herumtreiber

Title: The Lord Appellant 9/37
Chapter: Dobby's true calling
Author:

herumtreiber
Genre: Slash, romance, adventure, dark!fic
Pairing: Draco/Blaise, one sided Harry/Draco
Rating: NC-17 for violence
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: ~1,618 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

8. Harry's side

Harry said, "When he came back with Zabini, he looked so good, Hermione! He looked like a god, all passion and force. And I will never be his friend. It just drives me crazy sometimes, that the only person that always treated me the same way, told me the truth in his own snobbish way, cannot and should not be my friend."

"This condition has nearly torn me in two. I hope I find a way to master it."

Harry brooded silently. Hermione observed him; she had an inkling of what he was going through, and what he needed. She spoke, "I think you're feeling guilty. It's occurred to you the danger you put your friends in, yet I am afraid that you don't realize the danger if your plan had succeeded. If you'd manage to gang-rape Draco, taped that, and bragged about it, he would probably have killed himself. The war would be lost, but more than that, a young man would have been driven to his death."

"Until you become aware of the mortal danger you placed Draco in, you cannot ask for forgiveness. Once you do, you should go to him and speak frankly about this subject."

"Malfoy coming from the family he does, he is well acquainted with the concept of Redemption, and I'm sure he'll be quite forthcoming."

At last they got tired and Harry laid down in the couch, drowsily he thought about Draco entering the room, his clothes and all, he murmured sleepily, "The boy with the blondest hair in England ." Hermione listened affectionately, and she couldn't help but feel that there was more to the sentence than it seemed. In fact, her formidable intellect seized on the phrase and started to analyze it in endless varieties.

At length, she retired to her room and prepared to sleep. She fondly recalled Harry and his conversation. She felt so much anguish for the troubled young man, and she sensed that he was less overwrought than the last time she'd seen him. Maybe this confrontation had left off some steam and would allow Harry time to open himself up to her or whomever he wanted.

The next morning, when she awoke, the first thought was about that damned sentence, "the blondest hair in England ," What does he mean, in England ? She herself knew some blonds, like the Delacours, of course they were so blond because they were Veelas… Here she felt her pulse quickening, and correlations started forming in her mental space: If Malfoy is a Veela, he has a mate, but he's always been obsessed by Harry. Harry reported losing parts of himself when he was attempting to rape Draco, so this would mean that Harry was Malfoy's mate and the Bond was broken.

She needed to speak with Malfoy and get to the bottom of this. He wrote a note to Draco telling him to please come to Harry's with whomever he pleased to discuss important matters at 12:00. Then she went and found Hedwig and told her to deliver her note to Malfoy Manor.

When Harry woke up, Hermione had already fixed a quick breakfast of eggs and ham, after Harry practically inhaled them, Hermione wryly offered him tea.

While they were drinking it, Hermione told Harry her reasoning. Harry was extremely surprised but seemed to take it in stride. He just asked, "If Malfoy knew I was his mate, why didn't he approach me?"

Hermione soberly answered, "Think, Harry, if two years ago, one year ago, or two days ago you had learned that Draco was at your beck and call, what would you have done? What is it you tried to do to him, you and your 4 friends?"

Harry blushed deeply, "I would have tried to humble him, to break him, in the end I would have killed him, and that's the optimistic scenario."

Hermione continued, "I asked him to come here at 12:00 with whomever he wanted to discuss this matter."

Harry spluttered, "Are you sure this is safe, Hermione?"

She replied, "As safe as houses. You don't appreciate that you were completely in his power, and he let you go unscathed."

Harry added indignantly, "He crucio'd me!"

She countered, "Only because you were being an ass, like you sometimes are!"

At that moment they heard the entrance bell, they opened the door and in walked Malfoy, Zabini, Crabbe, Goyle and Nott.

Draco said, "Potter and Granger," and nodded respectfully toward each other. Hermione took the role of hostess and bade all to sit down which they did, Draco at the head, Zabini to his right, Harry to his left, then Crabbe next to Zabini and Goyle next to Harry. Nott sat at the foot of the table, there was a space for Hermione.

Hermione started to pace and told them about her reasoning of the "blondest hair in England ," and how Draco was a Veela, which meant he had a mate. Recent events indicated that Harry had been affected during his attempted rape and had caused the Bond to break. At the end he turned to face them, arms akimbo, and said, "Well, am I right?"

Draco replied admiringly, "Granger, as always your reasoning is superb. Your insight is always keen." "You are one of our secret weapons." "Yes, I am a Veela. My mate was Potter. Because we hated each other I could not risk going to him, and the Bond forced me into confrontations with him, wanting us to be together in its terms. You have no idea of the hell such a bond entails, when it tries to control your innermost thoughts. I would find myself thinking subconscious plots to get Potter out of trouble, yet he couldn't bear to see me."

"Because of what happened the Bond is broken. No damaging effect is felt by the mates." Here Draco turned to look at Blaise and saw him nod slightly.

Draco continued, "I think it is high time that someone comes home." He yelled gleefully, "Dobby!"

Dobby appeared and launched himself at Draco. Only the fact that Blaise was holding on to that chair prevented it from toppling. Draco laughed and appeared to enjoy himself in the chaos created by Dobby. Making a major effort, he visibly reigned in the laughter and acted serious. In a stentorian voice he said, "Dobby, you have performed services above and beyond your duty, your Bond. Like Job, you have spent years full of trials, but now it is over. It is time to come home, old friend. You are now in charge of all the Malfoy House Elves." "Dobby, could you please tell Harry Potter what your duties were"

Dobby turned to Harry and bowing low, said, "Master Draco said to protects you by all means, to keeps you from Hogwarts at first, to serves you and to act against anyone who might do you harm, especially my Master Draco or his father Master Lucius."

Harry was virtually reeling from the information. He hoped there were no more shocks like this. So Dobby had been helping him as a favor from Malfoy! No wonder Dobby and Kreacher hadn't been able to determine where Draco went to in Sixth Year, if Draco was the real master. But did that mean that Dobby didn't love him?

Harry voiced his thoughts, "Does that mean you don't love me, Dobby?"

Dobby turned soft, kind eyes to Harry and said, "Of course I loves you, Master Harry, it's just there's some ones I love more!" And he turned to look at Draco with utter devotion.

Strangely enough, Harry did not feel jealous, he felt that it was enough that Dobby loved him. Besides, life was tough enough without getting jealous.

In the general brouhaha, Dobby approached Draco and started fidgeting. He kept shuffling his socks and looking bashful. Draco looked at him and with a smile in his eyes, said, "What's the matter, Dobbs?"

Dobby answered, "I is afraid master will be angry, so I has not said anything but Is want to say that…" and kept shuffling the socks.

Draco answered slyly, with a noticeable smug expression, "Come on, you can tell me anything, Dobby! Does it have to do with a certain house elf that works with you in Hogwarts and who you have become very close to?"

Dobby nodded eagerly.

Draco continued, "Don't worry Dobby, I'll talk to the Headmistress so that Winky can join us at Malfoy Manor."

Hermione observed that a money bag changed hands, it went from Crabbe to Goyle, surely they made a bet about Draco being wrapped up around Dobby's fingers.

Meanwhile Dobby hadn't answered, his lips started trembling, and his eyes slowly filled with water and it was obvious that he was going to cry.

Draco panicked and hastened to correct the damage, "Don't cry, Dobby! Of course I already spoke with McGonagall and Winky waits for us at the Manor. So please don't cry, Dobbsy!"

Hermione observed that a larger money bag changed hands, from Nott to Blaise.

This settled in her mind her destiny. She would try to work wholeheartedly with Draco Malfoy towards the future of the Wizarding World. What insured this was not his fortune or political power, nor his magical prowess or prophecies.

It was in the way he treated the least among them, the house elves. Despite his bigoted pronouncements, some of which he held, some of which he didn't; he cared about the house elves a lot, he loved them, and they loved him.

In her mind, that love meant that he would work for the commonweal. Heck, even his companions were placing bets on his love for Dobby.

10. Ron's true colors