Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Soldier's Welcome	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 25564 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; that belongs to J. K. Rowling. I am making no money from this fic.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
Title: Soldier�s
Welcome

Disclaimer: J. K.
Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing this story for fun
and not profit.

Rating: R

Pairings: Harry/Draco
preslash, Ron/Hermione

Warnings: Violence
(and plenty of it), profanity, references to sex, takes account of DH but
ignores the epilogue, heavy angst.

Summary: It�s the
first year of Auror training for Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger,
and�Draco Malfoy, But with Hagrid, Snape�s second Pensieve, rogue Death Eaters,
Auror classes, and someone trying to start a second war to worry about, Harry
might not have the time to pay that much attention to Malfoy. At first, anyway.

Author�s Notes: This
story is the first in a trilogy called Running
to Paradise, which takes its title from a W. B. Yeats poem. Each story will
be novel-length, and each will cover a year of Harry and Draco�s training as
Aurors. Though there are a lot of fics out there about them acting as Auror
partners, there aren�t as many about their training, so I hope to cover some
original ground there. I�m indebted to a reader named SP777 for suggesting a
training fic for me to write.

Soldier�s Welcome

Chapter One�Onward Bickering
Soldiers

�� All right, mate!�

�� Harry
barely managed to lift one arm into the proper position before Ron crashed into
him and hugged him ecstatically. Then he had to laugh at the expression on
Hermione�s face. She sat across the table from them and refused to look
impressed as Ron whooped and pounded Harry on the back.

�� That means
that all of us got into Auror training!� Ron whirled away from Harry and
performed a dance around the table in the middle of Grimmauld Place�s kitchen
that could be called a war-dance. Harry laughed again as he watched Hermione
clamp her mouth tight and shake her head. Ron refused to notice. He practiced a
few kicks in the air instead that he probably imagined were the kind of thing
they would learn in the Auror classes, then turned and beamed at Harry. �I told you that they weren�t going to hold
your Potions NEWT score against you!�

�� Harry
flinched. He hated being reminded of the fact that maybe he wasn�t good enough
to be an Auror and had only been accepted because he was the Boy-Who-Lived. He
didn�t know that that was the reason
they had chosen to give him a chance at training, but what if it was?

�� Ron didn�t even take the Potions NEWT, he
told himself, but that only made him suspect that they�d taken Ron because he was
a war hero. He coughed and said, �I know we have to take different classes. Do
we get to choose them, or will it be like first year at Hogwarts and they pick
them for us?�

�� Luckily,
that both gave him something else to think about and distracted Hermione from
the angry speech on maturity that she was about to hurl at Ron. She glanced at
Harry and smiled. �A bit of both. There are five classes that everyone has to
take, but they supplement that with three other classes that are concentrated
areas of study. You can choose any one of the three.� She tapped a piece of
parchment in front of her that looked like a Ministry informational pamphlet.
�Or more than one.�

�� No prizes
for guessing how many Hermione�s going to take,� Ron said, and rolled his eyes
at his girlfriend.

�� Don�t be
silly, Ron,� Hermione said, in a muffled voice as she buried her head back into
the stack of paper she�d gathered. �I don�t have a Time-Turner, and one of the
extra classes doesn�t sound very interesting. I�m only going to take seven, not
eight.� She glanced up at him. �On the other hand, I fully expect that I�ll be
busy enough that I won�t be able to do your homework for you.�

�� Ron gave a
loud sigh in her general direction. �Did I ask
you to? No, I didn�t.�

�� Hermione�s face
turned stormy. Harry spoke as loudly as he could, because once one of their
arguments got going, no one else would be able to think or talk about anything
else for hours. �What are the five classes that we have to take?�

�� Hermione
promptly pulled out a list on what looked like glossier paper than normal and
slid it across the table to him. �Honestly, Harry, I know that you got a copy
of this,� she said in a scolding tone. �If you paid attention to your things
and kept them in order, then you wouldn�t need to depend on me to keep them in
order for you.�

�� But then
what would your purpose in life be?� Harry asked as he picked up the list.

�� Hermione
rolled her eyes in exasperation, but didn�t attack him the way she would have
attacked Ron for a similar comment. That increased Harry�s suspicion that she
got so testy with Ron because he was her boyfriend, rather than her friend, and
she didn�t want to make excuses for his childishness any more. Harry had tried
to tell Ron that it was something like that and that he was in danger of losing
Hermione several times over the past year as they finished up the classes they
had missed during the Horcrux quest and sat their NEWTS at Hogwarts. Ron had
loftily ignored him.

�� Harry hoped
he would pay attention soon. Ron and Hermione bickered worse than ever now that
they were dating, and he would hate to see them break up.

�� The list of
courses proved to be less informative than he�d wanted, since it was just the
titles of the classes without descriptions. Harry raised one eyebrow. �All
right,� he said. �I think I know what Defensive and Offensive Magic,
Battlefield Tactics, and Battle Healing are, but what about Auror Conduct? And
Hand-to-Hand Combat? Why do we need to learn that when we have wands?�

�� Oh, Harry,� Hermione said. �How do you think
Aurors learn what regulations they�re supposed to obey and how to work together
with other Departments in the Ministry? That�s what Auror Conduct is about.
They�ll teach us what spells we aren�t allowed to cast, and what penalties
there will be if we do, and how to arrest someone, and how to do
interrogations.� Her eyes were bright.

�� That�s
going to be her favorite bloody class, I can see it right now,� Ron grumbled
into his hand. �Because it�s all about the bloody rules.�

�� Harry was
getting tired of playing peacemaker, so he joined in with Hermione�s glare at
Ron before he added, �And Hand-to-Hand Combat is for the situations where we
drop our wands, then, or can�t reach them.� He felt silly for not thinking about
that before.

�� Hermione
nodded. �And for the situations where we can�t cast magic because we�re in
front of Muggles,� she said. �Or close combat situations where most spells
would hurt our friends and allies as well as the criminals. Really, I wish that
I�d known how to do that when we were hunting the Horcruxes.� She reached
across the table to stroke the paper as if it were the textbook for one of the
classes. �We could have used it several times.�

�� Harry
peered at the list of optional classes, in part because he would start thinking
about the war again if he listened too hard to Hermione�s words. �Observation,
Battle Brewing, Recognizing Dark Magic�why do we have to have separate classes
in observation and recognizing Dark magic? Isn�t that something that we�ll
learn how to do through the other classes anyway?�

�� Yes,�
Hermione said, in a tone of strained patience. �But those classes are for
people who want to learn the skills all in one big lump.� She tilted her head
to the side. �I don�t think I�ll take Observation, actually. I need more
practice with recognizing Dark magic and brewing potions in the middle of
battle.�

�� I think
Battle Brewing is actually about brewing potions that you use for battle,� said Ron, around a mouthful
of cereal.

�� Maybe
you�re right,� Hermione said, glancing away with sharp lines around her eyes.

�� Harry
sighed and intervened again. �Well,
I�ll choose Observation, then. I don�t think I need much more skill at
recognizing Dark magic, and Potions is always going to be my worst subject.
We�ll probably learn the most useful ones in Battle Healing, anyway. But it
would have been an awfully good thing if I�d been a better observer at some
points in the past.� He fell silent, and wondered if he could have done better
if he�d noticed years ago that Snape wasn�t really a slimy, irredeemable git or
that there was something unusual about Dumbledore�s wand.

�� Then he
locked the thoughts away. What-If was a fun game to play at night, when he
couldn�t sleep anyway. He refused to play it during the daylight hours. �What
about you, Ron?�

�� Recognizing
Dark Magic,� Ron said, and leaned over Harry�s shoulder to look down at the
schedule. �I�m very observant. For
example, right now the two of you are looking at each other with that special
expression that means you think I�m hopeless.�

�� Hermione
hastily blinked. Harry laughed in spite of himself and settled back in his
chair, looking fondly from one to the other of his two best friends.

�� He�d
thought it was a dream come true when Hermione changed her mind about becoming
a lawyer right away and declared that she wanted to train as an Auror instead,
because she wasn�t ready to start doing good from behind a desk. Then he�d
wondered if it really was when he saw the way Ron and Hermione fought.

�� But at the
moment, he felt bright and hopeful again. Ron was giving Hermione one of the
soft smiles that made Harry sure that everything would be all right for them,
and he had a tight hand on Harry�s shoulder. No matter how close Ron and
Hermione became, they did their best to make sure that Harry didn�t feel left
out.

�� Except, of
course, as much as was inevitable.

�� Harry
sighed. There was one game that he
played with his mind during the day, and that game was called, �Let�s Not Think
About Ginny.� He began playing it again as he asked if Hermione had a more
detailed description of the classes, and Hermione fetched out another pamphlet.

�� Harry
grinned as he read that Auror Conduct was taught by Hestia Jones, who had been
a member of the Order of the Phoenix. If classes that boring had to exist, then it was for the best
if a friend could teach them.

*

�� I do not
understand why you are doing this, Draco.�

�� That�s all
right, Mother.� Draco didn�t look up from packing his books into a bag. He�d
chosen carefully among the books that he still possessed from Hogwarts. Some of
the older Potions books had sentimental value, which meant he was ruthlessly
going to leave them behind. He wasn�t venturing out of the Manor and into the
wider world for sentimental reasons. But he would take the Defense Against the
Dark Arts and Potions books from his last three years of classes. He weighed
his newest Herbology book thoughtfully in his hands, wondering if it would be
useful. �Father doesn�t understand, either.�

�� Draco��

�� That was a
tone of voice he had to respond to. He wouldn�t be his mother�s son if he
didn�t. Draco looked up, then reached out and clasped her hand when he saw it
extended to him. He leaned in and kissed her cheek.

�� Narcissa
smiled tiredly at him. She had looked weary ever since the day when the
Wizengamot had pronounced a sentence of two years in Azkaban for Lucius and a
year of being without a wand for her. As long as she stayed in the Manor, with
house-elves ready to do anything she asked them, she wasn�t helpless, but Draco
knew that wasn�t the point. The loss of a wand crippled a wizard, no matter
what the other circumstances. The best that could be said was that the Ministry
hadn�t snapped her wand, only removed it from the Manor. Minister Shacklebolt
himself had promised it would be kept in a secure location. With that, Draco
reckoned, they had to be content.

�� The upshot
of his parents� agreeing to accept those punishments was that Draco himself had
had to do nothing but make a solemn promise that he wouldn�t use Dark Arts
again and then surrender his wand to be �tested� for a month (once he got it
back from Potter, who had been abrupt but decent about the thing under the
circumstances). He�d been able to study privately for the NEWTS and sit them,
and he�d had the courage�and the determination to show everyone that the
Malfoys were no cowards or criminals, to feel chastened by the Dark Lord�s loss
in the war�to apply to Auror training.

�� Now he�d
been accepted, and he�d had to face his share of bewildered stares from his
parents in the past month, as well as weary smiles and soft attempts to
persuade him otherwise.

�� I have to
do this, Mother,� he said, rubbing his fingers across her knuckles. They were
white, he noticed. Of course, they were white all the time now. Narcissa seemed
to take a harder grip on things around her as her hold on what had been
essential truths for so long slipped away. �For one thing, it�s good to show
our enemies that we don�t feel guilty.
We didn�t do anything wrong. We didn�t kill people and torture them for fun,
like Aunt Bellatrix did.� His mother flinched a little. She was still sensitive
about Bellatrix�s death. Draco had tried to be honest with himself since the
final battle under the impression that it was self-deception that had been his
father�s downfall. In the spirit of that honesty, he didn�t know if she was
more upset about a sister she once loved being killed or a Weasley being the
one to kill her. �We didn�t want to invite those people into our Manor.
Everyone knows now that the Dark Lord compelled me to hurt people.� Draco
grimaced. That had been the most painful part of his confession in front of the
Wizengamot, listening to himself blurt intimate details under Veritaserum while
the watching faces assumed expressions of self-righteous pity. They had no right. �The Ministry has declared our
tolls paid. Why shouldn�t I show them that we have as much right to participate
in the wizarding world as anyone else?�

�� I can
understand that,� Narcissa said. Draco waited. He had come to know that those
words usually preceded a refusal to understand. �But why must it be Auror
training, Draco? Why not wait a few years and then resume our rightful place?�

�� Draco hesitated.
He had wanted to avoid distressing his mother, and so he hadn�t told her the
truth. He spent more time outside the Manor than she did, and saw more. But now
he didn�t think he could avoid it.

�� That
rightful place will never come back,� he said. �Not unless we fight for it.
People who were Father�s friends for years turn away with a sneer when they see
me. Most of the committees or charities he donated to have altered their
records to say that no Malfoy money ever reached them. I know, because I checked,�
he added, as Narcissa lifted a devastated, disbelieving face towards him. �We can�t
wait for power to return to us. We have to seize it.�

�� His mother
shut her eyes and stood in a listening attitude for a long moment. Draco didn�t
disturb her. He thought she was bidding farewell to her dreams of normality.

�� Then she
stood, and gave him a sharp nod. �As my ancestors did, when they saw a power
vacuum and determined that the Blacks should be the ones to occupy it,� she
said. �I am proud that you are living up to your heritage, Draco.�

�� Draco
kissed her cheek and reached again for his books, relieved. She had taken the
news much better than his father, and hadn�t even demanded that he explain his
other reasons.

�� Those
reasons were related less to his family and more to himself. Draco wanted to
show that he was more than the pathetic little Slytherin, Harry Potter�s
shadow, that he knew most people thought of if they remembered his first six
years at Hogwarts, and more than the Dark Lord�s torturer. Someone powerful and
dangerous in his own right, someone with skills that had to be respected or run
away from.

�� And then
there was the minor fact that no Malfoy had ever been an Auror before, so Draco
was walking down a new path none of his ancestors had trod.

�� I am going to be a Malfoy, but I am also
going to be myself.

*

�� What�s Malfoy doing here?� Ron hissed into
Harry�s ear.

�� Harry
blinked and glanced around. �You were right,� he muttered, barely spotting the
familiar blond hair whisking behind the shoulder of a tall, burly man with a
black beard eating half his face. �You don�t need to take the Observation class
at all.� He shrugged. �And does it matter? If he�s only here to watch and dream
of what he can never have, it shouldn�t be a problem.�

�� And what
if they actually accepted him as a recruit?� It was Hermione who said that, and
not Ron, to Harry�s surprise. Her face was tense. �I don�t want someone who
thinks I should curl up and die training with me. He might decide to make it happen.�

�� Harry
shrugged again, helplessly. �Well, I don�t think Kingsley or anyone else would
let him actually say it��

�� But if he
thinks it?�

�� Harry
didn�t get a chance to respond, because seven wizards Apparated into the front
of the enormous room where all the trainees were gathered with a series of
bangs that called immediate attention. The pink smoke that billowed up around
them from someone�s wand didn�t hurt, either. Harry craned his neck, trying to
get a good look at everyone. These were probably the Aurors he would spend the
next few years training under. He was just hoping not to see a Death Eater.

�� The Head
Auror, Gawain Robards, was easy enough to recognize. Harry had met with him
several times over the past few months to discuss his experiences during the
war, because those experiences had been helpful to the Aurors in deciding who
to sentence harshly during the Death Eater trials. He wasn�t big, but he was broad; he had arms that looked as if he
could carry a house on them. His hair was pale brown and swept his shoulders.
The delicate spectacles on his face looked out of place, given that. He looked
up and down the rows of recruits and nodded once, deliberately. Harry had no
idea what he was nodding at, but he tried to stand up straighter and suck in
his stomach anyway. With no more Voldemort to run around after, he was afraid
that he was starting to gain weight.

�� The second
most striking figure was the one who stepped up beside Robards and spun her
wand through her fingers, smiling unpleasantly. Harry shivered. She looked like
McGonagall without the glasses and without the kindness. She had grey hair that
was twisted into a braid that probably gave her headaches and a dark line under
her neck that dived into her robes. Harry wondered if that was a scar or the
chain of a locket. This was probably Alice Holder, Robards�s second-in-command
and disciplinarian.

�� He had time
to see that the other people on stage were three women and two men before
Robards put his hands to his mouth and whistled sharply. The last chatter died
down, and Robards nodded again.

�� I would
say that I am here to welcome you to Auror training,� he said, �except that at
best I can give you only a soldier�s welcome.� He flicked his wand, and a
spinning ball of fire appeared above his head, casting his face into radiant
light and the rest of the room into shadow at the same time. Harry stared in
fascination. He hadn�t ever heard of a spell like that. He could hear Hermione
muttering under her breath beside him, probably wishing for parchment and ink
so that she could write her observations about the spell�s effects down.

�� Make no
mistake,� Robards said, lowering his voice a bit to emphasize his points,
though Harry thought no one else in the room could possibly look at or listen
to anyone but him. �Being an Auror is more like being a soldier than anything
else. There�s a reason that several of your courses have the word �Battle� in
the title. We are the first line of defense against Dark wizards, and even
ordinary wizards and witches who might be cursed and not responsible for their
actions. We are here to defend the innocent, to lock away those who might break
the laws and try to impose their will on the wizarding world, and ultimately to
prevent the outbreak of another war like the one that so many of us remember so
well.� He clenched his hands and bowed his head. �It is our failing that the
Aurors played so small a part in winning that war.�

�� Harry found
himself wanting to protest, even though he knew better than anyone that the
Aurors hadn�t helped that much. He bit his lip and was silent. Robards was
certainly convincing. Harry could see why he was Head Auror.

�� Robards
lifted his head with a defiant toss that told any watching Dark wizards without
words to go fuck themselves. �But we will be an organized and disciplined array
from this moment forwards,� he said, with a sound of gathering thunder. �And I
do promise that you will become part of that array strongly and gracefully.� He
shrugged, and his face had an expression of chilling indifference on it. �If
you cannot, or if you try to struggle for your own personal glory and power,
then you will be dropped from the program.�

�� Well,
that�s Malfoy taken care of,� Ron muttered to Harry.

�� For now,�
Robards said, stepping aside, �I will leave it up to Auror Holder and your
professors to distribute your schedules and inquire about your choices for
optional classes. Regular training does not begin until tomorrow.� A smile
flashed across his face, so quick that Harry would have missed if it he�d
blinked. �Welcome to Auror training.�

�� And then he
was gone, banishing the ball of flame as he went so that regular light came
flooding back. Harry whistled under his breath and focused his attention on
Holder and the rest with renewed determination. He was going to show everyone
that he was good at serving the wizarding world and not just taking risks or
having wild adventures.

�� If he could
do that, then maybe he could fill the hole in himself that Voldemort�s death
seemed to have left behind.

*

�� Draco
tightened his hold on the strap of the bag over his shoulder. The announcement
had shaken him, but he was still determined to exercise his personal ambition
here and rise to the top of the Auror ranks. As long as he kept up the veneer
of a public servant on the surface, why shouldn�t he achieve power and glory?
The world was more complicated than someone like Robards understood,
particularly for someone like Draco.

�� I�m going to do this. They won�t drive me
away, no matter what happens. Potter himself can�t drive me away, if he�s here.

�� So he
listened closely as the disagreeable-looking Auror Holder stepped towards them
and began to speak, but without fear. He was done with being a coward, with
being a child, with being anything that he didn�t want to be.
- 1
- 2
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

Soldier's Welcome