herumtreiber

Title: Reality twists 14/39
Chapter: Inflection point
Author:

herumtreiber
Genre: Post DH, romance, adventure, time travel
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or related characters. Nor do I make any money from writing these stories.
Rating: R
Warnings: Angst, violence
Epilogue compliant? No
Chapter length: ~2,211 words
Summary: Harry/Draco/Daphne. Draco in Azkaban, plus time-travel. Explores the idea of powerful magic pitted against a nuclear bomb and the implications for the world. Noncon - evil Hermione and Ron – Atlantis may appear later on, and another meaning of the Prophecy. How a Time Turner can win a game. Very ecological use of the Fidelius charm; Dementors abound, but...

Table of contents

13. Legilimens

The next day, Draco went to his Aunt's and accompanied her and Antares to their new home, the Manor. He was hoping, among other things, to blunt his mother's anger by appearing with her sister and her new son.

Andromeda Tonks had been relieved to realize she would not have to shoulder all the burden of educating Teddy on her own. After suffering the grievous loss of her husband, Nymphadora and Remus, knowing she was physically responsible for the well-being of little Teddy was exhausting and daunting.

After Draco approached her with this proposal, and she met again her sister Narcissa and Lucius, Andromeda warmed up to the idea. She'd still been reluctant to trust a former Death Eater, until Draco told her that Lucius was under an Obedience Vow, and was thus unable to hurt a Malfoy or go against his wishes.

In the end, she wanted the future of Teddy assured if something happened to her. The position of the Malfoys seemed unassailable for now, and they would take care of Teddy, so she accepted.

When Draco Apparated to the Manor with Andromeda and Antares, after writing for his aunt the address in a piece of paper, he took the endless bag from around his shoulders and gave it to Finky, telling him to deliver the items stored within to Andromeda's and Antares's bedrooms.

They made their leisure way to the drawing room, where Draco said, smirking, "I think you know everybody, Aunt Andromeda: Mother, Father, and of course Professor Snape."

To forestall her questions and to pave the road for Severus's reintegration to the Wizarding World, Draco said, "Professor Snape did not die. It was a Death Eater who was on Polyjuice. It was another scheme of Voldemort's. Severus was able to recently escape them and is now with us."

Andromeda looked flabbergasted at meeting the former (and previously dead) Potions Master. Remembering her Black upbringing, she calmed herself and said: "Narcissa, Lucius, glad to see you. It's quite a surprise to see you looking so well, Severus!"

Severus nodded and then glared at her, when it appeared insufficient to make her explode, he transferred his glares to Draco.

The Slytherin youth, to get back at the Potions Master, said maliciously, "Aunt Andromeda, I don't really like Slughorn. He didn't invite me to that crazy club of his in Sixth Year, why don't we have Severus as the godfather for Antares?"

Severus chocked on his tea and only Narcissa's swift intervention helped him. Andromeda, watching his reaction and sharing a little of the Black penchant for pranks, had to willingly concur. "Yes, it's a capital idea, Draco! Congratulations, Severus!"

Severus could be heard muttering under his breath, "More brats to take care of! It will never end!"

Next Draco accio'd what he'd bought in the Quidditch store. A top-of-the-line training broom for young children appeared. It would insure that Antares would become a Quidditch enthusiast, as was Draco's intention. Its green and silver colors could be read by injudicious souls as a blatant inducement to go to Slytherin, and this Draco would vehemently deny.

Narcissa and Andromeda groaned loudly. They could well picture how difficult it would be to separate the child from the broom. They felt their task was made harder by the interfering, Quidditch-obsessed brother.

Looking at Antares's placid face and green-colored hair, Draco was pleased to note that he was a budding Metamorphmagus, a great addition to the house of Black and Malfoy! He remembered the time when he'd been lured to the mirror of Erised, he'd seen his parents with two children, and one of them had green hair.

Could it be that the mirror of Erised predicted the future? He was almost sorry to have destroyed it.
And if Antares should prove to have the werewolf condition, then he'd have to care for him, eventually learn his Animagus form, and do all he could so Antares would live a happy life.

He had a fleeting thought that all the components to the puzzle of his life were on hand, he only had to have the thread that joined them and pointed unerringly to the future.

They all saw Draco's satisfied smirk, but only Narcissa and Snape could glean a deeper sadness in him.

Draco was remembering another time, when he had been very pleased to present a child under his care with a broom. That moment when he'd given the broom to Scorpius and he'd laughed, and Daphne proudly looked on, that moment would live with him forever. Draco saved money for a long time to get the broom, but it was all worth it, because Scorpius loved it.

Even if the future escaped from his grasp, if he could never hold it and convert it to reality, that image, that memory, would sustain him forever.

oOoOo

In Hogwarts, the Gryffindors had seen Harry's fight with Draco and subsequent loss. They were enraged: with Draco, with Harry, with anyone.

No longer under the Charm, they were subject to teachers' pressures and taunts from the other houses, when they were used to reign undisputed. They felt this was Harry's fault somehow, in the same short-sighted manner that they had forsaken Harry when he turned out to be a Parselmouth, when they thought he was the Heir of Slytherin and the Prophet printed nasty articles about him.

It had become rote for them to blame Harry for everything, instead of looking for the real reasons themselves.

Therefore, in the afternoon, after the lessons for the day had ended, some Gryffindors and Ravenclaws decided to teach Harry a lesson.

They ambushed him just outside the Great Hall, casting an Imperturbable Charm. Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas approached Harry and sucker-punched him, they took his wand away from him and taunted him.

Draco would never know later why he decided to return suddenly to Hogwarts. In time he would decide it was his Veela blood, that sensed something strange. He felt he needed to get there. He Apparated just outside the Great Hall. Everything seemed OK, but Draco's well-honed instinct for noticing things that wanted to remain hidden alerted him to the disturbance at the left side of the room.

He gathered that it was an Invisibility or Imperturbable Charm. Taking out the wand, he flicked it a few times and muttered the counter-spell. Their charm had been craftily applied, but the magic of the Elder wand was greater and was able to disarm it.

Draco could now see what they were doing, and what he saw made him see red. They were beating and hexing Potter!

The gall of the fucking gits! Only he could hurt Potter! Potter was not for them to lay their grubby paws on!

Even when they'd been fierce rivals, back in Third and Fourth Year, Draco had felt angry when the other Hogwarts students mistreated Potter. He was incensed that Potter didn't react to their taunts and snubs. Even from Weasley, Smith and Finch-Fletchley. Instead Potter chose to direct his ire at Draco, always at him. He used the blond as sort of a punching bag, instead of reacting to the other student's ill treatment. It was maddening.

There was also the Veela factor. Though diluted with distance and his subsequent time travel, some of the features of the Veela remained in Draco, and his blood sensed a possible mate was suffering. He couldn't allow that. However, all of this was submerged in the strong feelings he held for Potter. Draco and the Gryffindor were tied in a manner that could not be broken so easily by either of them.

Despite what Harry did to him, Draco suspected there was something more to his story. The Protection Charm had been so hard to get rid of, it had affected reality so much - to the point that it threatened existence - that Draco thought Potter must have suffered from its effects the most. He wanted to find out more about that, but he wouldn't if the fickle Hogwarts students hurt Potter.

Draco cast Crucio on three of the aggressors and they fell down, screaming. The others wanted to escape but he had surreptitiously cast a sticking hex on them. They were duly hexed.

He could feel the magic of the Revenge Oath churning in him, trying to coax him into following the revenge, but Draco's determination and will was enough to override it.

He also observed the placement of certain portraits and chairs, and made the necessary assumptions.

oOoOo

Malfoy Manor had been sacked uncounted times during its history. Its inhabitants developed a secret code, a means to ensure that adequate warnings were given out, so the Malfoy line could continue to survive. In that code, suggested by the strange placement of the furniture, Draco could read, "Servants treacherous." The signs also pointed to a specific location.

Carrying Harry's unconscious body, Draco found Daphne and Neville. He spoke with Neville, " Nev, I want you to go to that staircase, on the third rung you will find a bag with healing potions and salves. You go with Daphne and take Potter to Slytherin. I think his position in Gryffindor is only hastening his demise."

Neville replied, "Why not take him to the Infirmary?"

Draco replied, "I don't trust them! There's something wrong in all of this, something I can't point my fingers to. Between you two, Potter should be fine."

After they had put the unconscious Potter under Immobulus and were taking him to Slytherin, Draco hurried to his room, where he took out the time-turner. He took his endless bag and put many healing potions and salves, including the Blood-replenishing potion.

On his way back to the Great Hall, he caught the nurse, gesturing to an unsavory individual Draco readily identified as a former Death Eater.

Draco walked to just outside the Great Hall and used the time-turner to go back 60 minutes.

After he'd put the bag in the staircase's third rung, he moved the portraits and chairs to form the message he'd read earlier. He then used the time-turner to return to the original time.

oOoOo

Harry thought he could hear, in the midst of the insistent buzzing in his ears, Malfoy's voice. He seemed concerned about something, and was talking to Neville. He could almost picture him, his soft blond hair as he turned to look at him.

But Malfoy would never be concerned about him. No one would! They were right when they said he was an attention-loving freak, who only got everyone in trouble. Never mind the fact that he had managed to finally get rid of Voldemort and his Horcruxes. People didn't seem to appreciate that.

It was enormously tiring, trying to function in that hypocritical society. They still didn't accept him completely, even after all he had done in the Second War. Harry futilely tried to shy away from thoughts of the carnage of the war, but he couldn't escape them. He kept imagining the deaths of Remus and Tonks and how utterly pointless they were. He had to agree with Malfoy in this.

Harry sighed, feeling a cool cloth on his brow. He opened his eyes and saw the sconces illuminating brightly a room. He realized that he was in the dungeons. A hand pressed his glasses into his palm. He put them on, and Harry's green eyes stared into Daphne's equally green eyes.

"How do you feel, Potter?"

"Fine. What am I doing here and why am I not in the Infirmary?"

She answered, "You were attacked by the rowdy bunch, who were soundly trounced by Draco. He asked Neville and me to care for you and take you to the dungeons, seeing as how the Gryffindor lions seem to be after your hide now. He didn't want to give you to the tender care of the nurse. I think he distrusts her somehow."

"And why do you care for me?"

"Because Draco wanted me to, and there's nothing I wouldn't do for him. Furthermore, I've known since practically forever that you came with Draco, in the package so to speak."

Harry blushed.

Daphne continued unabashedly, "I mean that your relationship with him, or whatever you want to call it, will probably exist always. I don't know, it has seemed at times predetermined."

Harry nodded and added dejectedly, "But you two seem to have hit it off well. There are deep feelings between you."

Daphne added dreamily, "I think Draco's love shares some of the qualities of a butterfly."

"It is very beautiful and fragile. You might fear that it would die someday. You might want to keep alive the love by pinning the butterfly in your collection. It would seem just as beautiful as always, it would be protected, but inside you will know that it no longer moves or reacts to your touch."

"I want his love to be as free as he is. I will not coerce him."

oOoOo

Draco, doing some surveillance work, approached the Infirmary. When the nurse opened the door, he feigned stomach ache to get her to give him a potion. When he was about to take it he looked at her, murmuring Legilimens and tried to read her thoughts.

What he discovered was indeed upsetting. It appeared that the nurse was not herself, as it were, but a Polyjuiced individual. A cabal of disgruntled former Death Eaters had concocted a plot to hurt Potter and bring him to the Infirmary, where he would be bound and taken to parts unknown. It seemed that someone had cottoned to the fact that the Protection Charm had existed and was no longer active.

More disturbing, there appeared to be a leader of this cabal in Hogwarts. They were currently conspiring to vanquish Potter, or Draco.

15. McGonagall's strange behaviour