herumtreiber

Title: The Lord Appellant 4/37
Chapter: It's a matter of trust
Author:

herumtreiber
Genre: Slash, romance, adventure, dark!fic
Pairing: Draco/Blaise, one sided Harry/Draco
Rating: R
Warnings for the fic: It's a dark fic, rape is mentioned several times. Dementors appear and not for show. Character death (not Harry, Draco or Blaise). Evil!Ron, powerful Hermione, Pansy and Bellatrix. Sympathetic to Slytherins.
Epilogue compliant? No
Chapter length: ~1,437 words
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or related characters. Nor do I make any money from writing these stories.
Summary: After the events of HBP, the Minister of Magic wants to finish the Malfoys but Draco uses a Wizengamot procedure to fight back. Veelas and Siddhe appear in the story as Draco uses political means to contest the pureblood's allegiance to Voldemort.
Notes: I wrote this before DH was published, so please no picayune comments about canon.

Table of contents

3. Ultimatum

Draco spoke to the Wizengamot, "After today, it is glaringly obvious that the Wizarding World has dealt quite unfairly with its so-called Children of Prophecy. I alone know what I suffered to arrive here today, and I can observe how carefully shielded Harry Potter has been. Important things and events, history, have been kept from him, and it has only served to weaken him, and by extension, us."

"I should hope the Wizengamot learns this valuable lesson and changes accordingly its treatment of the Children of Prophecy."

Hermione did what she did best, observe shrewdly. She came to the conclusion that Draco Malfoy made a fearsome enemy, but that was in disagreement with earlier data of their encounters, so something fundamental must have been changed.

She also saw that Draco cared about Harry, at some level. Perhaps 'care' was too strong a word.

When the session ended, she decided to confer with Harry and share with him her observations. She Apparated to Harry's department. She was able to see someone Apparating away, someone she thought she'd seen before. When she opened the door, she found Harry in good spirits, when she gave her report, Harry paid her no mind until she mentioned Malfoy, and then he was all ears, as usual. When she suggested that Draco Malfoy cared a little for him, Harry's reaction was scary, he thinned his lips, frowned and looked as malevolent as Voldemort. He just nodded and told her to go on.

To her suggestion that Malfoy's new-found prowess required careful analysis, he reacted with scorn. Apparently Malfoy was a slimy git who just got lucky and found some good lackeys, or what he thought were good lackeys, and picked their brains for inspiration, being too spoiled to think for himself.

When Hermione mentioned the Appellant's trial, Harry closed himself off. She would prefer it if he raged, vented or had a magical attack, just as long as he let it out. More and more each day, it seemed that Harry kept things bottled inside, unless it was about Malfoy, where he would react with all the subtlety of a six-year-old.

These days Harry seemed to know instinctively where Malfoy was, he didn't need to search for him, he just found him, which was quite scary, considering their history.

Then Ron came up and all the planning went all the window, as all Ron and Harry did was rant and rave about Malfoy.

Harry could hardly wait for Ron to leave. He was elated. Zabini, Malfoy's right-hand man, had told him how he could get Malfoy alone. He had given the keywords for the wards around Malfoy Manor, with this, Malfoy was lost.

Harry had been distrustful, so he administered veritaserum in Blaise's tea and he had told Harry that Draco did not know anything about this plan, didn't suspect anything and trusted Zabini completely. About Blaise's intentions in the plot, he said he just wanted the child of prophecy to get rid of his shackles, and this was the only way according to him.

Tomorrow he would check the wards around the Manor, and if he could enter, then he'd send a message to Draco Malfoy, supposed Child of Dark, for a tête-à-tête meeting where they'd be alone, and he'd be in a position to teach Malfoy an important lesson about trust.

Draco was taking breakfast in the North Wing when he felt a small twitch which might have been a person passing through the wards or a corporal movement.

He was trying to school his thoughts away from a certain person, but they would invariably return to him. He felt a restlessness which had come forth at first on his 15th Birthday, when he first became aware that he had a mate. The change was hard enough, but when he learned who his mate was, he felt like Fate was laughing at him.

In fact, a little later that year he felt the need to remove himself from this Earth, and if Pansy had not found him, he would have surely died.

It was then that he took up what he'd call 'mental sailing,' hop aboard a thought and follow it as far as you can, all the while being aware of your surroundings, because if you stay fixed, if you stay in 'mental terra firme' invariably you'll land in thoughts of him, and then you will only want to go and ravish him, which would mean expulsion and death, or you'll want his attention by being a thorn in his side, only your treacherous thoughts will have already provided a happy ending – for him.

After breakfast, Pansy walked up to him with a message. She said, "from Potter."

Malfoy

Suggest a reunion to iron out our differences. A tête-à-tête at your place at six would be fine.

Potter

This short letter evoked so many different signs of wrongness, but what was more bewildering and worrying was the thought that he had little choice in the matter; if Potter wanted to see him, then invariably Potter should be able to see him.

Draco called Blaise, handed him the letter and told him to prepare the place. If Blaise flinched, only someone who knew him well would notice. When Blaise remained silent and even made to stand up, Draco said exasperated, "Blaise, there's only you I trust with something as delicate as this. You have to be aware of everything."

On his way out he added, "As long as I live I'll trust you, Blaise."

Blaise turned his face to the window so no one would notice the teardrop making its way down from his right eye.

A while later Draco looked out from his office and noticed many of his friends; when he inquired about Blaise, they told him he'd gone to check the wards. He invited them to the office and Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy, Theo Nott and Millicent Bulstrode walked in.

He served them tea and they made small talk until he said, "I called you because something is going to happen tonight, I don't know what, I only know it will be big. You must stand tall, hold the fort, and follow instructions."

Nott said, "Your instructions?"

Draco was uncharacteristically diffident as he replied, "Errm, no, mine no. It's Blaise's instructions you have to follow."

Everyone started talking at once until Draco lost his cool and bellowed: "Shut up!"

"There is a thorny situation and only Blaise understands all the implications. Therefore, in characteristic Slytherin cunning fashion, he is the General. His word stands. If he and I give opposite orders, you must follow his, because only his will be based on the whole truth."

Nott said, "Is it like at the Department of Mysteries?"

Draco replied, "A whole magnitude different, but the principles apply." In the Mysteries debacle, only Draco perusing a document left behind by Lucius had opportunely warned the Order of the Phoenix. But this almost caused the discovery of Draco as a spy because the document was so specific only Lucius Malfoy would have it. Nott's brilliance was in the way in which he had house elves produce a similar document for his Death Eater cousin, when the Dark Lord passed, noticed it and deduced the culpability of his cousin. And so Draco was spared.

Millicent, as was her wont, was the outspoken one, "Do you trust Blaise? What if he has allied himself with Potter or someone else?"

Draco replied regally, if a little annoyed, "I trust him implicitly and explicitly, Millie. I know he will not willingly hurt me. But I cannot force you to trust him, so obey his orders, and you have the liberty of safeguarding your life if you deem it in danger."

Draco continued, "In the Wizengamot we saw the weakness of judging before all the facts are known. I must ask you to reserve judgment until all the facts surrounding the cases may be known."

Draco spoke, "And you know how angry I am when justice is miscarried, so be careful, cautious and careful."

Blaise told Draco that all the people were out of the Manor at quarter to six. Because of the way the wards worked, they had to leave in shifts. Blaise left at last, and Draco was sailing his mental sea, trying to avoid the dark-haired menace.

Draco was wearing tight jeans, with trainers and a yellow T-shirt which accented his lithe frame, he wouldn't have cared (Or part of his mind would have cared at any rate) that such an attire would be highly arousing for Harry Potter.

5. Rape interruptus