Celandine's Chronicle (celandineb) wrote in cels_fic_haven, @ 2007-08-08 20:42:00 |
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Entry tags: | hp fic better than revenge, hp fic draco/harry |
HP fic: Better Than Revenge, ch. 21: At the Burrow [Harry/Draco, general]
Title: Better Than Revenge
chapter 21, "At the Burrow"
Author: celandineb
Fandom: HP
Pairing: Harry/Draco
Rating: general
Summary: Despite Draco's reluctance, they go to the Weasleys' house where they play a pickup Quidditch game with Ron and Ginny while Hermione does some research. Later Harry has a long talk with Ginny.
Harry snagged the last slice of now-cold pizza before Draco could. He was trying to think of a way to go back to their conversation about who else at Hogwarts was queer – he had a guess or two about that – when a familiar tap sounded at the window.
"Hedwig!" He was delighted that she had managed to find him, and tried to give her one of the leftover pizza crusts. She would not eat it but dipped her beak into his plastic cup of water, then hooted at him softly. He took the message off her leg.
Dear Harry,
What on earth are you doing? I thought you were worried that You-Know-Who might have a spy watching for Hedwig. Ron went and checked with both Kingsley Shacklebolt and Mad-Eye Moody, and neither of them thinks that Y.K.W. can locate his Death Eaters directly through the Dark Mark – so Professor Snape was wrong to have told Draco that. You should still be careful though!
Hermione
When Draco heard that the two Aurors had as much as said that Snape had lied about Voldemort tracing him through the Mark, he looked stricken, or so Harry thought, although Draco covered it well, speculating about why Snape might have said what he did.
Harry suspected Snape had done it to make Draco search for Harry, despite there being no obvious motive for such an action. It was mostly a feeling that Snape would do anything he could to make Harry's life miserable, and he could reasonably have expected that saddling Harry with Draco would have that effect.
It did not really matter why Snape had done it, as Draco pointed out. They no longer had to worry in the same way about being careful to move on every day to a new place, and he would be able to help Harry search for Horcruxes at the Riddle house in Little Hangleton and at Hogwarts, too. The thought did not bring Harry much comfort. He had wanted to find the Horcruxes by himself, without even Ron and Hermione's help. It should be his own responsibility to do what was necessary to defeat Voldemort. Having Draco along would diminish that, but he shrank from revealing his feelings; they seemed petty, put into words, maybe even insulting.
Instead he asked Draco to help him write a quick reply to Hermione so Hedwig could take it back that night. Their message asked if she knew whether an attempt at Transfiguring the Dark Mark might not act as a summons to the Death Eaters, and told her they planned to go to Little Hangleton the next day. Harry added a postscript to say that Draco had suggested that R.A.B. had been Regulus Black, which seemed entirely likely to him.
After Hedwig had departed for the Burrow, Draco poured them some wine and asked, "All right, why are you upset by the fact that I can't be traced through the Mark after all?"
Harry had not realized that Draco could read him so easily. Reluctantly, he tried to explain. It was not that he resented Draco in particular for having overturned his plans; he would have been unhappy whoever had done it. The Vow that Draco had taken made the whole situation more complicated, though, precisely because it didn't upset Harry as much as he thought it should have done.
What he did not spell out for Draco was how uncertain he was about how he felt towards the other boy. It was more than just lust, though that was definitely a part of it. It was not the same kind of protective ardor he felt towards Ginny, nor was it simply friendship. He did not know quite what it was, and he did not want to think about it right now, and needing to do so made him angry at Draco for making him so confused and angrier still at Snape who had put them both in this position in the first place. If Snape had not lied, Draco would not be here, and Harry would not have to worry about how he felt about Draco.
Admitting that he was angry at Snape, and even a bit at Draco, was safe enough as an explanation for his irritation. Harry was relieved when Draco said that he was also angry at his former Head of House as well for sending him chasing pointlessly all over the country.
"It's the kind of malicious thing I'd expect from him. I used to hate the two of you about equally, but he's pulled way ahead now," Harry said.
"Way ahead?" Draco's face fell.
Oh. "Well, you did break my nose last autumn," said Harry, "but 'hate' is too strong a word... especially after last night. Call it leftover annoyance."
"I hope last night was only the first night... you weren't going to say no tonight, were you?" Draco said, his expression one of confident desire, belied somewhat by the vulnerability in his eyes.
How could Harry resist? "No, I won't say no," Harry told him, and found himself caught up in a tomato-and-wine-flavored kiss that led by stages to rather more, culminating for Harry when he came so intensely that for a moment he could not see. He hoped that he had done as well for Draco, but was too diffident to ask.
Draco wanted to sleep in the same bed together, but Harry refused. "They're too narrow, neither of us would sleep well, and we have a lot to do tomorrow. I'd like to search the graveyard first, and then start on the old Riddle house."
He was reluctant to return to the graveyard at Little Hangleton, and when they had Apparated there, carefully avoided walking over the spot where Cedric Diggory had died. He appreciated that Draco did the same, although he said nothing. Maybe having someone with him in this search would be less intrusive than he thought... but it was still not his idea.
As it happened, the graveyard yielded no trace of a Horcrux, and they could have avoided it – except that it was better to be certain not to overlook any possibility. The Riddle house was more promising, both for its size and number of potential hiding places, and also because Harry knew that Voldemort had stayed in the house for some time, two years before, which suggested a strong attachment to it.
Draco had been levitating his chest of Galleons along behind himself this whole time, disguised under Harry's Invisibility Cloak. Now he let it settle in a corner of the hallway. Harry told him to bring the cloak along as they searched, thinking that in the unlikely event that any Muggles turned up, they could use it to hide. He watched as Draco tucked it in his rucksack, noting in a corner of his mind how neatly Draco folded the cloak, whereas Harry would have simply shoved it in anyhow.
He was trying to decide whether it would be best to split up and search separately or not. It would be faster, but he was reluctant to let Draco search by himself; not that Harry knew what a Horcrux would look like either, but he hoped he might somehow recognize one if he saw it, since he had seen and destroyed Tom Riddle's diary. Draco certainly had no such experience. What if he overlooked something that Harry might not?
As Harry hesitated, Draco said, "We could go through together, room by room. If there are any protective spells on the thing, it would probably be safer to have two people there."
"You sound as practical as Hermione," said Harry, grinning, happy that Draco had been the one to propose working together. For all that he had wanted to conduct the whole search alone, it was reassuring to have someone else there. And if he was present, he could feel that he was responsible for any success. "Let's do that, then."
It took the whole morning and into the early afternoon to search through most of the ground floor rooms. They had agreed to skip lunch and go find an early dinner when they finished with that floor, and were about to begin the final room when Hedwig returned with another note from Hermione.
This time she said that she thought Draco's apprehension that Transfiguring the Mark could summon the Death Eaters might be justified, and that she would do some more research but they had better come to the Burrow that night to talk it over instead of waiting two more days.
"Great, I'm sure Mrs. Weasley will give us a good dinner, and we can talk about the Horcruxes too," Harry said excitedly, before he noticed Draco's evident lack of enthusiasm. "You don't want to go?"
"No," said Draco flatly.
"Why not? If you're still thinking of the Weasleys as blood traitors, not to be associated with, get over it – Ron's been my best friend since I first went to Hogwarts, and his parents treat me almost like another son. So if you're going to be with me, you'll have to deal with that."
"I'm not worried about them being blood traitors, Harry, I'm one myself now – or so my family would say."
"So, what's the problem?"
Draco's voice was toneless. "Will Ginny be there?"
"Oh, hell," said Harry. "Yeah, I expect she will." His thoughts chased wildly around his head. Would Ginny be able to look at him and tell that he had been fooling around – more than that, he admitted, a lot more – with Draco? Hermione had guessed, after all, and Ginny had a lot more reason to care. Dean always claimed that he could spot a non-virgin. What if Ginny could do that? Was Harry not really a virgin now, after what he had Draco had done? He didn't know, and it worried him.
There was no way that Harry could legitimately avoid going to the Burrow when Hermione was so insistent, but...
"You don't have to go, Draco, you could stay alone in a hostel somewhere just for tonight, and we could meet here tomorrow morning."
"That would be stupid. What if there's some kind of test or measurement that Hermione needs to make on the Mark? No, I'll go," said Draco, biting his lip. "Just, er, if we're asked to stay the night, I'd rather not share a room with you and Ron, if that's possible?"
"They probably will want us to stay, but it should be all right. I expect Mrs. Weasley'd put you in Fred and George's old room, or maybe Percy's. She'll put me in with Ron, I always share his room, just like Hermione stays in Ginny's." Harry still felt apprehensive about the prospect of Draco at the Burro, but relieved that Draco was not going to insist that the two of them share a room. That would be awfully hard to explain.
He spent the rest of the time until they left, as they searched through the last ground-floor room of the Riddle house, talking about the Weasleys and the Burrow and speculating on what Mrs. Weasley might make for dinner, too nervous about what Ginny might think or say or do to notice that Draco made only the tersest responses to his chatter.
The Burrow had its familiar tottering and ungainly appearance when they Apparated into the back garden. To Harry it was homely and beautiful, though he heard Draco sniff and elbowed him in the ribs.
"Be polite."
"Wasn't I polite at the Grangers'?"
"Yeah, you were. Okay, come on then."
Hedwig soared before them as they walked up to the door, which flew open before they were within ten yards. Hermione, Ron, and Ginny burst out, all talking at once.
"Harry, you're here!" Ginny hugged him, letting go quickly when he patted her awkwardly on the back.
"We didn't think you'd get here till dinner-time," said Ron.
"Hello, Draco," Hermione said. "Here give me that rucksack – Ron, you take Harry's – let's get all this inside first."
Harry was absurdly grateful to Hermione for having greeted Draco when the two Weasleys had ignored him. This might not be so bad after all. He felt relaxed enough that he let Ginny take his hand as they followed the other three inside.
"Harry, dear," Mrs. Weasley said as they trooped through the kitchen, "go on up, you know where everything is. Ron, I've put fresh sheets on the bed in Percy's room, show Draco that. You are staying, aren't you?" she added, wiping her hands on her apron as she hurried forward to envelop Harry in a hug.
"Yes, thank you," he said breathlessly as she let him go. "It's very nice of you."
"Not at all, not at all. Go on, boys, dinner's not for two hours. Ginny, I need your help just for a few minutes, please."
"Mum'd keep you here forever if she could, Harry," said Ron in an undertone as they headed towards the stairs. "She's been going on and on about how dangerous what you're doing is, and how you're underage, and all that."
"Only for three more days," Harry pointed out.
"Yeah, I know, but that doesn't matter to her. 'He's still in school,'" Ron mimicked. "'He should leave this to older and wiser wizards and concentrate on his studies.' She doesn't know you're not planning to go back."
"You ought to, really," said Hermione earnestly, turning around and stopping. "I know it's important to find the Horcruxes and destroy them as soon as possible, before You-Know-Who and his followers get any stronger, but don't you think you'll be better prepared if you finish with your N.E.W.T.s first? Especially Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Charms and Transfiguration as well."
"I've made up my mind," Harry said. "Don't try to get me to change it. It's the only thing to be done. Even Dumbledore was putting finding the Horcruxes first most of last year, he was away from the school half the time, remember?"
Hermione sighed, but did not argue further, only being unnecessarily loud as she clumped upward.
"Are you really leaving Hogwarts?" Draco murmured to Harry as they dropped Draco's rucksack and chest off in the room he would be using. It was as tidy as when Percy had had it, but with no remaining sign of the third Weasley son. Harry wondered which parent had cleared every trace of him away.
"Yeah." Harry nodded firmly. "C'mon."
They went up three more flights to let Harry leave his rucksack in Ron's room. Then the four of them went back downstairs and outside to talk.
Sitting cross-legged in the grass, Hermione asked Draco a lot of detailed questions about the Dark Mark and what he knew of how the summoning was done, most of which Draco was unable to answer to her satisfaction. After about fifteen minutes of this, and seeing Draco look crosser and crosser although still being fairly polite, Harry was almost happy when Ginny came out of the house to join them.
"So it darkens when he touches it," Hermione was saying. "Perhaps a Transfiguration of color alone first... to the color of your skin, maybe..." she trailed off, tapping one finger against her knee.
"Go look it up then, you know you want to," said Ron. "Now that Ginny's here, the rest of us could play a quick game of two-on-two Quidditch before dinner, there's enough time."
"All right," said Hermione, and blinked. "Draco, you can use my broom if you want, it's in the shed."
"Thanks," said Draco.
"It's the Comet 260," she called back over her shoulder as she disappeared inside.
"That'll be great, it's what I flew at home for years," Draco said to Harry as they walked toward the shed. "It's awfully nice of her to lend it to me."
Harry nodded. He had left his Firebolt at the Weasleys', and ran his hand lovingly over the polished handle when he picked it up.
"I flew it a couple of times," said Ron. "Just as a change from the Cleansweep, you know."
"Well, I said you could, didn't I?" Harry replied cheerfully. "Shall we toss to choose sides?" He absolutely did not want to have to express a preference for a Quidditch partner.
"Well, both you and Malfoy usually Seek, so you shouldn't be on the same team. We'll toss to see whether you play with me or Ginny," Ron said. "Ginny, you call it."
Ginny called tails, and lost, which left Ron and Harry playing against Ginny and Draco – perhaps the best arrangement Harry could have hoped to get. Both Ginny and Draco put on expressions of determined politeness as they mounted their brooms and took off. Harry swooped and soared, getting used to the feel of his broom again. It was thrilling to be riding once more. Apparating was all very well, but there was something much more exciting about feeling the wind rushing past one's face.
For a four-player game, they used the Quaffle plus a single Bludger to make it more of a challenge. Neither of his opponents seemed to want to hit the Bludger at Harry, though, directing the ball at Ron almost every time.
"Oi!" Ron finally yelled in exasperation as he hit the Bludger back at his sister, "You're playing against Harry, Ginny, for Merlin's sake act like it!"
"Sorry," Ginny blushed bright red, and Harry saw out of the corner of his eye as he swerved past her to snatch the Quaffle that Draco had also colored, as if only just realizing that he had been doing the same thing.
After that the game went rather better, even if Harry thought that both Draco and Ginny were overly prone to fly close enough to touch him, seemingly by accident. Draco turned out to be a rather good impromptu Keeper, blocking five of Harry's attempts to score and six of Ron's, and Ginny showed the same ability at Chasing that she had done at the Gryffindor tryouts the previous fall. By the time Hermione came to yell up to them that dinner was nearly ready, Ginny and Draco had accumulated a score of 240 to Ron and Harry's 210.
"Good game," said Draco, putting out his hand to Ron, who looked bemused for a moment but eventually shook it.
"Good game, partner," he said gravely to Ginny, who replied that Draco should have played as Keeper for Slytherin instead of Seeker, as he was far better than Roland Urquhart.
"Good game," Draco said to Harry, without a touch or even a smile. Harry knew why. He would have done the same, in fact was doing the same – but it hurt a little nonetheless.
They put the brooms away and were sent off to wash their hands before Mrs. Weasley would let them come to the table. There was a tremendous dish of toad-in-the-hole in front of Mr. Weasley and the table was crowded with a dozen other bowls and platters, all heaped and steaming and smelling delicious. Harry felt a pig when he took fourths, but he had had no lunch, after all, and Mrs. Weasley seemed pleased that he was eating so much. Both Ron and Draco matched him, which made him feel a bit better, but Hermione and Ginny both stopped after a small second helping and sat, looking faintly superior, as the boys kept eating.
Draco had been placed on one side of Harry, Ginny on the other, and he kept his eyes firmly fixed on Hermione across the table every time he had to look up from his plate. Hermione refused to meet his gaze, however, talking in a slightly strained voice with Mr. Weasley about Muggle television.
After dinner was over, though, Hermione somehow convinced both Ron and Draco to join her in a game of Exploding Snap, in which Harry knew she had absolutely no interest. He was certain she had done it to give him the opportunity of talking with Ginny. He supposed it was something he would have to do sooner or later, but he would rather it have been later. Much later. Preferably once he had figured things out a bit more.
She was sitting with her feet tucked under her on the sofa beside him, and the faint flowery smell that always clung to her hair made Harry remember so many things – kissing her after she had brought Gryffindor to the win against Ravenclaw last spring, sitting together down by the lake, even, most oddly, seeing her shaking and crying after he had killed the basilisk and destroyed Tom Riddle's diary in the Chamber of Secrets. He touched her hand and tried to ignore Draco watching them from behind his cards on the other side of the room.
"Ginny."
"I was really worried about you when Ron told me you were having to travel around with Draco Malfoy," she said, sliding her fingers between his.
"Yeah... it wasn't exactly something I'd've chosen."
"But Hermione says he took an Unbreakable Vow to be loyal to you? I couldn't believe it. Did he really do that?"
"He did. It was his idea, and Hermione cast the spell so I know it's genuine. He thought that Voldemort could track him through the Mark – that's what Snape told him, and he'd been on the run for weeks. I think he had a pretty awful time before he found me and asked for help," said Harry. "Maybe the Vow was his way of repaying me for that. And now it seems that Snape lied to him, and he couldn't really have been traced that way."
"You feel sorry for him, don't you?" Ginny asked, tilting her head up toward him. Harry could see the tendrils of hair curling about her neck and had a very clear flash of kissing her there, in the hollow of her throat, overlaid by an image of kissing Draco in just the same spot.
"I suppose so." Harry could not quite believe he was talking about Draco with Ginny. He chose his words carefully. "At first anyhow. I mean, he could've killed Dumbledore, and didn't, and that put him in real danger. Kind of like me, really. He's still an absolute ruddy git sometimes, but, well, not as awful as I used to think. He offered to help search for the Horcruxes, even."
"And you're going to let him help." Ginny looked cross, and Harry understood. He had refused her help, yet he was allowing it from a boy who had been his enemy for years.
"There's not a lot of choice, not with how he phrased that stupid Vow. He has to help me." Which was true, and if Ginny asked Hermione she would back up what Harry said. Assuming Hermione remembered the exact words, but knowing Hermione, Harry was sure she would. There was little point in Harry saying that he would rather have no one's help, and even less in saying that if he had to have someone, at least Draco was already living on borrowed time – so that if something happened to him, Harry would not bear the whole of the responsibility. He did not want to tell her the first, and she already knew the second. Harry was surprised to realize how much the thought of Draco being hurt or killed pained him. Not as much as if it were Ginny, or Hermione, or Ron, but still...
Ginny was talking again and Harry had not heard a word. "Sorry?"
"I said, do you think that you know where they are now? Have you learned something new?"
"No, not really. I'm just going through the places that seem most likely, as I'd planned to do by myself originally. We checked the graveyard at Little Hangleton this morning, and started on the Riddle house. We'll work more on that tomorrow," Harry said, combing his fingers through his hair. "I hope. Hermione was trying to work out a way to get the Dark Mark off Draco's arm, or alter it, as well, and if she has some spells to try I expect we'll have to stay here for that."
"You ought at least to come back on Thursday," said Ginny.
"Thursday?"
"Your birthday, Harry." She looked exasperated.
"Right, yeah."
"What's wrong with you tonight? You seem awfully, I don't know, distracted. Bothered about something."
"I'm worried about the Horcruxes," Harry offered.
Ginny just looked at him. All right, so it was a feeble excuse.
"And getting rid of the Dark Mark on Draco's arm, too."
"Uh huh." She narrowed her eyes. "Harry, I agreed to break up because you need to be free to do what you feel you must to defeat You-Know-Who. But that doesn't mean I've stopped being your friend and caring about you... and you seem more on edge than I'd think you would be. Hermione said that Draco can't be followed through the Mark, so that's much less of a problem not just for him but for you. And you've been able to start searching for the Horcruxes as you wanted, you've even got Draco to help you now. Unless that's the problem?"
"Sort of," Harry muttered.
"Is he not really helping, despite the Vow, then?"
"No..." He was reluctant to lie to Ginny, and he could not tell her the truth. Not the whole of it. He compromised, telling her what he could not tell Draco.
"I really don't want anyone helping me. Not you, not Ron or Hermione, not Draco. This is my responsibility."
Ginny leaned over and brushed his cheek with her lips. "I understand. But Harry, we all want to help... at least the three of us do, and I suppose Draco must as well, the Vow makes him. We're your friends, that's what friends do."
"I know." Harry wanted to kiss her back, but he did not dare. That could only lead to trouble. He owed it to her not to imply something that he was unwilling to follow through on. And Draco was only across the room. Not that he owed it to Draco not to kiss Ginny. "I know," he repeated, brushing the hair out of his eyes again and using the movement to casually lean away. "I'll let him help, I have to, but I won't put anyone else in danger if I can avoid it."
"But when You-Know-Who is defeated for good?"
"Then... who knows? Who knows if I'll even manage to do it?" He held back a shudder at the thought of trying to kill Voldemort.
"You will," said Ginny firmly. "You've beaten him before."
"My mum did it," Harry said.
"You did, too. Not just when you were a baby, think of everything that's happened in the past few years, from when he possessed Professor Quirrell to when he lured you to the Ministry to find the prophecy. Some of those times you had help, sure, but you're the one who really defeated him each time, wouldn't you say? You can do it." Her eyes were alight with confidence.
"I hope so," said Harry.
The game of Exploding Snap seemed to be over, with Ron gathering up the cards. Harry wanted to discuss the Horcruxes with his friends, but Mrs. Weasley herded them up to bed, and he decided that there would be time in the morning.
Lying in Ron's room, listening to his soft breathing, Harry was thankful that he seemed to have avoided any unpleasant scenes between Draco and Ginny... between him and any of the Weasley family, for that matter. Draco really had behaved better than Harry would have given him credit for, no disparaging comments about the house, no boasts about his own family. Not that he really could, under the circumstances, but still.
Harry thought about Draco. Hermione had said he had changed, and as usual, she was right. It did not seem to be just out of fear, either. With the information from the Aurors, there was less for Draco to fear than before, yet if anything he had been more amiable since learning that – if amiable was ever a word to apply to Draco Malfoy. He squirmed. He should not have had that cup of chocolate that Mrs. Weasley had pressed on them; now he needed the toilet and would not be able to get to sleep without going first.
He had to walk down two flights of stairs, to the floor where Ginny and Hermione were – he presumed – asleep in Ginny's room. If Hermione had not been there, he might have been tempted to knock at Ginny's door. As it was, he bent down and put his ear to the wood to see if perhaps they were still up and talking. No sound from there, but behind him the stairs creaked. He spun around, ready to tell one of the Weasleys that he had only leaned over to scratch his knee.
Draco raised a pale eyebrow. "Looking for someone?"
It was impossible that Draco would believe his excuse. "Yes."
"Ginny?"
"Yes."
"I see." There was a pause. "Of course."
And while Harry was trying to think of what to say, Draco disappeared down the stairs again.
Harry swore under his breath and followed. "Draco," he said, opening the door.
"Would you mind knocking, Potter? It's quite rude to enter someone's room uninvited." Draco was looking out of the window, his back to Harry.
Rolling his eyes, Harry stepped back into the hallway, pulled the door to, and tapped on it as requested.
"Come in."
Harry crossed over and stood behind Draco. "You've no cause to be upset, you know."
"Don't I?"
"No." Harry touched Draco's shoulder. "You don't."
ch. 1 / ch. 2 / ch. 3 / ch. 4 / ch. 5 / ch. 6 / ch. 7 / ch. 8 / ch. 9 / ch. 10 / ch. 11 / ch. 12 / ch. 13 / ch. 14 / ch. 15 / ch. 16 / ch. 17 / ch. 18 / ch. 19 / ch. 20 / ch. 21 / ch. 22 / ch. 23 / ch. 24 / ch. 25 / ch. 26 / ch. 27 / ch. 28 / ch. 29 / ch. 30 / ch. 31 / ch. 32 / ch. 33 / ch. 34 / ch. 35 / ch. 36 / ch. 37 / ch. 38 / ch. 39 / ch. 40