Reality twists 16/39

[herumtreiber]

Title: Reality twists 16/39
Chapter: Ritual
Author:herumtreiber 
Genre: Post DH, romance, adventure, time travel
Rating: PG-13
Epilogue compliant? No
Chapter length: ~2,507 words
Disclaimer:  I do not own Harry Potter or related characters, nor do I make any money from writing these stories.
Warnings for the fic: Angst, violence, noncon, character death (not the protagonists)
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



15. McGonagall's strange behaviour

Daphne watched in despair for three days as Draco got worse. He would speak animatedly with her and Harry for awhile, and then he'd make a hasty retreat. Knowing Draco, he'd take a detour to the less used bathrooms to be sick in.

Daphne researched pureblood rituals, even in the Restricted Section. She saw Granger studying intently some ancient manuscript, and her wand hand itched to curse her good, but she refrained.

Granger seemed to be acknowledged as the unofficial leader of Gryffindor. Many lions followed her, except a small group around Neville Longbottom, which included Ginny Weasley and surprisingly Lavender Brown.

There were some scuffles where the Gryffindors had been the ones to provoke their enemies. Inevitably the teachers would dock points from Gryffindor and assign detentions, but the students would get Granger to advocate for them to McGonagall and the points were never deducted or the detentions imposed. Discipline was rapidly breaking.

The Matron's job was vacant still. People thought it was irresponsible to leave it like that, and at the same time they were afraid that the person they would hire would betray them.

The next day after dinner, she made sure to get some time alone with Harry, persuading Blaise to drag Draco to the Quidditch pitch. Draco was so stubborn, she swore she sometimes wanted to just thwack him! Of course Harry was equally stubborn and obtuse, so she was not surprised by their history.

When they made it to Harry's room, Daphne sat down on the bed and said, "I have bad news, Harry."

"Yes?"
"Draco is dying."
"What! You're kidding, right?"
"I'm afraid it's for real, Harry. If Draco continues the way he is now, he won't live another month."

"What does he have?"

"He is suffering the constraints of a Revenge Oath. When someone does something awful to you, you can swear a Revenge Oath and be assured of the will and magic to pursue the goal of revenge. The magic judges if the deed is heinous enough and true, and grants the request for the Oath."

"Draco swore a Revenge Oath against the persons who killed our son Scorpius Malfoy: you, Granger and Weasley."

Harry interjected, "Draco had a son. My God, I didn't know! I swear I didn't do anything to him, I swear…!"

Daphne continued unperturbed, "He will have a son. You, like all of us, live in the eternal Now, but I invite you to consider farther reaches. Think of a future time when your viewpoint reigned supreme in the Wizarding World, how you ensnared Draco in your web and used him most cruelly. Draco managed to break free for some years. We found each other, loved and had a son, Scorpius, he looked just like his father."

"However you soon came back into the scene. You saw my son and wanted to corrupt him, to use him. You invented charges against Draco and got him sent to Azkaban. You had Weasley adopt my son and change his name. You abused my son and drove him to a desperate flight, where he fell off a ravine and died."

Daphne went on, "Later on, Draco saw the chance to come to the past and change it, effectively altering it. However, he also knew how cunning the Golden Trio was, so he decided to swear the Oath."

"I can honestly say he has forgiven you. It's easy to gather from the way he looks at you, with the strange protective streak he has towards you. He is weary and cautious regarding you because you already broke his heart once."

"He doesn't want to trouble you as his headaches get worse, as the constant stomach aches increase, as he coughs more blood every day. The Oath compels him to hurt you, torture you as much as you hurt him. He won't do it. His will is greater than the Oath, but the magic is left on his body and wreaks havoc."

"Still, the Revenge Oath was essential in the fight against the muggleborn. Your vaunted Hermione Granger tried to take over Draco's thinking, using a spell that allowed her access to his innermost thoughts and remembrances, she could pose as one of his inner voices and he wouldn't know it. She had almost convinced him to let sleeping dogs lie when the Oath intervened and lent Draco the means to throw off her yoke."

Harry asked tremulously, "Can Hermione control my thoughts?"

Daphne mentally slapped Draco for not telling Harry about this as she answered as nonchalantly as she could, "Yes, she is a most accomplished witch. She almost got Draco under her thumb. It wouldn't surprise me at all if she had put her paws on you as well. I know she tried to control Neville. His ring and yours deflect any mind-spells from the studious Chipmunk."

Harry asked, "What can I do about Draco?"

Daphne replied, "One thing that would help would be if you didn't see him at all. If you both stopped speaking to each other and didn't even look at each other, the Oath would not be so activated."

Harry gulped, imagining never again talking to the blond. Never to listen to the icy, drawling and sarcastic voice, never to duck to avoid a thwack upside the head. Never to see those ice grey eyes. After what they had gone through to arrive here, this looked so anticlimactic.

But he knew that if he persisted and continued being friends with Draco, he would die. He'd rather have Draco live and be free, even if he was far from Harry. He understood then Daphne's analogy of love as similar to a butterfly.

Harry replied resolutely, "Then I will stay away from him. Thank you for telling me, Daphne."

Daphne snorted, thinking what an obtuse pair of boys she had to end up with! They were both very powerful, but also very stubborn. They would dance around the subject, never getting to the action, if it wasn't for her.

She softly said, "There might be another way, Harry. Draco does not know about this, I think." Inwardly she chortled, thinking she had a lot of material for taunting.

"Draco says that for every great piece of magic, there is always an escape clause that can be activated to be set free from the magic. This was proved true for the Protection Charm, where the escape clause was that Gryffindor could not consider any person that reacted like you did as a true heir and the Charm was deactivated."

"The Malfoys are intimately cognizant of revenge, its volcanic, red and churning feel as it scours the land, destroying everything before it. Truly it is a force of nature, so relentless and inexorable in its coming that there's little or no hope of anything left behind."

"However there might be something greater than revenge, that flows over the landscape with soothing effects like pure water, something that refreshes and takes away the pain, the scars and the flames. The volcanic fire is intense, deadly and potent, but it lasts only for a little while; the ocean lasts forever. What can be greater than revenge is redemption. That is the escape clause than can negate the Revenge Oath as it relates to you."

"I won't lie to you, Harry. It will be dangerous. You will have to accept what you've done and be willing to take responsibility for it. You must grasp the scope of the bad deeds, above all, you'll have to show the magic that you want to be forgiven."

"The magic will judge you, and if it finds your reasons are true, it will proceed to undo the Oath as it relates to you. However, if your thoughts are not conducive to redemption, the magic will hurt you."

"So think about it and let me know tomorrow."

At that moment Draco walked in, after dropping Blaise unceremoniously in the Common Room. He could sense both of the green-eyed students tense up. He could well imagine what they were discussing, he drawled icily, "Well, Daphne?"

Harry thought they needed time alone, so he left to talk with Blaise in the Common room.

Daphne owned up to telling Harry about the Revenge Oath. When Draco threatened to blow over, Daphne carefully let slip the information about how to circumvent the Oath. As always when the subject matter was magic, Draco was mesmerized by it, the possibilities and dangers.

He was worried about Harry's well-being, and not only physical. In order for this ritual to work, Harry needed to fully grasp his actions. Draco would be using the Pensieve and supplying key memories so Harry would understand better. Frankly, Draco despaired of Harry seeing future-Harry and his antics as he hurt Draco. Once he would've been pleased to cause discomfort to the Gryffindor, but as he slowly got to know him better, he found that he did not want to hurt him anymore.

HRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRH

The next day Draco began putting memories in the Pensieve. He'd leave Harry alone with them and when he'd finished, he'd come back into the room and collect the Pensieve. Many times Harry had been crying, and Draco hugged him gingerly as if to lend him strength. Their time together had to be carefully controlled, or Draco would start coughing blood.

So they arrived to the last memory. Harry could see how Draco was sent a Pensieve to his cell in Azkaban, he could see the rape of Scorpius taking place there. He saw the demonic laughing faces of Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, and he thoroughly hated them, their prejudiced view of the world, confident that they had all the answers. They never saw how they were so much worse than the Slytherins they professed to hate.

But Harry realized that he was equally guilty. In that future, he had used the political clout he had to get what he wanted, even if it was the condemnation of an innocent man. He sometimes wished wanly for an obliviate hex that could make him forget all the deeds he'd done, all the mistakes he'd made.

Both Draco and Daphne were sure that many actions of his could be easily explained if Hermione controlled his thoughts to a certain degree. There had been strange cycles in his behavior, jumping from the confident Harry of school to the timid Harry of Privet Drive, granted that his relatives treated him awful, there was still something strange there. At any rate, the onus of the dastardly behavior was on him.

He could almost feel the crack fissures in his soul come to the fore, but first he had to take care of Draco.

Daphne insisted that they go to Draco's room for the ritual. Once there, with Draco in the bed and Harry sitting on a nearby chair, Daphne took charge.

She said, "OK Draco, what is needed from you is your forgiveness. Once you do that, it'll be up to Harry. Harry, you need to convince the magic that you want redemption. You have now seen what you did; you know why Atonement is needed." Daphne brandished her wand, swished it and intoned, "Exculpa mea!"

Draco concentrated on forgiving Harry. In his mind, he pictured the brave Gryffindor as he cried after viewing the memories. He knew he would never hate Harry again, and in his innermost heart he did that most un-Malfoy thing of all: he forgave him.

Harry felt hollow. An important part of him yearned for redemption. He had always thought he was operating for the good of the Light. However he could see that he was not by any means a completely pure man. He had erred, he'd known greed and vainglory and pride, and fallen victim to them. If other forces had shaped his convictions, the deeds were still his to claim, his to lament.

The magic surrounded the two boys, after a perfunctory evaluation of Draco, it concentrated on Harry, especially on his head and heart. Daphne and Draco waited with bated breath, as finally the last spark of light left his body and disappeared.

Daphne took his pulse, used Immobulus and put Harry in the bed, saying "He's sleeping."

Draco was too tired to argue, in fact, he fell asleep right next to Harry. Daphne transfigured the chair into a queen-sized bed, and promptly fell asleep too.

The next morning, Daphne woke up first. He saw Harry and Draco, a study in opposites, each one was breathtaking, and together they were magnificent, surely a sight to stun any one. Harry was draped around Draco, their legs were entwined and their hair mixed so riotously, blondest blond with ebony. Daphne muttered softly "Accio camera!" and Draco's camera came to her hand. After snapping a dozen photos which would comprise the beginning of her blackmail material, she carefully hid the camera, and proceeded to wake up the boys.

Grey eyes opened up and took the world placidly. Draco realized that he had Harry wrapped all over him and reacted nonchalantly. Harry, contrariwise, on realizing his position and Draco's, shrank back from contact.

Daphne rolled her eyes and urged them to hurry up or they would miss breakfast. Harry turned and asked her, "I want to know why I'm being held liable for the actions of my future self."

She replied, "I guess that is a question for philosophers or Arithmancers. Magic obviously considered you as identical with your future self when it first accepted the Oath. I have no way of knowing the correct answer, but I do know that your courageous acceptance of these acts allowed the magic to see beyond, hopefully you will follow this sign and prepare for the future, meditating on the past only when it is necessary."

HRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHR

Harry tried to be on time for his session with counselor Rhodes. Sometimes he felt advancement in expressing his feelings and finding a middle ground, but sometimes he despaired. Rhodes appeared too keen to learn some things; it was uncanny how he had zeroed in Harry's constant rubbing of his ring. He asked since when did Harry have it, who gave it to him. This made Harry leery of volunteering too much information, especially knowing he had a host of secrets not his own.

He finally insisted on Draco teaching him Occlumency. The lessons were proceeding smoothly, and Harry had to say that Draco was a much more agreeable and efficient teacher than Snape. They had to enter each other's minds for the lessons to work. Each one knew more or less what the other's humiliating experiences were, and what would have been painful for another pair of persons, became a means to better understand the other.

In time, this cemented their friendship and made Harry a competent Occlumens. Draco wanted Harry to continue to Legilimens level, but Harry was weary to do it.

17. Between two kisses