Harry hesitated. He really needed Severus or Draco here to tell him, because he knew what he should do but not really how to accomplish it.
He must know some other werewolves. Think about the power they could bring if some of them united behind us. Or at least we could keep Voldemort from persuading them to join his side, and infect people.
“Who’s the strongest werewolf in Britain?” Harry asked.
“The one with the most political power is Fenrir Greyback,” said Lupin, although he had grown a shade paler. “He can call on most of the others for favors, and the Ministry fears him because he deliberately bites and turns children.” He hesitated, then added, “He was the one who turned me.”
I don’t think we can use him, said Dash. He sounds like someone I should eat as soon as possible.
Harry agreed. “Who’s the second most powerful werewolf?”
Lupin paused, apparently thinking about it, then nodded decisively. “The most powerful one outside of Greyback’s minions is called Josephine Whitepaw. She heads a small pack in Cornwall.”
“Small?” Harry asked, disappointed.
“Small, but well-disciplined. Supposedly they have a mental art they use to resist the urgings of their wolves to run wild at the full moon. They’re always in control, even if they can’t stop themselves from transforming. They don’t need Wolfsbane.”
Those sound like people we need on our side, said Dash at once, and his voice was so self-satisfied that Harry had to smile. Lupin blinked at him, but didn’t say anything. Harry nodded. “Do you think you could go to Whitepaw’s pack and learn the method of mental discipline from her?”
Lupin hesitated. “I don’t know if they would let me. I know they consider werewolves bitten by Greyback tainted. They think we’ll basically all go mad the minute we get a chance. And I’ve lived with humans and by myself and under Wolfsbane besides.”
“Would she kill you for asking?”
“Oh, no. She’s not that kind of werewolf.”
“Then would you be willing to go to Cornwall and ask anyway? And you could come back in a month if you really think you can’t persuade her. That’s what I think you can do to make up for almost biting me,” Harry added, at Dash’s silent prompting.
Lupin’s face changed, and now he looked oddly relaxed. He bowed in front of Harry, which made Harry wince. It was bad enough when people who thought Dash was Lord Slytherin did it. “Yes. Thank you. Thank you for thinking of something.” He held out his hand. It took a whole five seconds for Harry to realize that Lupin wanted him to shake it. He did, while Dash snickered in the back of his head.
“And Harry?”
Harry looked up. Lupin had already started towards the door, as if he intended to leave for Cornwall right away. Maybe he did. His eyes were glowing and his muscles rippled in a way that reminded Harry of Dash when he was hunting prey.
“Thank you again,” Lupin whispered. “I’ll let you know right away what Whitepaw says. No more hiding. No more silence.” He whisked out the door.
Harry blinked and went to tell Severus that he didn’t have to brew the Wolfsbane right now unless he felt like it. That was not the way he had expected his confrontation with Lupin to go.
Not so much a confrontation as reminding him where his place is, Dash said, and wreathed as much of himself as he could around Harry’s shoulders and neck. There is no problem with werewolves when they know their place.
You could say the same about anyone else, Harry argued as he opened the door to Severus’s potions lab.
And I will, too.
*
“Keep your attention focused on the feather. Think about the veins in it, and how they spread out. Note the perfect edge, so that you can think of it brushing through the air. I know that you know how to fly, but this is a different kind of flight…”
Draco covered his mouth hastily, before the yawn could break forth. He thought he saw Delacour’s eyes cut to him anyway.
He was beginning to regret asking to learn feather and flight magic with Harry. He had never thought it would take so much lecturing before they began. And meditation, and contemplating feathers, and performing charms they already knew how to do which Delacour said would contribute to their being able to do feather magic, too.
But she hadn’t explained the connections between those charms and the ones she was teaching them, or at least not well enough for Draco’s level of skill. So he watched Granger and Harry stare, fascinated, at the feather in front of them, which hovered above a table on a column of light, and held back a sigh.
They were in Professor Snape’s quarters, because that was the only place that Professor Snape felt was safe enough for Harry to practice unknown magic. And they had been learning about feathers for the last half-hour. Draco covered another vicious yawn and tried to pretend interest in the eagle feather in front of them.
“Mr. Malfoy.”
Delacour was losing her accent more and more the more time she spent in Britain. Draco tried to sit up and look interested and respectful. “Yes, Miss Delacour?”
“If you do not want to learn, you are free to leave, yes?”
But I want to learn everything Harry learns. Somehow, Draco doubted that would content her, and he nodded. “All right. But—I’m sorry, but I just want to learn how to do some magic. Not how to think about feathers.”
Granger murmured something about Draco’s level of thought in general. At least Harry kicked her under the table.
“Thinking about feathers is necessary to know what to do with them, and to conjure your own without an incantation,” said Delacour unconcernedly. “But I can show you what you will do with them soon, yes? If you master it.” And she turned and faced the far corner of the room, where an empty bookshelf stood. (Professor Snape wasn’t so comfortable about them practicing unknown magic here that he was going to leave priceless tomes around them).
Delacour stared at the bookshelf. Draco exchanged an uneasy glance with Harry. He knew Harry had been paying more attention to her, but even he didn’t look like he knew what she was doing.
Then Delacour reached out and made a plucking motion with one hand as if she was pulling a leaf off a tree, and a shimmering shield of feathers filled the air between her and the bookshelf. Draco actually staggered back a step and sat down, not on a chair. He would have hurt his arse on the floor if Dash hadn’t been there, and caught him in a coil.
“Tell him thanks,” Draco told Harry, standing up and dusting himself off, and trying to look as though he was utterly calm.
Harry smiled a little and cocked his head. “He says you’re welcome.”
“How did you do that?” Granger was demanding of Delacour, who had turned around with a smile and a pale, exhausted sheen to her face. “I never saw—you didn’t move your wand or your hand except at the end or anything!”
“This is magic without an incantation,” said Delacour, and it was Draco’s private opinion that she didn’t have to sound so smug. “I did mention that, no? Magic that depends on understanding the turning of the world and the thing you are trying to summon, so that you can make it from anything and everywhere.” She banished the shield with a slight crook of her finger and turned back to the eagle feather floating above the table. “When you understand this, then you can create a shield made of it.”
“But it looked like your shield was made of peacock feathers.” Granger was practically bouncing as she followed Delacour back across the stone floor. “Why are you starting us out with an eagle feather?”
“Because it has its own virtues,” said Delacour, in what was possibly the most pretentious way Draco had ever heard someone put it. “The peacock feathers are appropriate to delicate beauty and ferocity. Eagles are pure ferocity.”
Dash must have said something, because Harry snickered a little. Then again, he seemed to like to eat birds, Draco thought. It was probably about that.
“What would happen if we used chicken feathers?”
Draco checked Granger’s face quickly, but apparently this was not an as-yet-unsuspected ability to joke. She seemed like she really wanted to know.
“You could think of them as protection if you can think of…hens as protection,” Delacour said, after an obvious moment when she needed to think of the English word. “Or of roosters as fierce. But most English people cannot.”
“I don’t think most French people can, either,” said Draco, in his best French.
For a moment, Delacour turned and glared at him. Then she smiled a little and inclined her head. “You would know, of course, Mr. Malfoy.”
A subtle way to remind me of who’s the professor here, Draco thought, but he bit back his protest. The summer holidays hadn’t even officially begun, and still Harry had wanted to start Delacour teaching him feather magic, because it wasn’t like he had exams, as one of the Champions. Draco somewhat regretted joining in, now.
But there was Granger, scribbling away on her notes, and there was Dash, coiled around Harry, and even if Draco somewhat regretted having to juggle these studies and getting ready for his fourth-year exams at the same time, he didn’t want to be anywhere else.
*
SP777: Thank you! And yes, things are starting to come together. The end of the story may be in sight!
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A Brother to Basilisks