The Lord Appellant 32/37
Nov. 11th, 2011 01:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
herumtreiberChapter: The power of three
Author:
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: ~3,571 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
31. The next adventure
They Apparated to Harry's room. Blaise had warded the room against Draco, and for the moment the blond aristocrat was denied entrance.
When Blaise had informed Draco of the arrangements, he'd been livid. However, as always was the case with Draco, he listened to Blaise's counsel and eventually had to admit he was right. "You're right, Blaise. If I meet with Potter while in this foul mood, we can kiss our alliance goodbye."
Draco continued, "It's that... it's just so Harry Potter, trying to kiss me forcefully and when I lay down the law, he just ups and leaves! There's no nuance to work with! And most of all I am sorry that Theo had to die because Potter was moody!"
So when they arrived at the Manor, Blaise let Harry know that he was safe, as long as he stayed in the room. If he ventured into the Manor he'd meet Draco, and he was a mean Dragon still.
In the morning, there was knocking in Harry's door. He opened it to find Narcissa waiting for him. He motioned for her to enter and she did, going directly to a chair and sitting down. Harry was worried, Narcissa looked extremely stern and disapproving.
She said, "I'll be upfront. I never approved of you, partly due to Lucius, partly due to the intense rivalry with my son. It just seemed too much, what he and you got done and how you were always the supposed victim and the reluctant champion. Nevertheless, I always respected the hero in you, I thought you would always help your supporters, so when Draco told me the change in his allegiances I could sympathize, and understand."
"However, it seems I was wrong. You escaped the wards in this place and went publicly to Diagon Alley, contradicting completely the advice of my son. In your flight, four other people were implicated and they all died."
"I could sympathize if this was the first time, but it isn't. Some time ago you were ambushed, again because you were carelessly walking alone, and were scheduled to die until my son rescued you!"
"Is this a pattern, where if someone as much as looks at you cross-eyed you go haywire and leave alone, hoping to die?"
"It looks as if you have a death wish, Mr. Potter, and I for one would wish that you kept it to yourself. But you won't. Therefore hear my proposal!"
Narcissa took out a bracelet, "Here is an antique of the Black House, Mr. Potter. It's keyed to take you to Topeka, a lovely city in Kansas, where you will be provided with wealth the rest of your life. You can even choose to have your knowledge of magic erased, so you can forget about Voldemort and the war. If I were you, I would take that option and begin anew. The word to activate the portkey is Bonaventura."
Harry seethed. He gritted his teeth and asked, "Does Draco know about this?"
Narcissa answered in a cold, haughty tone, "Draco knows everything that happens to his precious ally! That boy will be the death of me! Anyway he said, and I quote, "He will choose what's best for the cause. I don't want him thinking there is only the damn prophetic path, there must always be choice, and he must be the one to choose."
Somehow, to Harry, these words made complete sense with Draco's respect for Free Will, and he got a glimpse of the blond's intentions, which were not nefarious at all. Highly uplifted, he looked at Narcissa.
"I will take the bracelet, but will not use it."
Narcissa muttered heatedly, "He said you'd take it. The offer's valid for a month. Do another stunt like you did and you will have to face me!"
Narcissa stomped to the door, opened it and got out.
oOoOo
At breakfast, Ginny didn't want to sit near Hermione and suffer the overwhelming pity rolling off of her. She went to the other end of the table and sat next to Millicent, who was wearing a somber black dress. She sensed something changed, she knew someone had died. She asked, "Who was it?"
Millie answered brokenly, "Theo Nott. He was good with paperwork, also to tell stories, to gossip with, to have at your back. He was the kind of person you wish would grow old with you. And now he won't. We were robbed of this chance. We will meet him forever at 17 years." Millie sniffed, took out her handkerchief and tried to unobtrusively wipe away her tears. It was plain to see that Pansy was also very close to breaking down. Only her massive strength helped her. Draco curtly dismissed her, telling her to go to the Garden. Pansy started to retort when he responded with a brilliant smile, which left her nervous.
After Pansy had gone, Draco told Millie to go to the Gardens, and taking Blaise aside, instructed him: "Tell Potter to meet us at the Garden, we'll view Theo's last hours in the Pensieve. Potter has a safe conduct to get there."
Blaise asked, "Will you view with us, and not get enraged?"
Draco said, "I'll be with you and I won't act impulsively towards Potter."
Blaise went to Harry and relayed Draco's offer. Harry was stressed, Blaise sensed it and asked him what the matter was, Harry related the story with Narcissa and the bracelet.
Blaise reacted nonchalantly. He said, "It stands to reason that Narcissa would be enraged with you. It's reasonable for her to provide such a bracelet. Conversely, that you can escape if you want it makes it a valuable scheme for Draco."
"Contrariwise to what you think, Draco wants you happy. If you think of the prophecy, that your role is only to be a weapon, you will be unhappy. However, if you believe you have a choice and choose to act decisively in the war as a soldier, not a weapon, it will be better for all concerned."
Harry said dubiously, "So Draco does not care if I fight in the war?"
"Of course he does. But you can fight from an endless number of positions, that do not constitute necessarily the battlefield. What I mean is, you could be a nurse, and while taking care of an injured person, you could deal the mortal blow and end the war!"
Blaise continued, "Draco wants you to forget about Dumbledore's conditioning. Think for yourself! If it pleases you to be in Kansas, then by all means be there! Just so long as you want to be and are safe!"
Harry looked daunted, so Blaise took the Pensieve and accompanied him to the Gardens, where they found the Slytherins had congregated. Harry saw how the others looked warily at him, and wondered how long it would take for them to rebuild their confidence in him.
He instantly noticed Draco, wearing black robes, with his hair in a ponytail. Draco looked at him, cool silver meeting emerald, and nodded. He said, "Potter, thank you for sharing with us the last hours of our Theodore Nott."
Blaise set up the Pensieve and Harry took the required memories and fed them to the machine. Then Blaise toggled the exposition mode.
Harry had started the memory with the fight in the restaurant, when he'd heard Nott's voice calmly declaiming the name of so many Grey spells. When the memory advanced and Nott faced the Death Eater, he did not pronounce the name. Since her safety had been one of his paramount concerns, he owed it to Nott to obscure her in this memory, so none may recognize who she was from her appearance or the conversations.
When Nott asked Harry to tell him stories, Harry snuck glances at his companions, and found them to be weeping unabashedly, but when he looked at Draco, he was taken aback. Draco's eyes were not grey, or even silver, but a rich shade of blue, cyan. Apparently there was something in tears shed in grief that caused this change. He'd seen Draco cry over the years, but those were tears of hurt, of physical or emotional pain.
After the memory ended there came a long period of time, during which the Slytherins collected themselves.
Finally, they stood up and formally thanked Harry. Draco approached, and said in a low voice, "You can go around the Manor, Potter. I won't bother you. You can go wherever you like, but if you want to go out, take at least 3 or 4 people with you."
Harry nodded.
oOoOo
Harry had almost made it to his rooms when he felt a Stupefy hex hit him. He bitterly mused that the world was against him, that in this seemingly safe haven someone did that. Maybe it was Draco out for revenge?
He was suspended in midair and flown to his bed, when he heard a very feminine voice said, "What you did was awful, Harry! You disrupted the lives of many people, and not in a nice way. You had everybody worry about you, about Draco and about our common fight."
"You are no longer the lone student at Hogwarts. You are, you ought to be, the princeling of the Wizarding World, ready to lead them to victory! If you want to know something, you order it researched! If you must go to Diagon Alley to eat ice cream, or buy a robe, you take with you a full complement of our forces. I wish you had Draco's imperiousness, his demand to be followed. It has served him in good stead."
"I have something for you, Harry. Something I have worked on for a while now. It's a spell to save certain emotions and project them to other persons on command. I will give you 30 concentrated seconds of the merry chase you led us on. You have to realize that's what people feel."
Then Hermione waved her wand and uttered the incantation, and all Harry could think about was… Harry fighting the Dragon and the troll, always fighting the world, why did they not leave him alone. He was so modest, so sweet and caring, and now he was missing, he might be dead now, like Ron. No, better not think about it, not think about Ron's body living after its soul had departed. Nothing should happen to Harry, but so many bad persons were after him. The despair grew and multiplied… Suddenly Harry was released from the spell, and the Stupefy. The last thing he heard before losing consciousness was Hermione warning, "Don't do something like that again, Harry!"
oOoOo
At lunch, Ginny sat next to Millicent, who seemed to be faring better, if still looking now and then at what had been Nott's place and sighing wistfully.
She was about to ask her for updates about their activity, when a brown barn owl barreled through the room. It seemed to fly disdainfully as if it could not wait to get the Manor from under his wings. It settled next to Ginny and extended up a claw. It was Pepe, one of the Twins' owls, and Ginny didn't know whether to expect a Howler or a letter charmed to attack her, so she asked Millicent for help. Millie was nonplussed for a second, and then went to get Draco and inform him.
Draco arrived and said, "How are you, Ginny? I'll just perform a quick scan looking for malign intent, Dark Magic or bent Light Magic." He swished and flicked his wand uttering long incantations, when he finished, he smiled and said, "Nothing that can harm you magically or physically, but you know the saying that sticks and stones may break my bones? If you feel upset by it come to me, or Millie." He went away and Ginny sat down and began to read.
Dear Ginny, we are sorry. We are so very sorry, Ginny, that we blindly obeyed father when we were at the hospital. It was our duty as your family to be with you, and none of us were.
In our defense, after the shock of Percy's betrayal and Ron's monumental mistake, we felt we were close to breaking up. Then we found mother in such a state and father spouting all that nonsense. We hoped that if we followed him, we'd worm our way in, and change his mind, and we'd be together again.
We are heartless cowards, for we forgot your plight. How you learned of the rape, how it was concealed. Truly we left you alone in your hour of need, and you are our sister foremost. It is something we will have to live with for the rest of our lives.
Needless to say, father could not be swayed. His hypocrisy governs him fully now. There are signs that he is terrorizing mother, and we've agreed with Bill and Charlie to just take mother and have her live with us.
Ginny, we'll understand if you don't want to see us again; but you will always live in our hearts.
Love
Gred and Forge
Ginny was confused about this development. She'd felt she needed to distance herself from her erstwhile family, but this letter brought strong memories to the front of her mind: the Twins teaching her to fly a broom, the Twins impressing upon her that everyone had a twin and she had to find hers. So many memories, perhaps a lifetime of them.
"A penny for your thoughts? Or should I say a Knut? At any rate you were running the gamut from happy to sad, so I decided to interrupt. If you want, I can leave you alone."
Ginny looked up and said, "Oh, it's you! I am at a conundrum, and don't know if I should allow a forgiving gesture or remain cold-hearted. I guess I know what you'll say, but what would you do, if members of your family behaved abominably but offered plausible reasons afterwards. Would you forgive them or not?
"I know intimately all the flavors of revenge, Ginny, but ultimately it is just that, revenge; family can grow and change and become more, it's an open discovery. The mere fact you are weighing the pros and cons reinforces that you should forgive, for when their foul deeds against you are too much, you won't even consider forgiving them."
"Who are you and what have you done to Draco Malfoy? You know, the Slytherin Ice Prince, all-around git!"
Draco replied smugly, "I'm still the same. Potter still thinks I'm a git. I just have more responsibilities than before, way too much, and that puts things in perspective in a jiffy." Draco suddenly turned serious eyes at her, "Do you like revenge, Ginny?"
Ginny thought about her ordeal, the whisperings of the people, her mother lying there; the doctor telling her she was barren. She replied firmly, "Yes, I do like it, Draco, when I'm on the winning side."
Draco smiled and said, "You know our plans for Thomas and the Leprechaun. You want to be part of the team? I'd prefer it if you wore the Invisibility Cloak, but you can design your plans."
Ginny smirked a deadly Slytherin smile, such that would have made a serpent dance with joy, and set to the task.
After dinner, Hermione subtly signaled that she wanted a conference with Draco and the Inner Circle. They were taken to Draco's office, where he had spent the meal working on reports, and talking to Ginny.
When they all arrived and Ginny made to leave, Draco held her hand, and stopped her saying, "You should stay Ginny. We'll discuss war affairs, perhaps you can contribute something."
Hermione looked enraged at Draco, as did Harry, and it was only her innate calmness that controlled her. However, meeting one of Draco's glares, she realized he meant this, and would not be gainsaid.
Draco went on with studied nonchalance, "Have you found something new, Hermione?"
Her love of mystery, above all of puzzles solved, led her to nod. She added, "I found out how to destroy the Horcruxes!"
Everyone gasped, and Ginny could be heard asking, "What's a horcrux?"
Draco replied, "A horcrux is a piece of a soul, Ginny. It is separated from the whole by a murder. It can be attached to a physical object. As long as the object exists, the piece of soul remains and can be used to reconstitute the whole. It is a flimsy way to immortality, but it works as the Dark Lord has proved. It is how he survived the attack on Potter."
"We can kill his body from here to Sunday, but if we do not destroy all of his horcruxes, he will return."
Draco then addressed Hermione, "And how can we destroy them, Hermione?"
Hermione said, "I've studied extensively horcruxes. I believe they reached a renaissance of sorts in the Druidic era. Originally they were meant to be positive things, making possible that a wise queen ruled for many years. Soon, however, their full import became known and many people created horcruxes. Magic in those times, at least in Britain , was of the Wiccan variety, where the female is revered. A curious phenomenon was observed, that to destroy effectively the strongest magic, only the Power of Three could be used."
"Long and hard did I research for it, but until today it proved elusive. You see, this Power of Three is supposed to represent the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone. What could they mean by that?"
"I'm here to tell you that the Power of Three is that of three witches, three sister witches. You may think that is a common occurrence and I tell you that it is not, for the three have to be the only offspring of a Pureblood witch and wizard, and they must work together, they cannot work at cross purposes."
Pansy said, "But where will we find three pureblood witches. The pureblood rate of birth has kept descending for hundreds of years. Most large families, where we would have more chances, would have sons as well as daughters."
Crabbe commented, "So it's an impossible dream!"
Draco replied, "Good work Hermione, though I don't see how this can helps us at present, you're brilliant and this proves it."
Hermione looked at her friends, and was about to shout gleefully the answer when she saw that Ginny had caught on. She looked smug and ready to share her knowledge with the world, but first she tried to ask permission of Hermione, who often functioned like an older sister; when Hermione nodded her understanding, Ginny simply shouted.
"Come on, all of you! Think a little outside the box, Draco, like you love to say! Or if it pleases you, think inside the box."
"It is my understanding we have three mature and able witches to fulfill this Power of Three."
Draco interrupted, stubbornly refusing defeat, "No, we do not have. I keep in touch with all the memos and policy papers, and I would know if such a constellation were to appear."
Ginny seized the opportunity offered her to win one on Draco. "Are you willing to back that up? Are you willing to enter a wager?"
Draco, like a faithful and eager tiger, fell into the trap "What bet?"
Ginny answered, "The winner dictates an activity they have to engage in. To assure your skittish mind, we'll both do it. The activity may take from 5 minutes to 3 hours."
Draco replied, "Ok, I accept your wager. Now pony up!"
Ginny sighed, wishing for a photographic camera to catch his expression. "Narcissa is a Black witch, as is Andromeda, there you have two of the three, but the jewel in the crown is the third Black witch, Bellatrix, whom you have saved from Voldemort. If the three join together, which I'm sure they're eager to do, we have the Power of Three."
Draco's visage was a wonder to behold, as it was showing expressions generally kept under wraps: dismay, wonder, joy, smugness, gleefulness. Each one flitted briefly over his face before being replaced by the next.
Draco crowed, "Things are looking up for us, at last. I believe it is time for a toast!"
Draco called on Dobby and asked him for champagne. They all took one glass. Draco proposed that Harry give the toast, saying that they'd had disagreements and committed mistakes, both of them.
Harry said that with the new development they were closer to annihilating Voldemort, although he was concerned about how they were going to get the Horcruxes. He said that if it was for him, he'd be all over England searching for them, he further intimated that he would do pretty damn everything if Malfoy provided the Horcruxes.
Draco interrupted with a gleam in his silver eyes and a smug grin, "Let's make a bet, like I did with Ginny, Potter. The winner dictates to the loser what to do during three hours."
Harry looked at the blond and managed to sound nonchalant, "Ok, Draco. That will give us something to do."
