Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Seasons of War	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 9693 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and I am not making any money from this story.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
Title: Seasons of
War

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

Pairings: Harry/Draco,
Ron/Hermione

Rating: R

Warnings:
Violence, torture, sex, angst, profanity, ignores the DH epilogue.

Summary: The war against Nihil enters its final stages, Harry and
Draco train as partners, and they may actually survive to become effective
Aurors. Maybe.

Author�s Notes: This
is the final part of the Running to Paradise Trilogy, sequel to Ceremonies of Strife, and won�t make
much sense if you haven�t read the first two stories. I don�t yet know how long
this one will be, but based on the others, I�m guessing 45 to 50 chapters.

Seasons of War

Chapter One�Hard at
Work

�� How much
do you understand of the theory of necromancy, Trainee Potter?�

�� Harry tried
to decide whether or not he was irritated by Battle Healer Portillo Lopez�s
cool tone, and then decided that it didn�t really matter. She was the one in
charge here, the one who was supposed to work with him to create a
Parseltongue-based necromancy that he could teach to other people. And Harry
knew almost nothing about how his own gift worked, let alone about this kind of
magic in other people.

�� Not much,�
he admitted, leaning forwards to stretch his hands above the fire between them.
They had Warming Charms on, but still he swore he could feel the cold wind
blowing on them from the open camp. There was less snow in the camp today,
which didn�t keep the chill from biting at them. They were in the middle of
winter, after all. He and Portillo Lopez were seated on hard wooden chairs Harry
thought had been devised specifically for their discomfort,
and in a warded circle so that no one who came near them could hear what they
were talking about. �Just that it�s supposed to be a way of talking to the
dead, but the necromancers usually end up commanding them.�

�� That will
do as a beginning.� Portillo Lopez looked absolutely comfortable, of course,
and as if she didn�t even need the headscarf that she usually wore draped above
her hair. �Why do you suppose that so many necromancers become corrupt?�

�� Harry shook
his head. �I don�t know. The books didn�t tell me.�

�� Portillo
Lopez smiled, which looked as though it was happening in spite of her better
judgment. �Books cannot tell you everything you will need to know, especially
since your magic is outside their common scope. Use your reason.�

�� Harry bit
his tongue on the desire to say that lots of people had told him his reason was
deficient. He should work with Portillo Lopez as best he could. The Aurors
knew, now, how much he and Draco had hidden from them and how often they�d
taken off on their own. They were on thin ice.

�� Harry
looked into the fire, and thought a bit before answering, �Because it�s a Dark Art,
and the Dark Arts tend to corrupt people with the thrill of forbidden power?�

�� Are you
asking me or telling me?� Harry had had other teachers, such as Snape, who
would have asked that question, too, but he didn�t think he�d ever had anybody
who was so good at sounding neutral and being irritating at the same time.

�� Telling
you, I reckon.� Harry looked at her and shrugged. �I just don�t know. When I was using normal
necromancy, my main concern was to make sure that I didn�t get caught, and I
used my own blood and body as the sacrifices it needed because I couldn�t dream
of sacrificing anyone else. Are you sure that you should be asking a
necromancer about why he does what he does?� he couldn�t help adding. �Or
shouldn�t you tell me, because you�re the expert in necromancy?�

�� Portillo
Lopez gave a little sigh and folded her hands in a new position. �You are the
only necromancer we have ever seen, Trainee Potter, who has gone on so
surprising a course.�

�� Well, I
know that,� said Harry, mystified. Everyone else said Portillo Lopez was a
clear teacher. Why
don�t I understand her, then? �Since I use Parseltongue and not Latin and everything.�

�� Portillo
Lopez gave another tiny sigh. �You are unusual in other respects. For not
trying to practice the art after you were caught except at the urging of
others, and for not immediately using others� blood.�

�� I think
you�re probably wrong,� Harry said, because he couldn�t believe that he was
really that much more moral than other people. �You told me you don�t often
catch up with necromancers until they get to the stage where they�re raising
armies of the living dead and slaughtering people, and then their memories are
clouded. So probably there are lots of them who go a few steps in and then
stop.�

�� The traditional
theories say that it is difficult to do so, because of the call of the dead
and, yes, the seductive power of any Dark Art.� Portillo Lopez rearranged her
hands again. Harry looked at them so he didn�t have to look into her eyes,
which he felt were judging him constantly. Scars crossed and crisscrossed the
brown skin there and split her knuckles, and Harry found himself wondering if
those came from her work as a Healer or her other job as part of an Order that
assassinated necromancers when it found them. �I have a different theory.� She
paused.

�� Harry
refrained from rolling his eyes, but it was hard. �What is it, Auror?�

�� That
necromancy is the kind of magic that complements Healing,� said Portillo Lopez.
�Many of those who begin their training as Healers find themselves obsessively
drawn along, learning procedures they never meant to. Few of those at St.
Mungo�s are trained in only one kind of Healing, did you know that? I think
only among the Mind-Healers are there many specialists, and that often happens
because they must take years to learn what they know. They have no time to pick up multiple methods of
wrapping wounds, or learning how to cure certain spells or poisons.�

�� But then
all you have is two cases of similar obsession,� Harry said. �That doesn�t prove
they�re anything alike, or give me any data, since I don�t know why Healers are
so obsessive.�

�� Portillo
Lopez�s smile might have had a little more strained patience this time. �The
Healers are drawn on because of the need to serve life,� she said. �That much
is commonly accepted. When you feel the raw force of life itself
flowing through your fingers, knitting skin and bone together or removing a
botched potion from someone�s system, then you wish to continue. And of course,
most of the candidates for Healer positions genuinely wish to help others.

�� With
necromancy, one does not have the same options, of course, but one does have the same contact with raw
forces. In this case, it is the coldness and the stillness of corpses, the lack
of change that separates the dead from the living.� Portillo Lopez cocked her
head, eyes glinting. �Not all my fellow Order members agree with me. But there
are some people who are more susceptible to that call, I believe, just as there
are those who are almost doomed to become Healers.�

�� So what
happened with me?� Harry asked. He had to admit this idea made more sense to
him than some of the books he had read, although he didn�t know what proof
Portillo Lopez really had. �Why didn�t I give in to death?�

�� Two
reasons.� Portillo Lopez lifted two fingers. �Either one may be true, or
perhaps both. I am not sure.

�� The first.� She folded down one finger. �You are simply too
committed to life to give in as many others do. You could give up your life for
someone else, I know that, but in the meantime, you live it impulsively. You
have experienced more in your young years than other wizards, too, which may
help. I would not be surprised,� she added in a musing tone, �if the incidence
of necromancers in the next generation drops. So many of them experienced the
war, and that brings them into contact with death and makes it horribly,
frighteningly real, not the abstraction it often is for those under fifty.�

�� Harry
nodded, not sure what else he could add to that, or say.

�� The other
possibility is the one I saw written on your skin when Holder performed her
little spell.� Portillo Lopez could never speak about Holder without a twitch
in her jaw, but she did sound calmer this time, as compared to others. �Return. You died
and then came back to life, didn�t you?�

�� Harry
scowled at her. �I don�t know,� he said. �I really don�t. I thought I did, but
no one comes back from the Killing Curse, do they? And don�t say anything about
this,� he added, tapping his scar. �My mother�s love was what protected me, not
some miraculous ability to get resurrected.�

�� Portillo
Lopez shook her head. �Life and death are more mysterious than we often
consider them,� she said. �Necromancy proves that the absolute barriers are not
so absolute. And that is what will help us develop weapons against Nihil.�

�� What
will?� Harry demanded. �I think he knows that those barriers are flimsy. He
goes back and forth between them like curtains all the time.�

�� But his
essential nature does not change,� said Portillo Lopez, with a slow smile. �And
change is the condition of life, of the body, as it is not of the spirit. I
believe it is the key to your art as well.�

�� Because snakes are living things?� Harry knew he was
guessing in the dark, but he had no idea what Portillo Lopez was saying.

�� In part,�
Portillo Lopez said. Harry contained his impatient sigh by biting his lips. It
seemed that every answer he came up with was only partially right. �And snakes
shed their skins, changing their bodies in a way that an entity like Nihil
cannot understand any longer.�

�� He changes
bodies.� Harry�s head was beginning to hurt.

�� But not in
the same way.� Portillo Lopez tapped her fingers on her knee, her nails
sounding as though they were grating on bone. �And then there is the
non-material nature of the illusions that you worked with to create your first
necromancy effect, as compared to the material nature of the bodies that Nihil
prefers to occupy or place souls under his control within.�

�� Harry
resigned himself to a headache, and to a longer
conversation before they managed to do anything worth the doing. He hoped that
Draco was having more luck.

�� Then he
remembered who Draco was working with and winced.

�� I doubt that any luck I can wish him is
enough for the situation.

*

�� Things
would go much more easily for you if you would cooperate with me, Trainee
Malfoy.�

�� Draco was
grateful, in a way he had never been before, for those long hours of trying to
please his father, either by doing perfectly the first time tasks Lucius had
never explained to him before or remaining calm and still when he was a child
who wanted to make noise. It was the only reason Alice Holder was alive rather
than dead at his hand in a fit of abject frustration.

�� She stood
in front of him in one of the smaller tents that filled the camp, her hands
wrapped around her wand and her eyes never moving from his face. Draco knew
why. The Head Auror�s attack dog was still convinced that he and Harry had been
up to no good, even when they�d explained everything�well, almost
everything�and she was waiting for the moment when he gave up the �good�
disguise and leaped for her throat.

�� Keep this up and you�ll see a demonstration
sooner than you�d like, Draco thought, but reminded himself that that was
the way she wanted him to act and think. He would retain his independence and
his tranquility. In the end, he knew, that would hurt her much worse than
anything else he could do.

�� I�m
trying, Auror Holder,� he said. �But perhaps you could explain your requests to
me again? I didn�t understand them the first time, which is entirely my fault, I�m sure.�

�� Holder
turned away, to the flap of the tent, and looked out of it as if she didn�t
trust the trainees and the Aurors working with them not to blow each other up
without her presence. Draco took the moment to study her back for weaknesses.
Unfortunately, there didn�t seem to be any. Her balance was perfect, and he had
already seen that she knew more and nastier spells than most Aurors.

�� It is
simple enough,� Holder said, her speech as patterned
as a tile floor. �I want to know what torture you think is necessary to break
your partner.�

�� Draco bowed
his head. �And that is the point where my understanding fails, Auror,� he said,
imitating her tone, though not closely enough to count as mockery. He achieved
his purpose, anyway, making her turn her head to look at him with narrowed
eyes, suspicious but unsure. �Why would you need to know how to break Harry? I
thought I was supposed to discuss, with you, torture techniques that would be
useful on Nihil�s underlings. He is the one who has the extreme fear of
torture, after all.�

�� Your
partner is a necromancer,� Holder said. �The application from one to the other
ought to make sense even to you.�

�� A
necromancer of a different type than Nihil is,� Draco said, lifting his head.
�Or there would be no point in having him work with Battle Healer Portillo
Lopez.� He gave most people their full titles around Holder, for the same
reason he�d done it around Professor Snape.

�� I wish to
know general techniques as well as specific ones,� Holder said, and her wand
spun once in her hands. �Tell me.�

�� Draco spent
a moment composing himself. Yes, the request enraged
him, annoyed him, and made him want to jab his own wand into Holder�s throat.
But doing all that would mean giving in to the feelings she was trying to stir
in him. He would be better off if he simply managed to lie to her.

�� And win more of a victory, as well. Power
was more crucial in these circumstances that any others where Draco had ever
wanted it.

�� You must
know,� Draco said, lowering his voice so it would become portentous and
widening his eyes to the limit he thought he could manage without Holder
thinking him an actor, �that Harry survived a lot during the war. The worst
Voldemort and his minions could do to him was as nothing to him.� As a matter
of fact, he knew that Harry had escaped torture at least in Malfoy Manor and
during the final battle. Granger was the one who had suffered his aunt�s tender
mercies at the Manor. But what right did Holder have to that knowledge?

�� Holder
nodded back to him. �I was, in fact, aware of that, Trainee Malfoy.�

�� Draco
glared, not thinking she would take it amiss, since she already knew that he resented
working with her. �Well, it takes unusual
torture to wring much of a response from him. For example, drawing a small
amount of blood from his finger would work.�

�� Holder�s
rising eyebrows were as eloquent a demand for an explanation as words would
have been. Draco obliged. �Necromancers use blood in their rituals,� he said.
�Losing even a little bit of blood makes them panic.
Harry�s the same way.�

�� I knew
there was no great difference between them,� Holder said, a mere breath behind her words. �What else?�

�� The anticipation of torture can do a lot on
its own.� This statement had more basis in reality than the notion of pricking
a necromancer�s finger, and Draco closed his eyes as he remembered the look in Aran�s eyes�well, the eyes of the man who had once been Aran�as he leaned back against the wall in the room where
he had died. �Threaten enough, and Nihil�s people may at least spill secrets.
They know that they don�t have his ability to pass through death and come into
a new body, unless he grants it to them, and he doesn�t do that for everyone.
The spell I used was a strangling one. Simple torture, but
effective.�

��

�I will remember that,� said
Holder. �And I will remember how good you are at this, Malfoy.�

�Thank you, Auror,� Draco said meekly.
He waited until she left the tent before he turned and sought out parchment and
ink. This was the tent he and Harry had been granted, as partners, and Draco
had taken on the task of organizing it and�not that anyone but Harry knew
this�regularly summoning a house-elf from the Manor to make sure fresh supplies
were always in reach.

Draco wanted to work with the
Aurors. He wanted to complete his training. He wanted to see Nihil defeated.
But nowhere in that group of desires was the desire to be bullied and
threatened and asked what kinds of torture might work on his partner.

�� Holder
might genuinely believe that Harry was a threat. She might want to make sure
that there was a way of stopping him if he ever behaved the way she manifestly
expected a necromancer to behave. Draco didn�t think she was evil in the same
sense that Nihil was; her loyalty was to Head Auror Robards.

�� But he
still hadn�t agreed to this, and he wouldn�t be her toy or her pawn in a power
struggle against Harry. He wrote a letter explaining the situation in a few
lines, and then whistled softly.

�� Flash,
Harry�s fire-dancer, lay asleep in a corner of the tent, but he opened one eye
and lifted his head when he saw Draco looking at him. Beside him, Politesse,
the small scorpion-tailed dog that Harry had acquired for Draco, lifted his
head in turn, and then put it down again with a small whine when he realized
that Draco wasn�t trying to summon him.

�� Sorry,
you�re too distinctive, and you don�t have wings,� Draco told him. �Flash can
go fast enough that most people won�t realize he�s not an owl.� He extended the
letter. �Will you take this to the large field on the outside of camp for me,
and give it to the woman who�s leading them?�

�� Flash took
his time sitting up and shaking out his wings, as if to show that he owed only
provisional loyalty to Draco as Harry�s partner. Draco didn�t mind the wait. He
was still too pleased with himself for getting Harry a companion who could
accompany him into battle�when he was allowed to do so�and with both animals
for surviving Nihil�s attack on the trainee barracks. They had fled to Granger
and Weasley and shadowed them all the way to the training camp.

�� Thank
you,� Draco said quietly, when Flash leaped up from his perch on the back of
their bed and flew over to take the letter. Flash beat his brilliant wings once
in irritated acknowledgement and then soared out the top of the tent.

�� Politesse
came over and stood swishing his tail back and forth, while staring at Draco.
Draco picked up the little dog and held him close, stroking his short grey fur.
Politesse sighed in response and turned his head to watch the way Holder had
gone.

�� I don�t
like her either,� Draco agreed. �But we only need to work for her at the
moment. I think she�ll be very
interested in working with me once we explain the situation to her.�

�� Politesse
lowered his chin to rest on Draco�s arm in response. Draco stroked his fur and
watched the tent flap, waiting.

�� He didn�t
have long to waste in that. The flap pulled back abruptly and Auror Gregory
stepped in, asking as she came, �Is there a reason that you wished to interrupt
my practice with my students?�

�� Draco eyed
her for a moment without answering. Gregory was like Holder in the haughtiness
of her expression and the way she moved that betrayed her training, but Draco
had never seen her keep her temper under provocation as Holder had done this
morning, or so coldly respond to someone. She had
launched curses at him when she thought Draco was working with Dearborn, one of
Nihil�s identities, and already corrupted by him. She took some delight in
taunting people who didn�t know what they were doing. Draco had to admit that
Jennifer Morningstar, the Auror who had taken her place as Combat teacher when
Gregory fled the Aurors, was probably a better instructor, but he knew where he
stood with Gregory.

�� If I can persuade her to
stand in the same place. But
since she hated Nihil, Draco thought he could.

�� I was with
Holder,� he said. �She wanted to know what torture techniques would work on
Nihil, since he formed out of an experience of torture.�

�� I heard
that much.� Gregory�s hair swished against her cheek as she nodded. �But what
does that have to do with me?�

�� Draco
leaned forwards, ignoring the way Politesse growled. Even though Gregory�s
attack had happened before Draco acquired Politesse, the dog seemed to regard
her as a menace. �She also sought to make me tell her what sorts of torture
would work against Harry.�

�� Gregory
snored. �Despite what you might think, Malfoy, going against your precious
Potter does not automatically make one evil.�

�� But it
wastes time,� Draco said. �I know now that it won�t matter to Holder, and
probably not to Robards, how many professions of
loyalty we give, and how often we obey them. They�ll still treat us like outsiders.
I want more power than they�ll give me. I think you can help me with that.�

�� Gregory
studied him. �And what do I get out of it?�

�� A way to
defeat Nihil,� Draco said. �I�m certain that he�s afraid of torture, but I need
someone who won�t try to use the information I give against my partner in the
mistaken belief that any two necromancers are the same.�

�� I could
decide to torture Potter,� Gregory said. �You never know.�

�� Draco
laughed openly at her. �You don�t do sly well. And I think that you�re more
concerned about Nihil than about us, as long as we don�t turn traitor to your
precious Aurors.�

�� There�s
that, isn�t there?� Gregory had a bright stare when she wanted to use it, like
a blackbird�s. �Very well. But I hardly think that
Holder and Robards will let you stop helping her.
What are you going to do about that?�

�� Feed her
false information,� Draco said. �Work with you to develop the real techniques.
As long as you think you�ll have the stomach for it.�

�� Gregory�s smile
flickered for a minute. �I didn�t always keep ahead of Nihil�s spies and
fighters, and the ones he sent after me weren�t always the living dead,� she
said. �One of them caught up with us and killed two of the trainees I�d
recruited by making them swallow their own lungs. I staked him down and cut his lungs out, then kept him alive with
certain other spells while I fed him the lungs piece by piece. I think I can do
this, Malfoy.�

�� Draco nodded, more impressed than he wanted to show�though he let
one gleam of it through, so he wouldn�t think he was discounting her. �I�m
convinced.�

�� Good.�
Gregory whirled and strode out of the tent.

�� Politesse
growled again. Draco stroked his head and shut his eyes, leaning back. One part
of his plan�how to develop his weapon against Nihil
without going through the frankly hostile Holder�accomplished.

�� Now he had
to discover how to get on the front lines and continue developing into the war
leader he knew he could 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

Seasons of War