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+\documentclass{report}
+\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}
+\section{Saving Connor}\label{saving-connor}
+
+% \textbf{Story:} Saving Connor\\
+% \textbf{Storylink:} \url{https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2580283/1/}\\
+% \textbf{Category:} Harry Potter\\
+% \textbf{Genre:} Adventure\\
+% \textbf{Author:} Lightning on the Wave\\
+% \textbf{Authorlink:} \url{https://www.fanfiction.net/u/895946/}\\
+% \textbf{Last updated:} 10/05/2005\\
+% \textbf{Words:} 81263\\
+% \textbf{Content:} Chapter 1 to 22 of 22 chapters
+
+\subsection{Chapter 1}\label{chapter-1-chapter-1}
+
+Title: Saving Connor
+
+\textbf{Chapter One: Brother's Keeper}
+
+``What are your vows, Harry?''
+
+Harry knew what they were, even though he was only five. He whispered
+them as his mother held him over his brother's bed, and his mother said
+them with him, murmured hypnotic words that Harry had heard his whole
+life.
+
+``To keep Connor safe. To always protect him. To insure that he lives as
+untroubled a life as he can, until he has to face Lord Voldemort
+again.'' There was the pause for breath that his mother always took, as
+though she were frightened. Harry waited until she started speaking
+again, and then joined his voice to hers. ``To be his brother and his
+friend and his guardian. To love him. To never compete with him, never
+show him up, and never let anyone else know that I'm so close to him. To
+be ordinary, so that he can be extraordinary.''
+
+Harry remembered stumbling on that last word, back on his and his
+brother's birthday, when his mother had first coached him into saying it
+and not just listening to her say it. He'd never asked what it meant,
+though. His parents thought he was smarter than he really was,
+sometimes. But now he wanted to know, so he turned around as his mother
+bore him towards the other bed and asked.
+
+``Mum, what does extraordinary mean?''
+
+Lily Evans Potter hesitated for a long moment, looking down at Harry as
+though she didn't know how to answer that. Then she smiled faintly, and
+shook her head, and sat on the bed beside him. Harry wriggled under the
+covers. He kept his eyes on her face, never taking them off. They both
+had eyes the same extreme, bright green, while Connor and their father
+James shared bright hazel eyes. Harry considered, in the secret box of
+his thoughts where he put everything he couldn't say aloud, that he and
+his mother had a special bond because they had the same eyes. He knew it
+wasn't really true, of course, not when Connor was the Boy-Who-Lived,
+but Harry liked to pretend, sometimes.
+
+Lily smoothed back his fringe from the scar on Harry's forehead,
+absently. It was shaped like a lightning bolt. Harry knew how he'd
+gotten the scar---from a bit of falling rock when Voldemort attacked, on
+that horrible night he couldn't quite remember, when Lily and James had
+been lured away from home by the idea that their twin sons had already
+been kidnapped. Voldemort had stamped in, and shot the \emph{Avada
+Kedavra} curse at Connor, and Connor had deflected it and destroyed him.
+He had a cut shaped like a heart on his forehead, a curse scar.
+
+Thinking about that night, Harry realized he knew the meaning of
+``extraordinary'' even before Lily whispered it to him.
+
+``It means---special, Harry. It means not ordinary. It means standing
+out from the crowd.'' She hesitated again, as though she didn't know how
+to speak the next words.
+
+``And I have to be ordinary, so that Connor can be special,'' said
+Harry, nodding. He understood. His little brother would need help from
+him. It wasn't an easy destiny, Lily had explained to him every day,
+being the one expected to defeat Lord Voldemort from scratch. Voldemort
+wasn't really gone, and would come back someday. Connor had to be ready
+for that day, had to \emph{concentrate}, which was another word that
+Harry had learned early. So Harry would help him \emph{concentrate} by
+being ordinary.
+
+He didn't know just how that would work yet, but he would find out.
+Whenever he looked over at Connor, he felt a fierce surge of love for
+his little brother. Connor was special, and he was going to be special.
+Harry would help him.
+
+When he glanced back at his mother, she was smiling at him, that secret
+little smile that only the two of them shared. She nodded, whispered,
+``Yes, Harry, that's it exactly,'' and kissed him before she stood and
+walked out of the room.
+
+And Harry knew then, in a rush of joy, that their special bond wasn't
+fake after all. His mum trusted him to take care of his little brother.
+That was important. That was special.
+
+He turned and bowed in the direction of Connor's bed, a gesture he'd
+learned about from an old story his godfather had told him the other
+day. ``I'll protect you, Connor,'' he said. ``I'll be your knight, and
+you can be king.''
+
+Connor sighed in his sleep.
+
+Harry grinned, knowing he wouldn't wake up---Connor was too heavy a
+sleeper for that---and closed his eyes.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+``Good try, Harry! You almost caught the Snitch.''
+
+Harry grinned and landed lightly, stabbing his feet into the dirt so
+that he wouldn't accidentally take off again. He loved to fly so much
+that he was quite capable of shooting himself up to the sky without
+meaning to. ``Thanks, Connor,'' he said, climbing off the broom and
+nodding to his brother. ``I'll keep trying. I'm sure with you for a
+coach, it won't take me long to get better.''
+
+Connor, already off his own broom, bounced over and messed up Harry's
+hair, not that it needed the help. ``You'll get better,'' he said.
+``Next match.'' Then he tossed the fluttering Snitch into the air, ran
+over to his broom, leaped on it, and started chasing the little golden
+ball.
+
+Harry leaned back on the sun-warmed grass and watched. Connor was
+already fifty feet off the ground, then sixty. Then he spiraled down in
+a daring dive that just missed the Snitch and the grass both. He pulled
+out of it, and Harry let out an anxious little breath. He'd showed his
+brother how to do the dive himself, because Connor had to be a good
+flyer, but he couldn't help the dread in his throat just in case
+\emph{this} was the time that Connor crashed.
+
+A hand fell on his shoulder, and Harry rolled his head back, smiling
+when he saw who it was. ``I didn't know you were here, Padfoot,'' he
+said, and sat up to hug Sirius. His godfather hugged him back,
+one-armed, and sat down beside him. His eyes were also on Connor. Firmly
+convinced that that was the way it should be, Harry leaned against
+Sirius and closed his eyes.
+
+``James wanted to take your mother out somewhere private,'' said Sirius
+finally, and then leered at Harry.
+
+``Sirius! Ew.'' Harry wrinkled up his nose. He didn't really want to
+think about his parents having sex. Their eleventh birthday was
+tomorrow, and they would receive their Hogwarts letters then. Harry knew
+that his parents were probably feeling anxious about this last month
+before they had to let Connor go out into the big wide wizarding world,
+but he would just as soon not know what they were doing to settle their
+nerves.
+
+Sirius messed up his hair in turn. Harry was resigned to it by now.
+``Anyway,'' Sirius added, ``they wanted someone here to look after you.
+Just in case.''
+
+Harry stiffened and drew away. ``I look after Connor,'' he said.
+``That's what I do.''
+
+Sirius smiled gently at him. ``I know, Harry, but Connor's still a
+child.'' He sighed and looked up as Connor missed the Snitch and flipped
+his broomstick half upside-down to chase after it. ``And even though
+Peter---'' he spat the name ``---is in Azkaban, there are other Death
+Eaters who might be looking for a chance to harm him.''
+
+Harry nodded. He knew all about the Death Eaters. His parents had given
+him the names of the ones they knew for certain and had him study their
+families and their powers, and practice a few essential spells until he
+was almost good enough to stop Death Eaters. \emph{Almost}, Harry
+repeated to himself. He wanted to think he was good enough, already, but
+that was hard to say until he actually faced a Death Eater in battle.
+Besides, he had to practice in secret. He was a little quicker than
+Connor to pick up spells, sometimes, and he couldn't embarrass or show
+up his brother.
+
+\emph{A little quicker, that's all,} he protested, and leaned back again
+to watch Connor once again catch the madly fluttering Snitch. \emph{And
+I'm a little quicker on the broom, too, but I always hold myself just
+under his speed. He'll never know. And no one else ever will, either.
+They'll all think he's the best.}
+
+That pleased Harry. Quite apart from giving Connor his place in the
+sunshine---which was what he deserved, after being marked for death by
+Voldemort---the extra advantages would come in handy someday. A Death
+Eater who thought Harry was slow on a broom might underestimate him, and
+then Harry would slam into him and take anyone trying to hurt his
+brother down.
+
+``Merlin, Harry, you act like the weight of the world is on your
+shoulders sometimes,'' said Sirius, breaking his reverie. ``Are you all
+right?''
+
+Harry hunched for a moment, then relaxed. He reminded himself that
+Sirius, and Remus too, thought that he was just being earnest and
+childish when he talked about protecting his brother. They didn't know
+the truth, like his mum did. No one would know the truth. Harry would be
+ordinary.
+
+``I'm fine,'' he said. ``And I'm not carrying the weight of the world on
+my shoulders. That's for Connor.''
+
+Sirius's face softened, and he once again watched Connor until he caught
+the Snitch. ``He's going to have a rough road ahead of him,'' he agreed.
+
+\emph{Not as rough as it could be,} Harry promised himself, drawing his
+knees up to his chin and putting his arms around them. \emph{I'll always
+be at your right shoulder, Connor. I've got your back, and no one will
+see me until they try to hurt you and I hurt them instead.}
+
+It was life. It was a way to be ordinary and yet ready to defend the
+Boy-Who-Lived. It was a way to make sure that Connor survived.
+
+Harry listened to his twin, destined for a life of hardship and pain,
+laugh, and couldn't imagine anything he wouldn't sacrifice to keep that
+laughter intact.
+
+\subsection{*Chapter 2*: Meetings, Cordial and
+Otherwise}\label{chapter-2-meetings-cordial-and-otherwise}
+
+Decided to go ahead and post this chapter, as I don't know when I'll
+next be near a computer, and I did manage to finish it tonight.
+
+\textbf{Chapter Two: Meetings, Cordial and Otherwise}
+
+``Now, Connor, be good for your professors. Do you have Godric? Good.
+Keep him in his cage for right now, at least until you get to Hogwarts.
+James, you are \emph{not} sending the Invisibility Cloak with him. Yes,
+I saw you take it out of your pocket. Put it back right now. He doesn't
+need that in his first year\ldots{}''
+
+Harry trailed behind his parents as they escorted Connor towards
+Platform 9 ¾, smiling as he listened. Normally his mother wasn't this
+fussy, but normally she had Connor right at home where she could keep an
+eye on him, or have Harry or Sirius or Remus keep an eye on him, and
+could pull her wand instantly if someone who might be a Death Eater
+approached. In the shouting, clamoring bustle of King's Cross, filled
+with Muggles as well as wizards, there were more opportunities for
+someone to draw near and take aim at Connor.
+
+Harry wasn't that worried. He had tried a few of his favorite spells
+with his new wand the moment he bought it, and to his relief, they
+worked even better with that than they had with the practice wand. He
+even thought he could trust his snowy owl, Hedwig, to spy out danger if
+it approached. She sat in her cage on top of his trolley right now,
+staring in several directions with bright golden eyes. She seemed more
+alert than Godric, Connor's black eagle-owl, who either sat with his
+eyes closed or craned his head around to stare at people Harry knew from
+the set of their faces were innocent.
+
+``Harry.''
+
+Harry looked up, startled. They'd almost reached the magical wall that
+permitted passage between the station and the Platform, and he hadn't
+noticed his mother dropping back to walk beside him. Of course, she was
+an automatic non-threat, like Sirius or Remus. Harry resolved to be more
+careful, though. There wouldn't be any automatic non-threats on the
+train.
+
+``Yes, Mum?'' he murmured.
+
+Lily hesitated for a long moment, as though she were thinking of giving
+him the stream of advice she'd handed Connor. Harry waited patiently.
+She was only going to say one thing, and he knew what it was. But, at
+the same time, he needed to hear it. It was confirmation of his purpose,
+of his loyalties and his position in the world.
+
+``Take care of your brother,'' said Lily at last, and something coiled
+and tense in Harry's head breathed out a sigh of relaxation.
+
+``Of course, Mum,'' he said.
+
+Lily's hand swept across his fringe, stroking the scar that Harry knew
+was a distorted, imperfect reflection of his twin's curse scar. ``You're
+the lightning bolt,'' she whispered. ``You strike hard and fast, and you
+don't leave any remains behind. Connor's the heart. Protect his
+innocence, Harry. Make sure that he's still pure and unspoiled at the
+end of it all. Headmaster Dumbledore said that Connor would have the
+power the Dark Lord knows not. That's his ability to love, it has to be.
+But if he has to grow up too fast, he'll lose it.'' She bent down and
+kissed Harry on his scar. ``Be sure that he can stay a child for just a
+little while longer.''
+
+``I will, Mum.'' Harry forced the words out through the lump in his
+throat. She had never said anything like that to him, ever. It was
+Connor's scar that was significant, Connor's scar that marked him for
+death and glory. To think that he was part of what his brother was a
+part of, even for a little while\ldots{}
+
+Lily looked as if she would have said something more, but Connor yelled
+from ahead. ``Harry, come on! The train's getting ready to leave!''
+
+Harry and Lily exchanged smiles. Connor was innocently excited about
+going to Hogwarts, and perhaps anticipating, just a little, what they
+would make of the Boy-Who-Lived. He saw it as such a big change in the
+life he'd lived so far, as if everything would be different and nothing
+the same ever again.
+
+In some ways, Harry thought, that was true. Connor would be doing real
+spells now, much more often than he'd done them at home. He would have
+to start growing up, losing his innocence, learning to love not just his
+parents and Harry and Sirius and Remus, but the whole wizarding world
+he'd have to protect someday.
+
+Harry was glad that his own life was so simple in comparison. His
+responsibility was what it had always been: protect Connor.
+
+He touched his mother's hand one more time, then turned and walked
+through the barrier onto the platform. Hedwig hooted softly as he did
+so, as if impressed by the size and noise of the train.
+
+Harry kept an eye on his brother as they boarded, but Connor luckily
+chose an empty compartment. Harry slid in behind him and raised his
+eyebrows at him.
+
+Connor grinned cheekily back. They didn't actually look much like twins,
+Harry thought absently, the old insight brought home to him with new
+force because of seeing his brother in an entirely new place. Connor had
+black hair, but it was less messy than Harry's, so that his scar was
+usually half-visible, the lower curve of the heart just peeking out. He
+had James's hazel eyes, and Lily's lack of need for glasses, and more of
+James's looks.
+
+\emph{Even that can be an advantage,} Harry thought as he took a seat
+across from his brother. \emph{There's no possible way a Death Eater can
+mistake him, of course, but they might also not think I'm his brother.}
+
+``Aren't you excited?'' Connor asked him.
+
+Harry smiled. ``Of course I am,'' he said. ``But the best part is
+watching you bounce around like a Chocolate Frog.''
+
+``I am \emph{not} bouncing,'' said Connor, bouncing.
+
+``Yes, you are.''
+
+``Am not.''
+
+``Yes, you are.''
+
+``Am not.''
+
+So they continued, enjoying the completely childish argument that their
+parents would have been yelling at them to stop inside two minutes.
+They'd probably been at it for ten minutes when the door slid open.
+Harry turned to face it at once, making sure that his expression was
+welcoming and pleasant, just like Connor's innocent smile. His hand was
+on his wand, but that hung in the loose pocket of his school robes,
+which he already wore, and no one else had to know.
+
+The boy in the open door stood blinking for a moment, as if he had not
+expected two of them. Then he moved forward. Harry studied his red hair
+and worn, if clean, clothes, and then slowly took his hand off his wand.
+The boy was almost certainly a Weasley, and the whole of that family was
+loyal to Dumbledore and fought for the Order of the Phoenix. The current
+mother had even lost relatives to Voldemort. Harry could trust this boy
+not to hurt Connor, at least until he proved otherwise.
+
+``Hi,'' said the boy, and sat down across from Connor, next to Harry.
+``I heard that Connor Potter was in this compartment. Is that you?''
+
+Connor grinned and lifted the fringe so that the boy could see the
+heart-shaped scar. The Weasley blinked and gaped in awe, then stuck out
+a hand, grinning. ``My name's Ron Weasley. It's brilliant to meet you.
+Do you know my parents? I think they know yours. Mum said something
+about visiting you once, and Dad said it was restricted, but\ldots{}''
+
+Harry sat back and let the chatter wash over him, watching through
+half-lowered eyes as his brother responded, skittish at first, and then
+gaining confidence as he saw how fascinated with his presence Ron was.
+Connor had never been around other children his own age, any more than
+Harry had. It really was too dangerous for others to visit them, at
+least as long as Voldemort had a chance of coming back. That was one of
+the many reasons Harry was pleased they were going to Hogwarts now.
+Connor would have many friends. Not \emph{all} of them could be the
+children of Death Eaters assigned to spy on him, though Harry was
+willing to think that many were, especially if they came from Slytherin
+House.
+
+The door of the compartment abruptly slid open again, and another boy
+stood just inside it. Harry tensed. This wizard had blond hair and the
+practiced bored expression of a pureblood, and two other wizards flanked
+him like house elves. He glanced at the Weasley and sneered, and Harry's
+hand went to his wand.
+
+``You're the Boy-Who-Lived,'' he said to Connor. ``Aren't you.'' His
+tone, a lazy drawl that was too obviously forced, didn't make it a
+question.
+
+Connor nodded, his shoulders tense. Harry gave his brother full points
+for observation. He didn't know who this was yet, though he had his
+suspicions, and Connor, sheltered from the outside world, disliked the
+boy on principle. A good sign of an innocent heart.
+
+``My name's Draco Malfoy,'' said the boy, and stepped forward, hand out
+as if he expected Connor to actually shake it.
+
+Harry stood, fully prepared to speak a hex. Lucius Malfoy had stood high
+in Voldemort's circle, and then escaped Azkaban on the flimsiest of
+excuses. Of all the children attending Hogwarts this year, his son was
+the one Harry would choose for Most Likely to Try and Kill Connor.
+
+Malfoy gave him an odd glance, then laughed. ``And who is this?'' he
+asked. ``Someone else paying court to you, Potter, like the Weasley?''
+
+\emph{That's it,} Harry thought, as he saw a familiar fire ignite in
+Connor's eyes. \emph{He's just lost his chance.}
+
+``This is my brother Harry,'' said Connor, also standing up. He was
+slightly taller than he looked, and when he turned his gaze on Malfoy,
+the man he would become was visible. Harry nearly stopped breathing with
+admiration. If Connor had to lose a piece of his innocence today, he was
+doing so for a worthy cause. ``And this is Ron Weasley, my friend.
+You're never going to be, so don't insult your betters.''
+
+Malfoy froze for a moment, his eyes wide. Harry peered at him, wondering
+why.
+
+Then he understood. Malfoy was an innocent in his own way, it seemed. He
+had come into the compartment as he probably walked everywhere,
+swaggering and drawling, and expected Connor to accept him as everyone
+must have accepted him. The Malfoys would have raised their son around
+other purebloods, groomed into perfect statuary by their parents to show
+obedience to the rich and powerful---and the Malfoys were both. Why
+should the Boy-Who-Lived be different from the children Draco had known
+all his life?
+
+Harry sighed, feeling an odd pity for the boy, and took his hand off his
+wand. And then he heard Connor snicker.
+
+``Not that I'd want you to be my friend,'' he said. ``You have an ugly
+name.''
+
+``Connor!'' Harry cried, shocked. Defending the innocent was one thing.
+Hurling a childish insult was quite another. The purebloods were part of
+the wizarding world, too, and Connor should have been above the kind of
+retaliation that Harry fully expected from someone like Draco. The hurt
+was still visible on Malfoy's face; he'd been too startled to hide it.
+Connor could have made the rebuke sting a little less with the right
+words, and been on the road to gaining a valuable ally. These were
+definitely \emph{not} the right words, for all that they set Ron to
+laughing.
+
+They closed off that little hurt look on Malfoy's face. He straightened,
+and the wizards with him looked to him for orders. But Malfoy merely
+glared down his nose at Connor, said, ``I should have expected that
+someone with a Mudblood for a mother would have no sense of
+\emph{proper} manners,'' and swept out the door.
+
+Connor cried out, and Ron said, ``That's tough, mate, what he said about
+your mum\ldots{}''
+
+Harry walked out the door of the compartment after Malfoy. What he'd
+said had been harsh, but Connor had provoked him. Harry knew the rules
+of wizarding courtesy from his father and Sirius, purebloods both.
+Malfoy deserved an apology.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+Draco rubbed his forehead as he walked. He'd got a headache in five
+seconds, being inside that compartment with such a powerful wizard.
+Potter's magic hummed and sang around him, and filled the air with a
+faint ringing vibration that Draco, like all properly trained Malfoys,
+could feel. It made his skull hurt. Clearly, Draco reflected, he'd have
+to put up tougher shields once he got to Hogwarts. He'd have to do that
+anyway, with so many other wizards around, but he blamed Potter for
+giving him a headache this early.
+
+``Malfoy.''
+
+Draco glanced over his shoulder, and then stared. Behind him stood the
+other wizard, the one Potter had claimed was his brother. He'd been so
+quiet that Draco had barely noticed him, and had included him in the
+insult tossed at the Weasley mainly by force of habit. He had dark hair
+even messier than Potter's, and green eyes behind ugly glasses.
+
+And he made the air around him sing.
+
+Draco's eyes narrowed further, and then further again. ``Is this some
+kind of bloody trick?'' he snarled, taking a step back towards---Harry,
+that was his name. He wouldn't have used such language ordinarily, but
+he hated being insulted or fooled. His father would have understood.
+``You're the Boy-Who-Lived, aren't you?''
+
+Harry blinked. ``What?'' But he wasn't as confused as he pretended to
+be. Around him, his magic tensed and tightened into a single sharp
+arrowhead aimed straight at Draco.
+
+Draco ground his teeth. ``You're the Boy-Who-Lived,'' he said. ``Not the
+other one. Did you think I'd think it was \emph{funny}, and come
+crawling back to you? Malfoys don't crawl.''
+
+``Not even for the Dark Lord?'' Potter murmured. His eyes sparked with
+lazy amusement.
+
+Beyond infuriated, Draco tried to turn around again, but Potter's hand
+caught his arm. Vincent and Gregory started forward, but halted when
+Draco shook his head slightly. They were well-trained, but there was no
+way they were ready to face a wizard of Potter's power. Draco stood
+stiffly, fully expecting a hex he knew he couldn't stop.
+
+So, of course, he was utterly astonished when Potter passed one hand
+across his brow, lifting up the fringe enough to let Draco see that his
+scar was a lightning bolt, not a heart, and murmured, ``In Merlin's name
+I ask that you forgive me, for my unfair, hasty words, and my brother
+for his. I do not know if you will accept these terms, but I ask them:
+truce between us, and neutrality henceforth.''
+
+Draco stared again. He was spending an unworthy amount of time doing
+that today. But all the words were correct, and Potter's face was
+earnest when he offered them, his eyes meeting Draco's steadily. It
+didn't, of course, stop that ringing, impossible power, compacted and
+folded into perfect obedience, which still continued to give Draco a
+headache, but perhaps it didn't need to.
+
+This Potter knew pureblood courtesies. This Potter had come to offer
+them to Draco. This Potter let go of his arm the moment the ceremony was
+done and backed off a cautious distance, his magic swirling in lazy
+patterns of sound, ready to attack but not poised as it had been
+before---the absolutely proper thing to do, given that Draco hadn't
+responded yet.
+
+This Potter hummed and sang with pure \emph{magic}, and if he wasn't the
+major source of the power that Draco had sensed in the compartment, he
+would eat his own hand.
+
+And yet he wasn't the Boy-Who-Lived.
+
+Draco had two choices in that moment: he could continue to believe he
+was being tricked, and stomp away in righteous indignation, or he could
+accept what was offered and see what happened. Perhaps Connor Potter was
+more powerful than Harry. Perhaps he was so powerful that Draco couldn't
+sense him.
+
+Or perhaps Harry, who, after all, couldn't feel his own strength, didn't
+know anything about the aura he carried, and had even more hidden
+depths, ones that didn't have anything to do with spells.
+
+Draco knew what he would prefer to be true. But he would at least take
+the chance offered, and see what happened.
+
+He laid a fist over his heart, bowed, and extended a hand. Harry
+actually exhaled with relief when he took it.
+
+``Thank you,'' he said, and bowed back, and walked back into the
+compartment without trying to explain himself. That was also absolutely
+proper, Draco thought, watching him go with a hunger that had no name
+yet. He would have to write a letter to his father when he arrived at
+the school. He wondered what Lucius would make of it.
+
+``Why did that happen?'' Vincent whispered. His voice was tinged with
+awe. He couldn't feel Harry, but he knew that Draco wouldn't have
+accepted an apology from just anyone.
+
+``I don't know,'' said Draco. ``Not yet. But I'll tell you one
+thing\ldots{}'' He left it at the end of a deliciously long pause.
+
+``Yeah?'' Gregory asked, leaning forward.
+
+Draco smiled at the compartment door, which was now closed. ``There's
+going to be a Potter in Slytherin.''
+
+\subsection{*Chapter 3*: Arguments With the Sorting
+Hat}\label{chapter-3-arguments-with-the-sorting-hat}
+
+Thank you for the reviews! I'm afraid that most questions about the plot
+won't be answered yet; they'll unspool slowly throughout the story.
+
+And here's the next chapter!
+
+\textbf{Chapter Three: Arguments With the Sorting Hat}
+
+Harry listened to the murmur of awe all around him as the first-years
+rode the boats across the lake towards Hogwarts. He was busy studying
+the castle, too, and he had to admit it was beautiful, a welcoming blaze
+of light in the by-now-absolute darkness.
+
+He suspected he was looking for slightly different things than the rest
+of the students looked for, though. They would gasp and exclaim at the
+windows, and the enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall when they reached
+it, and the soaring turrets of stone that broke the horizon in odd
+places. Harry studied the thickness of the walls, the width of the
+windows, and the crackling, glowing haze of those spells he had managed
+to train himself to see. Hogwarts looked as if it were on fire in that
+kind of sight, though the fire did not consume the stone but slowly and
+continually shifted on top of it, altering colors. And Harry was sure
+that many spells he could not see also defended the school. They would
+range from new to old, some doubtless laid down by the Founders
+themselves.
+
+But were they enough? Would they keep Connor safe if Death Eaters came
+hunting him? If Voldemort did? If an accident nearly deprived the world
+of the Boy-Who-Lived, before he got the chance to strike the final blow
+in the battle?
+
+Frowning, Harry barely noticed Connor nudging him in the side to get him
+out of the boats as they slid to a stop. He did get out, but it was
+training that kept him close to his brother, and not attention or
+anticipation. He knew all about the speech that someone---the Deputy
+Headmistress McGonagall, from the sound of it, and his future Head of
+House---was giving to the first-years. He knew about the Sorting Hat and
+the ghosts who swooped through the waiting room and the blend of surging
+excitement and nervousness that consumed his peers like an echo of the
+spells on the castle.
+
+He did not know how much he could trust Hogwarts yet. Until he could, he
+had to keep an eye on it.
+
+``You aren't frightened, are you?''
+
+Harry blinked and turned his head, at least once he could be sure that
+the question was addressed to him. He didn't know what to make of the
+tone once he found Malfoy standing next to him, staring at him intently.
+Was Malfoy taunting? Asking a serious question? Asking it in admiration?
+His eyes and voice gave nothing away anymore. Harry found himself
+relieved. He would prefer not to have to smooth things over between
+Connor and the possible future Death Eater all the time.
+
+``No,'' Harry said, and faced the doors again.
+
+They swung wide, which prevented Malfoy from asking anything else.
+McGonagall herded them along beneath the enchanted ceiling, over a stone
+floor, beneath the gazes of both professors and other students. Harry
+heard constant gasps from around him, even when the Sorting Hat began to
+sing, and wondered why. The only overwhelming, and therefore
+interesting, things were the lines of spells that danced down from the
+ceiling and curled like ivy around the student tables. He knew only one
+or two of them, such as the ones that would soothe thoughts which might
+lead to deadly displays of magic. He would have to learn the others.
+
+``Abbott, Hannah!''
+
+Harry watched as the girl trotted forward, placed the Hat on her head,
+and got Sorted into Hufflepuff. He nodded. The Sorting Hat worked
+exactly the way that his parents had told him, then, and any possible
+danger was removed. He leaned sideways to watch the green tracery of a
+spell snake around the Slytherin table. He wondered what it did. Its
+signatures were similar to those that enclosed a defensive spell, but it
+had sharp projections from the sides, as though it were meant to act
+offensively.
+
+His attention returned to the Sorting only in fits and starts, such as
+when there was an extremely long silence between ``Granger, Hermione!''
+and the Hat's announcement. Harry leaned forward, curious, to see the
+girl sitting firmly beneath the Hat. He could hear a faint murmur of
+voices, and thought she was arguing with it.
+
+``GRYFFINDOR!'' the Hat shouted.
+
+Granger put it back down on its stool and trotted away, looking very
+pleased with herself. Harry concealed a smile .So she was going to be in
+Connor's House, then. He hoped she would become his friend. Someone so
+determined might be a good ally. And she had a name he didn't recognize
+as belonging to any wizarding family, which meant she was a Muggleborn,
+which meant she would have more reason than some of the others to be on
+Connor's side.
+
+He also paid attention when a name he recognized came up, and was
+pleased beyond words to see Neville Longbottom go into Gryffindor. Lily
+had told him the solemn story of how Neville's parents had lost their
+minds to the Lestranges' Cruciatus curses. Harry had wondered if their
+courage would pass into their son. It seemed it had.
+
+Malfoy went into Slytherin. Harry was absolutely not surprised. He
+didn't understand why Malfoy felt the need to smirk at him as he walked
+over to the Slytherin table, though, nor why he sat down and kept
+watching until Harry grimaced at him and turned away.
+
+Then came the moment he'd been waiting for.
+
+``Potter, Connor!''
+
+The murmurs started almost at once. Harry saw his brother flush and
+stumble a bit as he hurried forward to the Hat, as if he hadn't expected
+this. Of course, he had, but it was one thing to imagine it and another
+to hear it, Harry thought, heart aching with sympathy. Luckily, Connor
+made it to the stool despite the voices that followed him.
+
+``Is that really him?''
+
+``\emph{The} Connor Potter?''
+
+``Can you see his scar?''
+
+``I don't know, he looks smaller than I imagined him\ldots{}''
+
+Connor put the Hat on his head and closed his eyes. Harry could see his
+brother's lips moving, and knew the kind of reassurances he would try to
+murmur to himself. Then he went still, and Harry knew the Hat's voice
+was speaking into his head.
+
+It lasted a very short time, as Harry had known it would, but that
+moment still had claws, and they prickled all up and down his back as he
+waited.
+
+``GRYFFINDOR!''
+
+The Hall erupted into noise---cheers from the Gryffindor table and
+relieved shouts from the others, all except Slytherin. Harry nodded as
+Connor took the Hat off his head, beaming. Of course he was essentially
+good. He had defeated Voldemort, hadn't he? But this was the first time
+that someone outside his family had ever judged Connor. It must feel
+good to be told that his family's instincts were right, Harry thought.
+
+Connor settled at the Gryffindor table and then turned around and
+grinned at his twin. Harry smiled at him and walked forward as
+McGonagall called his name.
+
+The Hat settled over his ears, and chuckled into his mind. \emph{You
+already think you know your House, don't you?}
+
+\emph{I think so,} Harry responded, calmly. His mother had told him that
+he could think and the Hat would hear him. It was valuable advice, as
+his enemies might possibly be able to gain something of Harry's private
+thoughts if he spoke aloud. \emph{I'm going into Gryffindor, to protect
+my brother.}
+
+\emph{You} want \emph{to go into Gryffindor,} the Hat corrected him.
+\emph{That doesn't mean that you wouldn't be better-suited for another
+House.}
+
+Harry had the odd, uncomfortable sensation of the room spinning around
+him and turning sharp-edged, as though the Hat had put his vision into
+another part of his brain while it looked at his memories. Then it said,
+\emph{No one can question your loyalty. Or your courage---how many
+children are prepared to die for their brothers at eleven years old?}
+For some reason, it sounded sad about that, but Harry didn't get the
+chance to question it. \emph{Or your intelligence, for that matter, to
+learn so many spells so young.}
+
+\emph{But what holds you together, Mr. Potter, is your cunning, your
+care, your ability to hide what you really are and your determination to
+succeed. I think you're hiding better than most people will ever know,}
+it added cryptically.
+
+Harry didn't care about that last sentence; his mind was on the one
+before it. \emph{But you can't mean to put me in---}
+
+``SLYTHERIN!'' the Hat boomed cheerfully.
+
+For one flaming moment, Harry thought about arguing. He was supposed to
+be in \emph{Gryffindor}, that's where he \emph{belonged,} that's what
+they'd \emph{planned} on, and how was he supposed to \emph{protect} his
+brother when he wouldn't even see him for large portions of the day? The
+Hat had known all that, and it still put him elsewhere. Harry wanted to
+scream or shout. For the first time in years, he thought he might even
+want to cry.
+
+But then he stifled the impulse and stuffed it back down into the small
+and secret box of his thoughts. No, he couldn't protest. That would call
+attention to himself. Besides, there might be advantages to being in
+Slytherin. He'd have access to the children most likely to belong to the
+opposite side. He didn't think he could pretend to be one of them, ever,
+but simple proximity and familiarity might make them careless around
+him.
+
+He took off the Hat to a moment of dead silence, as he'd expected. Harry
+schooled his features into calmness and faced the Slytherin table. He'd
+walk over there, and the silence would continue, and then the Sorting
+would start again. This would be only a small bump in the road, he
+fervently hoped. There were other students to put into their Houses. If
+Connor---
+
+Then the silence broke.
+
+Harry stared as Draco Malfoy stood up from the Slytherin table and began
+to applaud. He did it as coolly as if this happened every day of his
+life, and his eyes were fixed on Harry's face, not glancing around to
+see what kind of attention he could draw. A few other Slytherins
+staggered to their feet and joined in, but, mostly, Harry walked to the
+table under the aegis of exactly one pair of clapping hands, making the
+entire sorry performance even more noticeable than it already was.
+
+Then Malfoy had the audacity to wave the boy sitting next to him over,
+so that Harry had an empty place to sit down. Harry took it, his face
+flaming, since he suspected that avoiding him would only prompt Malfoy
+to do something even more dramatic and ridiculous in the name of---what?
+
+``Do you think it's funny to embarrass me?'' Harry hissed at him. He
+could hear the Sorting begin again, luckily. He could also feel his twin
+looking at him from the Gryffindor table. Coward that he was, he didn't
+think he could meet Connor's eyes yet, so he settled for glaring at
+Malfoy, who only leaned back and smiled at him.
+
+``I wasn't aware that I was embarrassing you,'' Malfoy drawled. ``I was
+only welcoming the newest member of House Slytherin. I suppose that your
+impeccable manners don't extend to a friendly welcome, then? For shame.
+You're clearly different than I thought you were.'' His smile grew
+wider, a smirk, and he watched Harry to see what he would do.
+
+Harry recognized the baiting, but only had one choice, and he suspected
+it was the one that would please Malfoy the most. He took a deep breath
+and forced a smile. ``Of course not,'' he said. ``Forgive me. I
+misunderstood. I thought I was going into Gryffindor with my twin.''
+
+Malfoy leaned nearer to him, implying a familiarity that Harry didn't
+think was there. ``Twins are different sometimes,'' he whispered. ``At
+least, I always thought so. And I thought from the first moment we met
+on the train that you would be a Slytherin.''
+
+Harry jerked his eyes away from Malfoy and swallowed. \emph{Shit. What
+did I do wrong?} he thought in misery. \emph{What kind of---of} thing
+\emph{in me makes me a Slytherin so that someone else can see it? And
+why didn't my family ever tell me?}
+
+He still didn't feel up to looking across the room, even as Ron Weasley
+became a Gryffindor, so he looked at the head table instead. He nodded
+in gloomy unsurprise when he realized that Severus Snape, the head of
+Slytherin House, was staring back at him. His father had told Harry all
+about the rivalry between the Marauders and Snape when they attended
+Hogwarts, but also about the wizard's debt that Snape owed James, and
+that the scowling, snapping, sniping man was a member of the Order of
+the Phoenix. Snape would help protect Connor, but he would hardly make
+his life pleasant. And he didn't look pleased to have a Potter in his
+House, either.
+
+Harry abruptly hissed. His head hurt. He raised a hand and rubbed it
+across his scar, then blinked when he brought it down and found the palm
+smeared with blood. He shoved it under the table in confusion
+
+Malfoy, of course, tried to grab his arm. ``Let me see.''
+
+``No!'' Harry said, and twisted away. Confused, lost, needing
+\emph{some} taste of home, he lifted his eyes and looked across the
+room, to the Gryffindor table where he should have been, where Connor
+and Ron sat in camaraderie.
+
+Connor was staring at him, as though he hadn't stopped since the moment
+Harry was Sorted. His eyes were big, and he shook his head back and
+forth, back and forth. Harry winced and turned away again. It was the
+first time he'd ever seen betrayal on his brother's face.
+
+He breathed carefully to himself, ignoring Headmaster Dumbledore's
+speech and the appearance of the food, at least until Malfoy leaned over
+and said, ``Everyone's going to think you're sulking if you don't eat,
+you know.''
+
+\emph{I can't afford this,} Harry thought. \emph{I can't afford to draw
+attention to myself. People will think too much about me, and they'll
+not look at Connor as much as they should. I have to get control of
+myself.}
+
+It was his mother's voice that came back to him. ``\emph{You're the
+lightning bolt. You strike hard and fast, and you don't leave any
+remains behind. Connor's the heart. Protect his innocence, Harry. Make
+sure that he's still pure and unspoiled at the end of it all.}''
+
+Harry let out one last anxious breath, the last one he'd permit himself,
+and then started eating. He could do this. It was only another challenge
+to protecting Connor. No one had ever said it was \emph{easy.} Harry
+tended to fling himself at challenges and batter them until they were
+gone. He could do it with this one, too.
+
+``Do you want some pumpkin juice, Harry?''
+
+Malfoy had decided to address him by his first name? This was news to
+Harry. But he managed to nod, and smile, and even say, ``Thank you,
+Draco.''
+
+Draco poured. Harry kept his eyes away from the Gryffindor table for
+right now. He would explain to Connor that being put in Slytherin House
+didn't mean his goals in life had changed, but he would do it tomorrow,
+when they weren't in front of so many other people.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+Draco wasn't stupid. He'd seen the blood come out of Harry's scar. He
+certainly hadn't missed the panicked expression on Harry's face when the
+Hat had announced him for Slytherin, or the way he had noticed his
+brother and Snape and the Weasley all staring at him as if he'd grown a
+second head.
+
+Draco didn't care. Anticipation sweetened every mouthful of food he ate
+and every move he made, especially now that he'd managed to shield
+against Harry's pure power. He'd known what to expect at Hogwarts from
+his father's tales of it, and what standards he was expected to carry
+and maintain as a Malfoy. He'd known that the Boy-Who-Lived was coming,
+and all things considered, he wasn't surprised that he and that
+Gryffindor prat were probably going to wind up enemies. He had expected
+to enjoy Hogwarts a little, but be bored out of his skull most of the
+time.
+
+No one had told him about Harry. For all Draco knew, his father didn't
+consider the existence of the second Potter twin important.
+
+\emph{But he is,} Draco thought, and poured the pumpkin juice so that
+he'd have an excuse to keep watching Harry. \emph{He's powerful, and he
+acts like he doesn't know it, and he certainly didn't} expect \emph{to
+be put in Slytherin, so he doesn't know much about his own character,
+either. I've got a leg up on Harry and Potter, and maybe even on Snape,
+too.}
+
+\emph{I don't know exactly what's going to happen next, but it's going
+to be so much} fun.
+
+\subsection{*Chapter 4*: Detention With the Potions
+Master}\label{chapter-4-detention-with-the-potions-master}
+
+This might be the last chapter I'm able to get up so quickly for a
+while. Thank you for the reviews!
+
+\textbf{Chapter Four: Detention With the Potions Master}
+
+``Wake up, Harry!''
+
+``I'm already up, Draco,'' Harry said, sitting up and stretching lazily.
+Draco, who'd flung back the green-and-silver hangings on Harry's bed,
+looked startled for a second, but then grabbed his arm and dragged him
+out. Harry sighed, but said nothing. Most of the time, the only people
+who touched him were his parents, Connor, Sirius, and Remus. He would
+have to get used to other people doing it, especially when said other
+people were trying so hard to be his friends.
+
+That was what he didn't understand, Harry admitted as Draco all but
+dragged him through the common room, down the dungeon corridor, and
+towards the Great Hall. Draco was acting---well, not like a Malfoy---in
+his attempt to get Harry to pay attention to him. But there were other
+people in Slytherin, including Vincent and Gregory, whom Harry had met
+last night, perfectly glad to give Draco all the attention he wanted.
+What could be gained by badgering \emph{him}?
+
+\emph{Because you're the brother of the Boy-Who-Lived, of course,}
+whispered a voice in his head that Harry distrusted. It sounded awfully
+like the voice of a snake, or a Slytherin. \emph{Draco wants to get at
+Connor. He wanted to be his friend, and now he probably wants to be his
+enemy. What better way to do that than convince Connor his brother's
+turned against him?}
+
+They were in the Great Hall by then, and Harry could see Connor sitting
+with Ron at the Gryffindor table. This time, his twin didn't meet his
+eyes, just turned his head away and talked more loudly.
+
+\emph{We'll have a conversation this afternoon,} Harry promised his twin
+mentally, as he sat down and helped himself to a plate of eggs.
+\emph{I'm not going to let my brother hold these ridiculous prejudices
+against me. Everyone else in Slytherin might be a slimy snake, but I'm
+not.}
+
+``Professor Snape's staring at you again.''
+
+Harry blinked at Draco's words, but didn't look up at the head table. He
+could feel the professor's eyes, after all. ``Yeah, I know,'' he said,
+and then paused to get a drink of pumpkin juice down his throat without
+spraying it all over the table. ``He hated our father in school.'' He
+thought about telling Draco about the life-debt and that Snape was
+really good, but refrained. Maybe Draco wasn't a Death Eater, yet, but
+Lucius Malfoy still might learn about that interesting tidbit a few
+moments after Harry said it.
+
+\emph{I hate that I have to keep secrets,} he whined to himself, just
+before putting the whining in the secret box of his mind. \emph{If I was
+in Gryffindor, it wouldn't be like this. We could trust most people
+there to be for the Light.}
+
+He shut the lid of the box firmly when he was done. He was in Slytherin,
+and Snape hadn't yet come up and suggested that a son of the Potter
+family really belonged in Gryffindor, so he supposed he'd have to make
+the best of it.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+As it turned out, Friday came around before Harry saw his brother for
+more than a few minutes at a time, or closer than on the other side of a
+sea of uncomprehending faces. All the students were constantly on the
+move, going to one class or another, and chattering so loudly that
+Harry's gentle call to Connor in a corridor almost always went unheard.
+Or perhaps ignored; Harry had to concede that Connor might be too angry
+to pay attention to him even if he heard.
+
+Draco didn't particularly help. He stuck to Harry's side like a burr,
+and uttered a constant stream of bright chatter that Harry was sure was
+false. When Harry tried to win free to go to the library---really in
+hope of finding the way up to Gryffindor Tower---Draco invited himself
+along. He said nothing about Connor, or about Gryffindors, but kept a
+constant eye on Harry, and smirked whenever someone mentioned the
+Boy-Who-Lived in passing.
+
+\emph{I could deal with Slytherins better,} Harry thought as they moved
+into Potions, \emph{if they didn't smirk all day long.}
+
+It was true that he hadn't really met many Slytherins other than Draco
+yet, but they all seemed to smirk, except for Vincent and Gregory, who
+were mostly expressionless. Blaise Zabini stared and smirked, Pansy
+Parkinson simpered and smirked, Millicent Bulstrode glared and smirked,
+and the older years smirked at the mere thought of paying attention to
+someone from a younger year. Harry was afraid that his smile would be a
+smirk by the time that he got back to Connor, and was determined not to
+let it be.
+
+``You'll love this class,'' Draco whispered to the back of Harry's head
+as they set up at the desks. ``Snape is a brilliant teacher. And we have
+class with the Gryffindors, which I know you were looking forward to.''
+He smiled blandly when Harry whipped his head around and scowled at him.
+
+Harry had known about the schedule, of course. But he hadn't known that
+Draco had noticed.
+
+\emph{Maybe asking him about it directly would work.}
+
+``Why do you care?'' he whispered fiercely. ``Of course I want to say
+hello to my brother. We've never been apart until we came here. Why do
+you smirk at me like that's unusual?''
+
+Draco smirked at him, and didn't answer.
+
+Harry turned around again, grinding his teeth in frustration, and saw
+the Gryffindor first-years tumble in around the door. Hermione Granger
+walked in by herself, consulting a book as she did so. Harry blinked
+when she also took a seat by herself. \emph{Why hasn't she made friends?
+She doesn't look as though shyness is going to stop her.}
+
+Connor and Ron came next. Harry waited until his brother didn't have an
+excuse not to look across the room, then caught his eye and smiled
+hopefully. Connor sent him a tentative smile, but it broke apart when
+Ron's elbow went into his ribs. Then they turned away and sat down at a
+desk.
+
+Draco snickered, Harry was sure of it, but he didn't get a chance to
+confront him about it before Snape swept to the front of the classroom.
+
+He stared out over the students. Harry stared back, and noticed that he
+felt no pain in his scar this time when he met Snape's eyes. That was
+worth paying attention to, maybe---though maybe not, since he still
+didn't know why his scar had bled in the first place.
+
+\emph{There are so} many \emph{things I don't know,} Harry thought,
+tapping his quill against his parchment in agitation. \emph{How am I
+ever going to protect Connor if I can't learn what I need to know to do
+it?}
+
+``You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of
+potionmaking,'' Snape was saying. Harry didn't pay that much attention
+to his rattle, even when he got to an apparently practiced speech about
+brewing glory. Of course Snape would try to impress students. He didn't
+want them acting up in his class.
+
+``\ldots{}if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have
+to teach,'' he finished, and Harry nodded. Yes, Snape worked to
+intimidate. His tactics were the same as James said they had been when
+he and the Marauders were in school. Harry would work to get along with
+him, the same way he would with the rest of the Slytherins, but he
+didn't intend to let Snape impress or goad him.
+
+As though his nod had been a signal, Snape turned on him. Harry studied
+his sneer, but couldn't make out whether it came from speaking to a
+Potter, to the brother of the Boy-Who-Lived, or to the Potter and the
+brother of the Boy-Who-Lived who had somehow wound up in Slytherin
+House. \emph{No doubt he thinks it unfair.}
+
+\emph{Well, on that we can agree, at least.}
+
+``Potter,'' said Snape. ``What would I get if I added powdered root of
+asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?''
+
+``The Draught of Living Death, sir,'' said Harry. That much he knew,
+having scrambled through his Potions textbook over most of the last
+week, after he found out Snape would be his Head of House. He had
+memorized by sheer force as much information as he could. If Snape asked
+him for details, he'd be in trouble, but he thought he could manage
+general answers.
+
+Snape stepped back, head tilted. Harry couldn't read the expression on
+his face, but his eyes never left Harry's, so Harry never glanced away
+from him, either.
+
+``Where would you look if I asked you to find me a bezoar?''
+
+``In the stomach of a goat, sir.'' That was also luck, Harry reflected;
+he'd seen the odd word while flipping through the book, and stopped to
+read about it since he didn't recognize it.
+
+``And what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?'' Snape
+asked the question with a much milder tone in his voice than before.
+Harry dared not hope he'd impressed him, especially because he wasn't
+sure of the answer to this one; he only knew about the plants at all
+because he was friends with Remus.
+
+``They're the same plant, sir.''
+
+Snape nodded at him. ``Five points to Slytherin for displaying some
+actual study skills,'' he said, and then whirled on Connor before Harry
+could draw in a breath of relief. ``And you, Mister Potter, our
+newest\ldots{}celebrity. Tell me, what are the ingredients for a boil
+cure potion?''
+
+Connor froze, eyes wide. Beside him, Hermione Granger's hand appeared to
+have taken on a life of its own and was crawling up the air. Connor
+nodded to her. ``Why don't you ask Hermione?'' he said. ``I think she
+knows.''
+
+Snape lost all traces of amusement, and took a long, heavy step forward.
+Harry tensed, but Snape only said, his voice cold, ``I asked \emph{you},
+Mr. Potter.''
+
+``I don't know,'' said Connor, through gritted teeth. Harry sympathized.
+He didn't know, either. Out of everyone in the class, probably only
+Hermione did.
+
+Snape sneered at him. ``Clearly, fame isn't everything,'' he said, and
+turned to write on the board. ``Five points from Gryffindor for severely
+\emph{lacking} study skills. The ingredients of a boil cure potion are
+dried nettles, crushed snake fangs, stewed horned slugs, and porcupine
+quills. You must add the porcupine quills \emph{after} you take the
+cauldron off the fire, unless you want a nasty mess. When you put the
+nettles in\ldots{}''
+
+Harry sat back in his seat, stomach churning. Snape had deliberately set
+him and Connor against each other, and he didn't like the feeling. He
+glanced over to see Connor staring at him with a mixture of
+embarrassment and resentment, at least until he ducked his head.
+
+Draco poked him in the back. Harry whirled around. ``\emph{What}?'' he
+snarled. He was fighting hard not to draw his wand.
+
+Draco blinked at him and said, ``Want to partner up?''
+
+Harry sighed, nodded, and went to fetch the ingredients.
+
+Of course, as James had warned him, Snape turned out to be an
+intimidating teacher, too, sweeping around the room, staring into
+students' cauldrons, and making impatient comments---comments aimed only
+at the Gryffindors. ``That's not the right consistency, Longbottom. Did
+you imagine that you could put the snake fangs in \emph{without}
+crushing them, Weasley? I am awed by the bottomless display of your
+incompetence, Thomas, but not by the color of your potion.''
+
+Harry soon found that he had to try to ignore Snape as much as possible.
+When Snape commented on Connor's potion, there was an extra sneer in his
+voice, and it infuriated Harry. He crushed the snake fangs and stirred
+the potion with just enough violence that it didn't slop over the side,
+and watched Connor.
+
+That was how he noticed his brother was about to add the porcupine
+quills before taking the cauldron off the fire. Harry winced. He could
+imagine not only the mess that would result, but the punishment Connor
+would receive from Snape, and he wasn't about to let that happen.
+
+He whispered to Draco, ``Duck,'' and then tossed his own handful of
+porcupine quills into his potion.
+
+Snape was just swooping down on Connor when Harry's cauldron produced a
+nasty plume of green smoke and a noise that rivaled a swarm of bees.
+Snape stiffened, and then turned slowly to face the Slytherin side of
+the classroom. Draco had ducked out of the way. That left Harry to
+shuffle his feet and blink at Snape as if he didn't know what was going
+on.
+
+``And what exactly was \emph{that}, Potter?'' Snape hissed.
+
+Harry blinked at the cauldron, at the floor where the cauldron was
+melting and nearly burning a hole in his shoes, and at the gaping faces
+of his peers. Then he shrugged. ``Oops?'' he offered.
+
+Snape strode over to him, stared into the cauldron, sneered, and
+announced, ``You put the porcupine quills in before you removed the
+cauldron from the fire.'' Harry was gratified to see Connor hastily
+snatch his hand back and gently lay the quills down beside the potion.
+``Could you not clearly see the written instructions?''
+
+``Oops,'' said Harry again. He kept his head up, and even let a faint
+hint of a smile play about his lips. Snape wouldn't know the real
+reason. He would only think Harry was being the mocking son of James
+Potter.
+
+``Detention, Mister Potter,'' said Snape softly. ``Eight'-o'-clock
+tonight, in this classroom. I shall expect you no later than that.''
+
+``Yes, sir,'' said Harry, ducking his head as Snape moved away. The
+ruined cauldron vanished a moment later. Harry eyed the mess for a
+moment. He could owl home and get his parents to send him another one.
+He was sure that his mother would oblige, once she heard he'd ruined it
+for a good cause.
+
+A hand gripped his arm just then, forcing Harry to pay attention to the
+gripper---Draco. ``Why did you do that?'' Draco whispered at him. ``You
+whispered to me to duck. You \emph{knew} what was going to happen.''
+
+Harry nodded.
+
+Draco's grip only grew firmer, and he scowled as though this somehow
+personally affected him. ``\emph{Why}?'' he repeated.
+
+Harry shook his hand loose. ``I didn't lose any points for Slytherin, so
+what do you care?'' he whispered, and sat back to listen to the rest of
+the class suffer from Snape's sharp-edged tongue. Connor and Ron didn't
+brew their potion perfectly, but then, no one in the class except
+Hermione did. They also suffered from Snape's insults, but Harry was
+fast becoming resigned to not being able to do anything about that. He
+could at least save Connor from detention.
+
+He didn't mind giving up his evenings for the rest of the year, come to
+that. It was for the highest purpose imaginable.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+A knock sounded on Snape's door at precisely eight-o'-clock. He looked
+up, checked the time, and raised his eyebrows. \emph{So the brat does
+have some semblance of good manners.}
+
+``Enter.''
+
+Potter---not the famous one, Snape corrected in his mind, which sounded
+awkward---entered and nodded to him. ``I've come about my detention,
+sir. What do you want me to do?''
+
+Snape studied him for a moment. The boy was unmistakably Potter's son,
+given that hair and those glasses, but he didn't carry himself like
+James. His head was up all the time, and he met Snape's eyes without
+flinching. Curious, Snape used a gentle touch of Legilimency, and found
+a memory of Harry arguing with Draco Malfoy just before he came here.
+Draco wanted to know why Harry had done what he had done in Potions.
+Harry had shrugged him off and run to his detention.
+
+Snape ended his probe into the boy's head in time to see Harry's calm
+mask split into a frown. He lifted a hand and rubbed his temple,
+gingerly, as though his head hurt and he didn't know why.
+
+\emph{Interesting. His mistake during Potions was deliberate, then?}
+Snape kept the thought tucked behind his own mask, and snapped, ``Clean
+up the mess that you and your fellow idiots caused today. You may not
+use magic.''
+
+``Yes, sir.''
+
+Potter located a brush and a pail of water without being told, which
+took him a few minutes, and then began to scrub down the classroom.
+Snape marked essays and watched him from the corner of his eye. Potter
+worked calmly, without complaint, his face reflecting far less emotion
+than Snape would have thought possible for a son of James. His twin, the
+famous one, was open enough, his hazel eyes spitting fire about the
+unfairness of it all whenever Snape was within sight.
+
+Snape grimaced in distaste. \emph{And I have to protect the brat. That
+does not mean I have to like him.}
+
+He went back to marking essays, at least until a faint, nagging buzz
+broke his concentration. He looked up, an insult on the tip of his
+tongue, but the loudest noise Potter made was the rasp of his brush over
+the tables. The buzzing noise came from something else.
+
+Snape touched his left forearm, and then shook his head. For all that he
+did not believe the Potter brat had managed to banish Voldemort forever,
+his lord was not yet able to command any former Death Eaters. Had he
+been, the first sign of his presence would hardly be such a gentle
+manifestation.
+
+Then he thought of someone trying to spy on the detention, and cast a
+\emph{Revealo} with his wand under the table. Nothing showed.
+
+He worked through several other possibilities before one occurred to him
+that hadn't in years---the memory jogged, perhaps, by the sight of the
+Malfoy boy in Potter's mind. He reached out for the shield Lucius had
+taught him, after teaching him to hear the faint ringing vibrations that
+encircled powerful wizards, and let it down for the first time in years.
+
+The buzzing noise sharpened immediately. Snape stared at Potter, who was
+currently kneeling down and trying to reach a particularly stubborn
+spill half under Longbottom's table. The air around him sang with power
+like a finger running around a wineglass.
+
+\emph{Why didn't I sense it when he was in class?} Snape wondered, and
+then snorted to himself. \emph{He was among a dozen other brats, that's
+why. Their power would have covered his.}
+
+\emph{Strange, that the twin who did not defeat Voldemort has such an
+aura about him. Perhaps the other one is even stronger, and will provide
+our true `last best hope' after all.} Snape grimaced. He'd spoken to
+Dumbledore several times about Connor Potter as the true focus of the
+prophecy, and still felt ill at the thought of that \emph{child} being
+the only one who stood between the wizarding world and Voldemort's
+return. \emph{It's very romantic, of course, but not very practical.}
+
+A glance at the clock showed that it was almost ten, and that Potter's
+detention was finished. Snape shook his head and put the shield back up.
+``Potter!'' he barked.
+
+Harry started, but did not bang his head into the table, as Snape had
+half-hoped he would. He stood and turned around, bucket and brush held
+loosely in his hands. ``Yes, sir?'' he asked.
+
+``Your detention is done, and the room is not passable,'' said Snape
+coldly. ``You will return on Monday night, also at eight, and make sure
+it is finished then.''
+
+For a moment, a bare moment, the brat's eyes flickered. He was doubtless
+thinking that the Monday potions classes would cause an even greater
+mess, and more work. But he said only, ``Yes, sir,'' and moved to put
+the cleaning supplies away.
+
+Snape leaned forward. ``One more thing, Potter.''
+
+Potter---no, he would think of this boy as Harry, since he didn't think
+he would ever be able to muster the same amount of venom for him as he
+could for the Boy-Who-Lived---looked up at him. ``Yes, sir?''
+
+``If I find out that you have deliberately made a mistake in my class
+again,'' Snape said softly, ``I will give you a week's worth of
+detentions. I will \emph{not} have any of my Slytherins working at less
+than their full potential, especially in an art I know they have basic
+knowledge in. Is that clear?''
+
+Harry's shoulders tensed for a moment, but he only tilted his head and
+said, ``With all due respect, sir, I'm only a first-year, and I don't
+know much about Potions. I'm sure I'll make lots of mistakes.''
+
+Snape narrowed his eyes and stared at Harry. Harry stared straight back
+at him. Snape hissed. \emph{Does he think that he can really best} me
+\emph{in the arts of cunning?}
+
+The set of Harry's face told him the answer. \emph{He doesn't know if he
+can. But he knows he's going to try.}
+
+``Then I suggest you study, Mister Potter,'' Snape told him flatly. ``As
+the dividing line between a deliberate mistake and a true one may grow
+hard to see when you've spent multiple nights scrubbing the Potions
+classroom.''
+
+``Yes, sir,'' said Harry, and walked to the door.
+
+Snape watched him go, then leaned back in his seat and tried to play his
+memories of class over. Harry had caused the mistake when---
+
+When he'd just been about to descend on Potter for incompetence.
+
+Snape snarled and stood up. \emph{If one Potter thinks to interfere for
+another, he should think again. I will not tolerate celebrity treatment
+of that brat in my classroom, even if his brother is the cause.}
+
+\subsection{*Chapter 5*: The Lion and the
+Serpent}\label{chapter-5-the-lion-and-the-serpent}
+
+Thank you very much for the reviews! I'm flattered and excited that
+people are enjoying this story so much.\\
+I've put answers to some of the questions in my profile, if you want to
+take a look. For others, I can only say that you'll need to wait until
+further along in the story to get answers.
+
+\ldots{}Though this chapter should show that Harry's not going to be the
+victim of the Gryffindors or buddy-buddy with all the Slytherins all the
+time.
+
+\textbf{Chapter Five: The Lion and the Serpent}
+
+Harry hesitated for a long moment, and considered pulling open the
+silver-and-green hangings of the bed next to his, just to be sure that
+Draco was still asleep.
+
+Then a long snore reassured him. Harry smiled as he tiptoed out of the
+room, past Greg and Vince deep in sleep, and Blaise's empty bed. The
+other Slytherin boy rose early every morning, and it seemed that
+Saturday was no exception.
+
+It was definitely an exception for Draco, though, which was the precise
+reason Harry had chosen to sneak out now. Once he was in the common
+room, he actually broke into a jog. No one was in there this early in
+the morning, except a seventh-year who had fallen asleep in a chair with
+a book on his lap. He opened an eye as Harry hurried past, then snorted
+and shut it again, not deigning to talk to someone whose head barely
+reached his chest.
+
+Harry slipped out the door and shut it carefully behind him. Once it was
+closed, it blended with the join of the stone wall and was hard to see.
+Harry shook his head. The Slytherins were incredibly paranoid, to think
+that none of the other Houses should be sure of exactly where they
+lived.
+
+Of course, he might say the same thing about the Gryffindors. Gryffindor
+prefects were always watching to be sure that no one else---though
+especially no Slytherins---followed the younger years back to the Tower.
+Gryffindors traveled in clumps of their own year-mates much as did
+everyone else in the school; Harry had been at Hogwarts only a week, and
+already he knew that inter-House friendships were rare. And of course he
+didn't know the Gryffindor password.
+
+None of that was going to matter.
+
+He drew his wand, cypress with a dragon heartstring core, and laid it
+across his palm. ``\emph{Point Me} Connor Potter,'' he commanded, throwing
+all his will forward. Their father insisted that this was not a hard
+spell, but it had drained Harry the few times he attempted it in the
+past. Of course, that was with a practice wind; perhaps it would work
+better with the real thing.
+
+It seemed to. The wand spun across his palm, then halted, pointing
+forward. Harry smiled and began walking the dungeon corridor.
+
+Up staircase after staircase he went, the wand sometimes vibrating but
+always showing him at once where he needed to turn. Harry ducked Peeves,
+who didn't seem to notice him; dodged past grumbling, half-awake
+portraits; and waited patiently while a moving staircase tried to decide
+where to dump him. Each time afterwards, he moved on, eyes fixed on the
+wand as it shifted. At last the wand led him to a portrait of a snoozing
+woman dressed in pink, vibrated once, and fell still.
+
+Harry nodded and sat down outside the portrait. The woman snorted once
+or twice and woke when he'd been there for ten minutes.
+
+``Who are you, dear?'' she asked, peering at him. If she noticed the
+Slytherin crest on his robes, she didn't seem inclined to comment, for
+which Harry was grateful.
+
+``My name's Harry Potter,'' he said quietly. ``I'm Connor's brother.
+Would it be possible for me to go in and see him?''
+
+``Certainly, dear, if you have the password.''
+
+Harry shook his head. ``I'll wait out here for him, then,'' he said, and
+leaned on the wall. Connor had never been an early riser even on
+Saturdays when they \emph{didn't} have an exhausting week of classes
+behind them. Harry doubted that would be different here. Connor would
+have to come out to go to breakfast in the Great Hall sooner or later,
+and then he and Harry would talk.
+
+``Suit yourself,'' said the woman, with a shrug, and began humming to
+herself while she examined her nails. Now and then she darted him a
+glance. Harry focused on his breathing. He'd gotten quite good at being
+still for hours when he was home, practicing for the time when he might
+be following Connor on a dangerous mission into the heart of enemy
+territory. After he'd been quiet for ten minutes, the portrait seemed to
+forget all about him, and the people who came in and out of the
+portrait---none of whom were Connor---never even looked at Harry.
+
+And then, surprise of surprises, Connor came walking up the corridor
+from the direction of the Great Hall, Ron at his side. Harry swallowed
+an unexpected lump in his throat. \emph{Has he changed that much
+already? How am I ever going to keep up with him?}
+
+Ron was in the middle of a joke when Connor held a hand up to stop him.
+Harry critically studied his posture, then nodded. It would do. Their
+mother had been after Connor for years to sit up straighter and express
+himself with the grace that a proper leader of the wizarding world
+should have. Some of her lessons had apparently rubbed off.
+
+Then his twin's eyes caught his, quiet and intense, and Harry could
+think of nothing else.
+
+``Harry,'' Connor said, his eyes shadowed and his voice just this side
+of formal. ``What are you doing here?''
+
+``I thought we could talk,'' said Harry, unfolding from the wall. He saw
+Ron's face flush, but the other boy was standing behind Connor's right
+shoulder, where Connor couldn't see him. ``Please, Connor. I know that I
+haven't acted like your brother should this week, but there are things I
+need to clear up.''
+
+Connor chewed his lip for a moment, watching him. Harry stared back. He
+was struck with how \emph{young} his brother looked, and used that to
+reassure himself that nothing had changed. Connor was still an innocent
+child, and his innocence was still Harry's to protect and cherish.
+
+``Alright,'' Connor said suddenly. ``Come on in, then.'' He moved
+towards the portrait of the woman in pink and said something, too low
+for Harry to hear. She nodded, and the portrait swung outward, revealing
+a round entrance beyond.
+
+That seemed to wake Ron from his stupor. ``Connor!'' he objected. ``You
+can't mean to invite him inside.''
+
+Connor turned around and glared. Harry ducked his head to cover a smile,
+sensing it wouldn't be diplomatic right now. ``And why not?''
+
+``He's a Slytherin!''
+
+``He's my brother,'' Connor corrected, and then gestured at Harry.
+``Besides, you're never going to beat me into the common room,'' he
+added brightly, and then disappeared through the hole while Ron was
+still spluttering protests and Harry was still moving towards him.
+
+The ball of tension in the middle of Harry's stomach dissolved. He
+smiled at Ron, who scowled at him but followed him into the common room,
+where Connor cast himself down in a chair before the fire and declared,
+``I win!''
+
+Harry looked around. The common room was furious with color, bright and
+warm with golds and reds. Chairs and couches stood everywhere, wider
+than the ones in the Slytherin common room, as if students should feel
+free to sit close together here. Harry's heart warmed and sank
+simultaneously. He was glad that Connor had a place like this, a place
+that felt like home. At the same time, his week-old resentment towards
+the Sorting Hat had woken up. He should be here, too, where he could
+smile at Connor's jokes and watch his back and play Exploding Snap with
+people like Ron Weasley. Harry still didn't know why the Hat had placed
+him in Slytherin. He wondered if he would ever find out.
+
+\emph{Well, I can at least do this,} he realized, when he turned back
+around and realized that Connor and Ron were both waiting for him to
+take a seat. \emph{I can make sure that I'm invited back.}
+
+``Sit down, Harry,'' said Connor. ``And then tell us about Slytherin. Is
+it true that they make you eat snakes for breakfast every day for a
+month?'' He sounded revolted and fascinated at the same time.
+
+Harry smiled and sat down in a chair that all but embraced him.
+Resisting the urge to squirm until he was even more comfortable, he
+said, ``No. But it's true that everyone smirks all the time. I haven't
+figured out why, yet.''
+
+Connor laughed. Harry bathed in the sound. \emph{I miss this. I wish I
+was right by his side every moment. But making a fuss would just call
+attention to myself. Time to mend the bridges.}
+
+Ron gave him the perfect opportunity by bursting in with, ``But the Hat
+put \emph{you} in Slytherin. It must be for a reason.''
+
+Connor stopped laughing and stared at Harry. His eyes blazed with that
+inner fire that Harry knew would make him a great leader someday, when
+he was able to live out a normal childhood and then lay it down and step
+into an extraordinary adulthood. ``Yes, Harry,'' he said. ``I want to
+know why.''
+
+``I've thought about it,'' Harry admitted quietly. ``I've only thought
+of two reasons, though, and only one of them is good.''
+
+``You can tell me about both of them,'' said Connor, and reached over
+the chairs to grasp his hand. ``I promise. Whatever it is, whatever
+reason you've imagined, I know that my brother can't be evil.''
+
+Harry closed his eyes. ``Well, one is that I might be able to spy on the
+children of families who used to be in the Death Eaters. I could listen
+to them talk to their parents, find out what they think about Voldemort,
+and give you information that you can use in the war.''
+
+He opened his eyes to find Connor touching his scar, the way he did
+whenever someone said Voldemort's name. Harry wondered if it hurt. He
+wanted to ask Connor if it had bled since they came here, but Ron was
+interrupting.
+
+``And what's the other reason?''
+
+Harry licked his lips. This was the part he didn't want to speak aloud.
+But Connor was there, waiting, his eyes open and luminous. Harry
+reminded himself of the words Connor had just spoken. \emph{I know that
+my brother can't be evil.}
+
+``Maybe I really \emph{am} a Slytherin,'' he whispered. ``Maybe somehow
+everyone missed it---Mum, Dad, Sirius, everyone---''
+
+He couldn't talk after that, because Connor had swept him up in a
+reassuring hug. Harry laid his head on his brother's shoulder and hung
+on. He was supposed to be the one who reassured and comforted most of
+the time, but sometimes, it was all right if Connor was. Harry knew his
+place, and if his brother needed someone to be strong for, as well as
+someone to protect him so well that he didn't even notice it happening,
+then Harry could do that, too.
+
+``You're not a Slytherin,'' Connor whispered to him. ``I think there's a
+third possibility: the Hat made a mistake, that's all. It's old. Maybe
+it starts forgetting things the way that Frederick the Frumpy did.''
+
+Harry smiled, remembering the portrait of the old wizard who had hung on
+the wall of their parents' bedroom. First he'd forgotten the names of
+everyone in the house, calling Harry by his grandfather's name and
+Sirius by his mother's. Then he'd started wandering around from portrait
+to portrait dressed only in his bathrobe. Then he became convinced he
+was still in the war against Grindelwald, and their parents had to give
+the portrait up. The mental image of the Sorting Hat losing its place in
+the song cheered Harry up immensely.
+
+\emph{I can't be evil. Connor says I can't be, so I'm not.}
+
+``I'm never going to give you up like our parents did Frederick,'' said
+Connor, stepping away from him and staring firmly into Harry's eyes. ``I
+know that Headmaster Dumbledore probably wouldn't consent to letting you
+be in Gryffindor, but we can still be friends, and play together, and of
+course we'll spend Christmas together.'' He nodded firmly, then smiled.
+It was a cheeky smile, the kind that Harry remembered Connor giving just
+before he attempted to play some practical joke on Sirius that would
+always backfire. ``And if someone tries to convince you that you're in
+Slytherin, then you can just tell them that you're only there because of
+a mistake. Let them wonder about it .''
+
+Harry let out a small relieved sigh, feeling better than he had ever
+imagined he could when he first came to the portrait hole. ``Thank you,
+Connor,'' he said. ``I knew that you'd comfort me, but it's so much
+better hearing you say it.''
+
+``I suppose I can accept that,'' said Ron, though he didn't look
+completely convinced. ``You really wish you were in Gryffindor, Harry?''
+
+Harry decided to take it as a sign of progress that he'd earned
+``Harry'' and not ``Slytherin.'' He turned to face Ron and nodded.
+``With all my heart,'' he said. ``It's the House our parents were in,
+and our godfathers, and now my brother.'' He glanced at Connor and
+received a punch on the shoulder in return, as though Connor objected to
+coming at the end of the list, though he was grinning. Harry returned
+his gaze to Ron. ``It's the place I belong,'' he finished. ``I'm not
+going to let Slytherin House transform me into something I'm not. I
+promise.''
+
+``Why're you friends with bloody \emph{Malfoy}, then?'' Ron demanded. ``If
+what you say is true, then you should want to ignore the lot of them,
+and that prat the most!''
+
+Harry sighed softly. ``He's decided that he wants to be my friend,'' he
+admitted. ``And it's easier to respond to him than ignore him all the
+time. Besides, his father was a Death Eater. I still might be able to
+spy on Draco and get information about Lucius Malfoy through him.''
+
+Ron just shook his head, but appeared slightly more at ease in Harry's
+company than before. ``Well, just don't invite him along the next time
+you come back,'' he muttered, and ran up the stairs.
+
+\emph{The next time you come back.} Harry concealed the small flame of
+joy that lit inside him until he turned towards Connor, and saw it
+confirmed in his eyes and grin. Then he let himself smile.
+
+``I'll make sure that you get all the same chances I do,'' Connor
+promised, as they went to the portal. ``Ron'll get over his distrust
+eventually, and then we can go around together. His brothers are the
+best practical jokers I've \emph{ever} seen. They've promised to show me
+all the secret passages. I'll come and get you when we explore them.''
+
+Harry nodded. He had to go back to the dungeon again, and he wouldn't
+ask his brother for the Gryffindor password---there was too much chance
+he might accidentally reveal it to someone from Slytherin---but he felt
+more at ease than he had been since term started. ``Bye, Connor.''
+
+Connor smiled at him as he left through the portrait hole. ``Bye,
+Harry.''
+
+Harry could still see the smile when he reached the Great Hall.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+Draco narrowed his eyes as he watched Harry come into the Great Hall and
+make a beeline for the Slytherin table. He was already feeling out of
+sorts, since he'd awakened to find Harry gone and Vince and Greg utterly
+no help as to \emph{where} he'd gone. Then he met a sixth-year who said
+he'd seen Harry walking upstairs.
+
+Upstairs probably meant Gryffindor Tower, Draco thought. And Harry's
+Gryffindor prat of a brother.
+
+Draco knew it meant it when Harry sat down next to him and actually gave
+him a smile that Draco didn't have to drag out of him. Unfortunately,
+that just made the foul mood he was in worse.
+
+``Where have you \emph{been}?'' he whispered, as Harry heaped his plate.
+``I wanted to go to the library.''
+
+Harry paused to blatantly stare at him. ``Before breakfast?''
+
+\emph{Well,} Draco conceded to himself, \emph{that was a bit stupid.}
+``To breakfast, then,'' he said. ``Tell me where you were.''
+
+``Visiting Connor,'' said Harry, the prat, who had the audacity to look
+as if everything were right with the world, with small bluebirds singing
+in the corners of the room. He took a large bite of his breakfast, not
+seeming to care that he'd put Draco off his appetite entirely. Draco had
+finished eating already, of course, but that wasn't the \emph{point.}
+
+``Why do you want to visit him?'' Draco asked, unable to keep a whine
+from creeping out in his voice. ``You're in Slytherin, and he's in
+Gryffindor.''
+
+Harry paused for a long moment, then turned sideways on the bench to
+face Draco. His face had gone entirely serious, and when Draco peeked
+out around his shield, he could feel Harry's power, focused down to a
+shimmering arrowhead pointing at him. He winced and repaired his shield.
+
+``Draco,'' Harry said softly, ``I'm not ungrateful for everything you've
+done for me. You've tried to make me feel welcome in Slytherin,
+and---and, well, with some of the politics behind the Boy-Who-Lived,
+that can't be easy.''
+
+Draco stayed quiet. He wasn't about to turn free praise down. Besides,
+Harry couldn't feel his own power, and didn't know that he was, or was
+supposed to be, Draco's release from boredom.
+
+``But there's one thing you've got to understand,'' Harry went on,
+leaning closer. His messy black hair fell over his forehead, entirely
+covering his scar and shading his green eyes. ``No matter what happens to
+us in school, no matter what House I'm in or Connor's in, no matter what
+classes we take, my first loyalty is \emph{always} going to be to my
+brother. I've made up with him. I've even made up with Ron Weasley---''
+
+``I didn't know the Weasleys mattered to you,'' Draco snapped, furious
+and hurt.
+
+``Anyone who's my brother's friend matters to me,'' said Harry calmly.
+``And I still think I should have been in Gryffindor. So. I appreciate
+everything you've tried to do for me, but I don't want to leave you
+under any false impressions. I can't be your friend, not wholly and
+completely. My first responsibility is always being Connor's brother.''
+He paused, then shrugged, something in his eyes that was not quite
+regret. ``I'm sorry if that hurts you.''
+
+He turned away and started eating again, leaving Draco to stare at the
+side of his head. But Draco's own emotions weren't anger or hurt or
+frustration so much as shock.
+
+\emph{He thinks he should have been in} Gryffindor? \emph{Not feeling
+his own power is one thing, but---Great Merlin! Is he} blind
+
+He must be, Draco thought, and his eyes narrowed into slits as he
+changed his plans slightly. Harry wasn't going to be just a prize to be
+won, or a release from boredom. He was a Slytherin who was going to be
+made to acknowledge that he was a Slytherin.
+
+\emph{If I can win that victory,} Draco thought, \emph{it won't matter
+what the Gryffindor Hero does or says. I'll still have gotten him back.
+And then Harry will be more fun than ever, once he knows the truth about
+himself.}
+
+Pleased with his own reasoning, Draco waited patiently for Harry to
+finish breakfast.
+
+\subsection{*Chapter 6*: Suspicious
+Eyes}\label{chapter-6-suspicious-eyes}
+
+Thank you so much for the reviews! I'm overwhelmed by the response this
+story is drawing.
+
+In answer to the most common question, I can only say that a lot of the
+answers about Harry's and Connor's relative levels of power are going to
+have to wait for Chapter 12. Sorry!
+
+But hey, now we're halfway there.
+
+\textbf{Chapter Six: Suspicious Eyes}
+
+``Flying lessons!'' Connor declared as they walked outside. The sun
+blazed above them as if in approval of his grin, Harry thought, and he
+spun around with arms out as if embracing the wind. ``Aren't you
+excited?''
+
+``Very,'' said Harry quietly, and heard Hermione Granger, walking not
+far away from him, snort. He turned and smiled at her. Hermione appeared
+startled for a moment, then buried her head in the book that she carried
+and refused to raise it again. Harry sighed. He had attempted to
+encourage Connor's friendship with her, but it had faltered on both
+parts; Hermione was too interested in studying, and Connor was too much
+interested in everything else.
+
+``Harry, there you are.''
+
+Draco jogged up behind him, earning a swift offended look from Ron and a
+suspicious glance from Connor. He ignored them both effortlessly, and
+smiled at Harry. ``Excited to have flying lessons with the
+Gryffindors?''
+
+``\emph{Someone} is probably missing the broom his daddy bought him,''
+said Ron, just loud enough to be heard.
+
+``At least I \emph{have} a broom, and not a twig,'' Draco retorted.
+
+Connor shook his head, and stepped away from both of them. ``Ignore him,
+Ron,'' he instructed his flushing friend. ``We have\ldots{}'' He paused
+for a long moment, then yelled ``Flying lessons!'' and whooped his way
+down the field towards the line of waiting brooms. Ron hesitated, gave
+Draco a glare that said they'd resume the argument later, and took off
+after him.
+
+``Do you \emph{have} to do that?'' Harry asked, dropping back with Draco
+towards where the other Slytherins walked.
+
+``Yes.'' Draco appeared almost angelic now, but Harry wasn't fooled; he
+knew it was only because the other boy had gotten his way. He slung an
+arm over Harry's shoulders, and that was an act, too, a play for some
+invisible crowd. ``I know he's your brother, but he chooses to hang out
+with a blood traitor. He can't help some of it rubbing off on him, I
+suppose.''
+
+Harry wondered wearily what bothered him more: the cheerful
+condescension in Draco's voice, or the fact that trying to point it out
+would involve meeting his blank stare. In the end, he kept silent. He
+had discovered in the last five days that trying to negotiate between
+Gryffindors and Slytherins involved an awful lot of just knowing when to
+keep his mouth shut.
+
+They arrived at the line of brooms at last, and moved to take their
+places. Harry wound up opposite Connor, who grinned at him. They'd both
+flown at home often enough to do it in their sleep. This wasn't going to
+be an effort.
+
+\emph{Maybe not for us,} Harry thought, hearing an audible gulp from the
+side. He glanced that way and found Neville Longbottom looking at his
+broom with a mixture of horror and sick fear. Harry cocked his head. He
+should be alert in case the other boy needed help.
+
+\emph{Technically, Connor should be alert. But I can watch for him.}
+
+``Take your places!'' Madam Hooch instructed as she walked up between
+the brooms, ignoring the fact that most of them had already done so. She
+was a stockier witch than Harry had expected, with hair that looked
+permanently frazzled, as if it had blown in too many winds to ever calm
+down. She pivoted in a slow circle as she looked at them, gaze narrowed
+and slicing over their faces. Harry lifted his chin under her scrutiny,
+and noticed with amusement that Draco did the same thing, as if they had
+something to prove. Draco spoiled the effect by catching his eye and
+grinning, of course.
+
+``Welcome to your first flying lesson,'' the witch continued. ``As we
+will be controlling the brooms by means of our own magic and not our
+wands, I must ask you to lay them aside.'' Harry saw a general rustle as
+a few students tucked their wands away; Hermione reluctantly put the
+book she'd been reading back into a huge bag near her feet, then kicked
+the bag behind her. ``As for the procedure of controlling the brooms,
+it's very simple,'' Madam Hooch said, and then stalked over to a larger
+broom laid near the end of the line. ``You hold your hand over it and
+say---''
+
+\emph{Up}, Harry mouthed, and Connor mouthed it back to him across the
+line.
+
+``Up!''
+
+A ragged chorus of voices gave the command, and for a moment Harry saw
+the air blaze and shimmer with light as various wills reached out for
+the brooms. Some people were more successful than others. His broom
+leaped up, and Connor's, and Draco's, and Ron's, and Hermione's. Others
+made it halfway up and then fell. Neville's smacked into his hand with
+such force that the plump Gryffindor sat down on the grass. Harry winced
+for him.
+
+``Good and not so good,'' said Madam Hooch, who was, of course, holding
+her broom. ``You must \emph{believe} in it when you summon the broom, or
+else it won't work. Take you, Mister Longbottom.'' She swooped down on
+Neville, who looked terrified to be singled out, but let her help him
+sling a leg over the broom. ``You have the strength, but no finesse.
+When you ride the broom---no, not like that---''
+
+But Neville's broom was already rising, and carrying him along. He clung
+to it and shrieked. Other students began to cat-call or laugh or cry out
+in worry as was their wont. Harry narrowed his eyes. He could see
+Neville's hands beginning to slip off the broom, and knew he wouldn't
+hold on for very long.
+
+His eyes shot to Connor. His brother was gaping like the rest of them,
+but he had one leg half-lifted, poised to descend on the other side of
+the broom.
+
+Harry seized his wand and cast an unobtrusive Sticking Charm in
+Neville's general direction. It wouldn't hold long either, at this
+distance and with the broom bucking like it was, but it would be long
+enough for Connor to do something.
+
+His brother remembered himself a moment later. He rose like the expert
+flyer he was, shot across to Neville, and caught his arm just as the
+Sticking Charm failed. For a moment, Neville's weight dragged him
+towards the ground, and Harry caught his breath in alarm, wondering if
+Connor would manage to juggle him. He did, though, and landed on the
+grass to the cheers of the Gryffindors. Something small and round
+dropped from Neville's robe and rolled into the grass, too, but Harry
+doubted that anyone noticed or cared. Connor's face was flushed with
+triumph, and Neville was looking at him as if he were the sun.
+
+``Now,'' said Madam Hooch, showing up beside the two boys so quickly
+that Harry blinked in surprise. ``That was \emph{some} flying, Mr.
+Potter.'' Connor's flush altered to one of pride, and Harry smiled. He
+deserved it. Hooch turned to examine Neville, bending down until her
+nose was an inch away from his face. ``What about you, Mr. Longbottom?
+Set to fly?''
+
+``I---I think---'' Neville began, and then fainted dead away.
+
+Madam Hooch snorted, placed her broom gently on the ground, and picked
+Neville up, nodding to Connor to carry his feet. ``We'll take him to
+Madam Pomfrey,'' she said, as they began to walk. ``Don't worry about
+missing the lessons, Mr. Potter, we'll be back in two shakes of an owl's
+tail, and you've shown that you've got the basics mastered already.''
+She turned around and gave the rest of the students a severe stare from
+hawk-yellow eyes. ``All of the rest of you, \emph{remain on the ground.}
+If I find out that anyone has been flying, I can and \emph{shall} issue
+detentions.''
+
+Harry was happy to remain on the ground. He watched Neville and Connor
+pass out of sight, and sighed. That had gone well. Neville had been
+spared serious injury, and Connor had looked like a hero. Things were
+the way they should be.
+
+``Look what I've got!''
+
+Harry hissed as he turned around. Draco's voice, speaking in that tone,
+meant things were \emph{not} as they should be, or would not be very
+shortly.
+
+Draco had found the small round thing that Neville had dropped in the
+grass, and now tossed it in the air, grinning. It landed in his hand
+with a soft \emph{smack}. That and the red color told Harry it was a
+Remembrall. He wasn't surprised that Neville had one; the poor boy
+forgot every ingredient in a potion almost as soon as Snape wrote it on
+the board. Draco had evidently forgotten something, too.
+
+\emph{Such as not being a git,} Harry thought, stepping forward. ``Give
+it here, Draco,'' he ordered, holding out a hand.
+
+Draco grinned at him. Harry blinked. There was no malice in that
+expression, only a clear and childish delight that puzzled him. If Draco
+had taken the Remembrall to humiliate Neville, he should have been
+cracking a joke, or sneering, or in general lamenting the intelligence
+of Gryffindors as compared to Slytherins. The way he backed away from
+Harry, holding the Remembrall not quite out of jumping height, argued it
+was something else.
+
+``Why should I?'' Draco asked. ``It's not yours. I'll just hang onto it
+until Longbottom remembers to ask for it. Which would be never.'' He
+snickered, and this time Harry heard the sneer in it.
+
+``Give it \emph{back},'' said Harry, wishing that he knew how to sound
+more commanding. It was one of the arts their mother had tried to teach
+Connor, but Harry had learned more about hiding and silence.
+
+``No, I don't think so,'' said Draco, and then abruptly hopped a step
+backwards, grabbed Neville's broom, mounted it, and took off in a
+dizzying spiral like a lark's. ``If you want to come and get it,'' he
+called over his shoulder, ``please feel free to do so.''
+
+Harry ground his teeth for a moment, then darted a glance around. The
+other Slytherins were watching him, expressions mildly curious. It was
+the Gryffindors who concerned him, though. Their eyes were narrowed, and
+they had been about to jump Malfoy themselves, but now they stared at
+him.
+
+\emph{Show us you're different from the rest of the slimy snakes,} their
+gazes challenged him. \emph{Show us that you really would defend Neville
+like one of your own.}
+
+Harry grimaced, cast a quick glance at the school, and raced back to his
+own broom. When he looked up, Draco was hovering overhead, waiting for
+him. He swallowed and kicked off from the ground.
+
+The same transformation happened that always happened, the moment his
+feet left the grass. He was thrilled, exalted, at peace, like a bird
+balanced on the wind. He couldn't help smiling as he circled towards
+Draco, even given what had happened to inspire this, even though he was
+breaking the rules. He loved flying too much.
+
+Draco was grinning at him again, and though his eyes were narrowed,
+Harry saw a variant of the same challenge that the Gryffindors had
+showed.
+
+``Show me what you can do, Harry,'' he breathed, and then turned and
+cast the Remembrall in a high, descending arc.
+
+Harry snapped his head forward, eyes locked on the glitter, and then
+flew after it. Connor wasn't here, and so no one could compare his
+performance to his brother's. He was free to unleash all the speed he
+normally kept constrained. The wind shrieked past his ears, and his hand
+curved out at the proper moment, and he turned, and the Remembrall fell
+with a triumphant sound into his palm. Harry folded his fingers around
+it, holding it safe. After the difficulty of grasping and holding a
+fluttering Snitch, this was no problem at all.
+
+He wheeled around to see Draco hastily flying back towards the ground.
+Harry dropped like a falcon. Madam Hooch was coming back, or she'd sent
+some other Professor out to supervise the class. Harry cursed quietly as
+he landed and hopped back from the broom like it was on fire.
+
+Draco strode up to him just before Hooch and Connor returned, grinning
+like the idiot he was. ``That was impressive,'' he whispered.
+
+Harry eyed him. Draco seemed perfectly cheerful, as though everything
+had gone according to plan, but Harry didn't know why. With a shrug, he
+turned away from the Slytherin and extended the Remembrall as Madam
+Hooch entered the pitch again.
+
+``Neville dropped this, ma'am,'' he murmured.
+
+Madam Hooch nodded and pocketed it, and the lesson, complete with happy
+Connor and ridiculously happy Draco, went on.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+Draco grabbed Harry's arm when he tried to leave the field with the
+Gryffindors. Harry turned and scowled at him. Draco knew that he hadn't
+earned his goodwill earlier, even if flying about with Neville's
+Remembrall had no direct reflection on the Gryffindor prat twin.
+
+\emph{He'll see differently,} Draco promised, and then smiled at Harry.
+``Come on, we have to see Professor Snape.''
+
+Harry blinked. ``What? Why?''
+
+``Because we do,'' said Draco, and dragged him off. Harry went with him,
+steps slow but not actually resisting. He probably would have been
+struggling like a trapped unicorn if he knew what Draco actually
+intended.
+
+That didn't matter. This was one of those times where Harry would just
+have to listen to good sense. And once Draco described what he'd seen,
+he knew what their Head of House would say.
+
+They hurried down a dungeon corridor and towards Professor Snape's
+office, where Draco knocked importantly on the door. Harry fidgeted
+nervously, continually glancing in the direction Connor had gone. Draco
+snorted, caught his eyes, and forced him to stop it.
+
+``You're not in trouble,'' he said. ``Quite the opposite.''
+
+Harry opened his mouth to ask why, but didn't get to, as Snape's voice
+said, ``Enter,'' just then, and Draco took the chance to open the door
+and push Harry inside, ahead of him.
+
+Snape looked up from his essays, eyes narrowing. Draco widened his eyes
+innocently. Snape wouldn't fall for it, but at least it reassured him
+that Draco was here in a spirit of mischief---and improving Slytherin's
+Quidditch team, he told himself virtuously---and not because he was in
+trouble.
+
+``Potter, Malfoy,'' Snape said, rising to his feet. ``Why have you
+disturbed me?''
+
+Harry just stared. Draco took the chance to talk. If Harry would not
+speak up to defend or spare himself, he thought, he deserved what he
+got. ``We just came from flying lessons, Professor. Madam Hooch left us
+alone briefly, and I took the opportunity to test Harry.'' He smiled at
+Harry, who still looked bewildered, and not unhappy yet. ``I suspected he
+might be, and he \emph{is.} Bloody amazing on a broom. He caught a
+Remembrall from fifty feet up and ten feet behind. We've got ourselves a
+Seeker.''
+
+Ah, \emph{there} was the unhappy expression. Draco peeked around his
+shield. Harry's power was growing claws. He retracted his awareness
+hastily and glanced at Snape, whose face showed he'd picked up on it,
+too.
+
+\emph{And doesn't he wonder why the less powerful Potter twin shows this
+much power?} Draco thought. \emph{I know I do.}
+
+``Sir, I'm sorry,'' said Harry, tensing his shoulders as though he were
+facing a strong wind. ``I didn't know that Draco brought me here for
+this. I know I wasn't supposed to be flying on a broom while Madam Hooch
+was gone, and I'll gladly accept my detention.'' He recited the last
+words in a monotone, his eyes cast down. Draco snorted. He knew well
+enough that that humility was a mask, having seen Harry's eyes flash
+whenever he thought something might have upset his brother. Who did
+Harry think he was fooling?
+
+Not Snape, as became clear from the professor's voice a moment later.
+``As you doubtless know, Potter, first-years are not allowed to possess
+their own brooms, much less allowed on the House Quidditch teams.''
+
+Harry looked up, a faint smile of relief curling the corners of his
+mouth. ``Yes, sir. I realize that. Again, I'm sorry for interrupting
+you.''
+
+``However,'' Snape continued, and Draco watched with interest as Harry's
+smile froze, ``Slytherin has been in solid possession of the House Cup
+for some time now. I do not wish that to alter, particularly as
+our---new celebrity---has been Sorted into another House, and may expect
+to receive \emph{special treatment.}'' The sarcasm on the last words was
+as thick as treacle. ``If you are truly as good as Draco says, then I
+would be a fool not to put you on the team. Rules can be bent for a good
+cause.''
+
+Harry didn't miss the cue. ``He's probably mistaken, sir. I did dive
+after a Remembrall, but not from as far away or as high up as Draco
+says.''
+
+``That's right,'' said Draco.
+
+He received a death glare from Snape, but it lasted only until he added,
+``It was from sixty feet up and fifteen feet behind. I forgot.''
+
+Snape lifted his eyebrows and altered the frigidity of the stare by only
+a touch. Draco endured it. He knew that Snape could read minds, and
+deliberately let his memory of Harry diving after the tiny ball play
+across the surface of his thoughts. Snape snapped the gaze a moment
+later, and nodded.
+
+``You will play Seeker on Slytherin's team this year, Potter,'' he said,
+and turned away with a dismissive sweep of his robes. ``I will speak to
+Headmaster Dumbledore about it. You need only show up to practice and at
+games, and then you need only catch the Snitch.''
+
+``No, sir.''
+
+Draco stared at Harry. He had his arms folded over his chest now, and he
+had dropped the mask of humility entirely. His eyes flashed green fire.
+He didn't quail even when Snape turned around, slowly, and asked, ``What
+did you say?''
+
+``No, sir,'' Harry repeated, his voice flat, but not at all dull. ``I
+will \emph{not} play Seeker on the Slytherin House team. I'm only a
+first-year, and I haven't had much time to make friends yet---other than
+Draco.'' His stare said what he thought of that friendship at the moment.
+``I'd cause resentment and dissension, not only in Slytherin but in the
+other Houses as well, sir. I feel it's best if I don't play.''
+
+Draco knew that wasn't true, of course, though it was quite possibly the
+best lie Harry could come up with on the spot. He knew the real reason.
+\emph{He won't play because his twin isn't on Gryffindor's team. Prat!}
+He was not sure if he meant Harry or Connor with that last thought.
+
+``You can play, Mr. Potter, and you will,'' Snape told him, in a voice
+even softer than before. Draco shivered. Snape didn't raise his voice
+when he was truly angry, and he was truly angry now. ``I will speak to
+Headmaster Dumbledore about it. You need not concern yourself.''
+
+``I believe that there's no rule saying that someone can be \emph{forced}
+to play Quidditch if he doesn't want to,'' said Harry, head up. His
+lightning bolt scar showed clearly through his fringe. Even with Snape's
+anger, Draco saw the professor's eyes dart to the scar, and his faint,
+questioning frown. ``I've chosen, and I won't be moved from this. Sir.''
+
+``You will,'' said Snape. ``Or I can make life unpleasant for you, do
+not doubt.''
+
+``I don't doubt it, sir,'' Harry said. Snape winced, and Draco wondered
+how far his shield against power-headaches was down. ``But I am prepared
+to endure that. I'm prepared to die against Voldemort, if it comes to
+that. Somehow, I don't think you'll be quite that bad.'' His hand
+actually drifted sideways to rest on his robe, as if he would draw his
+wand at any moment.
+
+Snape stared into Harry's eyes for what was probably only a minute, but
+felt much longer to Draco, given the freezing silence. Draco shifted. He
+wished he knew what Snape saw there.
+
+``You are right,'' Snape said abruptly. ``I ask your forgiveness, Mr.
+Potter.'' His voice had risen slightly, but was still soft and mocking.
+``I forgot that some of my Slytherins prefer to contribute to the
+welfare of their House, and others do not.''
+
+As Draco had suspected, that insult slid off Harry like water. \emph{He
+probably doesn't even think it's an insult, since he wants so much to be
+a Gryffindor,} Draco thought spitefully. ``Thank you, sir. May I go now?
+I have a long Potions essay to finish.''
+
+``You may,'' said Snape, as if he had lost interest, and Draco watched
+Harry stride out the door, as though he thought he had won this battle.
+
+Snape turned around when the door shut, and it was obvious from his
+expression that he hadn't given up the battle at all, only retreated to
+firmer ground. Draco smiled at him.
+
+``I was right, wasn't I, to bring him here?'' He didn't mean the
+question to sound quite so anxious, but Snape only nodded.
+
+``You were. The boy doesn't think he's a Slytherin.'' There was
+disbelief in his voice, but anger as well. ``And he's as arrogant as
+ever James Potter was about it.'' Now hatred, and Draco shivered as the
+tone chilled again. ``Well. No matter. We shall show him in the end.''
+His smile came back, the kind of smile that Draco had seen when he
+walked in on Snape and his father trading stories of Voldemort's first
+rise. ``And James Potter, as well. I shall enjoy using his son to win
+and keep the House Cup.''
+
+He nodded at Draco. ``You may also go.''
+
+Draco left, comforted. \emph{Well, that didn't work. But it's not as
+though Harry can hide forever. Talent is going to show itself, and if he
+isn't playing on the House team before the year's out, I'll eat five
+Galleons. No, ten. In front of Weasley.}
+
+\subsection{*Chapter 7*: Humility}\label{chapter-7-humility}
+
+Phew! Another chapter done. Not sure how long I can keep up this
+updating schedule, but I'll enjoy it while I can.
+
+Thank you for all the reviews! Most questions will still have to remain
+unanswered. Chapter 12, I promise. (And, well, um, Chapter 58, which
+doesn't happen until the AU version of PoA, for all the answers. Sorry
+about that).
+
+But this is still the AU version of PS, for right now. Enjoy!
+
+\textbf{Chapter Seven: Humility}
+
+``\emph{Fumo!}''
+
+``Harry!''
+
+Harry smiled slightly as smoke filled the first-year boys' bedroom, to
+cries of protest and disgust from Greg and Vince, who had been studying,
+and Blaise, half-asleep on his bed. Blaise actually fell off the bed,
+choking and coughing. Harry might have choked himself, but he'd already
+cast the \emph{Specularis} charm in front of him. A small, clear window
+of air hovered there, diverting the smoke to either side and letting him
+breathe. It also moved with him, so that he could see a short distance
+ahead.
+
+He pronounced it again, this time more firmly and with a wider wand
+movement, and the smoke dissipated. Vince and Greg stared at him. Blaise
+glared up from the floor.
+
+``Why did you do \emph{that},'' he asked, treating the word like a dead
+frog the Kneazle had dragged in, ``in the middle of our bedroom?''
+
+``Because Draco didn't think I could do it,'' said Harry with a shrug,
+falling back on his bed and hugging the knowledge that he hadn't
+forgotten the Smoke Charm to himself. He had the feeling that he might
+need it, just as he'd need \emph{Protego} and all the rest of the shield
+and hiding spells his mother had insisted he learn. ``Talk to him.''
+
+``I didn't mean that you had to demonstrate it right \emph{now},'' Draco
+whined from the bed next to his.
+
+Harry closed his eyes and let the argument play around him. Such
+chatter, without a mention of his name or Connor's except in play, was
+the next best thing to silence---which he wasn't going to get with Draco
+around---for thinking about the dreams that had been plaguing him
+lately.
+
+The dreams had been vague at first, formations of darkness that did not
+impress Harry, who'd grown up immersed in stories of Voldemort's first
+rise and the truly horrible things the Death Eaters did under his
+guidance. But gradually they sharpened, and he found himself in a maze
+of twisting corridors, advancing towards a door that opened on sharp,
+snarling teeth.
+
+Then another figure had started appearing between him and the door. The
+figure was small and stooped, inconsequential. Harry supposed that was
+to stop anyone from looking too closely. But since he was someone who
+relied on the same defenses, he'd looked, and recognized the purple
+turban that wrapped the figure's head. And then he woke with his scar
+bleeding, which was, he thought, the last proof he needed. Professor
+Quirrell meant harm of some kind to Connor.
+
+On the face of it, that was ridiculous. The professor stammered all the
+time and taught Defense Against the Dark Arts with shuffling
+incompetence. Harry did not care, though. He planned to follow Professor
+Quirrell tonight and see what he could discover about him.
+
+\emph{``Harry!''}
+
+Harry blinked and sat up. Draco and Blaise were looking expectantly at
+him, Blaise holding his wand out in front of him. Above it floated a
+clear glass bubble that Harry recognized as a beginner's try at the
+\emph{Specularis} spell.
+
+``Not like that,'' he said, and settled down to show them the proper
+wrist movements. He supposed he might be asking for trouble, teaching
+magic to possible future Death Eaters, but refusing would only earn him
+a reputation as a smug git, and Harry wanted to avoid any kind of
+reputation at all. Besides, Harry rather thought some of them might be
+turned. Not all Slytherins were evil. Even Draco wasn't that bad most of
+the time.
+
+``Come on, Blaise, a Gryffindor could do better than that,'' Draco
+taunted, and Harry sighed and revised his estimate of how much time this
+would take.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+Harry waited quietly outside the Great Hall that night until Professor
+Quirrell emerged, and then fell in behind him. He wished he had their
+father's Invisibility Cloak, but he was quite sure that Lily hadn't
+allowed James to send it. He would have to rely on his trained silence
+and hiding abilities, and on the spells that he had learned if
+necessary, just in case Quirrell glanced around and saw him.
+
+The professor continued hurrying ahead, though, as involved in his own
+thoughts as the other Slytherins had been in the argument about
+Quidditch that Harry had stirred up at dinner. He certainly never
+glanced behind him to see if anyone was there, and Harry was able to
+follow him easily through corridors and doors, up staircases, and around
+corners.
+
+\emph{Then why do I still feel watched?} Harry thought, as they rounded
+a corner and came to a shut door.
+
+He didn't know, just as he didn't know for certain what the source of
+the pain in his scar was, but he knew enough to duck out of sight when
+Professor Quirrell looked around at last. Then the professor carefully
+withdrew a large silver key from a chain around his neck and fitted it
+into the door. A low \emph{snick}, and he was past and in.
+
+Harry waited in silence for one moment, then two, then ten. Then he
+crept towards the door, hoping it would be unlocked.
+
+It was, but Harry could see little when he knelt and put his eye to the
+crack, and he didn't dare move the door. He did hear growling, though,
+and Quirrell talking in a low murmur, too quiet to make out what he was
+saying. Harry cocked his head. Was the professor not stuttering, or was
+that his imagination?
+
+``Why are you here?''
+
+Harry tensed all his muscles to keep from flinching or crying out, and
+then turned and glared at Draco, who had come up behind him. At least
+he'd had the sense to keep his voice to a whisper. ``Working to protect
+Connor,'' Harry whispered back. ``Why are \emph{you} here?''
+
+``I followed you from dinner,'' said Draco, with a shrug. ``I know you
+made up that argument on purpose so no one would notice you leave.'' He
+crouched down beside Harry and grinned at him. ``That was very Slytherin
+of you, really, Harry. A Gryffindor would just have dumped his plate
+over someone's head.''
+
+Harry resisted the urge to get into an argument about his proper House.
+``Be \emph{quiet},'' he whispered instead. ``Professor Quirrell's in that
+room, and I don't want him to know we're out here.''
+
+``Why not?'' Draco asked, too loudly. ``He's a professor, isn't he?
+Why---''
+
+Harry grabbed his arm and held it tight as the growls beyond the
+half-open door resolved into a chorus of barking. A moment later, there
+came a stabbing pain in his scar, which Harry took to mean that
+Professor Quirrell was running back towards them.
+
+Harry didn't hesitate, but reached inside his robes for his wand.
+``\emph{Fumo}!''
+
+Smoke gusted from the tip and filled the corridor with a mist of gray.
+Harry grimaced; he'd forgotten to cast \emph{Specularis}, and he could
+hear Draco choking, trying desperately not to give them away. And now he
+didn't know which way Quirrell would run. He was annoyed at himself.
+
+He chose a direction that he vaguely remembered as being down the hall,
+away from the door, and tugged Draco in it. Draco came with him, his
+coughs escaping in small, muffled noises. Harry crouched over him and
+drew his wand fully. He could fight Professor Quirrell, if it came to
+that. He would have to, if the professor figured out who'd cast the
+Smoke Charm.
+
+But the professor had gone. By the time the smoke cleared, Harry
+couldn't see anyone. He sighed, and scowled when he noticed the door was
+locked. There had gone his chance to see what was behind it.
+
+His nostrils and lungs were stinging, but he wasn't badly off. Draco,
+however, would have to go to Madam Pomfrey. Harry coaxed him onto his
+feet, then coaxed him into walking, and shook his head as they staggered
+to the first staircase.
+
+``Why did you follow me, anyway?'' he muttered at him. ``You didn't have
+to.''
+
+``I wanted to,'' Draco whispered, and then burst into another round of
+coughing.
+
+Harry sighed and kept them moving. \emph{How very Malfoyish that answer
+is.}
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+Harry didn't get another chance to follow Professor Quirrell. Draco had
+taken to clinging to his side again. He always had some excuse. He had
+missed writing down the Potions homework that day. He wanted Harry to
+teach him the Smoke Charm. Did Harry realize that it'd been \emph{ages}
+since they played Exploding Snap together? He badgered and coaxed and
+snorted and taunted, and Harry wound up spending more time than ever in
+the Slytherin common room and the library as the weeks passed.
+
+And, of course, he spent time away from Connor.
+
+That drove Harry particularly mad, as he knew that Draco was doing it on
+purpose. But drawing too much attention would \emph{also} be against his
+self-imposed rules. He knew that Draco wrote to his father every few
+days. Would Lucius Malfoy like to hear that the Potters' elder son felt
+so worried over the safety of the younger one that he couldn't trust the
+professors and the spells on Hogwarts Castle to protect him? And what
+would Draco think, if he began to consider that Harry's desperate
+attempts to get back to Connor might be prompted by more than mere
+sibling affection? Harry had shown, unwisely, how good he was at magic
+that most students didn't learn until second or third year. He practiced
+more often in broom closets and isolated classrooms after that, but the
+damage had been done. Blaise and Greg and Vince all watched him with
+something like respect, Draco with something like delight. And, of
+course, Draco insisted on learning every charm that Harry knew.
+
+On and on it went, until Harry began to feel, exasperated, more like a
+Slytherin student than his brother's protector.
+
+And then came Halloween. It stuck out in Harry's mind for other reasons
+afterwards, but the first thing that brought it to mind was the fact
+that he heard Connor be deliberately unkind.
+
+That did not please him.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+``Come on, Harry! I'm hungry.''
+
+``Just a minute, Draco,'' Harry said absently, craning his neck. Ron and
+Connor were just coming out of Charms class with the rest of the
+Gryffindors. He wanted to see his brother and wish him a happy
+anniversary. It was on this day ten years ago that Connor had defeated
+Voldemort and saved the wizarding world, after all.
+
+They were just in front of him, and Harry was smiling and about to say
+something, when Connor snickered and remarked, apparently in response to
+something Ron had said, ``Well, Hermione's \emph{got} to be good at
+books; what else is she for?''
+
+Harry stared. The remark reminded him of the one about Draco's name on
+the train. Connor was \emph{capable} of deliberate malice, but it was
+always sudden flashes like this, which faded into appropriate remorse.
+And this one seemed so---undeserved. Hermione wasn't a Death Eater, not
+anything like one, and she hadn't taunted Connor that Harry had ever
+heard. At least Draco's father was a known quantity, a known enemy, and
+Draco could have been, too.
+
+He found his voice at last. ``Connor---'' he began.
+
+And then pounding footsteps interrupted him, and Hermione fled past them
+in tears. She vanished around the far corner of the hall before Harry
+could put out a hand or speak the words that might have stopped her.
+
+Harry turned his head back and gave Connor a slow, deliberate glance.
+Connor flushed and opened his mouth, then hung his head.
+
+``Go after her,'' said Harry. ``\emph{Apologize}, for Merlin's sake,
+Connor. That was uncalled-for.'' He paused for a long moment. ``And
+unworthy of you.''
+
+Then he turned and stalked off, despite the fact that it was the longest
+conversation he'd had with his brother in a week. Connor gasped and
+shouted after him. Harry ignored him. The future leader of the wizarding
+world could not afford such flaws in his character. Lily had handled
+them with the silent treatment at home. Harry didn't know how well it
+would work here, but he was prepared to try the same thing.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+Draco was very quiet during the Halloween Feast. He ate, of course, but
+he mostly watched Harry. Harry was brooding, and despite the pleading
+glances that regularly came his way from the Gryffindor table, he
+refused to look in that direction---perhaps because the Mudblood Granger
+still hadn't come back to sit with everyone else.
+
+\emph{Interesting. I think he'd give up his life for his brother, but
+he's not willing to give up that fussiness he'd probably call his
+morals. Hmmm.}
+
+Draco at last opened his mouth to speak to Harry about it, but swung his
+head sharply around when the doors of the Great Hall flew open with a
+bang. Professor Quirrell staggered in and stood blinking on the
+threshold for a moment. His turban had come half-unwrapped from his
+head. The look in his eyes made Draco roll his.
+
+``T-troll,'' he said at last, faintly. ``In the dungeons. I thought you
+ought to know.'' Then he swayed and fainted dead away.
+
+Chaos erupted then, with the Heads of House snapping at the prefects to
+take the younger children back to the safety of the common rooms, and
+the professors spreading out grimly to search the castle. Draco wasn't
+scared; he rose with the rest of the Slytherin table when he was told
+to, and headed calmly towards the dungeons. They passed Professor Snape
+on the way, his stride firm and his dark eyes flashing dangerously.
+Draco smirked. He felt rather sorry for any troll that had to face
+Professor Snape.
+
+Then, of course, he saw Harry peel off from the rest of the House and
+hurry away.
+
+Hissing, Draco snagged the back of Harry's robe and dragged him towards
+the line again. ``What did you think you were doing?'' he whispered in
+his ear. ``You'll only get in trouble when Professor Snape sees you're
+gone, and I'll have to take the blame. Besides, there's a troll
+wandering around the castle, or did you forget that bit?''
+
+Harry looked at him. Draco recoiled, dropping his hand. There was a
+stranger in Harry's eyes, determined, implacable, full of intent
+resolve. He didn't look like a first-year.
+
+``Hermione's missing,'' said Harry softly. ``And Connor and Ron just
+left the Gryffindor line. I think they've gone in search of her.''
+
+Draco snored. ``That's a long chain of suppositions to hang your own
+safety on,'' he said. ``Come \emph{on}.''
+
+Harry shrugged. ``I might be wrong,'' he said, calmly. ``Maybe they
+didn't go looking for Hermione. But, regardless, my brother's out there.
+I \emph{am} going to protect him.'' He said the last words with all the
+finality of a Runespoor's bite, and then turned and ran down the hall
+before Draco could stop him. Hesitating one last time---merely to make
+sure that the Slytherin prefects were too busy with everyone else to
+watch them go, Draco assured himself---he tore after Harry.
+
+``All this for a Mudblood,'' he muttered.
+
+``Just like our mother,'' Harry said, mildly, without looking at him.
+
+Draco winced. Harry was like that, sometimes, striking home with one
+small and calm remark. ``I didn't mean it that way---''
+
+``Draco,'' said Harry, in a tone of infinite patience, ``shut up.''
+
+Draco shut up. He followed Harry, who seemed to know where he was going.
+He nearly banged into him when Harry pulled up abruptly, and then peered
+over Harry's shoulder and around the corner. The sight in front of him
+was enough to take all the spit out of his mouth.
+
+They'd found the troll.
+
+It was huge, and gray, and lumbered like a sculpture come to life. It
+hesitated for a long moment, then moved into the girls' loo at the end
+of the hall. A moment later, two small figures pelted in after it.
+
+``\emph{Connor},'' said Harry, with a tone in his voice that Draco
+couldn't identify, and then ran. He was unfairly fast, and Draco fell
+behind soon enough. He entered the loo in time to hear the screaming,
+though, and then to see part of the problem. The troll had backed
+Granger into a corner, and Potter and Weasley were trying to levitate
+its club above its head.
+
+It failed. Of course it did, Draco thought; it was a Gryffindor plan.
+The club dropped, and the troll grabbed it and dealt a sideways blow
+faster than Draco would have thought it could move. The club only grazed
+Weasley, though it still dropped him unconscious, but caught Potter a
+devastating sideways blow that sent him flying into the wall.
+
+Harry moved a step forward. Draco caught a glimpse of his face, and
+cowered. At the same moment, a ferocious, violent headache sent him to
+the floor. His shield was no longer enough to keep out Harry's rising
+power.
+
+``You shouldn't have hurt my brother,'' Harry told the troll, which
+turned towards him, blinking stupidly. ``You \emph{really} shouldn't have
+hurt my brother.'' Draco felt all future plans to hurt Potter physically
+wither and die in the flame of his stare. Harry thrust out a hand.
+``\emph{Incendio}!''
+
+The troll's club burst into flame. It howled and dropped the thing, but
+Harry snapped, ``\emph{Wingardium Leviosa}!'' and the club hovered, then
+flew back and smashed into the troll. The troll hopped around in a
+circle, burning and screaming. Harry took another step forward and said,
+in a voice that in and of itself carried enough power to make Draco's
+temples throb, ``\emph{Finite Incantatem}.''
+
+The fire went out, and the club fell on the troll's head with a very
+final crash. It collapsed with a little whimper, and then lay still.
+Draco shivered, both at the display of power and at the smell of burning
+troll flesh.
+
+And there was also the little fact that Harry hadn't used his wand for
+any of those three spells.
+
+Harry turned around, panting heavily, putting a hand out for support
+that wasn't there. Draco hurried to provide it, but only managed to
+catch Harry as he sagged to his knees. He didn't say anything. He didn't
+know what to say.
+
+Granger crept out of the corner and stared at them.
+
+``Connor,'' Harry said, lifting his head. His eyes had come back to
+almost normal, if glazed and panicked and wide was ``normal.'' ``Is he
+alive?''
+
+``I'll check,'' said Draco, since it meant so much to Harry, and went
+over to Potter. He was breathing, and though there was a goose-egg on
+the back of his head and a bruise along his ribs when Draco gingerly
+peeked beneath his robes, he didn't seem seriously injured. Draco sighed
+and nodded at Harry. ``He'll live.''
+
+``I would heal him,'' Harry muttered, ``but I don't know any medical
+magic yet.''
+
+``What you do know is \emph{very} fucking impressive,'' Draco said dryly.
+He felt the urge to giggle, and didn't give in, because once he did,
+there would be no stopping it. He was half-high on the feeling of magic
+that still ebbed and danced in the air, centering on Harry, and he had a
+headache that would have been appropriate for a night of stiff drinking.
+He dropped down to the floor again. ``I don't think I can move,'' he
+said, pathetically, to no one in particular.
+
+Footsteps invaded the room then, and Draco's head, making the pounding
+worse. He winced, and looked up to see Professor McGonagall, the
+Gryffindor Head of House, in the doorway, staring at the felled troll.
+
+``What happened?'' she demanded, turning and squinting at Draco.
+
+Draco opened his mouth to explain, but Harry got there first, all smooth
+charm and utter believability. ``It was my brother, Professor,'' he
+said. ``He hurled a spell at the troll I've never even \emph{seen}
+before, a combination of---of the Levitation Charm we learned just today
+and something that caused fire.'' He shook his head back and forth. The
+wideness of his eyes made him look innocent, Draco thought, and butter
+probably wouldn't melt in his mouth as he blinked at McGonagall. ``The
+force of it knocked him out, and he's wounded, but he saved my life. He
+saved all our lives.''
+
+McGonagall's face softened, and she nodded once. Then she said, ``But
+why were you here in the first place?''
+
+Draco again attempted to assist the cause of truth, but Harry got in the
+way again. ``I followed the troll, Professor. I thought I could defeat
+it.'' He looked down bashfully. ``It just gets tiring, sometimes, living
+in my brother's shadow.'' He added a perfect ingratiating whine that
+Draco recognized as an imitation of himself. ``Do you know what I
+mean?''
+
+``That was extremely foolish of you, Mister Potter,'' said McGonagall,
+the warmth in her face mostly gone. ``Ten points from Slytherin, for the
+utter, utter \emph{foolishness} of your actions.''
+
+Draco opened his mouth to protest the unfairness of everything, but the
+other professors appeared then, clucking and exclaiming, and he got
+swept away in the general tumult. He did see Hermione Granger watching
+the entire scene with speculative eyes, her head cocked to one side. But
+when Harry caught her eye and mouthed, ``They were coming after you,''
+she appeared willing to let the matter lie.
+
+Draco wasn't. While McGonagall levitated Weasley and Potter to the
+infirmary, and Harry trotted beside them, breathless and exhausted and
+happy, he fought his way to Professor Snape's side. The Slytherin Head
+of House leaned on the wall, his eyes alternately on his colleagues and
+the dead troll.
+
+``Potter didn't do that,'' Draco insisted, when Snape deigned to pay
+attention to him. ``Harry did. Wandless, even! And now the old cat's
+taken points, and it's---it's just all so \emph{unfair.}'' He winced and
+fell silent then, because his head really did hurt.
+
+``I know, Draco,'' said Snape calmly. His voice had some tamped-down
+emotion in it, but it was so repressed that Draco couldn't tell what it
+was. He merely surveyed the scene, and his eyes gave nothing away,
+either. ``But I must wait a few days before restoring Slytherin's
+points. I have to account for why I gave them, after all.''
+
+``I didn't mean that part!'' Draco wailed. ``Well, not just that part! I
+meant---''
+
+Snape nodded to him. ``I know,'' he said. ``But I have learned that the
+best way to confront our Slytherin Potter is not directly. He can resist
+that, and rather spectacularly well, it looks like,'' he added, with one
+more glance around the room. ``We must wait, and be indirect. Now, come
+with me. I have a potion that will soothe your headache.'' He swept out
+of the room.
+
+Draco winced and hesitated. On the one hand, he felt like he should be
+with Harry in the infirmary.
+
+On the other hand, his head pounded like a gong.
+
+In the end, he followed Snape, and composed a letter in his head to his
+father the whole way. \emph{Dear Father, Harry is being exasperating.
+And stupid. And risking his life where he doesn't need to, and then
+refusing to even take credit for it, which would be the only reason for
+such a thing. And he gave me a} headache.
+
+\subsection{*Chapter 8*: Dares and
+Dives}\label{chapter-8-dares-and-dives}
+
+Argh! I didn't mean to put up another chapter this quickly, but I love
+writing this story so much, and I had some extra time this
+afternoon\ldots{}
+
+After this, updates will probably drop to one every other day, or every
+two. I do have original fiction and homework I need to work on.
+
+For now, enjoy, and thank you again for all the reviews!
+
+\textbf{Chapter Eight: Dares and Dives}
+
+Harry smiled as Draco cast a stone into the lake and yelled for the
+Giant Squid to come up and attack him if it wasn't a coward. Draco would
+run in the opposite direction if that ever happened, of course, but it
+was funny to think about. And Harry was in a generally good mood this
+morning, certainly enough to find Draco's jokes amusing.
+
+Connor was well. He'd been released from the infirmary the yesterday,
+along with a stern warning from Madam Pomfrey ``not to do whatever it
+was that you did again, young man!'' Ron was up even before then. And
+Connor, though he seemed dazed when asked about the troll, had accepted
+the story of his defeating it without trouble. It probably helped, Harry
+thought, that awed mutters and glances tended to follow him now, and
+that the Gryffindor Head of House had been more than usually kind to
+him.
+
+Hermione seemed to know the truth, but though she watched Harry
+constantly on Friday---he would look up from reading a book in the
+library, and there she would be---she didn't bring it up. She had even
+befriended Connor and Ron, to an extent, if her stiff efforts to include
+them in a lecture on Friday were any indication. Harry was willing to
+let it rest for now. He could urge them closer later.
+
+And Draco hadn't brought up the truth, either, for which Harry was more
+than grateful. He smirked when someone else talked about Connor and the
+troll, and at every mention of ``wandless magic'' his elbow dug into
+Harry's ribs, but he didn't talk. Harry thought he knew that McGonagall
+and the rest wouldn't believe him. Even Snape probably did not. He had
+his hands full hating Connor and Harry for being Potters, and thus James
+through them.
+
+Harry looked up as Draco said, ``I saw a shadow in the lake.'' He was
+trying to be confident, but his voice rippled, like the water that had
+probably been all he saw. ``I think we should head back to the castle
+now.''
+
+Harry checked the sun; it was still early morning, since Draco had
+learned his trick of rising early on Saturdays and adjusted his sleeping
+schedule to catch Harry then, too. But the Great Hall would probably be
+open for breakfast by now, and Draco really had been agreeable,
+following him around the lake and chattering nonstop about something
+other than Harry being a Slytherin. ``All right,'' he agreed, and turned
+back towards Hogwarts.
+
+As they neared the castle, his eyes strayed to Gryffindor Tower, by
+habit, and then he froze. A figure on a broomstick, shrunk by distance,
+darted around the Tower, retrieving small objects that fell---or were
+hurled, more likely, Harry thought---out of windows. The sound of
+laughter was audible even from here. And Harry could recognize Connor on
+a broomstick. He'd \emph{trained} in recognizing Connor on a broomstick,
+in case they were ever in flight among enemies and he had to cast spells
+without looking at someone's face first.
+
+``Isn't that your brother?'' Draco said, at the same moment. ``Where did
+he get a broom?''
+
+``Probably sneaked out to the pitch and stole one,'' said Harry, his
+eyes narrowing as Connor essayed a particularly daring swoop. He
+spiraled once, wobbled as if he would bash into the side of the Tower,
+and then soared up, laughing. Harry had no doubt that he'd caught
+whatever it was he chased. He let his shoulders sag in relief. ``He's a
+good flyer, though, don't you think?'' he added, turning to Draco.
+
+Draco was watching him, and not Connor. Draco was disturbing that way,
+Harry reflected. ``Not half as good as you are,'' he murmured.
+
+``He's much better than me,'' Harry said. \emph{Not true, but he's much
+better than Draco gives him credit for.} ``You ought to see us fly after
+a practice Snitch together. Connor wins every time.''
+
+``Because you let him,'' said Draco, in a soft, mocking voice.
+
+``On his own merits!'' Harry hissed. He wondered if there was, after
+all, something worse than Draco confronting him immediately after the
+troll incident and demanding an explanation. Draco seemed to have
+decided that the way Harry protected Connor from physical harm extended
+into protecting him from any possible embarrassment, too.
+
+\emph{Well, it does, but he has no right to} assume \emph{that it does.}
+
+``\emph{Mister} Potter!''
+
+Harry blinked and jerked his head up. It was Professor McGonagall who
+spoke, though, and she was standing at the base of Gryffindor Tower, her
+arms folded and her head tilted up. Connor didn't appear to see or hear
+her. He swerved down, caught one more object too small for Harry to see,
+and held it up to cheers and applause through the Tower windows.
+
+``\emph{Mister} Potter,'' said McGonagall again, somehow managing to sound
+equally forceful even though she'd raised her voice. ``Come down here
+\emph{this instant.}''
+
+Harry winced at her tone, especially as Connor heard her this time and
+froze on the broomstick. Then he spiraled softly down. His head was
+bowed, and Harry knew, though he couldn't see them, that his knuckles
+would be white where they gripped the broom handle. Connor hated being
+in trouble, or getting yelled at.
+
+Harry hurried over. Draco, behind him, said nothing except for one quick
+whisper of, ``You try to take the blame for this and I will give you
+\emph{such} a thump.''
+
+Harry didn't intend to take the blame. He just wanted to be there to
+hear what the punishment was, so that he could commiserate with Connor
+and agree whether or not it would be worth the crime.
+
+McGonagall stood where she was for a long moment, lips pursed as she
+stared at Connor. Harry's brother had hopped off the broomstick and
+stood with his head bowed. It was a posture of genuine contrition, which
+had often gotten him out of trouble at home. But McGonagall wasn't
+James, and Harry braced himself as she opened her mouth.
+
+``Mister Potter,'' she said. ``You know that you broke the rules by
+flying without permission.''
+
+``Yes, ma'am,'' Connor whispered. His voice sounded so small. Harry
+would have gone forward and gotten in front of him, to deflect
+McGonagall's attention, but he thought she would have gotten irritated
+at him without dropping her irritation for Connor. Besides, Draco had a
+death grip on his arm.
+
+``And you know that you were hurt in your battle with the troll two days
+ago and have \emph{no} reason to be up and flying,'' she continued.
+
+``Yes, ma'am.''
+
+``That said,'' McGonagall said, unfolding her arms, ``it will be to your
+advantage to respect your position on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.''
+Harry felt a warmth flooding his heart. Connor jerked his head up and
+stared at McGonagall. ``We have desperate need of a Seeker,'' McGonagall
+went on, ``which is the \emph{only} reason I am allowing this. But you
+will not skip practices, Mr. Potter, nor will you abuse your teammates'
+trust in you. Do you understand?''
+
+Connor nodded, his eyes and his whole face shining with a light that
+Harry knew well enough most people could not resist. Slytherins seemed
+to be the exception, but Slytherins were the exceptions for lots of
+things. ``Of course, ma'am! I promise! Thank you!''
+
+McGonagall nodded at him. ``We had a practice this morning,'' she said
+as she turned away, ``but you will need to report to Oliver Wood, the
+team Captain, on your own time and have him instruct you in plays.''
+
+Connor bounced up and down on his toes, grinning. ``I understand, ma'am.
+Thank you!'' he added again, his voice exuberant.
+
+Harry caught sight of McGonagall's faint smile as she passed. It seemed
+even the stern Head of Gryffindor House was not immune to Connor's
+charm.
+
+``Congratulations, Connor,'' he said quietly. He was glad that he got to
+be the first one to say that. There were confused, semi-cheerful sounds
+coming from Gryffindor Tower, but none of them had had time to get out
+of the Tower and down to the ground yet.
+
+Connor nodded at him. Then his face firmed, and Harry blinked at the
+change in his eyes and the set of his jaw.
+
+He grabbed Harry's arm and dragged him towards the castle. Harry
+stumbled before he managed to catch his balance and follow. He was much
+more used to Draco pulling this kind of trick, and wondered what in the
+world Connor could be thinking of doing.
+
+``Where are we going?'' he asked, as they plowed through the doors and
+in the direction of the Great Hall. But Connor turned before they got
+there, leading him to the dungeons.
+
+``I promised that you would get all the same chances that I get,'' was
+Connor's only explanation, and soon enough they were hurrying along a
+familiar hallway. Harry had a bad feeling when Connor paused and knocked
+on the door of Snape's office.
+
+There was a long, long silence, as though Snape were behind the door
+asking himself incredulously who would dare disturb him this early in
+the morning, and on a Saturday, no less. Harry shifted, and tried a new
+tactic. ``Connor, thank you. You're wonderfully brave and generous. But
+it's not necessary, really---''
+
+The door opened then, and Snape, as ready to sneer as he was on days
+when they had class, stood framed in it. ``The Brothers \emph{Potter},''
+he said, making their last name sound like an obscenity. ``What do you
+want?''
+
+Connor lifted his chin. ``Professor Snape,'' he said formally, ``I've
+just been made Seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.''
+
+Harry saw the professor's face grow tight with rage for a moment, but
+his voice showed no change. ``I see,'' he replied, sarcasm dripping from
+the words. ``And this would be your promotional tour, perhaps? Your way
+of soliciting congratulations from all and sundry?''
+
+``This has nothing to do with me,'' said Connor firmly, and thrust Harry
+forward. ``My brother's as good a Seeker as I am. If Professor
+McGonagall is going to break the rules and let me fly for Gryffindor,
+even though I'm a first-year, then I think it's only fair that Harry
+should get to fly for Slytherin.''
+
+Harry winced and cowered. He could well imagine the force of the
+invective Snape was about to unleash, and he didn't look forward to the
+way that Connor's face would crumple and flush as he struggled not to
+cry.
+
+There was silence instead. And then Snape said, in the even tone that
+was as close as he ever seemed to come to courtesy, ``Thank you, Mr.
+Potter. That is indeed an excellent idea. I approve entirely. Come in,
+Mr. Potter,'' he said, nodding at Harry, ``so that we can discuss this
+further.'' He stepped out of the way and gestured into the office, as
+though in invitation.
+
+Harry would have rather entered a dragon's lair. ``My brother's
+mistaken, Professor Snape,'' he blurted, chasing the first idea that
+came to mind. ``I could never beat him in our practice matches. I
+wouldn't want to give Slytherin an inferior Seeker---''
+
+``Don't listen to him, Professor,'' Connor interrupted. ``He's nearly
+taken the Snitch away from me more than once. And I'm \emph{really}
+good,'' he added, with that artless self-adulation that Harry so often
+encouraged and now wished would dry up for just a few minutes.
+
+``I have no reason to doubt you,'' Snape assured him gravely, which made
+Harry only more certain he was howling with laughter inside. ``But since
+the first match is in a week, and it will be between Gryffindor and
+Slytherin, then I wish to advise Mr. Potter of
+the\ldots{}strategy\ldots{}he should adopt.'' His eyes came back to
+Harry's face and lingered there. Then he smiled. It was not at all a
+nice smile.
+
+Harry said, ``Really, sir, you don't have to do this. I know how much
+you hate bending the rules.''
+
+``Harry.''
+
+He glanced sideways at Connor, who was smiling at him with the gentle,
+patient expression of a sibling pushed almost to the limits of his
+tolerance.
+
+``Do this,'' Connor whispered. ``Please. I want you to. I'd be miserable
+if I were flying and you weren't. Please?''
+
+Harry sighed and bowed his head. \emph{Why not? It's not as though I
+have to win the game. Everyone has seen how good we are separately, but
+no one's seen us in competition, and when they do, then they'll only
+notice what Mum and Dad did whenever I played Connor.}
+
+Those thoughts reassured him. This was a deception, but unlike the
+desperate one he'd made up Halloween night to turn Connor into a hero,
+it was an old and familiar one. Harry breathed a bit easier.
+
+``If you really want me on the team, sir,'' he said to Professor Snape,
+``I'll do it.''
+
+``Indeed,'' said Snape. ``Now, step inside my office, Mr. Potter. We
+really \emph{must} talk.''
+
+Connor patted Harry's shoulder. Then he said, ``See you later, Harry.
+Professor.'' A nod, and he was gone.
+
+Harry stared at Snape for a long moment. His Head of House's eyes showed
+no sign of yielding, so he bowed his head again and plodded into the
+room.
+
+The door shut with a soft sound. Harry hoped for some silence, but Snape
+tore into him at once.
+
+``You are a fool if you think that I will permit Gryffindor to beat
+Slytherin,'' he said, circling around in front of Harry. Harry kept his
+eyes on the floor. That didn't dim his consciousness of Snape's gaze on
+him, or how triumphant it was. ``And I \emph{know} that you are not a
+fool, Mr. Potter. You will kindly stop acting as if you are. You will
+become Slytherin's Seeker. And you will win our matches, Mr. Potter.''
+
+``Connor really is better than I am, sir,'' Harry tried.
+
+``I don't believe you,'' Snape assured him, voice a purr. ``After the
+incident with the troll, Mr. Potter, I wonder if I should believe you
+ever again.''
+
+Harry looked up in shock. He really, really had not thought that Snape
+believed Draco's side of the story, even if Draco had told him. The
+story Harry had made up sounded so much better, confirming as it would
+for Snape the utter arrogance of both James Potter's sons and their
+rule-breaking tendencies.
+
+Snape smirked at him and cocked his head.
+
+``I know what you are, Mr. Potter,'' he breathed. ``And do you know
+why?'' Harry shook his head, heart like a drumbeat in his ears, almost
+obscuring Snape's next whispered words. ``I am a Slytherin, too.
+Maneuvering, lying, half-truths, concealment---they are second nature to
+me. And your attempts are amateurish at best.'' He laughed when Harry
+glared at him. ``Oh, yes, they are. They depend too heavily on the
+listener being utterly besotted with our resident hero. As I am not, I
+prefer to look for the true cause. The \emph{Slytherin} cause, Mr.
+Potter.'' He hissed the last words, and Harry spoke before he thought.
+
+``I'm not going to be a good Seeker, Professor. I'll just throw the
+game. And Connor will still win anyway.''
+
+Snape's smile vanished. He leaned close enough that Harry flinched, but
+he couldn't seem to look away. Snape's eyes burned like black ice.
+
+``If you do not win this game, Potter,'' Snape said softly, ``if you do
+not make every effort to be what I know you are, then you will have
+detention every night for the rest of the term. I will speak with
+Headmaster Dumbledore and arrange it myself---the way that I intend to
+arrange for you to become Seeker. And there will be \emph{nothing} you
+can do about it. Is that clear?''
+
+Harry growled, helpless. He didn't want to play Connor, he didn't want
+to take even the chance of showing Connor up, and here the Professor
+was, forcing him into it.
+
+But he couldn't afford to give his nights up, either. Since Draco stuck
+by him so closely from morning until night, Harry had finally gotten the
+idea of following Professor Quirrell around after curfew. He couldn't do
+that if he was in detention with Snape. Snape would probably take him
+back to the common room himself.
+
+``Yes, sir,'' Harry said at last, forcing the words out.
+
+Someone knocked on the door just then, and Draco's worried voice called
+out, ``Harry? Professor Snape? Are you in there?''
+
+Snape chuckled darkly. ``He sounds as though he fears we have torn each
+other apart,'' he murmured, and then leaned nearer to Harry. ``But I will
+be the one tearing \emph{you} apart if you fail to live up to my
+expectations, Mr. Potter.''
+
+``Yes, sir,'' Harry said again, full of helpless hatred.
+
+``Find Marcus Flint,'' Snape instructed him as he paced to open the door
+on Draco. ``He is our Quidditch Captain. He will see about integrating
+you into practices. And do strive your hardest, Mr. Potter. The match is
+only a week away, after all.''
+
+Harry, his good mood utterly ruined, bowed his head and left without a
+word, despite all the questions that Draco asked on the way to the Great
+Hall.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+Snape smiled after Harry, careful to make it a predatory smile and not
+one of sheerest exultation. This had been a good morning, far better
+than he might have expected when he heard the hated Potter's voice
+calling through the door.
+
+\emph{I will set James Potter's sons against one another. How he will
+writhe and squirm when he hears of that! And if I can encourage Harry
+into acting against whatever his father taught him about yielding to his
+brother, then I will have done the world a positive service, turning an
+arrogant Potter spawn into a useful person.}
+
+\emph{And more\ldots{}}
+
+Snape shook his head slightly. It was too much to hope for, based on a
+few sensations of power, some native Seeker talent, and one troll
+defeat, that Harry would actually become a shining figure, someone the
+other Houses and the wider wizarding world were \emph{forced} to take
+notice of and respect. Snape was intensely practical. It was not
+practical to gaze at the future with rose-glassed eyes.
+
+\emph{But if I see the chance, I will take it. For too long, Gryffindor
+has been beloved and Slytherin scorned. They look at us and see the Dark
+Lord.}
+
+\emph{If we could produce a hero of our own\ldots{}if we could make them
+acknowledge, all against their wills, that heroism is more than just not
+knowing when to stay out of a fight\ldots{}}
+
+Snape carefully locked the thoughts up again. They were becoming too
+ambitious, and this was a burning, nourished, long-held dream, something
+he thought of anew each year when the first-year Slytherins entered his
+House. He would find someone, someday, who had both the native quality
+and the potential to be taught and molded. He would push that person
+into the light, and see Slytherin take up its rightful position of glory
+once again.
+
+Harry had every chance of not being that person.
+
+But, Snape acknowledged as he stepped back into his office and shut the
+door, he was the best candidate Snape had seen yet.
+
+\subsection{*Chapter 9*: Sacrificial
+Unicorn}\label{chapter-9-sacrificial-unicorn}
+
+This chapter is darker (as though you couldn't guess that from the
+title). And it explains some more of the way Lily raised Harry, and why.
+
+That part's sadder than I thought it would be.
+
+\textbf{Chapter Nine: Sacrificial Unicorn}
+
+It had taken forever for the other boys to fall asleep. Harry had slept
+in the same room as Connor at home, and until now had never appreciated
+what a luxury that was, sharing space with only one other person. And
+Connor was a fairly heavy sleeper, too, unlikely to awaken if Harry
+wanted to practice spells under his breath or read a book under the
+covers with a \emph{Lumos} going.
+
+But he could put up with the noise, he thought, if only he could trust
+that the noise meant the other boys wouldn't be waking for the rest of
+the night.
+
+After the fourth mumble-mutter that might or might not have been a snore
+from Blaise, Harry had had enough. He cast \emph{Consopio} on all four
+boys, and listened as their breathing slid into a soft, relaxed rhythm.
+Harry sighed and crept out of the room. He should be back before the
+spell wore off; it was a gentle Charm that Lily had used on him and
+Connor when they were children and had been awake for more than twelve
+hours straight.
+
+He had another \emph{Consopio} ready on his lips when he reached the
+Slytherin common room, but for once no one had fallen asleep here. He
+increased his pace as he reached the common room door. Professor
+Quirrell might already have retired for the night. In fact, Harry
+reflected as he slid the door open and glanced up and down the corridor,
+that would be typical of the kind of luck he'd had today.
+
+\emph{Could Marcus Flint be any more of a prat?} Harry thought
+indignantly as he made his way down the empty hallway. \emph{Just
+because I didn't catch the Snitch in the first ten minutes doesn't mean
+I'm incompetent.} Normally, he would have been pleased enough that
+someone else thought his performance below par, but not when Marcus
+might whine to Professor Snape and get Harry detention.
+
+The very thought of that made Harry want to hex Snape, though preferably
+from a safe distance. What he was doing was \emph{important}. It might
+mean lives, even more lives than Connor's, if Professor Quirrell was
+doing something dangerous. He could be a Death Eater, and not one who
+had reformed the way that Snape had. He could be a mere helper or ally
+of Voldemort. But Harry's dreams suggested he was more ominous even than
+that.
+
+\emph{And that's another thing,} Harry thought, as he ghosted up the
+dungeon stairs and towards the professor's office. \emph{Do I trust my
+dreams? I don't know why I'm even having them. It's not as though my
+scar is any kind of mark from Voldemort, the way that Connor's is.}
+
+He and Lily had tried to develop his ability to dream prophetically,
+despite Lily making loud and common comments about what a load of
+bollocks Divination was, but had had no success. True Seer ability was
+inborn, Lily had decided, like being a Metamorphmagus, and Harry simply
+did not have it.
+
+Harry felt like hexing somebody again as he considered that. It was
+unfair that he not be able to develop any ability which could be the key
+to protecting Connor, now or in the future.
+
+\emph{But maybe I finally have. And I would be foolish to ignore these
+dreams.}
+
+Harry halted near Quirrell's office door and listened carefully. He
+heard no sound. Of course, the professor had probably gone to bed
+already. With a sigh, Harry sat down near the door.
+
+\emph{I'll fall asleep,} he thought, pinching his arm to keep awake when
+his eyelids began to droop. \emph{It's these damn classes. Why do they
+give us so much homework? I have better things to do than write a
+three-foot essay on why you should never Transfigure a doorknob into a
+marble.}
+
+He was so convinced that he would find nothing today that he nearly
+didn't get out of the way in time when the door opened. Quirrell
+shuffled out as Harry ducked around the corner, then turned and locked
+his office door behind him. For a while, he stood there, trembling like
+a leaf in the wind. Harry frowned. \emph{He doesn't look threatening
+when he's like this.}
+
+Then Quirrell turned and strode down the hall, his face set as he passed
+Harry. Harry smiled as he followed. \emph{Here we go.}
+
+It was a dangerously difficult dance, making sure that he kept Quirrell
+in sight without letting himself be spotted. Hogwarts, with its
+propensity to shift staircases and walls at a moment's notice, made it
+harder. And there was still the disturbing pain in his scar, sometimes,
+and an occasional mutter from Quirrell that it frustrated Harry he was
+too far away to figure out.
+
+Still, after the third staircase, Harry had to admit he was enjoying
+himself. He thought about that as best he could while still watching out
+for both Quirrell and the next good hiding place.
+
+\emph{I'm finally putting my training to use,} he decided at last, as he
+crouched behind a suit of armor when Quirrell glanced back. \emph{The
+troll was different. It attacked too fast. I just reacted out of rage.
+But this is the kind of thing that I trained for, hiding and spying and
+concealing things so that Connor won't be tainted by them. I think I'm
+allowed to be happy.}
+
+There was a difference between ``happy'' and ``dangerously manic,'' of
+course, and Harry concentrated to make sure that he wasn't the latter.
+When he had to drop behind Quirrell on some tricky stretch of corridor
+where the moonlight coming through the windows could have revealed him
+even better than the shadowy light of torches, he let the professor get
+far ahead before following. And even when he knew for certain that
+Quirrell was heading out of the castle, he resisted the temptation to
+dart ahead and take a shorter route. Quirrell might have some reason for
+going this way. If so, Harry would find out.
+
+It didn't seem that he did; perhaps he had taken the longest route on
+purpose to have more of a chance of spotting stalkers, Harry thought.
+Professor Quirrell stepped out of Hogwarts and waited for a long moment,
+as though he liked the feel of the cool November breeze on his face.
+Harry, crouched in the doorway, clenched his hands together and felt a
+delicious cold tingle in his heart. Was the professor headed to a secret
+meeting? Was he about to see it?
+
+Instead, Quirrell turned and headed rapidly off across school grounds.
+Harry eyed the stretch of barren earth between him and his prey, sighed,
+waited, and then took a risk and cast the Disillusionment Charm on
+himself.
+
+He shuddered at the feeling that passed through him, as if someone had
+broken an egg over his head, and then waited some more. Quirrell didn't
+look back at him. It seemed he could use magic, as long as he wasn't
+obvious about it.
+
+Harry strolled carefully across the ground, letting the Charm reflect
+whatever was behind him at the moment. Lily had told him that someone
+who paid attention could make out the effects of the Charm by noticing a
+ripple, like a heat shimmer, wherever the person under it was moving.
+Unlikely as that might be in the moonlight and the open, Harry wasn't
+about to take a chance.
+
+Professor Quirrell aimed past the hut of Rubeus Hagrid, the gamekeeper,
+and into the dark mass of the Forbidden Forest.
+
+Harry hissed. He \emph{hated} forests for sneaking around in. He'd
+always done horribly in the ones near Godric's Hollow. And it was fall
+now, and with the amount of leaves on the ground and which could be
+dislodged from the branches\ldots{}
+
+Harry shook his head. He didn't know of any spells that would shield him
+from making noise without also obscuring his ability to make any noise
+out. And he definitely wanted to be able to hear, since he assumed that
+Professor Quirrell was probably meeting someone interesting indeed in
+the woods.
+
+Resolving to ask his mother about teaching him noise-muffling spells as
+well as medical magic, Harry sped up a little and followed the professor
+into the Forest.
+
+He hadn't expected it to be so \emph{dark}, he admitted to himself after
+his first near-stumble on a sudden bump in the trail. True, it was
+night, but the Forest seemed to eat light alive, and exhale darkness.
+Life was around them, but it breathed, in turn, slowly and carefully,
+and Harry felt the unnerving tingle on his skin that came from the
+presence of powerful, nonhuman magical creatures.
+
+\emph{Centaurs live here, at least,} he thought, as he forced himself
+deeper and deeper, pausing to duck branches and figure out the best way
+around large piles of drifted leaves. \emph{What else?}
+
+The fact that he couldn't remember, exactly, annoyed him, and unnerved
+him further. And then Professor Quirrell sped up, and Harry had to
+follow him without making noise, and fast, and in the dark.
+
+If Professor Quirrell hadn't been muttering to himself, apparently
+intent on a private conversation of some kind, Harry didn't think he
+could have managed it. As it was, he finally, \emph{finally} got close
+enough to overhear what Quirrell was saying.
+
+Unsurprisingly, it sounded like part of a Death Eater plot.
+
+``---and they'll see then, the ones who laughed, the ones who turned
+their backs, won't they? \emph{Won't} they?'' Quirrell demanded as if
+someone had argued with him, using a force he had never displayed in
+class with his students. ``The ones who pretended they were all under the
+Imperius, or spies, or for Dumbledore all the time. We'll show them.
+They'll \emph{know} the folly of abandoning us.''
+
+Harry shook his head. The professor sounded barking, but he also hadn't
+stuttered once. And the way he was speaking sounded as if he were
+talking about the Death Eaters who had pleaded their own innocence,
+usually with the handy excuse of the Imperius Curse, after Voldemort's
+fall.
+
+\emph{I don't understand. Dumbledore only hired Snape because he was a}
+reformed \emph{Death Eater. How could Quirrell have hidden some kind of
+Death Eater affiliation from him? Wouldn't Dumbledore check to see that
+he'd reformed first?}
+
+Deep in thought, Harry nearly catapulted himself over his own feet as
+the path dipped. He winced, then saw Quirrell turning around. Harry took
+a deep breath and dropped, rolling sideways, so that he was half-hidden
+behind a large bush that swayed menacingly. Harry hoped it was only
+swaying with the wind.
+
+``Who's there?'' said Quirrell, and his hand went for his wand. Harry
+laid his hand on his own, wondering if he was about to have his first
+proper battle with a Death Eater.
+
+``\emph{Animals.}''
+
+Harry shuddered. That voice was definitely \emph{not} Quirrell's, high
+and cold and shrill. And it made Quirrell cower and turn about, his head
+in his hands. His turban bobbed and swayed as he uttered a cry.
+
+``I'm sorry, my lord!''
+
+``\emph{Animals},'' the voice repeated. ``\emph{Get what we came for and
+get out. Someone will miss us soon.}''
+
+``Yes, my lord,'' Quirrell whispered, and then took out his wand and
+cast some kind of complicated charm Harry had never seen before,
+involving at least seven separate wand movements. Harry frowned. What
+good would that kind of charm be in battle? Someone would probably kill
+you before you could cast it.
+
+\emph{So it must not be a charm that has anything to do with battle.}
+
+And it didn't, as Harry saw after a moment, when the first true light in
+that dreadful darkness glimmered through the trees, and the unicorn
+approached them.
+
+Harry stared. He'd seen images of unicorns in history books, and thought
+he was prepared; after all, wizards looked rather like their own
+portraits, so unicorns should, too. But nothing had prepared him for the
+pale coat, or the sheer shine of the horn, or the way the legs unfolded
+and stepped, more like a deer's legs than a horse's.
+
+The unicorn paused a few steps away from Professor Quirrell, and sniffed
+the air. Harry wondered if it smelled the garlic that the professor used
+to keep vampires away. But the professor performed the charm again,
+which Harry thought was some variant of the summoning charm, and the
+unicorn came on, walking tamely towards Quirrell, now and then flicking
+its tail.
+
+Harry swallowed. There was a thickness in his throat, and he did not
+think that Quirrell could intend anything good with the unicorn, for
+whatever reason he'd summoned it.
+
+\emph{I could stop him from killing it, or hurting it, or whatever it is
+that he wants to do.}
+
+\emph{And then I'd reveal that I'm here, and Connor's life would be in
+danger without me. I think he could kill me. I'm just supposed to
+observe.}
+
+Harry considered looking away as the unicorn halted in front of Quirrell
+and the professor reached towards its neck. But he swallowed again and
+kept watching. His mother had told him that only cowards looked away
+from death, that many of the Death Eaters had killed people with their
+eyes shut. He would witness, since he couldn't rescue.
+
+The professor reached up and whispered a spell Harry could not make out,
+and was not sure he wanted to. At once an immense, bloody gash sprouted
+down the side of the unicorn's neck, wreaking havoc on the silver fur,
+spreading blue-silver light and life that flared like the moon. The
+unicorn reared, screaming, and Harry shuddered, driving his fingers so
+hard into his own hands that for a moment he feared he'd snap his wand.
+He made no sound himself, though, and was glad when the unicorn fell to
+the ground, golden hooves thrashing like trailing meteors. It would have
+seemed disrespectful to take away from the sound of its death.
+
+Quirrell knelt down beside the unicorn, avoiding the hooves, and bowed
+his head. His mouth went to the gash on the unicorn's neck, and he began
+to suck.
+
+Harry fought furiously not to be sick. His mother had told him about
+people who drank unicorn blood. It was a heinous crime, and not just
+under Ministry law. There was something rare, magical, and pure about
+unicorns themselves. The blood made anyone who drank it immortal for a
+time, but shut off from the world, hidden behind hideous gray spiderwebs
+that concealed all emotions and humanity.
+
+He couldn't watch, in the end. He turned away and crouched down, and
+waited until the sound of sucking stopped. The unicorn was dead by
+then---at least, he hoped so. He closed his eyes and listened.
+
+``When?'' Quirrell was asking, apparently declaiming to his invisible
+audience. ``When can we hope that the insult will be avenged, the
+disloyal ones punished, and the Potter brat brought to heel?''
+
+Harry's eyes snapped open again. \emph{Connor. They're talking about
+Connor. Him and---and whoever's with him.}
+
+The cold voice spoke, and at the same moment a burning pain came to life
+in Harry's forehead. He held still as it grew worse, because what that
+voice had to say seemed more important than any agony he might suffer.
+
+``\emph{Not long now. Not long now. We will destroy their hope in the
+sight of all of them, and we will use the loyal ones to do it. There is
+one who can help us. He is trusted by the old fool. He will come.}''
+
+Harry retained the presence of mind to scramble off to the side of the
+path as Professor Quirrell walked back along it. He never looked to the
+side. His voice had returned to its constant low muttering. Harry didn't
+attempt to follow, just kneeling where he was until the pain in his scar
+had passed.
+
+And, all the while, he considered what he'd heard, and what he was going
+to do about it.
+
+It was the first time he'd seriously considered turning to the
+professors for help. He didn't know if he could face a Death Eater---or
+whoever else Professor Quirrell had been talking to---on his own. He was
+beyond unsure what might happen if they attacked Connor, in whatever
+fashion they planned. Maybe he wouldn't be in the right place, at the
+right time. Thanks to Draco, he almost never was anymore.
+
+And he really should tell someone about seeing the unicorn killed.
+
+But two things stopped him. For one, he'd have to reveal that he'd been
+out here, and that he'd been spying on Quirrell because of his dreams,
+and that would draw attention to him that he didn't want, from the
+professors and eventually from the Death Eaters. The whole point of
+training as he had was to keep back, to discourage anyone from thinking
+that he was in any way more than an ordinary, slightly sulking wizard
+child awed by his brother's reputation. He would destroy every advantage
+of that if he went to the professors now.
+
+And the second thing\ldots{}
+
+``\emph{There is one who can help us. He is trusted by the old fool. He
+will come.}''
+
+Who was that?
+
+Harry was horribly afraid that the cold voice meant Dumbledore, and that
+meant someone he trusted was a traitor, someone who would conspire to
+hurt Connor. Dumbledore was not infallible, as his hiring of Quirrell
+proved. And even if Harry went to him personally, rather than a
+professor, Dumbledore could tell the news to the traitor under the
+impression that he would help defend the Boy-Who-Lived.
+
+\emph{I'm afraid it's Snape,} Harry admitted to himself, \emph{but I
+don't have any other proof than my dislike. And Dumbledore trusts an
+awful lot of people.}
+
+No. He would have to rely on himself, as he had trained.
+
+And the unicorn was a casualty of war.
+
+Harry forced himself to leave his sheltered space behind the bush, and
+forced himself to walk over to the dead unicorn instead of retreating up
+the path at once. He looked down at it for a long moment, and wished
+fiercely that it were still alive. He wanted to say something, but
+couldn't think of any words that would stand up to what had happened.
+
+``Goodbye,'' he said at last.
+
+He turned and left, listening to the speech their mother had given him
+the day before they left for Hogwarts playing over and over in his head.
+
+``\emph{War requires sacrifices, Harry, sacrifices from all of us. It
+requires time, and blood, and sweat, and lives. And, most of all, it
+requires part of the souls of those who participate in it.}'' Lily had
+closed her eyes, looking ill, and Harry knew she was remembering some of
+the things that she had seen and done during the time of Voldemort's
+first rise. Then she opened her eyes, and they burned into his, intense,
+opaque green. These were the eyes that neither her husband nor her
+younger son ever saw, the look she reserved for Harry alone.
+
+``\emph{People around you are going to die, Harry,}'' she'd said quietly.
+``\emph{People will be injured, and have their lives taken away, and have
+bits of their souls snatched when friends are injured or die, or when
+they kill. I think that last is the worst. It tainted Voldemort. It
+could taint Connor.}''
+
+She'd reached forward and clasped his hands, holding them firmly, his
+new wand caught in between them. ``\emph{I'm asking you not to let that
+happen to him, Harry. He has to grow up as normal as possible, even
+though he's the Boy-Who-Lived. If he gets used to killing, to fighting
+too young, then he won't retain the essential purity and love he needs
+to defeat Voldemort. I know that I'm asking you to sacrifice your own
+innocence, and I'm sorry for it. But this is war, Harry.}''
+
+Harry had nodded then, and he nodded now, biting his lip. The unicorn
+was a sacrifice. He'd been a sacrifice, in Lily's terms, even though he
+didn't think of himself that way; he was just making sure that Connor
+got to enjoy a chance in the sun that would otherwise be snatched away,
+and unfairly.
+
+And he loved his brother enough to lie for him, and to burn a troll for
+him, and to let a unicorn die for him.
+
+He loved him enough to play Quidditch against him---
+
+Harry froze between one step and another, remembering what else that
+cold voice had said.
+
+``\emph{We will destroy their hope in the sight of all of them\ldots{}}''
+
+They were going to attack Connor on the Quidditch pitch, during the
+Gryffindor-Slytherin game, in front of the whole school.
+
+Harry hurried frantically towards the castle now. He could see no sign
+of Quirrell anywhere, and he had to get even better at wandless magic
+than he was by the time Saturday rolled around.
+
+\subsection{*Chapter 10*: Connor's Big
+Day}\label{chapter-10-connors-big-day}
+
+Phew! Thank you again for all the reviews! I would answer them here, but
+the service is picky about author's notes in the story itself, so I've
+set up an LJ (username lightningwave) for review replies, and the link
+to it should be in my profile.
+
+And I had forgotten that I'd folded two smaller chapters into each
+other, so Chapter 12 (the one with a lot of the answers about why
+everyone thinks Connor is the Boy-Who-Lived in it) is now Chapter 11,
+and will be posted tomorrow.
+
+Meanwhile, let's all scream at Harry for being very stubborn.
+
+\textbf{Chapter Ten: Connor's Big Day}
+
+``Connor!''
+
+``Dad!''
+
+Harry smiled as he watched their father swing Connor up and around in a
+circle, his red Quidditch robes trailing behind him like streaks of
+flame.
+
+\emph{Or the unicorn's hooves, kicking in the forest that night\ldots{}}
+
+Harry shook the impression away, and moved carefully out of the doorway
+of Hogwarts so that their parents could see him. They'd come up to greet
+Connor just as he left, heading down to the pitch for one last-minute
+drill or practice with the mad Gryffindor Captain, Oliver Wood. Lily
+stood slightly behind James, smiling at both of them with a faintly
+wistful cast around her eyes, as though she knew that moments like this
+couldn't last for long. Sirius and Remus were here, Harry saw, but had
+paused to stand by the lake, and appeared to be having an animated
+argument that could have involved anything from the Giant Squid to the
+last girl Sirius had dated.
+
+``Harry.''
+
+Harry smiled again when he saw that his mother had noticed him. He came
+forward and stood in front of her, and she reached out a careful hand,
+running her fingers through his hair. From her alone, Harry liked the
+gesture. She knew how to actually \emph{arrange} his hair, so that it
+looked less messed-up rather than more. He leaned against her, and she
+put one arm around him.
+
+``We heard how you defended your brother, Harry,'' she whispered. ``We
+are proud.'' Her eyes glimmered with tears, briefly, as she squeezed his
+shoulder.
+
+Harry nodded. He and Connor had both sent letters to their parents after
+the troll incident, and even though both of them had told the exact same
+story, Lily would have known how to read between the lines. The look on
+her face gave him a warm, contented feeling. He had had letters from her
+in the past few months, of course, including one reassuring him firmly
+that his parents were startled but not disgusted that he'd been Sorted
+into Slytherin. Connor had written even before he could, even before
+Harry came and talked to him, saying that there must have been a
+mistake, and now all the Potters were united firmly behind his theory
+that there \emph{had} been a mistake, probably on the Sorting Hat's
+part.
+
+James put Connor down and came over to Harry, embracing him and ruffling
+his hair, destroying Lily's order. Harry caught their mother's glance,
+and they exchanged an eye-roll, while Lily fussed over Connor and
+admitted that his Quidditch robes did indeed make him look very
+handsome.
+
+``Harry! There you are.''
+
+Harry turned to greet Sirius, who looked tired. Harry frowned. ``Haven't
+you been sleeping well?'' he asked his godfather.
+
+Remus snickered behind Sirius's shoulder, then ducked without even
+looking when Sirius tried to punch him. ``You could say that,'' said
+Remus. ``Of course, not sleeping \emph{at all} would have been more
+accurate.''
+
+``I like to have fun,'' Sirius defended himself, in a sulky mutter that
+made him sound younger than Connor. He increased the impression by
+rubbing one hand over his face, emphasizing the dark circles around his
+gray eyes. ``I always did.''
+
+``Yes, but you're not nineteen any more, Sirius,'' Remus said, facing
+him with gentle humor in his amber eyes. It was just past the dark of
+moon, and Remus looked healthier than he did most other times of the
+month, Harry thought---definitely healthier than Sirius did just now.
+``And you're not eleven, either, no matter how much you sometimes act
+like it---''
+
+Sirius tried to tackle Remus. Harry got hastily out of the way, and
+watched in delight. He'd missed their frequent fights since he got to
+Hogwarts, something he was used to at home. Sirius and Remus had never
+really had to grow up, he thought sometimes, despite tragedies like
+Peter's betrayal and near-tragedies like Voldemort's attack on Godric's
+Hollow. They could still play like this, still have fun, as Sirius said.
+Harry thought that, if Connor could reach their age and still act this
+innocent, he himself would die content.
+
+``Potter!''
+
+Four heads turned, which Harry found amusing, but only until he saw
+Snape standing in the doorway. His eyes were fixed on James, and there
+was a hatred in his face that made Harry understand all the unkindness
+he'd shown so far was only a shadow of the real thing.
+
+James, for his part, froze, his hazel eyes fierce. Then he took one step
+forward.
+
+``Snivellus, is it?'' Sirius asked, letting Remus go from the headlock
+he'd got him in. ``We can show him!'' He strode up eagerly to match
+James.
+
+Harry winced. He didn't like \emph{this} part of the Marauders'
+innocence. It meant they held onto childhood grudges far too long.
+
+Of course, Snape wasn't that much better, Harry thought, as he observed
+his Head of House's narrow lips and poisoned stare, and he was, on the
+outside at least, anything but innocent.
+
+``Potter,'' Snape repeated, his voice almost caressing the name. His
+gaze fastened on Harry then, and he motioned curtly to him. ``Get
+yourself into the Quidditch robes you should already be wearing, and
+then find Flint. You are to be on the patch at the proper time. You are
+not to embarrass Slytherin House in front of anyone.'' His gaze shifted
+back to James, and he sneered. ``Even those who would love to see you
+fail.''
+
+``I don't live for seeing either of my sons fail, Snape,'' James said,
+and Harry had never heard a tone like that in his father's voice before,
+scraped raw and cold. ``I \emph{do} know that Connor's going to win, but
+that's just a matter of natural talent. And we all know it's a mistake,
+anyway, that Harry's in Slytherin. He's not cold and slimy like the rest
+of you.'' He half-lowered his head, reminding Harry of the stag he could
+become at times. ``You're not going to convince me to hate my son,
+Snape, however much you may want to.''
+
+Snape's stare snapped back to Harry. Harry winced, but held his chin up
+and endured it. He knew that at least part of its force was puzzlement;
+Snape must not have realized that he concealed his talent at Quidditch
+even from his parents. Of course, Snape could say that, and James and
+Lily still wouldn't believe him. They wouldn't believe anything that a
+Slytherin said.
+
+Never in his life had Harry been so grateful for that.
+
+``Potter,'' said Snape. ``Into your Quidditch robes.'' And he turned
+around and left, his robes snapping behind him, oblivious to the insults
+that James and Sirius tossed at his heels. Remus winced and hung back,
+as he tended to do.
+
+Harry shrugged at his family. ``Sorry,'' he said softly. ``I've got to.
+But I'll see you at the game, right?''
+
+``Of course,'' said James, and knelt down in front of him. Harry met his
+father's eyes, and was a little stunned at the amount of love he saw in
+them. He knew that his father felt it, of course; James just wasn't as
+demonstrative with him as he was with Connor. ``Harry, don't worry about
+anything he says. I'm going to speak to Headmaster Dumbledore after the
+match and see about getting you Re-Sorted myself.''
+
+A lump of emotion rose into Harry's throat, and he couldn't speak. He
+just hugged James, who looked as startled by the suddenness of the
+gesture as Harry was, and then hurried away to put on the green robes.
+
+They were not the reason that he was going out on the pitch, of course.
+That reason had to do with a conversation in the woods a week earlier
+and the wandless magic that tingled and sang beneath his skin now,
+lodged in a few specific Charms, just waiting to be used.
+
+\emph{Try to hurt my brother,} Harry challenged Quirrell and this
+unknown traitor and whoever else might come to the game. \emph{Try to
+hurt him now. I dare you.}
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+The whistle blew. The balls flew out of the circle at the center of the
+pitch.
+
+Harry rose from the ground the moment he saw the others rise, so that he
+was one of a crowd, not pulling out recklessly ahead and alone, the way
+that Connor had. He smiled at his brother, but he would have found it
+hard not to smile.
+
+He was in the air again.
+
+He circled the pitch as the Slytherin team spread out around him,
+dipping and ducking, heading for the Quaffle and the Bludgers
+respectively. The Gryffindor fliers were streaks of fire that clustered
+around the Slytherin team like diving falcons. Harry could see, from one
+glance, that the Gryffindor Keeper and Captain, Oliver Wood, was
+obviously a dedicated player, and the Gryffindor Chasers and Beaters
+didn't look bad, either.
+
+In a different place, at a different time, it might have mattered. Now,
+it didn't.
+
+Harry circled, high and steady, keeping an eye on the sides of the pitch
+as well as the stands of watchers. Briefly he caught sight of his
+parents, Sirius, and Remus, all sitting together and waving a banner
+that Sirius had enchanted to glow with the Gryffindor colors. Harry
+smiled.
+
+Then he rolled over his broom as he heard the warning whistle of air,
+and the Bludger passed just above his head. There was another whistle as
+the ball turned back, but Harry was ready, and dived in a twisting
+spiral that made the ball, too heavy to turn as fast as he did, lose
+track of him and veer off into the crowd of fliers. Harry spun out of
+his dive and watched to make sure the Bludger didn't hurt Connor. Of
+course, it didn't; Connor got out of the way with an ease that made
+anybody's chances of hitting him look laughable.
+
+\emph{But they can't be, or they wouldn't have arranged to kill him
+here,} Harry thought, as he twirled upright again. \emph{Where are they
+going to come from? Where are they going to strike?}
+
+``And Johnson takes the Quaffle and scores ten points for Gryffindor!''
+announced the commentator, whom Harry felt sure was a Gryffindor, given
+the gleeful tone in his voice. ``Meanwhile, it seems as though the
+Slytherin Keeper was too busy trying to find his own arse with both
+hands to notice---''
+
+``\emph{Jordan},'' came McGonagall's prim voice.
+
+Connor cut beneath Harry, his eyes trained forward, his neck craned as
+he searched for the Snitch. Harry made another turn, and briefly caught
+Snape's glare from the Slytherin stands.
+
+He'd \emph{have} to pretend to look for the Snitch, then. There was no
+help for it. He shook his head in brief irritation, and swung around in
+a carefully coordinated maneuver that just happened to lead to both
+Bludgers avoiding him, and colliding with a ringing \emph{smack.} They
+darted off again, wobbling slightly and appearing dazed.
+
+Harry reoriented himself in time to hear the Gryffindors shouting
+themselves hoarse, and presumed another goal had been scored. He would
+have known, and been far more relieved, if Connor had caught the Snitch
+already. He made another tour of the pitch, varying his height, which
+allowed him to look for the Snitch and any incidental nasty little traps
+that Quirrell had left lying around.
+
+``And the Gryffindor team---''
+
+Harry abruptly jerked. A moment later, he felt the conscious counterpart
+of the strange sensation that had assaulted him: the anti-Apparition
+wards around the pitch had fallen.
+
+The next instant, two figures in dark cloaks and white masks burst out
+onto the pitch, coming from the direction of the Forbidden Forest, wands
+in upraised hands that were already spitting curses. A dark purple hex
+headed straight for Connor.
+
+Harry's heartbeat tripled in pace, and his vision narrowed. He had
+practiced for this. He had trained for this. And the time for his first
+real battle with Death Eaters had finally come.
+
+``\emph{Stupefy,}'' he said, using all his will and the word only, as he
+had when he fought the troll.
+
+The spell hit Connor, whose broomstick promptly tumbled out of the path
+of the nasty purple hex. Harry cast \emph{Wingardium Leviosa} at him,
+not allowing himself to think about what would have happened if Connor
+had hit the ground before he could perform that spell, and then cast
+\emph{Fumo.} Everyone was screaming, feeling for wands, trying to storm
+out of the stands, but they would notice if Harry started fighting
+without his wand, or fighting at all for that matter, if the pitch
+remained clear. The rest of the Quidditch team members had fled---except
+for that mad fellow Wood, who was hovering in front of his goal as if he
+could protect it from curses.
+
+The smoke spread out around the pitch, obscuring sight for everyone
+except those who might use a \emph{Specularis}, which was the spell
+Harry cast next. He could feel the steady burn and pull of his magic
+fighting him, not used to being called on like this. But he had
+practiced nonstop for the past week. Three wandless spells had dropped
+him after the troll fight. That was not going to happen this time.
+
+A weight jolted him from beneath---Connor's broomstick, bearing the
+unconscious Connor on it. Harry grabbed his brother's arm and towed him
+towards the ground, holding the Levitation Charm and the
+\emph{Specularis} both with all his mind. The first kept his brother
+from dropping like a stone, the second was the only way he could see,
+and both were necessary to keep his brother alive.
+
+Harry dropped Connor gently in the grass before the Quidditch stands,
+and then kicked off. His heart was beating fast again, and he nearly
+choked on the mixture of terror, rage, and battle-joy filling him.
+
+\emph{Here I come.}
+
+He extended the \emph{Specularis} before him, from a small clear window
+into a narrow tunnel that cut through the smoke and afforded him further
+sight, and soon enough he made out two flashes of dark and white on the
+ground. One of them was firing off hexes randomly and wildly into the
+air, but the other had a \emph{Specularis} of his own in front of him,
+and he looked up and saw Harry coming.
+
+The Death Eater laughed. The laughter was shrill, high-pitched,
+mad---and a woman's.
+
+Harry swallowed once. \emph{This is Bellatrix Lestrange.}
+
+``Attacking us alone, little baby?'' she crooned at him as he curved
+above the pair---he thought the other was probably her husband,
+Rodolphus Lestrange---and then stopped, hovering so that he could see
+them. ``You have a high opinion of your bravery, don't you?'' Then she
+swung her wand.
+
+``\emph{Protego}!'' Harry intoned.
+
+``\emph{Crucio}!'' she cried in the same instant.
+
+The Shield Charm formed itself before the blast of the Cruciatus could
+reach him, but then Harry had to hold it against the sheer force of the
+curse, rolling waves that flowed around his defenses and set his
+broomstick spinning in midair. Harry hissed and clasped the broomstick
+with his knees, rolling back upright. He wasn't afraid of falling in the
+air, he never was, but that curse made him the closest thing to it.
+
+He dived the moment he thought of the plan, dropping towards the ground
+and screaming as though Bellatrix's curse had managed to fell him.
+Bellatrix laughed in delight and ran forward.
+
+Harry did not dare drop the Shield Charm, so his options were limited,
+but he managed to call a divot of grass from the ground with
+\emph{Wingardium Leviosa} and smash it into her hip. Bellatrix winced
+and limped for a moment, and that meant that a hex from her husband hit
+her instead of Harry. Bellatrix shook it off, turned to scream and
+berate Rodolphus while Harry lifted steeply back into the air.
+
+The smoke was already thinning. He didn't have much chance to defeat the
+pair of them, not if he was going to do it in the way he planned. Harry
+spun in a brief circle, thinking, and then stopped both his broom and
+his thoughts.
+
+\emph{New plan. Always use what's around you. Mum told me that once. In
+a forest, it's branches, and on the Quidditch pitch, it's grass. But not
+only grass\ldots{}}
+
+This had to work. His strength was flagging already. He had practiced
+\emph{Protego}, because he thought he might need it, and held it longer
+than this, but not against such powerful spells. And both of the Death
+Eaters had their wands out and were advancing on him now, and he did not
+think that he could bear it much longer.
+
+He reached out with all his strength and all his will, and grabbed for
+something he could feel floating in the mist. Now he had to wait for it
+to get there.
+
+Bellatrix intoned another spell he didn't know, and Harry winced as the
+Shield Charm briefly threatened to crumble under it. The mad Death Eater
+cackled cheerfully and tried another, and another, and another, and then
+one that must have been non-verbal, since Harry heard nothing before the
+burn of blue flame lit the air. That one got through to him, a little.
+He winced and cradled a scorched hand.
+
+He couldn't fight them, not the normal way. He wasn't strong enough yet.
+But though that was a bitter pill to swallow, at least he knew his
+weaknesses now. If he survived this---and he \emph{would}, because he
+had to protect Connor---then he knew what to practice with. Defensive
+wandless magic had just been added to medical magic and spells to
+effectively muffle noise. With this kind, though, he could practice on
+his own. There was that to be said for it.
+
+He drifted closer to the Lestranges, not letting them see how much he
+hurt. The Shield Charm was faltering, but he had only a few moments more
+to endure. He had to have only a few moments more. He could feel it
+getting closer.
+
+``What are you doing, little baby?'' Bellatrix asked, swishing her wand
+back and forth, trailing sparks. ``Have you given up?''
+
+``Waiting,'' Harry said, as calmly as he could.
+
+``For wh---''
+
+The Bludger took her in the side of the head, snapping her neck sideways
+at an angle and flinging her to the ground. She was still alive, Harry
+thought, when he noticed her breathing, and so was Rodolphus after the
+Bludger hit him and knocked him out beside his wife. Good. He wanted
+that. Let them get questioned, or go back to Azkaban, or, preferably,
+both.
+
+He let his will relax, and dropped the Bludger beside the Lestranges.
+There was only one more thing he had to do.
+
+\emph{Well, perhaps two more.}
+
+He flew back to the stands where he had laid his brother, casting
+another \emph{Fumo} on the way, so that the smoke thickened just as it
+had begun to dissipate. He knew he had to be quick about it. The
+professors and the other adults in the stands had been concerned with
+getting the students to safety and away from the Death Eaters so far,
+which meant ``off the Quidditch pitch,'' but that wouldn't least much
+longer, even if wand magic had to struggle against wandless magic.
+
+He grabbed Connor in his arms and skimmed back to the Death Eaters,
+laying him gently down beside them and putting his right hand on the
+Bludger, as though Connor had hammered it into their heads. Then he
+glanced around the Pitch. It was a slim chance, but just in case---
+
+A gleam of gold flashed past above him, and Harry snatched the Snitch
+out of the air. Holding it tightly enough to almost damage the wings, he
+put it into Connor's left hand and clasped his fingers around it.
+
+Then he flew randomly, almost to the Slytherin stands, and dropped to
+the ground as if he had collapsed from inhaling smoke. And he let it all
+go: \emph{Fumo}, and \emph{Specularis}, and the sheer effort of
+producing wandless magic.
+
+Exhaustion came down on him like a waterfall. But he was awake long
+enough to hear the shouts, and then the silence, and then the cheers.
+
+They had found Connor. And he looked like an absolute hero.
+
+Harry smiled, closed his eyes, and let his weariness take him.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+Snape stepped carefully away from all the festivity, lowering his wand.
+It appeared that the majority of the students were fine, and, in fact,
+had been more injured in the stampede from the stands than by anything
+that the Death Eaters had done. And, of course, now the crowd was
+chattering about the Boy-Who-Lived as the hero of the hour---he'd not
+only defeated two trained Dark wizards more than twice his age, he'd won
+the Quidditch game while doing it!
+
+Harry's lies depended on everyone being besotted by the resident hero,
+Snape had told him. They were tissue-thin with the troll, really, and
+tissue-thin here.
+
+But because everyone \emph{wanted} to believe them, they were going to
+believe them.
+
+Snape smiled tightly. He had seen. He had looked. When everyone else was
+screaming at the appearance of Death Eaters, his gaze had gone at once
+to the two smallest figures on the pitch, one in scarlet robes, one in
+green.
+
+He knew Connor had been unconscious when the Smoke Charm spread its
+obscuring arms over the pitch.
+
+Snape had had enough of this. He knew the truth, now, and was not in a
+mind to let a Potter brat hide behind lies. It was time to find
+Dumbledore, and have a talk with the Headmaster about getting some
+credit for a certain stubborn Slytherin who, apparently, \emph{still}
+refused to believe that he belonged in Snape's House.
+
+\emph{When, really,} Snape thought as he saw Albus's star-covered robes
+and quickened his steps, \emph{he fits in} so \emph{remarkably well.
+Will that not half-kill his father? Oh, I think it will.}
+
+\subsection{*Chapter 11*: Power United With
+Love}\label{chapter-11-power-united-with-love}
+
+Phew! Longest chapter yet, and the one a lot of people seem to have been
+waiting for: a Snape-Dumbledore conversation about Harry and Connor, and
+exactly what Dumbledore knows about them both.
+
+Thank you again for the reviews! Detailed review responses are in my LJ,
+linked in my profile.
+
+\textbf{Chapter Eleven: Power United With Love}
+
+``You're quite sure that you don't want a sweet, Severus?''
+
+``Yes, Headmaster.'' Snape had to fight to keep a scowl away. Even when
+he heard what Snape wanted to talk to him about, Dumbledore had still
+nodded and chuckled and never let the damn smile on his face fade for an
+instant. He'd brought Snape straight to his office, which was something,
+but now he was petting Fawkes, his phoenix, and not sitting down behind
+the desk, where Snape thought he ought to be for a discussion of this
+magnitude.
+
+At last, moving without hurry, Dumbledore turned and dropped into his
+seat. The first thing he did was pop a sweet into his mouth, and then
+try to offer one to Snape, \emph{again.} At that point, Snape had had
+enough.
+
+``I know that the Potter brat in my House is the Boy-Who-Lived, Albus,''
+he said.
+
+Dumbledore blinked---Snape had only told him that he wanted to talk
+about Harry---but said, ``I am astonished that you think so, Severus, in
+the face of all available evidence. Will you tell me why you think so?''
+
+``It is \emph{obvious},'' said Snape, becoming truly annoyed. ``He is far
+too powerful for a wizard that young. He saved his brother from the
+troll, and again today, from the Death Eaters. He performs
+\emph{wandless magic}, Albus, including, I'm quite sure, wandless Shield
+Charms. I believe that he may well be the strongest wizard to enter this
+school since---the Dark Lord.'' Habit, superstition, old changed
+loyalties, all kept him from calling the Dark Lord by name that often.
+
+``Yes, I know all about young Harry,'' said Dumbledore, and gave him an
+infuriating smile as he tapped a kettle set on a table behind him, which
+promptly began to whistle. ``I know that he is doing precisely what he
+is meant to do. Tea, Severus?''
+
+For a long moment, Snape couldn't speak---first because of his
+astonishment, and then because he had to remind himself that reformed
+Death Eaters did \emph{not} stand up and attempt to kill the Headmasters
+who'd saved them from Azkaban.
+
+\emph{Attempt to kill,} one of his thoughts hissed at him, probably
+originating in his Slytherin survival instinct. \emph{The spell wouldn't
+land, and you know it. This is Dumbledore.}
+
+Snape nodded at nothing, calmed down, and managed to say in a voice with
+only a thin veneer of ice rather than outrage, ``You knew?''
+
+Dumbledore glanced up at him, eyes mild. ``Of course, Severus. From the
+moment young Harry walked into the Great Hall, I've had to strengthen
+the shields that protect me against seeing other wizards' magic. It
+grows worse when he is angry, which so far has always coincided with
+something that he believes puts his brother in danger. He blazed today,
+and I know that he was the one, not his brother, who defeated the Death
+Eaters.'' He shook his head, while pouring tea from the kettle into two
+small cups. ``I know what their presence means here, and I am shocked
+and saddened. I had not realized that matters had gone this far.''
+
+For a moment, Snape let himself be distracted enough to think of asking
+after that, but he pulled his thoughts back to the reason he'd come
+here. The Headmaster had been a Gryffindor, not a Slytherin, but he
+manipulated as well as one. And Snape was determined that this time,
+\emph{this} time, if no other, he would not be manipulating the Head of
+Slytherin House away from what was truly important.
+
+``How can you know this,'' he demanded, ``and yet claim that Connor
+Potter is the Boy-Who-Lived? I have felt the boy's ability. He could do
+well with training---'' \emph{those} words stung him to say ``---but I
+could say that about any of the first-year imbeciles who come through
+our doors. What \emph{about} Harry? Why isn't he being celebrated,
+hailed as the hero of the wizarding world, the boy who defeated
+Voldemort?'' He was glad that he managed to say the name this time. He
+had calmed. He would do this, would stand aloof from the lashing anger
+that wanted to fill him whenever he thought of the name \emph{Potter} or
+the stubborn way that Harry stuck to the shadows. ``I am quite sure that
+he is.''
+
+``He isn't, Severus,'' said Dumbledore cheerfully, and then handed him a
+cup of tea that it was either take or look ridiculous refusing. Snape
+took it, but held it in such a manner that he hoped conveyed his deep
+disapproval of the whole notion. Dumbledore went on drinking his own tea
+with every sign of enjoyment, not speaking again until he finished the
+cup. Then he smiled. ``It is true that Harry is a powerful wizard, but
+that does not make him the Boy-Who-Lived.''
+
+``Why \emph{not}?'' Snape said, and so much for not getting angry. He was
+fighting not to crack the cup in two.
+
+``Because,'' said Dumbledore, ``of factors that the Order of the Phoenix
+has been aware of since before Harry and Connor were born. We are lucky
+enough to have a careful, clear set of signs to guide us. We have read
+them all with great precision, and reasoned out what they must mean. We
+are convinced that Connor is the Boy-Who-Lived, and we would not have
+announced him to be so after Voldemort's attack if we were not so
+convinced.'' He politely ignored Snape's flinch. ``Rest assured, we know
+what we are doing.''
+
+``What are these `signs?'\,'' Snape snapped, putting the teacup down on
+the Headmaster's desk. ``I want to know what they are.''
+
+Dumbledore looked uneasy for the first time---uneasy and slightly sad.
+``Severus---''
+
+Snape stood. ``If you do not trust me, Albus, then you ought to have
+said so,'' he said, feeling his voice fall into the quiet registers it
+did when he was truly angry. ``Of course, a Death Eater can never be
+fully trusted, can he? Even one who turned his back on the Dark Lord and
+all he stood for. Even one who risked his life for you as a spy, for a
+year and more. Even one who is now Head of the House into which one of
+these precious Potter children has been Sorted.'' He turned towards the
+door. ``Well, you need not be troubled with my presence any longer.
+Goodbye, Albus. You'll have my resignation on your desk in the
+morning.''
+
+``It was not entirely my decision, Severus,'' Dumbledore told his back.
+Snape halted, and didn't turn around. It remained to be seen if his ploy
+would win more out of the Headmaster than this. ``Not every member of
+the Order was aware of it, either. I was, and so were James and Lily
+Potter, and a few of their friends. It was James and Lily who asked that
+the news not be spread further. They wished to keep it a secret because
+of the danger that it might mean to their sons.''
+
+``I am Harry Potter's Head of House,'' Snape said, and turned around
+again. ``I am the one responsible for training him, protecting him,
+guiding him through the wizarding world during his time at Hogwarts.''
+
+``Minerva does not know,'' Dumbledore said, frowning at him.
+
+Once, Snape would have quailed at that frown. He did not now. He
+\emph{knew} he was right, knew it as surely as wandless magic exhausted
+wizards five times Harry's age. He folded his arms across his chest.
+
+``I also owe a Life Debt to James Bloody Potter,'' he snarled at
+Dumbledore, ``and will be protecting Connor Potter. \emph{If}, that is, I
+know why I should be defending him at all costs, and not his brother,
+instead.''
+
+Dumbledore let out a long, slow sigh, as if he were feeling his age at
+last. ``Sit down, then, Severus,'' he said, standing. ``I suppose I
+should have known this day would come. So long as the boys remained at
+Godric's Hollow, no one else needed to know. But in Hogwarts, as you so
+amply point out, there are others who will, perhaps, pause and wonder
+about what seems a strange state of affairs.'' He glanced pointedly at
+Snape. ``Perhaps someone else has already.''
+
+Snape felt his face change briefly, and sighed when Dumbledore looked at
+him and waited. ``Draco Malfoy,'' he said unwillingly. ``He has not made
+the connection with Harry being the Boy-Who-Lived, I am certain of it,
+but he can feel the boy's power.'' He tensed his shoulders, ready to
+dive forward and defend one of his charges. ``But he is
+also---\emph{interested} in Harry, perhaps fascinated, and would be
+extremely hard to get rid of.''
+
+Dumbledore nodded. ``I suppose I should have realized something like
+this would happen when Harry was Sorted into Slytherin,'' he murmured,
+and Snape had to conceal his shock at the Headmaster admitting two
+mistakes in two minutes. ``That was the one thing we did not foresee,
+when we made the decisions that we did. We were sure he would go to
+Gryffindor.''
+
+Snape watched as Dumbledore walked over to a small chest that occupied
+the back of his office, under an array of tilting, spinning silver
+instruments and several dozing portraits of Headmasters past. He
+thought, but did not say, \emph{You are a fool, Albus. The boy is a
+Slytherin. What else have you missed? Should I be inclined to distrust
+you even more than I already do?}
+
+But it was not true to say that he distrusted Dumbledore. He had faith
+in him to do what he thought was best for Hogwarts, and there was
+always, always the debt of gratitude, that Dumbledore had listened to
+him and believed him when Snape turned his back on the Death Eaters. But
+he was wary of him, too. The Headmaster favored his Gryffindors, loved
+his Gryffindors. He was likely to make mistakes in their favor and
+against Slytherins.
+
+And, too, there was the tiny seed of anger, long-buried but not
+forgotten, that asked: \emph{Why didn't you expel James Bloody Potter
+and his friends for endangering my life? When I could have become a
+werewolf or died, why were their chances to stay in school more
+important?}
+
+He said nothing about that, though, as he watched Dumbledore straighten
+up with a small Pensieve filled to the brim with silvery liquid.
+Dumbledore carried it to the desk and nodded Snape to it with a
+strangely solemn air.
+
+Snape bent over the Pensieve, dipped his head below the surface of
+Dumbledore's collected thoughts, and vanished into the memory.
+
+Dumbledore waited in a small, comfortable room, whistling tunelessly to
+himself and studying the walls as though he admired the dreadful artwork
+hung on them. Now and then he lifted his wand and cast a ring of colored
+smoke into the air, watching and chuckling as it changed through several
+shapes. When one faded, he would whistle, study the walls, and then cast
+another.
+
+Snape entertained himself, if one could call it that, by trying to guess
+where the room was. The walls were wooden, which made him think it was
+not part of Hogwarts, but it had no windows to let him make sure.
+
+At last, a knock sounded, and Dumbledore turned and called, ``Enter.''
+
+A woman stepped through the door, blinking at the light of the torches
+that gripped the walls. Snape felt his mouth curl in a sneer. The woman
+was Sybill Trelawney, Hogwarts's useless excuse for a Divination
+teacher. She had her shawl wrapped around her like a snail's shell, and
+she didn't make much faster progress than a snail would towards
+Dumbledore, either.
+
+``Headmaster?'' she asked hesitantly. ``I don't understand. I thought
+you had offered me the Divination job, that I was now secured as
+Professor?'' She spoke in a meek and humble voice Snape had never heard
+before. He thought he rather preferred it over her usual manner.
+
+``You are, Sybill, never fear,'' Dumbledore said, smiling at her.
+``However, I called you here because I did not hear the whole of the
+prophecy that you recited to me that night in the Hog's Head. There was
+a---bit of a commotion, and I am afraid that I missed the rest. Will you
+please say it again?''
+
+Snape stiffened. \emph{He} had been the commotion, since he had
+overheard the first part of the so-called prophecy that Trelawney had
+recited. Then someone had seen his Dark Mark, screamed, and gotten him
+thrown out. He had scurried away to the Dark Lord and reported all he
+could, which was a measly few lines. It was a surprise that Dumbledore
+had not heard the rest, either.
+
+Trelawney blinked at him. ``What proph---''
+
+Then her eyes rolled back in her head, and she began to speak in a far
+more powerful voice than Snape had ever heard from her, even on that
+night when she had begun to speak the prophecy.
+
+``\emph{The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord
+approaches\ldots{} Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the
+seventh month dies\ldots{}}''
+
+That was all Snape himself had heard. And Dumbledore was nodding along
+in encouragement, though Trelawney could see nothing of it. Snape leaned
+forward to hear the rest.
+
+``\emph{He is the younger of two, and he shall have the power the Dark
+Lord knows not\ldots{}For the elder is power, but the younger is power
+united with love\ldots{}O guard him, O shield him, for the darkness
+through which he passes otherwise is vicious and hideous, and love has
+but a scant chance of surviving\ldots{}The elder will stand at his right
+shoulder, loving him, but the younger will love the whole of the
+wizarding world\ldots{}The Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, and in
+so doing mark his heart\ldots{} The one with the power to vanquish the
+Dark Lord approaches, born as the seventh month dies\ldots{}}''
+
+The prophecy ended. Snape didn't wait to hear the stammering sounds
+Trelawney would no doubt make; most true Seers did not remember their
+own prophecies afterwards. He pulled his head out of the memory.
+
+He was shaking, both from the roused memories and from the power intoned
+in the words. He sat down in his chair, and said nothing as Dumbledore
+covered the Pensieve and carefully put it back in its chest. Fawkes,
+watching with his head on one side, suddenly let out a rich trill.
+Dumbledore paused to stroke the bird. Snape noticed that his hands were
+trembling.
+
+Snape whispered, ``And so that prophecy fits the Potter twins?'' He had
+never known, never \emph{suspected}. The Dark Lord normally had as much
+use for Divination as he had for kindness. And he had arranged matters
+almost alone, with the help of Peter Pettigrew, the Potters'
+Secret-Keeper now rotting in Azkaban, and Bellatrix Lestrange, who had
+tortured the Longbottoms into insanity. Snape had thought he had
+attacked the Potters for their expeditions against him in the past, not
+because he truly believed an infant could be a threat to him.
+
+``It does,'' said Dumbledore, moving forward and sitting down behind his
+desk again. ``They were born at the end of July---as was Neville
+Longbottom, incidentally, but they were the only wizarding twins born
+`to parents who had thrice defied him' then. Harry is the elder
+twin---''
+
+``You know that for certain?''
+
+``Of course,'' said a cool voice behind him. ``I should know it. I was
+there.''
+
+Snape turned sharply. Lily Potter stood in the doorway, glaring at him
+with eyes deeper and sharper than her son's. Snape wondered what to say,
+until he saw James Potter behind her, face red with fury.
+
+\emph{Take refuge in hatred, always,} Snape advised himself, and
+smirked. ``Come to hear the unexpected news of your sons, Potter?'' he
+taunted. ``Come to hear that the Slytherin is the one who shall save the
+wizarding world?''
+
+``\emph{Severus.}''
+
+Snape flinched and glanced over his shoulder. Dumbledore had stood and
+was scowling at him. Snape slunk back into his seat, and watched in
+sullen resentment as the Potters took two more chairs beside him.
+
+``Our apologies, Headmaster,'' Lily said, ignoring Snape entirely and
+not sounding sorry at all. ``We came to see you about something else
+concerning our boys, but when we heard what was being discussed, we felt
+we had to enter.''
+
+``Quite all right, my dear.'' Dumbledore beamed at her, and held out an
+Acid Pop, which she accepted. ``I think that Severus does deserve to
+know, since he's Harry's Head of House now.''
+
+``Not for much longer,'' James Potter muttered.
+
+Snape looked sideways to meet a glare of equal intensity. He sneered at
+it, and turned back to the Headmaster.
+
+``So Harry is the elder twin, Connor the younger,'' he said.
+
+``By almost fifteen minutes,'' Lily added.
+
+Dumbledore nodded. ``And Harry is more powerful, there is no doubt about
+that. \emph{The elder is power\ldots{}} When we came to Godric's Hollow
+that Halloween night, to find Voldemort defeated and Peter fled, we
+could feel Harry's magic raging about him like a windstorm. We believe
+that the presence of so much other power in the room---Voldemort's
+magic, Connor's essential innocence and purity---set Harry's free,
+earlier than it should have been loosed.'' Dumbledore's eyes darkened.
+``So much power is unnatural in a child, Severus.''
+
+He did not have to say that Voldemort had been the same. Snape could
+\emph{feel} him thinking it.
+
+He wanted to shake the Headmaster. He wanted to shout, \emph{Not every
+Slytherin is the Dark Lord. Stop reflecting us with a mirror of your own
+creation!}
+
+Instead, he raised one eyebrow and said, ``It seems clear to \emph{me}
+that that makes him the Boy-Who-Lived.''
+
+``Not so,'' Dumbledore said. ``Recall what else the prophecy speaks of,
+Severus. \emph{The power the Dark Lord knows not.} Voldemort knows all
+about magical power. He is versed in the darkest of the Dark Arts, and
+much other knowledge that no child of eleven could have hoped to
+acquire, much less a baby. But love---ah, that he does not know. And
+Connor will be power, well-trained power by the end, united with love.
+He loves effortlessly, easily.''
+
+Snape ground his teeth. ``And how can you be so sure that love is this
+unknown power?''
+
+``You forget,'' Dumbledore said gently. ``You are talking to the man who
+defeated the last Dark Lord, Severus.''
+
+Snape opened his mouth, then snapped it shut. It was true; he had
+forgotten. He had known Dumbledore as Headmaster for so long that it
+sometimes made him forget that he had done other things, such as
+defeating Grindelwald.
+
+``True,'' he murmured. ``My apologies, Headmaster. Continue.''
+
+``It was my love of the wizarding world that let me defeat
+Grindelwald,'' said Dumbledore, and closed his eyes with a sigh.
+``Seeing him standing there, knowing he would poison everything we are
+if I did not destroy him---that was what made my hand move as it did.
+But I was an adult, Severus, and had had long years to gain in
+experience, wisdom, and love. Connor and Harry are only children. We
+cannot trust to sheer power, however great. We must trust to the one who
+loves more. And that is Connor. Harry loves and cares only for his
+brother.''
+
+Snape watched Lily flush a bit from the corner of his eye, and wondered,
+\emph{How much of that was your doing?} But he said aloud, ``And the
+part about marking as his equal?''
+
+``Connor's scar,'' said Dumbledore. ``\emph{And in so doing mark his
+heart.} Connor's scar is in the shape of a heart.''
+
+``Harry bears a lightning bolt,'' said Snape, determined to pry as far
+as he could, because he could not believe that everything was really
+this neat.
+
+``Caused by a bit of falling roof the night of the attack,'' said
+Dumbledore, shaking his head.
+
+``You cannot be \emph{certain} of that,'' said Snape. He would press this
+until it dried, he decided. He had squeezed blood from harder stones.
+And the chance at a Slytherin hero who could do what the boy had done
+today, in defense of someone else, was closer than it had ever been.
+
+``No,'' Dumbledore admitted. ``But the wording of the prophecy, and the
+presence of fallen roof close by Harry's crib, makes it near-certain.
+Alas, only two people could tell us the truth about that night, and one
+of them was lying dead of a reflected \emph{Avada Kedavra}.'' He smiled,
+as if the mere mention of the Potter brat's triumph was a matter for
+wonder.
+
+``Who is the second?'' Snape said, leaning forward.
+
+``Peter,'' said James, with an even deeper loathing in his voice than he
+reserved for Snape.
+
+``Peter,'' Dumbledore agreed, with a long sigh, and shadows in his eyes.
+``The Aurors caught him the next day. There was no need for a trial, or
+Veritaserum. When they asked him if he had betrayed the Potters'
+location to Voldemort and created the rumor that their sons had already
+been taken, he admitted that he had. He went to Azkaban laughing, as if
+he were already mad. I have visited him several times since then,
+attempting to confirm what we know already about the attack, but he
+grows progressively more insane. I fear that we will get nothing useful
+out of him.''
+
+Snape sat back in his chair, stymied. He could not think of any other
+target to focus his questions on. He turned his memory of the prophecy
+over and over in his mind, but could think of nothing there. If nothing
+else, the fact that Connor had been born after Harry seemed to seal
+their respective fates.
+
+``Now,'' said James Potter, leaning forward in his chair, ``we came to
+speak to you about Harry, too, Headmaster.'' He sent Snape a distrustful
+glance. ``I am doubly glad that we did, now that I hear about
+\emph{Severus's} worrying obsession with him. We would like him
+Re-Sorted into Gryffindor.''
+
+\emph{And there is a new target for my questions.}
+
+``You will permit this farce, Headmaster?'' Snape drawled, turning his
+eyes on Dumbledore. ``Then I might know well and for all what House you
+really favor, and which you do not.''
+
+He watched in amusement as Dumbledore's face struggled between several
+expressions. In the end, Dumbledore shook his head. ``We must trust the
+Sorting Hat,'' he explained to a visibly sagging James. ``It put Harry
+in Slytherin for a reason, I am sure. Perhaps it is to enable him to
+learn even stricter control of his magic, which in the end he will put
+to use protecting Connor.''
+
+\emph{This again,} Snape thought, seething behind his outward mask.
+\emph{I am sure that Harry could kill the Dark Lord in front of you,
+Dumbledore, and still you would insist that his brother had done it with
+this mysterious power of `love.' I despise your romanticism. It is not
+the way to win a war.}
+
+``But the Hat may have made a mistake---'' James began.
+
+Lily took his arm, and he hushed. That disappointed Snape. He would have
+looked forward to more bluster that he could attack and refute. But Lily
+turned towards the Headmaster and said, ``Why was our son in danger
+today, Headmaster? Who were those Death Eaters?''
+
+``The Lestranges,'' said Dumbledore quietly, his face dropping at once
+into grave, worried lines. ``The Minister has spoken with me. Someone
+claiming to be acting with my authority---and with impeccable
+credentials, apparently---told him that the Lestranges were to be
+removed from Azkaban and put in a more secure location. They were
+released, and then they traveled here. The same person, likely, dropped
+the anti-Apparition wards around the Quidditch pitch. There seems little
+reason to doubt that the Lestranges planned to Apparate away when they
+were done.'' He closed his eyes. ``We have a traitor in the Order of the
+Phoenix.''
+
+Lily sagged back in her seat, looking ashen. James Potter, for once, had
+no words to say.
+
+Snape found himself astonished, and then frightened, briefly, as the
+sense of the Headmaster's words came home, and then angrier than ever.
+The anger was combined with a fierce pride, which was a most peculiar
+mix.
+
+\emph{The Lestranges! Top Aurors fell before Bellatrix's wand. They
+tortured the Longbottoms into insanity. I cannot count how many
+atrocities they were responsible for during my time in the Dark Lord's
+Inner Circle. And the boy defeated them with a few wandless Charms and a
+Bludger!}
+
+Snape changed his mind in that moment. He could not insist that Harry
+was the Boy-Who-Lived. Dumbledore would not believe him, and neither
+would the Potters. They had already made up their minds. For all Snape
+knew, they might even have sought to ``tame'' Harry's power by insisting
+that he focus on protecting his brother. It seemed likely.
+
+That did not mean that he need sit idle and do nothing.
+
+The Order---with a traitor in the middle of it, how wonderful for
+everyone involved---could have their Boy-Who-Lived. He would work with
+Harry. He would insure that the bloody stubborn boy learned to look
+beyond his brother's skin, and out for his own, and then for other
+Slytherins'. And then, if they had the time for it, he might urge Harry
+to think of the rest of the wizarding world, including the father who
+would be torn apart by Snape having such control of one of his sons.
+
+And if he chose to expunge his debt to James Potter in guarding Harry,
+who was to gainsay him?
+
+He sat through their discussion of the traitor, uninterested; as he had
+suspected, no one had any idea who it was. Dumbledore trusted too many
+people, and Lily and James had been too isolated from the world in
+Godric's Hollow to have any idea of current political realities.
+
+Snape stood when he could safely excuse himself, and made his way back
+to the dungeons, glad that he ran into no one to whom he would have to
+explain the pleased smirk curling his mouth.
+
+There was no point pushing for credit right now, not with the Headmaster
+dead-set against granting the boy any notice at all, even half-thinking
+that he might turn into another Voldemort if he were praised for his
+power. Snape would work in secret, and then push Harry into the light
+when matters were already so far along that no one else could stop them.
+
+First, of course, he needed to have a little talk with Harry. Snape did
+not anticipate that being easy. But since he had the perfect weapon in
+mind, he did not worry overmuch about it.
+
+Halfway to the dungeons, he was horrified to realize that he was almost
+humming under his breath, and made himself stop it.
+
+\subsection{*Chapter 12*: Interlude:
+Correspondence}\label{chapter-12-interlude-correspondence}
+
+Thank you for the reviews on Chapter 11! I'm glad it worked so well for
+so many people. Review responses are in my LJ.\\
+This is a chapter outside the sequence of numbered chapters, what I call
+an Interlude. They usually have letters or official documents in them.
+This one is Draco's letters to his father, some of his perspective on
+the events of the term so far.
+
+Just a note: I've decided that in this AU Draco has named his eagle-owl
+Imperius, because that would be the kind of name he would think is just
+right.
+
+\textbf{Interlude: Correspondence}
+
+\emph{September 1st, 1991}
+
+Dear Father:
+
+I am safely at Hogwarts, and have been Sorted into Slytherin. As if
+there were any doubt! You and Mother raised me beautifully, and I have
+every expectation of being able to fulfill the role the Malfoys have
+always held in Slytherin---that of its leaders---with exceptional
+elegance and grace.
+
+But, Father, there is something unusual: a Potter in Slytherin! No, not
+the Boy-Who-Lived; I met him, and he's a stuck-up Gryffindor. He has a
+twin brother, though, did you know? Harry. I think he's older, but
+that's just because he {looks} older. He has green eyes, and a lightning
+bolt scar, and an odd aura of power. I knew he would be in Slytherin
+from the first time I saw him on the train, because his magic made my
+head ache. I shielded like you taught me, though, and soon all was well
+again. The expression on Harry's face when the Hat put him in Slytherin
+was funny, though. It was as if he didn't expect it!
+
+Slytherin is everything that you said it would be. I feel comfortable
+here already, Father, about to assume my natural destiny of triumphing
+over the commoners who might think to lead in my place, or to doubt me.
+
+Your loving son,
+
+\emph{Draco Malfoy.}
+
+\emph{}
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+\emph{September 2nd, 1991}
+
+Dear Father:
+
+I am using a school owl to send this to you, but only because you
+haven't sent Imperius back yet. I promise you that in no way do I think
+a common Hogwarts school owl is worthy of a Malfoy.
+
+Classes were wonderful today. I know that I'm going to enjoy
+Transfiguration, and I'm going to enjoy it in spite of McGonagall, who
+is an old bat just like you said. At least she doesn't dare be unfair to
+me, because she knows who I am, and none of her precious Gryffindors are
+in the class for her to be unfair about. Blaise Zabini said something
+most amusing about her as we were leaving class, however, and got
+assigned extra homework as a result. I shall endeavor to guard my tongue
+around her.
+
+Charms class is going to be easy, I know it. Professor Flitwick looks so
+funny. Is it true that he has goblin blood, dear Father?
+
+Harry Potter sat next to me in every class. He is quiet and brooding and
+looks everywhere when we're in the halls for that twin of his. I think
+he might believe the Boy-Who-Lived can't hold off a simple speck of
+dust, the way he acts. At least I stopped his nonsense of wanting to go
+over and speak to his brother at lunch by pointing out that his brother
+had come in late and we needed to hurry to get to Charms.
+
+That reminds me, Father: Harry seems to be unaware of his own power. Do
+you know of any rumors that the Potters have a son that powerful? And
+could Connor Potter, the Gryffindor prat, really be so powerful that I
+simply can't feel him? {He} doesn't make my head ache.
+
+I have to hurry through the last of this letter, as we have Astronomy
+class in a few moments. I love you, Father, and hope both you and Mother
+are well.
+
+Your obedient son,
+
+\emph{Draco Malfoy.}
+
+\emph{}
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+\emph{September 6th, 1991}
+
+Dear Father:
+
+Yes, of course, I'm sorry. I won't use such language about a Hogwarts
+professor again, even in a private letter. You're right that it wouldn't
+look very good if anyone took it into his head to read our mail, or even
+if Imperius was carrying it and got intercepted. Are those Aurors still
+watching the Manor?
+
+The old {cat} McGonagall disapproves of me. I heard her talking about me
+in the corridors earlier. She was saying something about ``that Malfoy
+boy,'' and stopped and frowned when she saw me. She was talking to
+Professor Sprout. I have no idea why. I haven't even hexed a Hufflepuff
+yet. I put my head up and walked past them like the paragon of good
+breeding that I am. You would have been proud of me, Father. I remember
+all the lessons you taught me about courtesy, and all Mother's lessons
+about proper posture.
+
+Potions was---two classes, really. Professor Snape really is a brilliant
+teacher, just as you said. And he takes points away from Gryffindor when
+they show just why they're the House of Idiots, and he made a particular
+point of humiliating the Boy-Who-Lived.
+
+And then Harry was tiresome. He's acted {all week} as if his skin was
+crawling because he couldn't see his twin, and then he actually
+interfered with our boil cure potion just to keep his brother from
+getting in trouble. Snape assigned him detention, of course, since he
+wouldn't take points from Slytherin. And I kept asking him why he did
+it, and he refused to answer me.
+
+Can you believe that, Father? A Potter {refusing} to answer a Malfoy?
+
+I like Harry, but he makes my head ache and my teeth ache from grinding
+them. Not that I let him catch me grinding them, of course. Such an
+action would not be as you have trained me to do. I only wish he were
+not so tiresome.
+
+Your elegant son,
+
+\emph{Draco Malfoy.}
+
+\emph{}
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+\emph{September 12th, 1991}
+
+Dearest Father:
+
+Harry Potter is the most tiresome wizard {in Hogwarts}!
+
+Harry has been consistently refusing to admit that he belongs in
+Slytherin, instead of in pompous, self-absorbed, lying Gryffindor. With
+my usual cleverness, which of course is entirely a product of your
+training, I had thought of a plan to make him admit he \emph{was}
+Slytherin, and better than his brother in some way.
+
+We had flying lessons today, and Neville Longbottom---how the mighty
+pureblood lines have fallen!---humiliated himself, causing Madam Hooch
+to briefly leave us alone. I took up Longbottom's Remembrall, a gift
+from his grandmother, that evil woman with a vulture on her head, and
+then challenged Harry to catch it from several dozen feet in the air. He
+succeeded brilliantly, as I knew he would. He's a Slytherin! That should
+be all the proof of his House that anyone needs.
+
+Then I took him to Snape's office, and told him what had happened, and
+he agreed that Harry should be Slytherin Seeker.
+
+And Harry {refused}.
+
+No one {refuses} Professor Snape, except maybe Dumbledore, and I suppose
+the Dark Lord. {But he refused!}
+
+And no one {refuses} a Malfoy, but he did that, too!
+
+I spoke with Professor Snape, and we both agreed that Harry needs to be
+made to acknowledge that he's a Slytherin. We will come up with a
+cunning plan, and he won't have any choice but to listen to us. But it
+is so tiresome, having to do this in the first place. Were it not for
+the fact that Professor Snape and a Malfoy together could not be wrong,
+I would be inclined to think that Harry is right, that he does in fact
+belong in Gryffindor with his prat of a brother.
+
+Your graceful son,
+
+\emph{Draco Malfoy.}
+
+\emph{}
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+\emph{October 1st, 1991}
+
+Dearest Father:
+
+How hard is wandless magic? Could I learn to do it? Only Harry knows how
+to do it, I'm certain of it, and loads of other powerful spells. I've
+tried to get him to show me, but he does so with great reluctance. And
+he sneaks out of the House at night to go practice spells somewhere.
+
+Harry Potter is very tiresome.
+
+Your grateful son,
+
+\emph{Draco Malfoy.}
+
+\emph{}
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+\emph{October 7th, 1991}
+
+Dear Father:
+
+Ah, of course. I suspected that wandless magic would be difficult, but
+not impossible for a Malfoy. I am glad and pleased that you wish to
+instruct me, and will wait until the Christmas holidays at home to
+practice, with your supervision.
+
+Classes proceed apace. I'm top of my class in Charms, and also very good
+at Transfiguration. In History of Magic, the main difficulty is keeping
+awake, but I have done several very good essays on the goblin
+rebellions. It is difficult to learn from Professor Quirrell, since he
+is so weak that my every instinct screams at me to despise him, but of
+course I grit my teeth (silently) and do so, keeping in mind your
+dictum: {No knowledge is ever a waste}
+
+Our Astronomy classes leave me tired the next morning, but of course I
+make sure not to yawn where anyone can see. I'm a natural at flying, but
+then, your instruction and Mother's have seen to that; thank you.
+
+Herbology seems the most useless class to me, but then, that may be only
+because it's such a Hufflepuff subject, and Neville Longbottom has the
+nerve to be {good} at it. Still, perhaps I will learn enough to tend the
+gardens in the Manor over the holidays.
+
+Potions is my most frustrating class, though I am making top marks.
+Harry Potter is the reason for that frustration. There was never a
+wizard more determined to let others take the credit for his actions, or
+to appear ordinary while he was causing headaches for wizards who were
+minding their own business, thank you. He never answers a question with
+anything more than the absolute basic, required information. He always
+makes it seem as if I have done all our combined Potions work. I've read
+his essays, and they are not dreadful, or brilliant; they are absolutely
+average. He sometimes gets detention, and luckily he hasn't actually
+tried to spare his twin that much of Snape's attention since the first
+day of class, but that's normal, too.
+
+He has the nerve to walk about pretending to be {normal}
+
+Tell me, Father, have you known any powerful wizards who have done so?
+
+At least he can't spend that much time with his brother or those other
+Gryffindor prats now. I've seen to that.
+
+Your refined son,
+
+\emph{Draco Malfoy.}
+
+\emph{}
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+\emph{October 12th, 1991}
+
+Dear Father:
+
+It has been a month since I first suggested the Quidditch team to Harry.
+I tried it again tonight.
+
+He gave me a flat stare. I persisted, because of course no Malfoy would
+give up after the first try.
+
+Then he intoned a {Silencio} at me and left me that way for the rest of
+the evening. Gregory and Vince both tried the counterspell and could not
+lift it. Have you ever heard of such an outrage?
+
+He released me at nightfall, and we had a shouting match. At least, I
+tried to have a shouting match. Harry had a shower and went to bed.
+
+He is {most} {tiresome}.
+
+Your calm son,
+
+\emph{Draco Malfoy.}
+
+\emph{}
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+\emph{November 1st, 1991}
+
+Dear Father:
+
+Harry is being exasperating. And stupid. And risking his life where he
+doesn't need to, and then refusing to even take credit for it, which
+would be the only reason for such a thing. And he gave me a {headache}.
+
+A troll broke into the school, and the Professors quite sensibly decided
+to take everyone back to the common rooms. However, Harry, because he is
+stupid, noticed his brother running off to find a Mudblood girl he'd
+insulted earlier in the day---because the Boy-Who-Lived is stupid like
+that, too---and followed him. And, well, I had to follow him, because
+what in Merlin's name did he think he was doing?
+
+We found the troll in a girls' loo. It had cornered the Mudblood girl,
+and Harry's brother and the horrible Weasley who is the same age as he
+is were trying to fell the troll by using {Wingardium Leviosa }on its
+club. It failed, of course, because they are Gryffindors, and therefore
+idiots. Then the troll injured them.
+
+Father, Harry used {wandless} {magic} to fell the troll. Three spells,
+all right in a row: {Incendio}, {Wingardium Leviosa}, and {Finite
+Incantatem}. He did it as if it were no great effort at all, though he
+was sick with spell exhaustion afterwards.
+
+I do not want to get in Harry's way when he's angry. He frightens me. I
+think he would die to protect his brother.
+
+And then Harry lied when that old cat McGonagall came on the scene, and
+claimed that he had followed the troll looking for glory, and Connor
+Potter, the Brat-Who-Lived, the bloody Prince of Gryffindor, was the one
+who'd done the magic. Unconscious, no less!
+
+I had a fierce headache by that time, and followed Professor Snape to
+the dungeons for a headache potion. He has said, and I agree, that it's
+no use trying to force Harry to act with direct intervention. We must
+try to coax him subtly.
+
+But I have never been so angry with him. Doesn't he know that he could
+have been {killed}?
+
+Your angry, but rightfully so, son,
+
+\emph{Draco Malfoy.}
+
+\emph{}
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+\emph{November 2nd, 1991}
+
+Dear Father:
+
+Ha-ha! Harry is on the Slytherin Quidditch team now! We saw his brother
+flying, and, of course, McGonagall didn't give him detention, but put
+him on the Gryffindor team. That bloody Potter gets everything he wants
+just handed to him.
+
+And then Potter grabbed Harry's arm and took him to Professor Snape, and
+told him that Harry should get to fly because he did. Sometimes a
+Gryffindor sense of fair play comes in handy.
+
+Harry will fly on Saturday, and I am sure that he will win. Can you come
+to the game? I would like it if you could watch him play.
+
+Your excited son,
+
+\emph{Draco Malfoy.}
+
+\emph{}
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+\emph{November 10th, 1991}
+
+Father:
+
+I am so angry that I am shaking. There was a Death Eater attack at the
+Quidditch game. Rumors in Slytherin say it was the Lestranges. And Harry
+defeated them with his wandless spells and a Bludger. I think I know now
+why he's been creeping back into our rooms so late at night, though
+really, he hasn't disturbed me that much; I sleep so remarkably deeply
+that I never hear him go.
+
+And then he let his brother take the credit for it! {Again}! He even put
+the Snitch in his brother's hand, which I think is unfair. At the very
+least, he could have insured that Slytherin won. No one would have cared
+if he had carried the Quaffle home a few times, and then carried off the
+Snitch. Instead, Harry is in the hospital wing with spell exhaustion,
+and Connor Potter's name is feted all over the school.
+
+I am beginning to think that Harry needs a good talking-to, from someone
+who isn't me (whom he disregards) or Professor Snape (whom he distrusts
+because Professor Snape hates his father). I have thought of a
+remarkable solution, which I present to you with cautious hope. Will you
+permit me to bring Harry home with me to the Manor over the Christmas
+holidays, so that he may see what true Slytherins should behave like?
+
+Your expectant son,
+
+\emph{Draco Malfoy.}
+
+\emph{}
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+\emph{November 11th, 1991}
+
+Dear my son:
+
+Yes, indeed, if you can convince this boy whom you are so fascinated
+with to come to the Manor with you over Christmas, do so. I should like
+to see what he is capable of.
+
+Yours in Merlin's name,
+
+\emph{Lucius Malfoy.}
+
+\subsection{*Chapter 13*: Three Uncomfortable
+Conversations}\label{chapter-13-three-uncomfortable-conversations}
+
+Hm. I'm afraid nothing really happens in this chapter but talking.
+
+On the bright side, it's one of the longest chapters yet, review
+responses to the last chapter will be up in my LJ in a little while, and
+I have thought of a new plot twist for Chapter 18 that will mess with
+people's heads even more. So it's all good.
+
+\textbf{Chapter Twelve: Three Uncomfortable Conversations}
+
+Harry put a hand to his head and sagged against the wall. He'd thought
+it was ridiculous for Madam Pomfrey to insist that he stay in the
+hospital wing for a full \emph{week} because of spell exhaustion (which
+she thought was an unusual and persistent case of smoke inhalation), but
+now he wondered if he really should have left so early. His head pounded
+in regular time with his heartbeat, and a dizzy, eddying light clouded
+his eyes.
+
+He blinked when he realized that at least some of that light came from
+spells shining along the corridors, spells to calm tempers and damp
+fires and make the torchlight just the right color. Had he been able to
+see them before the Quidditch match? He didn't think so, but of course,
+he hadn't been down the corridor to the hospital wing that often.
+
+``Harry! If you'd waited, I would have walked you back to the
+dungeons.''
+
+Harry glanced up. Connor was striding towards him, with no one
+accompanying him for once. Harry smiled, then wondered how his brother
+had managed to get away from all those people who would surely want to
+exclaim over him and shake his hand for saving the day and grabbing the
+game for Gryffindor while he was at it.
+
+Then he took in his brother's narrowed eyes and slightly tilted head,
+and felt a queasiness that had nothing to do with performing too many
+wandless charms.
+
+Connor stopped in front of him, and squinted at him. Harry chose to say
+nothing, hoping that looking pathetic would be enough to make his twin
+forget whatever was on his mind.
+
+It didn't work, of course. Connor rarely got his teeth into anything
+long enough to distract himself from Quidditch, but when he did, he
+didn't let \emph{go}, either. Sometimes Harry thought that Sirius should
+have been his godfather, instead of Remus Lupin. Sirius was the exact
+same way with a problem, worrying and picking away at it until he'd
+worried either himself or the problem to death.
+
+``Look, Harry,'' Connor began at last. He chewed his lip then, as if his
+courage failed him when it came to the big moment. Harry, his stomach
+definitely churning now, cast a glance down the corridor, longing for
+Draco to appear and call Connor a blood traitor, or Ron to appear and
+call him a Slytherin.
+
+Neither happened, and his glance seemed to make up Connor's mind for
+him. Connor drew a deep breath and leaned in closer.
+
+``I'm not stupid, Harry,'' he said. ``I know that you won that game and
+defeated the Lestranges. I don't remember anything past the point when
+they came onto the field, and then I woke up and people were
+congratulating me for two victories I hadn't earned. And I'm starting to
+wonder about the troll, too. Awfully convenient, wasn't it, that I just
+happened to collapse unconscious before the spell blast that supposedly
+felled the troll?''
+
+\emph{Shit. Shit shit shit.}
+
+Harry sighed slowly. Their mother would be so disappointed in him. The
+first two times he'd really had to protect Connor, without the help of
+the ready and willing adults who were always around at home, and he'd
+done it in such a way as to make Connor suspect it was him.
+
+\emph{I can't go back and change his mind,} he thought, as he stared
+into his twin's determined face. \emph{The best I can do is plunge ahead
+and hope to get away with half-truths.} He was glad that no one else was
+there now. The last thing he wanted was for anyone to witness his
+humiliation or Connor's aggressive truth-grabbing.
+
+``Yes,'' he admitted. ``I dropped the troll, and I gathered in the
+Lestranges and the Snitch.''
+
+``Why?'' Connor leaned nearer and nearer. ``Did you think that I couldn't
+do it myself? I \emph{am} the Boy-Who-Lived.'' His hand went to the scar
+that he normally never paid that much attention to.
+
+Harry sighed. ``No, Connor, I didn't think you could do it yourself,''
+he said, being completely honest for this part. ``The troll knocked you
+unconscious. And do you think you could have beaten the Lestranges on
+your own?''
+
+``Well, no,'' said Connor, shifting from one foot to the other. ``But
+that's what the professors are there for. They would have dealt with
+them. You didn't have to, Harry. Why did you try?''
+
+``Because you were hurt, with the troll, and you would have been hurt,
+on the pitch,'' Harry said. ``I got so \emph{angry}, Connor. I didn't
+want anything more than to hurt the people who'd caused you pain. I know
+the Lestranges were there to kill you. Why else would they \emph{dare}
+come to Hogwarts but to attack the Boy-Who-Lived, the richest target
+they could aim for? If they killed you in front of all of Hogwarts, it
+would spread despair across the wizarding world.''
+
+Connor's eyes were wide. He hadn't thought about the political
+realities, Harry knew, and a wash of affection swamped him. He was there
+to make sure that nothing forced those realities onto Connor too soon.
+He should have at least one year of normal schooling, one year where he
+was a child and a boy and could play like a child, without having to
+weigh his every move. Their mother had already told Harry, when she
+visited him in the hospital wing before they left, that she planned to
+start guiding him into some politics and history this summer. \emph{Let
+me hold on until this summer,} Harry thought. \emph{Just this summer.
+That's all I ask.}
+
+``And you attacked them because you were angry?'' Connor asked.
+
+Harry nodded.
+
+Connor exhaled. ``Harry,'' he said, ``I don't think that you should be
+that angry.''
+
+Harry frowned at him. ``I don't know what you mean.''
+
+Connor spent a long moment musing over whatever it was he was thinking
+about, then shook his head. ``Harry, rage like that\ldots{}rage like that
+is \emph{Slytherin},'' he said, earnest as summer morning. ``Just getting
+upset because of little things. I could have taken the troll. It was
+just a little bump. I would have got up in a minute. And the professors
+would have taken the Lestranges. You know how fast I am on a broom. I
+could have flown away from their hexes.''
+
+``And, Harry,'' he said, now picking his words with obvious care, ``it
+makes it sound as though you want to do things with magic all the time.
+That's the way that You-Know-Who works. I've heard stories. Sirius told
+them to me. You-Know-Who used his magic when he didn't have to, to
+terrorize and impress people and do things that someone else could have
+done.'' He recited that line as if he'd memorized it verbatim from a
+story. ``I don't want you becoming like that.'' He reached out and
+squeezed Harry's shoulder. ``Please? I love you, Harry. I don't want a
+brother who's like---'' He paused a long moment, then forced out,
+``Voldemort.''
+
+Harry felt a moment of shock hammer into him, and then he tucked that
+moment away in the secret box of his thoughts and made himself
+understand. Connor didn't know about any of the secret spells Harry had
+learned, or just how dangerous Hogwarts might be for him, among adults
+who had dark pasts and possible reasons to wish him ill. He didn't know
+that Harry had trained himself for the Lestrange attack and hadn't been
+in any real danger. And of course he would think he could have handled
+the attacks himself. He was a Gryffindor.
+
+Harry had not the least ability to make Connor understand his
+point-of-view, not without revealing everything that Lily had promised
+to guide Connor into more gently, and breaking his sacred trust. But,
+luckily, he didn't have to come up with a story. Connor had done it for
+him. All he had to do was accept it.
+
+``You're right,'' Harry whispered. ``Sometimes I feel this enormous
+\emph{anger} rearing up, Connor, and I don't know what to do to control
+it. I lie in my bed in the dungeons and stare at the ceiling and want to
+do something, anything, to release my magic.''
+
+Connor gripped both his shoulders. ``Then come up to the Gryffindor
+Tower when you feel that way, Harry,'' he said. ``I don't care what time
+of the night it is. The password this week is \emph{lionheart}, and I'll
+tell you what the new one is every time it changes. Please? I want to
+surround you with Gryffindor goodness and warmth of heart. I want my
+brother back.''
+
+Harry smiled at him. ``I'll try.''
+
+Connor smiled, too, and then bounced ahead of him all the way to the
+dungeons, talking about the aftermath of the Quidditch game and where
+Gryffindor stood in the contest of House points. He did give Harry a few
+searing glances, promising in silence that he wouldn't tell Harry's dark
+secret.
+
+Harry smiled, and smiled, and came up with plans to conceal his actions
+better the next time he had to save Connor. His deceptions so far truly
+had been weak. He would have to practice more.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+``I know that you threw that game.''
+
+``Yes, Draco, of course I did,'' said Harry, lowering his
+Transfiguration textbook and frowning at the boy who was looming over
+his bed. Trying to catch up on all the homework he'd missed sleeping off
+his exhaustion wasn't easy, not when Draco insisted on saying one inane
+thing after another. ``I arranged for the Lestranges to show up and
+threaten my brother \emph{just} so I could get the Snitch into Connor's
+hand.''
+
+Draco rolled his eyes, snorted, and plopped on his bed in a graceless
+sprawl. He couldn't have been further from the stiffly poised boy who
+sat straight up at every meal and followed every rule of pureblood
+etiquette. Normally, the contrast amused Harry, but normally Draco
+wasn't cutting at his nerves like a \emph{Diffindo} charm. He wanted
+Draco to shut up and go away.
+
+``I wasn't talking about that,'' the amazing annoying Malfoy
+sing-songed. ``I was talking about the fact that you really stopped the
+Lestranges and put the Snitch in Connor's hand.''
+
+Harry turned his attention back to his book. ``Yes, I did.''
+
+Utter silence. Harry raised his eyebrows and started counting to ten,
+while trying to devour as much of the big paragraph in front of him as
+he could. \emph{When Transfiguration approaches the normal curve of
+normal shape\ldots{}}
+
+Draco clawed the book down from in front of him and demanded,
+``\emph{What} did you say?''
+
+``I said that I did do what you said I did,'' said Harry, and then
+paused to think about the structure of that sentence.
+
+Deciding it was fine, he went on, ``I know that I ended the battle and
+the game, and then let everyone think Connor did it.'' He shrugged.
+``And yes, you could threaten to tell Connor, but it wouldn't make much
+difference. Connor already knows.''
+
+``You---'' said Draco, and then apparently couldn't think of anything
+else to say.
+
+``Yes?'' Harry lifted the Transfiguration book again.
+
+Draco was silent for a long time. Harry could feel his mind racing,
+exploring possibilities. He could threaten to tell the whole school, but
+then people would pay attention to Harry, and Draco didn't want that; he
+would want to be in the spotlight, too, or he would want to keep Harry,
+whom he seemed to regard as some kind of fascinating magical beast, to
+himself. He could threaten to tell Professor Snape, but Professor Snape
+almost assuredly knew, and Harry didn't think he cared, or he would have
+stormed up to the hospital wing to yell at him about it. He could
+threaten to tell the other Slytherins, but that would just make them
+dislike Harry, and Draco wanted Harry to fit in to Slytherin House.
+
+Draco uttered a frustrated sigh and flopped back on the bedcovers.
+
+Harry hid his smile, then froze. \emph{That was a smile, right? Not a
+smirk? Just because I'm good at predicting Slytherins doesn't mean I
+want to turn into one.}
+
+He blamed his preoccupation for not being able to predict that the next
+words out of Draco's mouth were, ``Do you want to come to Malfoy Manor
+for Christmas?''
+
+It was Harry's turn to put down the book and stare incredulously at
+Draco. He ducked his head meekly, and let Malfoy good breeding and
+pureblood manners try to speak for him. They didn't do a very good job
+of it.
+
+``No,'' said Harry. ``Are you out of your mind?''
+
+``It'll be fun,'' Draco said.
+
+``No,'' Harry said.
+
+``My father is teaching me wandless magic,'' Draco tried.
+
+``I already know it.''
+
+``He really wants to meet you.''
+
+``Draco, your father was a \emph{Death Eater,} and I'm the brother of the
+\emph{Boy-Who-Lived}.''
+
+``He was under the Imperius Curse.''
+
+``No, he bloody wasn't, and my parents and my godfather would scream the
+roof down if I tried to go to the Manor.''
+
+``But my mother is your godfather's cousin.''
+
+``That does not \emph{help},'' Harry pointed out, and then went back to
+reading, ignoring any and all attempts that Draco made to sway him.
+
+That evening, at least. It soon became obvious that Draco was not going
+to give up, even when hit with a wand. Harry tried a reinforced
+\emph{Silencio}, and Draco continued in increasingly obscene sign
+language that Harry was slightly shocked the son of a pureblood
+wizarding family knew.
+
+\emph{No help for it,} Harry thought, as he finally rolled over and went
+to bed for the night. \emph{Just ignore him.}
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+``Detention, Mister Potter,'' Snape said almost absently, gliding past
+the cauldron where Harry was laboring to skin shrivelfigs.
+
+Harry almost opened his mouth to protest, but remembered himself in
+time. Snape needed no especial reason to give detention, as he had shown
+with the Gryffindors, and he had no reason to be pleased with Harry
+right now. \emph{Perhaps he's going to yell at me about the Quidditch
+game after all,} Harry thought, and ground and stirred and mixed and
+chopped and tried to forget.
+
+He still kept an eye on Connor, but luckily, his brother got along
+without too many obvious mishaps. Hermione Granger had worked out a
+system wherein she would lean over and whisper the proper instructions
+to Ron and Connor just when Snape had reached the point in his circuit
+where he was least likely to hear her. Snape delighted in humiliating
+Hermione and had no reason to look kindly on students talking in his
+class, which made Harry sure that he hadn't found out yet.
+
+As if reading Harry's mind, Draco whispered, ``We could tell him about
+the Mudblood---'' He cringed at the look Harry shot him, and amended,
+``The Muggleborn, and her little cheating techniques.''
+
+``It's not cheating if she gives correct information,'' Harry whispered
+back, emptying the shrivelfig skins into the cauldron. ``Besides, if you
+do that, I won't go to the Manor for Christmas with you.''
+
+Draco cheered up in an instant. ``You're thinking about it, then?''
+
+``Maybe,'' said Harry, and gave him a smile he hoped was mysterious. It
+was sufficiently mysterious that Draco hummed happily throughout the
+rest of Potions and seemed to have forgotten that Hermione existed.
+
+Class ended, and Harry was cleaning out his cauldron when Snape advanced
+on him and said, ``I have decided that your detention shall be served
+immediately.''
+
+Harry swallowed the protest he wanted to make. He wanted to go eat
+dinner, but saying so would only incense the professor further, and he
+would make some remark about thankless brats thinking their bellies were
+more important than Potions. Besides, it kept attention off Connor.
+``Yes, sir,'' he said instead, and waited in the room while the others
+filed out.
+
+Draco looked as if he would stay with him, but Snape stood there and
+gave him a pointed look until Draco figured out that the rules of
+Snape's classroom applied even to Malfoys. He stalked away, back
+straight in that posture that made it seem as if he weren't sulking.
+
+Snape shut the classroom door and gestured once with his wand. The
+written instructions for a potion Harry had never heard of---and it
+didn't have a name above it, either---appeared on the board. ``There,
+\emph{Mister} Potter,'' he said, hissing that part of the name rather
+than Harry's surname, which struck Harry as counterproductive. ``Get to
+work. Your detention is to make this potion, correctly.''
+
+Harry squinted at the potion's steps. They looked easy enough, to his
+vast relief. He had taken care not to display any signs of unusual
+talent or ability in Snape's class, keeping his marks exactly even with
+Connor's, or even a little under. He actually wasn't that unusually
+talented, the way that he was with spells, but he knew far more than he
+let on.
+
+\emph{This seems like a remarkably easy detention,} Harry thought, as he
+went to fetch the unicorn horn, rose petals, demiguise hair, and fairy
+wings he would need for the potion. \emph{Unusual list of ingredients,
+and they don't make any potion I recognize, but maybe Snape figures I'll
+get frustrated with making something useless and ask, and then he can
+taunt me about my lack of knowledge.}
+
+Because of that, he determined to say nothing at all, and set up his
+cauldron, boiled the water, and made the potion---the most difficult
+part of which was slowly scattering in the rose petals, one at a time,
+while he stirred---in utter silence. Snape stalked back and forth, and
+watched him. Harry didn't let that unnerve him, either. He finally
+measured in the last pinch of demiguise hair, and his potion sparkled
+once and then turned into a clear liquid with a sweet, enchanting smell.
+Harry stood away from the table and put his hands behind his back,
+waiting for Snape to come and check on it.
+
+Snape did, sniffing the potion and studying it from all sides. Harry
+braced himself for Snape to knock over the cauldron or Vanish the potion
+and demand he start over again. At least Harry had used all the
+ingredients, so he couldn't ruin it with a sudden addition from the
+table.
+
+\emph{Unless he added something from his robes\ldots{}} Harry fixed his
+eyes on Snape's hands, and kept them there with such strict attention
+that he almost didn't notice it when Snape spoke. His voice was not
+mocking, not sneering. He simply asked a question.
+
+``What do you believe the effect of this potion would be, Mister
+Potter?''
+
+Harry blinked, but shrugged and answered. He was probably wrong, since
+he had not the slightest idea what it would do, but then, that was the
+kind of challenge Snape would assign a student he was exasperated with.
+``I believe it would work to purify, sir, given that the unicorn horn
+and the rose petals are symbols of purity and love. The demiguise hair
+could have something to do with invisibility, but demiguises are also
+gentle, so it probably adds to the potion's overall calming effect. And
+fairy wings are also from gentle creatures.''
+
+Snape bent down. Harry looked up at him as calmly as he could; he
+couldn't help but tense up a little when someone got this close, since a
+Death Eater or other enemy might try to hold him at his mercy like this.
+
+``I knew it,'' said Snape.
+
+Harry wrinkled his brow. ``Sir?'' Snape knew what? Harry expected a
+tirade against his intelligence to start any moment, since he had
+probably got all the effects of the ingredients completely wrong. But
+then, they were just guesses.
+
+Snape stood back, and smirked. He looked extraordinarily ugly, doing
+that, Harry thought.
+
+``I knew that you were more talented at Potions than you appeared,''
+Snape said, his voice soft but gathering in power. ``One can, of course,
+have theoretical knowledge without practical skill, but I have
+\emph{watched} you, Potter. I noticed, for example, that in some essays
+you knew material that you claimed not to know in other essays. And you
+sometimes committed common Potions mistakes, but they did not fit a
+pattern. If you could not remember to stir counterclockwise on a memory
+potion, you should certainly not have been able to remember it on this
+potion.'' He nodded at the sparkling clear liquid in Harry's cauldron.
+
+Harry couldn't swallow. He settled for clenching his hands into fists at
+his sides and glaring at Snape. He hadn't been careful enough, he
+thought, just as with the troll and the Lestranges. He had thought only
+of keeping abreast of Connor, or just a bit behind, and hadn't checked
+to make sure that his mistakes were consistent. Of course, he didn't
+think he could have done that even if he'd thought of it. He just didn't
+know enough about Potions to know what mistakes he \emph{should} make.
+
+``Now,'' said Snape, his voice soft and sweetly poisonous, ``I did tell
+you once that I did not thank any of my Slytherins to work at less than
+their full potential. You have been doing so, and I have the proof
+now.'' He tapped the cauldron with his wand, and the potion swirled,
+flew out of the cauldron, and flowed over to a bottle waiting on Snape's
+desk, in which it sealed itself. ``This is one of the preliminary steps
+in brewing the Wolfsbane Potion, which I am laboring to perfect, so that
+your \emph{beloved} werewolf can be around normal wizards who do not
+become flesh-eating monsters once every month.'' He turned his sneer on
+Harry again. ``This part of the potion calms the werewolf's mind,
+gentles its murderous impulses. It is not impossible to make. It is one
+that a fourth-year student could have made without hesitation.'' He
+halted, holding Harry's eyes.
+
+``But it wasn't that hard!'' Harry protested, and then cursed himself to
+death and back again as Snape laughed at him.
+
+``Precisely,'' Snape said. ``So. You have some talent at Potions, neglect
+it though you will. And I will \emph{not} see you neglect it. You will
+work to your full skill level in every Potions class from now on.''
+
+``No, sir,'' Harry said, and set himself. He saw Snape wince, and
+wondered for the first time if the older wizard could feel his magic
+when he got angry. He grimaced. He would have to study specialized
+Shield Charms, too.
+
+``Why not?'' Snape taunted him. ``You fear everyone knowing that you are
+\emph{not} hopeless in my class after all?''
+
+``I won't show up Connor, sir,'' Harry said, feeling he might as well
+admit it. Hiding was no good with Snape anyway, no more than it was with
+Draco. In a way, Harry had to admit, it was freeing to be able to speak
+like this in front of someone else.
+
+``I thought so,'' said Snape. ``And that is easily solved.''
+
+``You can give me detention for the rest of the year, sir,'' Harry told
+him flatly. ``I am not going to budge on this.''
+
+``I don't need to do that,'' said Snape. ``I only need to give your
+\emph{brother} detention for the rest of the year. Particularly at, say,
+the times of Gryffindor Quidditch practices.'' He put his head on one
+side and watched Harry.
+
+Harry shut his eyes. He could imagine Connor's cry of anguish from here.
+His brother would die if he couldn't play Quidditch. And the thought of
+the rest of the school not getting to see Connor play, not coming to
+admire him for something he honestly did quite well\ldots{}
+
+Harry opened his eyes and told Snape, ``I'll do as you say, Professor.
+But I hate you for it.''
+
+``I rather thought you might,'' Snape said.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+Snape rubbed his head as Harry left the classroom. He had a
+freshly-brewed headache potion waiting in his office, since he had
+rather expected that this detention would make Harry stare at him like a
+basilisk.
+
+But it didn't matter. Pure triumph roared through his veins as he
+stepped into his office, toasted an invisible companion, and drank the
+potion.
+
+\emph{This is one over on Harry Potter, one over on the Brat-Who-Lived,
+one over on James Potter, and one over on Gryffindor,} he thought, as
+his pain eased and then left him. That only made the triumph all the
+keener. \emph{The boy is more talented than I ever dared to hope, and he
+shall have no choice but to admit it in at least one place.}
+
+\emph{And perhaps his brother will notice the difference\ldots{}wonder
+about it\ldots{}speak to him\ldots{}}
+
+\emph{The sooner I can separate him from his brother, the better.}
+
+Snape strode over to the hearth, that he might firecall the kitchens and
+order a private, complicated dinner from the house elves. He was in a
+mood to celebrate in the privacy of his quarters.
+
+And if part of that mood came from the desire to avoid Dumbledore's
+piercing gaze and the proximity of a powerful, angry boy wizard\ldots{}.
+
+Well, that was no one's business but his own.
+
+\subsection{*Chapter 14*: Discoveries}\label{chapter-14-discoveries}
+
+Slightly darker chapter than normal. Don't worry, it's all in service of
+the plot.
+
+Thank you for the reviews! Answers to them will be up in my LJ
+momentarily.
+
+\textbf{Chapter Thirteen: Discoveries}
+
+\emph{You'd think,} Harry thought, as he struggled to keep flat to the
+wall and not peer around the corner to see what Quirrell was doing too
+soon, \emph{that he would manage to use some bloody spell to get past
+that bloody dog.}
+
+This was the fifth time in as many nights that he'd trailed Quirrell to
+this door, and Harry was getting bored. Quirrell hadn't caused pain in
+his scar again, and neither had he sneaked out to the Forbidden Forest
+and drunk unicorn blood, or performed some unspeakable rite on a
+hippogriff. He just came to this door and talked or shouted to the dog
+behind it, until the dog exploded into barking---which should be
+happening any moment now---and he rushed out.
+
+Harry was starting to think that Quirrell wasn't as much of a threat to
+Connor as he had seemed. After all, he hadn't been the one who had
+brought the Lestranges, and he hadn't been the one who had dropped the
+wards around the Quidditch pitch; if he were capable of that, Harry
+thought, then he would have been in a position to cause much more
+trouble. And if he had drunk unicorn blood\ldots{}that might be a sign
+that the professor was mad, certainly, but no one had ever said that
+Voldemort's followers had the monopoly on madness.
+
+There was the cold voice that had spoken in the Forest, though, and that
+was the reason that Harry kept following. His dreams insisted something
+was wrong, but Harry didn't trust them. He'd never had the talent---
+
+Footsteps sounded up the corridor, heading towards him. Harry hastily
+cast the Disillusionment Charm on himself. Argus Filch had never caught
+him, though he'd nosed around a time or two.
+
+Harry watched in curiosity and anticipation as this dark-clad figure
+strode nearer. Perhaps Quirrell's mysterious traitor had finally showed
+up, and was going to help him. That would make Harry's observations more
+interesting.
+
+It was Professor Snape.
+
+Harry ground his teeth. The insufferable Potions Professor didn't seem
+to notice that he was being teeth-ground at, and settled against the
+opposite wall not far from Harry.
+
+Harry glared at him, and wondered if he would get away with a hex if he
+cast one now. He didn't think so. But Merlin knew Snape deserved it, for
+the way he had made Harry work like a house elf in the Potions class the
+last few days.
+
+He was trying to think of hexes he could cast without sound---even
+though Lily hadn't started him studying nonverbal magic yet---and
+without an immediate effect when the door banged open, as expected.
+Quirrell came tottering around the corner, his hands fumbling at his
+turban.
+
+Snape unfolded himself like a rising bat. Quirrell turned around, saw
+him, and gaped at him.
+
+``S-Severus,'' he gabbled, sounding the way he always did.
+
+``Quirrell,'' said Snape, not stuttering, Harry thought, on purpose, to
+make himself sound more threatening. He came a step nearer, and his hand
+went into a pocket of his robe and emerged with his wand. ``And what are
+you doing here, hmmm? I never imagined that I would find you so
+\emph{interested} in this one part of the school. You know what is down
+there.''
+
+\emph{Down there?} Harry wondered. He supposed it was possible that the
+dog was guarding some kind of underground chamber, but if that was the
+case, why not put it on the ground floor, or in the dungeons, where it
+would have been easier to dive straight into the earth?
+
+Quirrell laughed, and even that sounded false. Harry concentrated, but
+could feel no sense of dangerous magic about him. The most noticeable
+thing, besides his annoying laugh, was the constant smell of garlic that
+hung about him. ``Only p-professional interest, S-Severus,'' he said.
+``You know th-that I l-like to study o-other fields that have some
+b-bearing on m-my own. That is a-all.''
+
+``What bearing could Hagrid's pet have on your own field?'' Snape asked,
+coming another step nearer. Harry shivered. He had never seen Snape wear
+this face, holding a faint hint of amusement but hard and cold as a
+sheet of steel. He supposed it was the face that Snape had worn during
+his Death Eater days.
+
+``Oh,'' Quirrell said, ``s-such a w-wondrous creature. I w-wonder who
+b-bred it, that is a-all.''
+
+``Is it?'' Snape said, and his voice had become so quiet that Harry had
+to strain to hear. ``I think, Quirrell, that we would all be best served
+if you stayed away from the Stone. You know where it is. You know that
+it is well-protected. And you know what can be done with it. Unless you
+were planning to brew some Elixir yourself---and why would you want
+to?---then you have no reason to want to see it, or study it.'' His wand
+was rotating in his fingers now, spinning fast enough that Harry could
+see only the tip, moving like a dark star.
+
+\emph{Stone? Elixir?} Harry stuck the words in his mind for later, while
+Quirrell made what could be called an attempt at a sneer, if one was
+being kind.
+
+``And wh-what do \emph{you} w-want with the St-Stone, S-Severus?'' he
+demanded. ``Do you w-want to know wh-where and h-how it is h-hidden so
+th-that you can m-make the E-Elixir y-yourself?''
+
+Professor Quirrell's stuttering got worse when he was truly nervous,
+Harry noted, making most of his attempts at intimidation useless. Of
+course, there was the cold voice in the Forest, and the steady voice
+that the professor had spoken with when he thought himself alone. This
+might be all an act, then.
+
+Harry didn't think Quirrell's squeak when Snape lunged at him and pushed
+him up against the wall was an act, though. Snape held his wand to
+Quirrell's throat, and his face had gone completely calm, without a hint
+of the dark laughter that seemed so natural to him.
+
+Harry recognized the expression. He'd seen it in the mirror often
+enough, just after Lily had given him a speech about what war might
+mean. It was the expression of a man preparing to kill.
+
+``Now, Quirrell,'' asked Snape, ``will you force me to this? I do not
+want to. If nothing else, it would be hard to explain to Albus. But I
+will, if you push me. You know what I was.'' He made a gesture towards
+his left forearm, invisible unless one was looking for it.
+
+Quirrell couldn't even speak, just gasp and cry incoherently. Snape
+watched him for a long moment, then let him go with a violent shove.
+Quirrell stumbled and half-fell, catching himself against the stone and
+staring hard at Snape.
+
+``You will leave now,'' said Snape quietly. ``If I find that you have
+come here again, then I will speak to Dumbledore.''
+
+``D-do it n-now, if you w-want,'' said Quirrell, and straightened
+himself with a dignity that struck Harry as ridiculous more than
+anything else. ``I d-don't care.''
+
+Snape laughed, and the sneer was back around the corners of his mouth.
+``No,'' he said. ``I would rather know that I have you under my thumb,
+Quirrell, ready to destroy whenever I wish.'' He gestured negligently
+down the corridor. ``Go.''
+
+Quirrell left, stumbling all the while. Snape watched him out of sight,
+and then turned and aimed his wand towards Harry.
+
+``\emph{Finite Incantatem},'' he snapped.
+
+\emph{Shit, he noticed the Disillusionment Charm,} Harry thought, but
+didn't attempt to run as it melted. He stared up into Snape's eyes,
+which, for a moment, flashed genuine surprise---\emph{who did he expect
+to see?} Harry thought---and then shuttered. He moved forward and
+grasped Harry's arm.
+
+``How much did you hear, Mister Potter?'' he hissed.
+
+``The whole of it.'' Harry didn't call him sir. He didn't see that he
+should have to. They were outside the boundaries of classroom and
+Slytherin House, in the middle of something more important, something
+that encompassed them both---the war against Voldemort, the war that
+Harry intended to see Connor survive.
+
+Snape said something quiet and obscene under his breath, and darted a
+glance down the hall. Then, quite shockingly, he sank to one knee before
+Harry and stared into his eyes. Harry stared back, feeling the slight
+twinge in his head that he sometimes felt when Snape did this. Whatever
+he was looking for, the Potions Professor seemed to find it. He closed
+his eyes and pinched his nose for a moment.
+
+Then he said, ``Potter, I will tell you what this means, so that you
+won't go sniffing about for trouble. I expect you to go back to your
+common room after this and not wander about after curfew again. Do you
+understand?''
+
+Harry nodded. He did not say that he intended to wander anyway, to find
+disused corners of the castle where he could practice his wandless
+spells. It was not as though Snape had made him promise with an
+Unbreakable Vow.
+
+``Dumbledore has a Philosopher's Stone, well-protected, in the castle,''
+Snape said quietly. ``He is keeping it safe from the Dark Lord. I might
+almost think that Quirrell is a minion of the Dark Lord's, but I know
+that he was not Marked when I served among the Death Eaters. You,
+however, will stay \emph{far} away. This is a matter for adults. Do you
+understand?''
+
+``Perfectly, sir,'' Harry said. There was no need to come back here
+again, then. He knew what he was going to do with his own information.
+He didn't even blame Snape for not telling Dumbledore his suspicions
+about Quirrell. He was going to put his own information to even better
+use.
+
+\emph{The troll was clumsy, the Lestranges clumsier. But there I had to
+worry about immediate danger to Connor's life. Now I don't, and I can
+plan.}
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+``Are you coming with me to the Manor for Christmas yet?''
+
+``No, not yet.''
+
+Draco paused. ``Now?''
+
+``Still not yet.''
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+``Harry?''
+
+Harry hastily stood up and shoved the book he was reading underneath the
+table. Not quick enough to escape Hermione's eyes, of course. She stared
+at him, then whirled her bag over her shoulder and set it down heavily
+on the table. No dust rose. She'd been coming here, her own private
+study corner of the library, for long enough that she'd cleared all the
+dust off. Harry had noticed it a few weeks ago, and kept the knowledge
+to himself, because he hadn't thought of a way to use it yet.
+
+Now he had.
+
+He smiled weakly at Hermione. ``Hi, Hermione. Sorry. I just wanted a
+quiet corner to read in, and this one looked nice and clean. I didn't
+realize it was yours. Sorry,'' he added again, and tried to stuff the
+large book he was carrying into his bag.
+
+``What's that?'' Hermione asked, and then gasped as she caught sight of
+the title. Harry bit his lip and looked down at the ground as if
+ashamed, while silently congratulating himself. Sharp as Hermione was,
+this plan was already going much better than the other ones to give
+Connor some sheen of heroism had.
+
+``Harry!'' she said, her voice rising distressingly. ``\emph{Darkest
+Alchemies?} Where did you get that? Isn't it supposed to be in the
+Restricted Section of the library?'' Her voice turned accusing. ``And why
+are you reading it?''
+
+``It's not a Dark book, Hermione, really,'' Harry said desperately. He
+studied her face. Her lips were set, and her eyes as well as her mouth
+managed to frown at him. He had counted on that. ``It's a sort of
+history book.''
+
+``But why were you reading it?''
+
+``Because I was interested, that's all,'' Harry said, shrugging.
+``Something that Snape said in class the other day.''
+
+For a moment, Hermione looked as if she'd let herself be distracted by
+that. Harry's sudden gifts in Potions had astounded and irritated her,
+and she'd been working hard herself to catch up. The books peeking out
+of her bag had the look of Potions texts, in fact, Harry thought.
+
+Harry had a plan to get her back on the trail if he needed to, but she
+wound up clinging to the original idea. ``Professor Snape didn't say
+anything about alchemists,'' she said, eyes narrowing.
+
+``Uh\ldots{}'' said Harry, as if she had caught him flat-footed.
+
+He shifted his weight, glanced around, and then said, ``Well, see you
+later, Hermione. Bye.'' He carried the book around the corner of the
+shelves and waited for a moment. Sure enough, Hermione's head poked
+around the corner behind him.
+
+He looked towards her, giving her enough time to duck out of the way,
+and then shoved the book awkwardly among the others, patting the spine.
+That looked like enough to hide it---or to make a pathetic attempt at
+hiding it. He hurried out of the library, bag banging on his shoulder.
+
+He had no doubt that Hermione would look at \emph{Darkest Alchemies} the
+moment he was far enough away. And she would find the well-worn page
+about the Philosopher's Stone and its last inventor, Nicholas Flamel.
+She would wonder about that. She would carry the questions to Connor.
+Connor's own suspicions of Harry possibly going Dark, fed by Ron's
+prejudice against Slytherins, would drive them to investigate. And then
+they stood a good chance of finding out that one was hidden in the
+school, or at least coming to Harry and drilling him for answers. He
+could drop subtle hints that would lead them in the right direction.
+Connor would find out about Quirrell---Harry could make it seem as
+though he were simply too blind to notice what the professor's constant
+visits to the third floor meant---and then Connor would tell Dumbledore
+about him. There would be plenty of glory for Connor, and all of it
+produced from good old Gryffindor honesty, hard work, courage, and
+suspicion of sneaky Slytherins.
+
+Harry was rather proud of himself for thinking of such an ingenious
+plan. Of course, it helped that he would be in the shadows behind
+Connor, ready to aid him with a nudge in the right direction, or a
+carefully timed spell if things looked to be getting out of hand.
+
+The most important part was that Connor survive, after all. But if Harry
+could lead his brother to his own victory while not being too obvious
+about it\ldots{}
+
+Harry thought it a good deal all around.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+``Harry.''
+
+Harry glanced up, blinking. He'd been deep enough in his Charms textbook
+that he hadn't heard Draco ordering the other Slytherin boys out, or the
+room door opening and closing. But now they were alone, and Draco sat on
+his bed and stared at Harry with one of those serious expressions that
+promised a conversation Harry wouldn't like. He put down his book,
+stared back, and waited.
+
+The first words out of Draco's mouth, though, were, ``Why won't you come
+to the Manor with me for Christmas?''
+
+Harry sighed. ``Draco, we've been over this---''
+
+Draco held up a hand. ``I know that you think my father's a danger to
+you. But really, Harry's, he's not.'' His voice was so painfully earnest
+that Harry didn't have the heart to correct him just then, though he
+realized he should have when Draco went on. ``I've talked to him about
+the Dark Lord's first rise. Poor Father was under Imperius from almost
+the first moment that the Dark Lord gained power. After all, he knew
+that he couldn't leave the Malfoys alive behind him, but enslaving them
+was better than killing them. And Grandfather Abraxas had just died.
+Father was reeling, uncertain, just trying to find his place in the
+world. I think that that was it. He served the Dark Lord only as long as
+he couldn't fight the curse, and then broke free and gave testimony to
+the Ministry that helped to convict other Death Eaters.''
+
+Harry looked at him for a long moment. Draco stared back at him, posed,
+shining, happy. Innocent, in much the same way that Connor was, Harry
+thought. The idea made him weary.
+
+He could lie to Draco, perhaps, and come up with another reason to
+escape the Manor---that Connor wouldn't let him be apart from him at
+Christmas. But he didn't want to lie. Shameful as it was, Harry thought,
+he was growing used to honesty with Draco and Snape. They wouldn't let
+him lie, so why should he? About anything?
+
+And Draco was \emph{wrong}, and at some point, his wrongness might
+endanger Connor. Or, more within the realm of immediate possibility, his
+ignorance might endanger Harry, and if Harry died, he wouldn't be there
+to protect and defend Connor throughout the coming war.
+
+``Draco,'' he said quietly, ``my mother's told me the stories of the
+first war with Voldemort.'' Draco flinched and scooted backward on the
+bed, away from him. Harry didn't stop. Draco had wanted privacy. He had
+wanted a serious discussion. Well, he was going to get both. ``I know
+that he wasn't above using the Imperius, but he only used it on some of
+the Death Eaters. He didn't use it on the ones who believed in his
+ideals and willingly joined him.'' He paused, and waited for Draco to
+grasp the truth of what he was saying.
+
+Draco blinked, puzzled, for a long moment, then paled. ``My father is
+\emph{not} a willing Death Eater,'' he said. ``He never was.''
+
+``He trained you to hate Muggleborns, Draco,'' said Harry. ``You say
+\emph{Mudblood} more naturally than you say \emph{I'm sorry.}''
+
+``Malfoys never need to apologize,'' said Draco, but his attempt to
+lighten the mood fell utterly flat, and both of them knew it. He shook
+his head. ``You're wrong about this, Harry. You must be.''
+
+``Why?'' Harry asked, and heard his voice deepen and turn flat.
+``Because you want me to be? Because you don't want to believe me? I
+thought that Malfoys at least needed to face reality.''
+
+``No,'' Draco whispered.
+
+Harry held up three fingers on his right hand. ``There might be others,
+but these are the ones I know about,'' he said. ``My mother told me that
+Lucius Malfoy helped kill the Prewett brothers. They were the brothers
+of Molly Weasley, Ron's mum. Did you know that?''
+
+``No,'' Draco whispered.
+
+Harry suspected that he was both denying knowledge and denying what
+Harry was saying. That didn't matter. He folded one finger down. That
+left two. ``And he was responsible for attacking a Muggleborn family,''
+he said. ``Muggle parents, three children with magic who attended
+Hogwarts. The Nascents. He tortured them to death. Bellatrix Lestrange
+was there, too, but they recognized Lucius Malfoy's style.''
+
+``My father doesn't have a \emph{style} of torture,'' Draco said, his
+voice very small. ``You take that back.''
+
+Harry folded his second finger down. ``And then there was the Bones
+family,'' he said, very quietly. ``Edgar Bones, and his wife and
+children. One was a baby, Malfoy. A \emph{baby}, not as old as Connor
+and I were when Voldemort came for him. He only---\emph{only}---murdered
+them, because he didn't trust his wandwork against Edgar's. And Edgar
+Bones was Susan Bones's uncle. She's walking around the school right
+now, missing her uncle and aunt and cousins. Oh, and her grandparents,
+because---''
+
+``\emph{Shut up}!'' Draco yelled.
+
+Harry folded down his last finger, and sat watching. Draco was breathing
+hard, his cheeks flushed, his hair falling around his face. He took a
+breath that sounded to Harry like a great, gasping sob, though he wasn't
+letting any of his tears actually fall.
+
+``He's my father,'' said Draco. ``He's my \emph{father}. I love him. He
+wouldn't do anything like that. Or he'd tell me if he did.''
+
+Harry leaned forward. ``It's all a matter of historical record,'' he
+said. ``You can go into the Ministry and look it up in the records. The
+Pensieve and the trial transcripts are there. He claimed to be under
+Imperius, and he bought his way out. But he killed them, Draco. He
+killed them and he \emph{laughed} when he walked away free---''
+
+He hushed. Draco had reached out and struck him, awkwardly, across the
+face, not quite a punch and not quite a slap. Harry had taken worse from
+Connor in their mock-fights, but he watched in silence as Draco ran from
+the bedroom, slamming the door behind him like a giant's tread.
+
+Harry sighed and picked up his Charms book again. He felt a faint
+sadness for the loss of his friendship with Draco, but it had been
+coming. He could only ignore the past for so long.
+
+\emph{Besides, my first and primary loyalty will always be Connor's.
+What} would \emph{happen if I became friends with a Slytherin? Would I
+feel compelled to choose between them?}
+
+Harry shuddered. He could imagine little more distressing than that.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+Harry woke, blinking. He'd fallen asleep studying, which was unusual for
+him. He stood up and made his way to the loo carefully, since he could
+hear breathing around him and knew the other boys had returned.
+
+He paused, though, when the faint \emph{Lumos} spell on his wand showed
+him that Draco's bed was still empty.
+
+Harry hesitated, then put his wand on his palm and murmured,
+``\emph{Point Me} Draco Malfoy.''
+
+The wand turned, pointing definitively out of Slytherin House. Harry
+groaned to himself. He wanted nothing so much as to shower and go to
+bed. And Draco was probably wandering around the castle in a sulk, or in
+Snape's quarters complaining about what a prat Harry was.
+
+Still, though, Harry did feel responsible. He probably could have found
+a gentler way to break the news to Draco. And he really \emph{had}
+thought Draco was more politically aware than that. What son of a
+pureblood family wouldn't be?
+
+He followed the wand in silence, casting another Disillusionment Charm
+on himself as soon as he left the common room. The wand tugged him up
+the dungeon stairs, surprising Harry, who hadn't thought Draco would
+have gone that far. And then it pointed to the doors to the outside, the
+same doors Harry had followed Quirrell out earlier that month.
+
+Wary, Harry stepped outside. The wand aimed steadily towards the
+Forbidden Forest.
+
+``Oh, \emph{shit.}''
+
+\subsection{*Chapter 15*: Draco In
+Danger}\label{chapter-15-draco-in-danger}
+
+Thank you for the reviews! Responses will be up in my LJ momentarily.
+
+This chapter took a twisting path. It still ended up where I wanted it
+to end up, but the action was sure nothing like I thought.
+
+\textbf{Chapter Fourteen: Draco In Danger}
+
+Harry pushed aside a thickly clinging vine and ducked beneath it, drawn
+along the path by his pointing wand. At least he didn't have to be as
+quiet as he had when he followed Quirrell, he thought, and he could use
+the \emph{Lumos} spell to light his way without worrying if anyone saw
+him.
+
+\emph{Unless Quirrell is in the woods tonight.}
+
+\emph{Or unless a magical creature sees it and comes towards me, ready
+to devour me.}
+
+Harry forcibly reminded himself that Draco might see the light and be
+drawn to it, too. It was unlikely, but most helpful things were in the
+Forbidden Forest. That did not mean it would not happen.
+
+Harry sighed. \emph{Speaking of that, I suppose I'll have to turn and
+confront them sooner or later.}
+
+He had been hearing faint sounds from behind and beside him almost from
+the moment he had entered the Forest. When they didn't attack, he
+ignored them, intent on getting to Draco before something could happen
+to him. But the sounds were louder and more insistent now, and he knew
+that he would have to confront them.
+
+He turned and called, ``Who's there? I can hear you.'' He braced
+himself, just in case the creatures tracking him weren't intelligent
+after all and came at him all in a rush. The \emph{Protego} incantation
+waited on the tip of his tongue.
+
+There was a long pause. Then the noises came again, closer this time and
+louder. Harry hadn't been able to tell what they were as muffled thumps,
+but now he clearly made out the sound of hooves.
+
+A centaur trotted out from between the trees on the right side of the
+path and stood facing him. Harry's wand-light made his face shadowed and
+half-demonic. He had striking blue eyes, hair as pale as Draco's, and a
+faintly golden body, which shifted color towards a deep gold on his
+flanks.
+
+``Harry Potter,'' whispered the centaur. ``The stars are watching you.''
+
+Harry half-glanced up, but he couldn't see the stars through the thick
+cover of trees overhead. ``And so are you,'' he said, bringing his
+attention back to the centaur. ``Why?''
+
+``We know that you came here in pursuit of a boy who walked into the
+Forest a short time ago,'' whispered the centaur. ``We know many things
+from watching the stars. Your fate is written there, Harry Potter.
+Sealed there.''
+
+Not for the first time in his life---the first had been when he'd read
+about them in a book on magical creatures---Harry decided that centaurs
+were creepy. He simply nodded. ``Thanks,'' he said. ``It's always
+pleasant to know that. However, I have to find Draco.'' He turned to go
+down the path again.
+
+The trees to his left gave way, and a chestnut centaur galloped onto the
+path in front of him. He was bigger than the palomino one, and had dark
+eyes and hair that looked the color of blackberries in the light. He
+folded his arms and looked steadily at Harry.
+
+``You must come with us, Harry Potter,'' said the palomino centaur.
+``The stars are bright tonight. Mars is in his glory. Because of that,
+we are willing to give thanks, and to listen to the one who comes
+beneath Mars's aegis.''
+
+Harry concealed his annoyance. He had hoped to get on and find Draco,
+but he did not think that he could take two centaurs at once, and he had
+no wish to show that he had been here, which dead or injured centaurs
+would surely reveal. He forced a smile.
+
+``All right,'' he said. ``Where are we going?''
+
+``This way,'' said the palomino centaur, and cantered off down the path.
+The chestnut centaur stepped out of Harry's way and flicked his tail as
+if in permission. Harry shook his head and fell in behind the palomino,
+hearing the clop of hooves as the chestnut walked behind him.
+
+The \emph{Point Me} spell continued to show that Harry was on the same
+trail as Draco, which somewhat lessened his agitation. He was beginning
+to hope that Draco hadn't fled in a raging sulk after all, but had had
+the sense to stay on the path and seek some place to be alone. He might
+even go back to the castle before Harry did, depending on how long the
+centaurs decided to entertain him.
+
+``I am Firenze,'' the palomino announced suddenly.
+
+``And I am Coran,'' the chestnut said.
+
+Harry blinked. He had read once that centaurs gave their names on the
+second meeting, not the first. But they also watched the stars and spoke
+incomprehensible nonsense about them. So they might consider this the
+second meeting, since they were some way down the path now. Who knew?
+
+``You know my name already,'' he said, struggling to remember the
+courtesies he'd heard. Lily had tutored him in greeting customs for
+magical beings other than pureblood wizards, just in case Connor ever
+needed allies someday and Harry had to serve as ambassador, but it was
+far down on the list of important training, and he wasn't surprised that
+he couldn't remember more of it. One phrase seemed safe enough, though.
+``I am glad that you greet me in the name of the stars.''
+
+Firenze stopped walking and glanced back at Coran. Harry stopped too,
+perforce, backing away from the palomino's switching tail. The centaurs
+locked each other in a long gaze.
+
+Harry waited. The \emph{Point Me} spell still indicated, faithfully,
+that Draco was straight ahead. He wanted to push Firenze out of the way
+and run, but he couldn't do that, so he made peace with his impatience
+and waited some more.
+
+``He knows the courtesies,'' Firenze said at last.
+
+``And he came beneath Mars's light,'' said Coran.
+
+``That is significant,'' they both said at once, and then Firenze turned
+around and resumed his trot forward, this time forcing Harry to follow.
+
+The Forbidden Forest changed when you were traveling through it with
+powerful magical creatures, Harry found. The shadows seemed less
+menacing. The trees drew back more often, and let a paler, colder
+starlight through. Harry checked once or twice, but he couldn't make out
+Mars. Perhaps the angle was bad.
+
+\emph{Or perhaps the centaurs are barking,} Harry thought, shivering
+slightly as a chill breeze cut past him and he nearly stumbled over a
+root he hadn't seen until too late. \emph{Guess which one I choose.}
+
+The path finally widened out and then broke in two. One branch curved
+around the base of a small hill, while the other led to its top. Firenze
+solemnly mounted the hill, and then glanced back as Harry followed.
+
+``It is possible that you shall be angry,'' he said in a distant voice,
+not sounding as if he really cared. ``But you must understand that all
+fates serve the balance, and all things are written in the stars.''
+
+Harry narrowed his eyes. They had arrived at a place that seemed
+significant, and the \emph{Point Me} spell still indicated straight
+ahead\ldots{}
+
+``You took Draco, didn't you?'' he asked, not bothering to keep the
+accusation from his voice.
+
+``It was written,'' said Firenze, and then walked over to something
+Harry couldn't see. Harry hurriedly climbed the last few steps he had to
+go.
+
+He found a group of stones assembled at the top that looked for all the
+world like an imitation gallows. Draco stood on the platform, shivering,
+his head bowed. A vine was looped around his neck and around the stone
+serving as crossbar. There was no trapdoor that Harry could see, but
+there wouldn't have to be, he knew. One kick from a centaur's powerful
+hooves could make the vine sway and send Draco flying sideways, where
+his neck would snap or he would choke to death. Or perhaps he would just
+smash his skull on the stones.
+
+\emph{Any way, not an easy death,} Harry thought, as he stared and
+desperately struggled to recall what he knew about centaurs. They were
+polite, they observed the stars, they stayed out of wars for the most
+part---though they had fought against the Dark Lord Grindelwald, who had
+threatened them with extinction---and they didn't generally go around
+kidnapping schoolboys in forests and hanging them from stone gallows.
+
+Draco stirred then, and decided to make everything more complicated.
+``Harry!'' he shouted, starting to run across the platform.
+
+Firenze caught him by the vine around his neck and held him still. Draco
+swayed to a stop, gagging. Harry took a tense step forward, but Draco
+finally remembered the noose and stepped back. His breathing returned to
+normal in a moment. He glared at Firenze, then turned the glare outward
+to include Coran, who had come up beside Harry.
+
+``This is a test,'' Firenze told Harry, his voice deep and somber as
+echoes in a bottomless pit. ``You will pass it, or Draco Malfoy will
+die. He will not use magic in any way, including to aid you, or he will
+die.''
+
+``Why?'' Harry asked.
+
+``This is the test of the one who comes under Mars,'' said Coran, and
+his voice was sterner than Firenze's. ``You may not question. You must
+do.''
+
+Harry choked his impulse to scream in frustration, and even managed to
+smile. ``Then tell me what I must do, honored centaurs.''
+
+Coran moved in front of him, feeling briefly on the ground for
+something. He came up with an egg-shaped stone, which in the light of
+\emph{Lumos} looked some shade between deep purple and black.
+
+``You must crack this---''
+
+Harry nodded, and raised his wand.
+
+``Using wandless magic,'' Coran continued. If he had been a human, he
+would have sounded smug, but he only sounded remorseless. He held the
+stone out to Harry.
+
+Harry stared for a long moment. He could perform a Blasting Curse with
+his wand, but he hadn't studied it wandless. He hesitated and glanced
+once at Draco. Draco had settled for glaring at the centaurs, at the
+vine around his neck, and at Harry---though, to be absolutely truthful,
+the looks he sent Harry had a lot of pleading in them, too.
+
+\emph{Could I sever the vine, take Draco, and run?} Harry knew the
+answer almost as soon as he had the thought, though. The vine shifted
+and settled itself possessively around Draco's throat in a motion that
+no wind would allow. It was alive, and perhaps intelligent. He supposed
+it would have to be; Draco would have freed himself already if it were
+that simple.
+
+Which left his only option as passing the test.
+
+Harry turned back to the stone and frowned at it. He had learned
+wandless magic before out of grim duty and driving necessity; he had
+imagined Connor dying, and each time, it gave him the strength to press
+on. And when he had thought that Connor might die in a week, in six
+days, in five days, in four days, nothing had stood in his way. He
+hadn't even felt the loss of sleep until the spell exhaustion hit him.
+
+Could he summon the same emotion for Draco?
+
+\emph{No}, he realized, after a moment of trying. He did feel worried
+that Draco might die, and he would certainly experience guilt if that
+happened, but there was no love there yet, nothing to send the magic
+down well-worn channels in the center of his being. He would have to use
+something else.
+
+What?
+
+``You have until the stars set, Harry Potter,'' Firenze intoned calmly
+just then, jolting him.
+
+Harry glared at him. ``You didn't say that I had a time limit.''
+
+``The one who comes beneath Mars's light always has until the stars set
+to pass his test,'' said Coran, as if Harry should have known that. He
+continued to hold the stone out, straight and steady. His arm hadn't
+wavered yet.
+
+Harry ground his teeth. The anger came surging up in him, and he focused
+it on the stone, hoping that might work. Crack, \emph{you stupid thing!
+Draco and I have to get back inside and away from these loonies before
+we're missed!}
+
+The stone did nothing. If stones could be smug, Harry was sure that it
+would have been.
+
+Harry poured the rage out, and it was fruitless. Nothing happened, not
+even a faint line seaming the stone's surface, while he had sweat
+running down his brow from the force of his concentration.
+
+``It is an hour until the stars set,'' said Firenze's voice, regular as
+the chiming of a clock.
+
+Harry closed his eyes and banished his anger. So love would not do it,
+and neither would anger. What would?
+
+But those were the forces that had always driven his wandless magic.
+Harry could possibly learn new ways, but they would take longer than he
+had. And then Draco would die.
+
+Harry did not think he could bear that. He had caused the argument. It
+was his fault that Draco was out here in the first place.
+
+\emph{Worry?}
+
+\emph{No, that's a niggling little emotion. I need something else.}
+
+Well, was there anything that his love and his anger had in common? Did
+they spring from some shared seed that he could use to free Draco?
+
+Perhaps it wasn't an emotion.
+
+And then Harry could have laughed aloud in relief. Of course. It was the
+same thing that Snape was always cursing him for, the same thing that
+had made Connor impatient with him, the same thing that had caused him
+to continue the argument with Draco instead of simply giving in and
+saying that Connor wouldn't let him come to Malfoy Manor for Christmas.
+
+\emph{Will. Stubbornness. Sheer bloody-mindedness.}
+
+Harry focused his will on the stone. He imagined it cracking. He willed
+it to crack. He created a careful image of the stone cracking, so
+intense that dark spots swam in the air before his eyes and his ears
+rang, and he overlaid it on the stone. He could still see the whole dark
+purple surface under the shattered one, but only just. The ringing in
+his ears became a roar.
+
+\emph{Crack. You} will \emph{crack.}
+
+It was nothing like anger, nothing like love, but the root and
+wellspring of them both. Harry called patience and determination and
+unbending, unflinching uncooperativeness to his aid. He focused, and he
+pushed, and he began to feel the outer edges of the stone's solidity as
+an irritating buzz off to the side, just barely audible under the
+torrent of his magic.
+
+\emph{Crack. You} will \emph{crack.}
+
+The stone pushed back at him. It had no will of its own---the smugness
+Harry had imagined was not real---but it had the same resistance that it
+would if he were trying to shatter it against the edge of a table by
+simple pounding. It existed, and it was hard, and it did not want to
+crack.
+
+Harry carefully formed his will down into a sharpened point, a chisel,
+and then put all his magic behind it at once.
+
+\emph{Crack.} His being resonated with the word, and he trusted that he
+had the will and the magic, both, to carry it out. \emph{You will crack
+because I say you will. And now, you will---}
+
+\emph{Crack!}
+
+Harry blinked, then staggered forward as his will shoved through
+something that was no longer there anymore, like the dissipating smoke
+of \emph{Fumo.} He caught himself on his hands and looked up.
+
+Coran held shattered bits of stone in his hand, but only a few
+fragments, themselves no bigger than shards of eggshell. More had
+apparently scored his face and shoulders in their whipping passage, but
+Coran didn't seem to care about the blood. He looked at his palm, as
+though wondering where the stone had gone, and then nodded gravely,
+solemnly, to Harry.
+
+Harry glanced over at Firenze. The blond centaur was untying Draco, his
+movements swift and efficient. Draco made a gasping noise when the vine
+came free that Harry was sure was exaggerated, or he would have had
+difficulty breathing when it actually gripped him.
+
+Harry got slowly back to his feet. He ought to have felt tired; he
+usually did, after wandless magic. Instead, he felt oddly braced, as if
+he had gone through a swift walk through cold air. And the ringing,
+roaring sound his magic had made hadn't quite faded yet. Harry tasted
+the air around him, still rich and alive with playful, gamboling power,
+and found himself smiling.
+
+``The one who comes under Mars has passed the test,'' Firenze said,
+looking as if he spoke to the stars.
+
+``When the time comes,'' Coran intoned, ``we follow.''
+
+Firenze cantered over to Coran, and then both of them, to Harry's utter
+astonishment, stretched out a foreleg in his direction and bent over it.
+Harry clumsily returned the bow, struggling to remember the phrase that
+closed out a cordial conversation between centaur and wizard. He ought
+to remember it, if only because it had been so odd---one of the least
+complicated phrases that any magical creature used in formal
+communication.
+
+\emph{Oh, yes.}
+
+``Under star and over stone may your way lead you,'' he said. ``Under
+darkness and over water.''
+
+Firenze nodded to him. Coran said, ``Under the light of Mars may you be
+led,'' which was not in the book that Harry remembered, and then both
+centaurs turned and galloped into the darkness.
+
+Harry let out a little breath, blinked, and then turned back to Draco.
+``We'll need to cover up those bruises on your neck, unless you want
+everyone to know we were out past curfew---'' he began.
+
+He stopped. Draco was staring at him.
+
+Harry winced. In the struggle to save Draco and the excitement of
+actually succeeding, he'd forgotten what drove Draco out here in the
+first place.
+
+``Yeah, I know,'' he said. ``I acted like a git. I didn't have any right
+to say those things in that tone of voice. Once I realized you didn't
+know, I should have been gentler. Sorry.'' He held his breath and
+waited, hoping that the next words out of Draco's mouth would be
+forgiveness. He could make Harry's life much harder than he had already
+if they weren't.
+
+Not to mention that he \emph{would} miss Draco's conversation, even if
+he had turned out to be so self-absorbed that he told Harry almost
+nothing about Lucius or his movements. Draco was one of the few people
+in his life who wasn't part of the elaborate deception at play around
+Connor. Unlike Snape, he wasn't hostile, and unlike Lily, he was close
+to Harry's age. Draco just---existed in Harry's life, and though that
+would almost certainly change later, when Voldemort returned and Draco
+chose pureblood loyalties, for right now he could chatter, and Harry
+would listen.
+
+Draco closed his eyes and shook his head. ``Harry\ldots{}'' he began,
+and stopped.
+
+``What?'' Harry swallowed. Maybe he \emph{had} foregone his chance at
+Draco's forgiveness. He would just have to live with it if he had, but
+he wished Draco would \emph{say} something and show him why.
+
+Draco opened his eyes. ``Harry,'' he said, ``you saved my life. I owe
+you a life debt.''
+
+Harry stared at him in turn.
+
+Then he shook his head and backed away, making sure to keep his voice
+soothing. ``Draco, you've had a hard night. An argument, running away
+into the Forbidden Forest, and nearly dying. You don't know---''
+
+Draco drew his wand from his sleeve and held it out over his palm.
+``\emph{Diffindo}!'' he said clearly, and a cut appeared on his hand. He
+turned towards Harry, his face alien and too solemn under the
+\emph{Lumos} light.
+
+\emph{This is the son of the pureblood wizarding family,} Harry thought.
+\emph{He might not know about his father's past, but he knows the
+rituals.}
+
+``I do so pledge my debt to Harry James Potter,'' Draco said, still in
+that same clear voice that would have made most of his teachers
+astounded to hear, ``willingly performing whatever service he asks of
+me, until I save his life in turn or the debt be expunged.'' He swept
+his wand over the cut, and the line turned silver where it passed,
+looking first like frost and then like a very old scar. ``This I do,''
+Draco added softly, ``in the name of Merlin, and in thanks for my
+life.''
+
+He stood looking expectantly at Harry.
+
+Harry sighed. He knew of no way to refuse to accept a life debt without
+killing the wizard who offered it, but he could at least leave the
+payment of the debt up to Draco.
+
+``I, Harry James Potter,'' he said, ``do so accept the offered debt, in
+Merlin's name, and in gladness that the one who offered it still
+lives.''
+
+The air between them flashed silver for a brief moment. Then the light
+turned to the cold air that Harry saw when he breathed out in winter,
+and floated away towards the stars.
+
+``Name my service,'' Draco said, still impossibly clear.
+
+``Draco---''
+
+``Do it, Harry.''
+
+Harry shook his head. ``I leave it up to you to name it,'' he said. ``I
+\emph{can} do that, and I choose to. Serve me in whatever way would
+please you most.'' He carefully cast a Concealment Charm at the bruises
+on Draco's neck, and was relieved when they disappeared. He hadn't been
+sure that his magic high after shattering the stone would last. ``Now,
+come on, Draco, we have to get back.''
+
+Draco fell into step beside him, but he seemed to be thinking. They
+hadn't reached the halfway point on the path before he said, ``I've
+thought of something, Harry. I \emph{can} choose the form my payment
+takes, right?'' He looked at Harry carefully, as though he thought Harry
+was tricking him.
+
+Harry nodded.
+
+``And guarding you in a dangerous place would be an acceptable form of
+it?''
+
+``Of course, Draco, but what place---''
+
+``Then,'' said Draco, ``I choose to repay my debt by guarding you in
+Malfoy Manor. Where you are going to come visit me. At Christmas.'' His
+smile was blinding.
+
+``No,'' said Harry flatly.
+
+``You left it up to me to choose the payment,'' Draco reminded him,
+bouncing a little.
+
+``I didn't say that you could---'' said Harry, and then stopped. He
+\emph{had}, actually, and the moment when he could have reclaimed the
+debt was past. He had offered it to Draco, and Draco had chosen the form
+his payment would take. He'd even used the correct phrasing to seal it.
+And just as there was no choice about accepting a life debt in the first
+place, so there was no choice about accepting the form the payment took
+if it was turned back on the giver.
+
+Unless he killed Draco, and that was still not an option, though Harry
+had to admit it was looking a bit more tempting than before.
+
+``I promise, Harry.''
+
+Harry turned to Draco, who had caught his hand and stopped on the path.
+His face was hard, his eyes gleaming, near a fanatic's. It disturbed
+Harry, who imagined it was the way his Death Eaters would look at
+Voldemort.
+
+``I think you're wrong about my father,'' Draco said, firming his clasp
+on Harry's wrist. ``But I \emph{promise}, I \emph{promise} you, that I
+won't let any harm come to you in the Manor, from my father or anyone
+else. I \emph{promise}. They'll have to kill me first.''
+
+Harry sighed. He really had no choice anymore, and he would have to live
+with the consequences of this, too.
+
+``You realize that my parents and my godfather are still going to scream
+the roof down,'' he said, as they started walking back to Hogwarts.
+``And my brother.''
+
+``I don't know your parents,'' said Draco, with a sniff. ``And my mother
+told me your godfather is a prat. And I \emph{know} your brother's a
+prat. So that's all settled.'' He gave Harry another beatific smile.
+
+Harry, helpless, forced to remember that at least Draco was \emph{here}
+to smile instead of choked or kicked to death, smiled back.
+
+\subsection{*Chapter 16*: A Very Malfoyish Christmas}\label{chapter-16-a-very-malfoyish-christmas}
+
+Thank you for the reviews on Chapter Fourteen! This chapter shows some
+of the consequences of Draco's action. I'll have more detailed responses
+to reviews up in my LJ in a moment.
+
+And also, um, this chapter features the guest appearance of the Evil
+Cliffhanger. Sorry, but otherwise the chapter would have gotten too long
+to let me update today. It's already the longest chapter so far.
+
+\textbf{Chapter Fifteen: A Very Malfoyish Christmas}
+
+``But you \emph{can't},'' said Connor, for the twentieth time, as if he
+hoped to wear Harry down by simple repetition.
+
+Harry had to admit he was close to that. He tossed the last of his
+clothes in the trunk and turned towards Connor with a sigh. ``I have
+to,'' he said. ``Draco called a life debt on me. I don't have any
+choice.'' He had told his twin what had happened in the forest---for the
+most part. Having Connor know the extent of his magic was dangerous.
+Having Connor know that he'd had an argument with Draco, chased him into
+the Forest, and rescued him from centaurs was not. Of course, it would
+have meant more if Connor had paid the least attention to anything his
+father or Sirius said about pureblooded wizarding rituals. ``I promise
+that I'll come back safe from Malfoy Manor, Connor. I can't do anything
+else.''
+
+``But you'll miss Christmas with me,'' Connor whispered. ``We've never
+missed a Christmas together.''
+
+Harry felt his mouth curve in a genuine smile. ``I know,'' he said
+quietly. ``But I promise we'll spend next Christmas, and all the rest of
+them, together. All right?''
+
+His twin looked at him for a long moment, and then nodded. That will and
+iron determination that Harry usually saw focused on the Snitch shone in
+his hazel eyes as he said, ``But if you don't come back from the Manor
+alive, then I'll hunt down and kill the Malfoys myself.''
+
+Harry let his brother hug him, and then leave the bedroom. He ignored
+the stares of all the Slytherins on the way, masterfully---better, Harry
+thought, than he himself ignored the Gryffindor stares when he visited
+the Tower. Of course, he'd been to the Tower many times, and this was
+Connor's first trip to the dungeons. Perhaps he was just less
+self-conscious.
+
+``Finally! The prat is gone.''
+
+Harry rolled his eyes as Draco came out; he'd been hiding in the loo,
+refusing to be in the same room as Connor without insulting him. ``He's
+not a prat, Draco,'' Harry snapped, tossing his last jumper in his trunk
+and then looking around. He couldn't see anything else that needed to
+come with him. There was the large pile of letters by his bed, the ones
+that had arrived from his parents, his godfather, and Remus almost
+immediately after he wrote them that he was going to Malfoy Manor. Harry
+hadn't opened any except the Howlers, which he had no choice about
+opening. As long as his parents didn't actually come to school and force
+him to go to Godric's Hollow---and they couldn't, not when a life debt
+was involved---then he was safe, and he'd deal with the letters after
+Christmas.
+
+``Yes, he's a prat,'' Draco insisted, drawing Harry's attention back to
+him. ``The first thing he did when he entered the common room was insult
+our color scheme. He's a plebian.''
+
+``Draco,'' Harry said with great restraint, as he charmed his trunk to
+levitate behind him, ``if you went to Gryffindor Tower, you would insult
+\emph{their} color scheme.''
+
+``Yes, but their color scheme deserves to be insulted.''
+
+Conscious that Draco would see absolutely nothing hypocritical about
+what he was saying, Harry gave up. ``Come on,'' he said, curling his
+scarf around his throat. ``We'll have to hurry if we want to catch the
+carriages to Hogsmeade.''
+
+Draco, of course, discovered that he was only half-packed, and flew
+around the room getting things ready. Harry leaned on the wall and
+watched. Draco hummed under his breath as he packed clothes, books,
+pictures, and small items that Harry could see no use bringing. He
+folded all the clothes neatly, and wrapped the more breakable things in
+cloth. He would have been every inch the Malfoy heir---
+
+If it weren't for the humming.
+
+Harry closed his eyes. \emph{Draco hums. If he can do that, I can
+survive a few weeks at Malfoy Manor.}
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+``Come on, Harry!''
+
+Harry winced as Draco's shout drifted back to him. The other boy darted
+ahead like a child, laughing and kicking up the snow behind him. Harry
+walked after him much more decorously, his trunk so tuned to his
+movements that it bobbed and floated up in the air when he raised his
+foot to step over a snowdrift that was higher than it appeared. Harry
+had learned that was a good method for making himself walk more slowly,
+and for making himself learn patience.
+
+He had assumed they would take the Express to King's Cross Station,
+where Draco's parents would meet them, but Draco had laughed at the
+thought of going to London for a holiday. No, he'd told Harry loftily,
+they would walk to the outskirts of Hogsmeade, beyond Hogwarts's
+anti-Apparition wards, and his mother would come to Portkey them back to
+the Manor.
+
+Harry had asked Draco why he rode the Express to get to school, then.
+Draco had gone off into a long spiel about tradition that Harry paid
+absolutely no attention to. He would either already know the pureblood
+traditions that Draco referred to, or Draco would have made them up.
+
+This wasn't bad weather for a walk, Harry thought. It was cold enough to
+make his breath plume in front of him, but not so cold that he could
+feel the winter digging through his clothes and making his marrow
+freeze. Draco's laughter wasn't as loud from a distance. The wizards and
+witches that passed them bore Christmas colors on their scarves and
+robes, and the Hogsmeade houses themselves had decorations, mostly
+snowflakes charmed into not melting and pinecones enchanted to glow
+different colors, hanging from their eaves and windows.
+
+``Harry!''
+
+Harry snapped his head forward, blinking. For a moment, he couldn't see
+where the cry was coming from, but then Draco put his head around a
+house and motioned frantically to him. Harry sped up, and rounded the
+house to find Draco tightly holding the hand of an incredibly beautiful
+witch.
+
+``Harry Potter,'' said Draco proudly, ``this is my mother, Narcissa
+Malfoy. Mother, may I present Harry Potter?''
+
+``You may,'' said Narcissa, and took a step forward, one hand held out.
+It was white, Harry saw, nearly as pale as the tumble of thick hair that
+she wore loose around her neck. The glow of warmth charms from the
+silver necklace clasping her throat explained her lack of a scarf or
+hat. Her face was fine-boned, the features elegant, in a way that
+reminded Harry of Sirius, or at least would have if Sirius ever looked
+like an adult. Her eyes were blue, very clear, and did not blink as she
+met his gaze. ``I am very pleased to meet you, Mr. Potter.''
+
+Harry bowed from the neck instead of taking her hand, using the delay to
+scan her hand for signs of a hidden Portkey, poisoned ring, or amulet. A
+silver bracelet on her left wrist radiated power, but had the pink glow
+of latent defensive magic; he would have to worry about it only if he
+was attacking her. He saw no signs of anything else threatening, and
+willingly pressed his lips to the center of her palm.
+
+``Mrs. Malfoy,'' he murmured. ``It is a pleasure to meet you. I come as
+a guest, willing to become a friend, and to abide by the laws of
+hospitality.''
+
+He stepped back. Draco's face was blank. Harry wasn't sure what that
+meant, but thought Draco probably hadn't recognized the courtesies he
+used.
+
+Narcissa Malfoy's face was a different matter entirely---alive, her blue
+eyes holding the fierce, intent gaze of a predator. She had a faint
+smile on her lips, one that Harry was almost sure meant appreciation and
+admiration. ``No one has used those words to me in a very long time, Mr.
+Potter,'' she said. ``I believe the last one was my great-uncle Black,
+and he died when I was a child.''
+
+``I prefer the old ways, Mrs. Malfoy,'' said Harry. His adrenaline was
+up, thundering in his veins. He forced his hands to spread in front of
+him, intent and relaxed, fingers loose to show that he couldn't be
+gripping a wand. Of course, he didn't need a wand, but he doubted that
+he would have to protect himself if this gambit worked. ``I understand
+that you are going to take us to Malfoy Manor with a Portkey. Do I have
+your word that this Portkey will land us outside the threshold of the
+Manor, so that I may accept your personal invitation inside?''
+
+``Harry,'' Draco scolded. ``You're being nonsensical.''
+
+``Hush, Draco,'' said Narcissa. She didn't say it loudly, or warningly,
+or with much of a tone in her voice at all, but Draco was instantly
+quiet. Narcissa didn't look away from Harry as she pulled a pebble out
+of her sleeve. ``I swear to you that this Portkey shall deposit us
+outside the threshold, Mr. Potter. When we land, I shall invite you in.
+I swear that no harm shall come to you during the journey, or on
+arriving if you do not trust my promise of hospitality.''
+
+``Thank you,'' Harry said, and waited until both Draco and Narcissa
+gripped the Portkey before putting his own hand on it. Narcissa smiled
+at him in the moments before the world whirred, someone grabbed Harry
+around the waist, and they leaped forward through the twisting
+nothingness that a Portkey generated.
+
+They arrived in a field of snow, unprinted and unmarked in three
+directions. Harry could feel the hum of enormous magic at his back, and
+was not surprised when he turned around and saw the Manor.
+
+The house did not sprawl, for all that it was big enough to do so. Every
+part of this building had been carefully planned, Harry had learned when
+studying the Malfoys, and it looked like it. The windows pointed in all
+directions, but the ones looking in the same direction were always of
+the same size. The gray stone that made it up varied in careful,
+beautiful patterns, washing from a dark shadowy color near the
+foundations to one that was almost silver at the eaves, making it look
+as though the Manor were caught in a cresting wave. The manor's door was
+painted a faint color that Harry knew mimicked the most ancient Malfoy
+crest, which had simply been a silver serpent on a field of blue-gray.
+
+And the wards were everywhere, massive and linked to blood and intent
+and power of magic and half a dozen other safeguards that Harry could
+not untangle in the moment before Narcissa spoke.
+
+``By blood shed on the earth,'' she said, and Harry turned back in time
+to see her spilling three drops of blood on the snow with a tiny silver
+dagger, ``I welcome you to our home. You shall have free use of the
+stone of our floors, the cloth of our beds, the fire that burns in our
+hearths. You may eat freely of our bread and our meat. And if any harm
+comes to you under our roof, then I will ask that the earth itself feel
+the treachery in my blood and rise up to destroy me.''
+
+Harry swallowed. It had not been the oath he would have asked for from
+her, being the most formal instead of the second most formal, but
+evidently he had impressed her enough to warrant it.
+
+Of course, if he broke one of the guest-laws, or attacked a Malfoy, then
+he was fair game.
+
+``In the name of Merlin,'' he replied, ``I accept your claim. I promise
+in turn to leave the stones as clean of blood as I found them, the cloth
+as unstained with any foulness, the fire undamped by any mistake. I
+honor the bread and the meat, and the hands that made them. And I will
+ask that the earth reach through my own blood and congeal it to rock in
+my veins, do I break my word on this.''
+
+Narcissa's wound sealed with a white light, and she inclined her head.
+``In the name of Merlin,'' she said, ``I accept your claim.''
+
+``Good,'' said Draco, stamping a foot. ``Now, can we go inside? It's
+bloody \emph{freezing} out here.''
+
+``Draco, language,'' said Narcissa in the same mild tone she'd used
+before, and Draco murmured an apology before scampering ahead to the
+door. Harry followed. He didn't think he was ready to be alone with
+Draco's mother right now.
+
+He could feel the wards closing in around him, accepting and evaluating
+him. Most of them gave way at once; they were the ones designed to keep
+Muggles or Squibs away, or to search for hostile intent towards the
+family. Others lingered on his shoulders like suspicious snakes, at
+least until they realized the strength of his magic and the
+blood-promise which guarded him. Then they relaxed and melted away, and
+left Harry, blinking, to follow Draco.
+
+The door opened before they reached it. A tall, slender man stood framed
+in it, staring out at them.
+
+``Father!'' Draco shouted gleefully, and raced towards him, arms spread
+wide.
+
+Harry set his shoulders and tilted his head back. He was about to have
+his first formal introduction to a Death Eater. Of course, he had met
+Bellatrix Lestrange in far more intimate circumstances, but he hadn't
+been introduced.
+
+He should have been laughing. He was not. The formality mattered. The
+purebloods had used games like this---or dances, as Sirius had once told
+him they thought of them---for centuries to cut out the less
+intelligent, the boorish, the less magically talented, and the
+rebellious, and to keep peace between and within families. This tune of
+strict manners had to be heard, had to be moved to, or the other dancers
+would turn vicious.
+
+Draco turned and presented Lucius to Harry just as he had his mother.
+Harry barely listened. He was too busy meeting Lucius Malfoy's eyes.
+
+Lucius looked like his son would look if Draco had first grown older and
+then frozen. Pale hair and gray eyes, yes, but Harry thought that he
+must have put on a mask of ice during the first war with Voldemort and
+never taken it off. Or perhaps this was his special mask for unwanted
+guests.
+
+Harry frowned slightly when his eyes went to Lucius's left arm and a
+corresponding twinge traveled through his scar. \emph{Yes, I know that
+he was a Death Eater. There's no need for me to have prophetic dreams
+about that.}
+
+Lucius, however, surprised him. After that cold stare, he bowed and
+said, ``I am glad that my son suggested a way we might meet, Mr. Potter.
+I have heard so much about you from him, and look forward to a
+beneficial exchange.''
+
+Harry breathed in deeply. There were traps in those words. He knew how
+to dodge them. ``Your wife has been kind enough to grant me guest-right
+with a blood-promise, Mr. Malfoy.'' \emph{I'm safe here.} ``And I assume
+that your son has told you of the reason I agreed to come in the first
+place.'' \emph{Draco's life debt protects me.} ``With those in place, I
+see no reason why we should not speak in cheerful amicability.'' \emph{I
+know that you might try anything, and I am prepared for it.}
+
+With a slight smile on his lips, Lucius moved out of the way and used
+his cane to gesture into the house. ``Welcome to Malfoy Manor, Mr.
+Potter.''
+
+``Thank you, sir,'' Harry responded, and stepped inside, his trunk
+bouncing behind him. Draco had already darted ahead, yelling glorious,
+incomprehensible nonsense about what room Harry would have. Harry made
+his way after him, beneath the gaze of disapproving portraits.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+It wasn't actually the size of the house, Harry thought the next
+evening, nor even the presence of ancient and powerful artifacts, that
+made this place so different from Godric's Hollow. It was the
+dance---that unheard formal music playing in the background, except when
+Draco and Harry were alone, that guided everyone's movements and made
+him or her hyper-aware of every little gesture, every glance, every
+word.
+
+Harry had expected to find it wearying. Much to his surprise, he was
+enjoying it.
+
+He'd slept in a beautiful room without portraits, clearly kept for
+guests, with windows that faced east for sunrise-watching and a small
+panel of enchanted ceiling that showed any constellations he asked it
+to. A house elf had awakened him with pumpkin juice that morning, and he
+and Draco, after a breakfast so solid that Harry was amazed Draco wasn't
+as heavy as Vince or Greg, had raced out to have a snowball fight, sled,
+fly on the now-buried Quidditch Pitch, and argue constantly about small
+things that they forgot five minutes later. Draco had laughed and
+laughed, hard enough to crack his lips and turn his face red with
+exertion, and Harry had found himself smiling back, unable to miss
+Connor or his parents that much with someone who so clearly enjoyed his
+company.
+
+Lunch had been much the same as breakfast, and then they'd sat and
+listened to Narcissa play the piano and sing old history songs while
+wind and snow flew around the Manor. Harry had read the songs, the
+ancient method of keeping wizarding history alive before the common
+spread of literacy, but had never heard them, and he sat shivering
+harder than he had outside while Narcissa sang, beginning to end, the
+tale of Hogwarts' Four Founders---their childhood, and how they decided,
+together, to create a center and heart of wizarding education. The song
+ended on a triumphant but lonely note, with Salazar Slytherin standing
+outside the school after the creation of a mighty spell, just before his
+legendary quarrel with Godric Gryffindor. Harry closed his eyes and
+immersed himself in the last lingering notes of the music long after it
+had ended.
+
+Harry had bowed his head when the song was done, and chosen his
+compliments from the long list of formal ones approved by pureblood
+wizards down the generations, and the Black family in particular.
+Narcissa had accepted them with an enjoyment keener, Harry suspected,
+than if he had made up his own original words to praise her in. Narcissa
+appeared, in her own way, to appreciate his presence here as much as
+Draco did.
+
+Lucius was---more of an enigma.
+
+Harry lifted his head. They were sitting in the Malfoys' gathering room,
+the place the family would use for meetings specifically with invited
+guests or trusted relatives whom they didn't wish to bring into their
+most private counsels. The portraits on the walls were all refined
+enough not to stare at Harry, and the walls were crowded with books.
+Draco was sitting in the chair on the left side of the hearth with a
+book on the theory of wandless magic, Harry in a chair on the right side
+with a book on the history of Slytherin House that Draco had shoved into
+his hands with a glare that promised death if he objected. Narcissa sat
+opposite Draco on a divan, waving her wand and casting nonverbal spells
+that Harry didn't recognize into a silver necklace.
+
+Lucius sat in a chair opposite Harry, heavy enough to be a throne, and
+stared at Harry the entire time.
+
+Harry met his gaze for a moment. Lucius took a sip of his wine. He
+nodded to Harry, as though some point had been scored or some matter
+resolved, but he didn't stop staring.
+
+Harry shrugged and turned back to his book. He knew the confrontation
+between them would not be long in coming, but for right now, he was
+going to read, and accept, even thrill to, in a strange way, the feeling
+of cool, appraising eyes on him.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+``Harry, wake up!''
+
+Harry blinked his eyes, groggily, and lifted his head. It was dark
+beyond his window, but someone was pounding on his door and calling his
+name.
+
+``Wake up, Harry!'' came Draco's muffled voice. ``It's \emph{Christmas
+morning!} Come on, Harry!''
+
+Harry cast \emph{Lumos} wandlessly, so that he could see where his wand
+was, and then used that to catch up his glasses. The room became a
+little less blurry after that, but it was still dark, still around five
+in the morning, and still early enough that the portraits grumbled and
+shifted in their frames.
+
+Harry opened the door, and Draco promptly grabbed his hand and dragged
+him down the stairs.
+
+``Draco,'' Harry tried to protest, as Draco tugged him towards the room
+they hadn't been permitted to visit yesterday, ``shouldn't we wait for
+your parents? I don't think it's proper to go in at this hour---''
+
+``Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter,'' Narcissa's voice said softly. Harry
+looked up and saw her leaning out of the door ahead of them, wearing a
+smile that would have done credit to a dragon.
+
+``They're already here,'' said Draco, and shoved Harry ahead of him.
+``We do Christmas early at the Manor.''
+
+Harry shrugged helplessly, and then caught sight of the tree in the
+center of the room. All the breath left his lungs at once.
+
+The only light came from the Yule log roaring in the hearth, and the
+tree itself. Captured snowflakes hung on its branches, charmed, as in
+Hogsmeade, not to melt, but also glowing with a dazzle of silver and
+golden sparks that traced the outer edges of their patterns, shining and
+then vanishing again. Others, or perhaps other spells, twinkled from
+beneath the needles. Harry saw garlands of pure light dodging and
+ducking around the snowflakes, changing their positions from moment to
+moment. On top stood a star, a snowflake made up of many smaller ones,
+the middle a dizzying maze, the outside fed with silver fire that seemed
+to coalesce from beyond the star, making it shine like the moon.
+
+``It's like Slytherin come again,'' Harry whispered, the only compliment
+he could come up with at the moment, and the one most in his mind as he
+recalled the equally cold, beautiful song from yesterday.
+
+``Thank you, Mr. Potter,'' said Narcissa, and then nodded to the
+enormous pile of presents beneath the tree. ``The three near the outer
+edge are from us.''
+
+Harry blinked. ``Mrs. Malfoy, you didn't have to---'' He had brought
+gifts for them, as was a guest's duty, but they were absolutely
+traditional ones: silver rings that would glow when someone hostile was
+near. He had given them the first evening he arrived, and the Malfoys
+had accepted them with grave thanks. He had received his gifts from
+Connor and his parents before coming, and had given Draco his gift, as
+well, a jumper that would warm him up or cool him down on command. He
+had not expected anything from the Malfoys, simply to observe and be in
+the same room with them.
+
+Narcissa bent near him. ``And we would not have,'' she said softly, ``if
+you had not impressed us so much.''
+
+Harry nodded hesitantly, and then joined Draco, who was already ripping
+heedlessly at the paper of his first gift. He let out a cheerful yell
+when he uncovered it. ``A book on wandless magic! Thank you, Father!''
+
+Lucius, sitting on the other side of the tree, nodded his response.
+Harry, looking back and forth between his cold face and Draco's beaming
+one, finally made out the answer to something that had been puzzling
+him---how Draco could come from a home where the music of the
+purebloods' formal dance played so strongly and yet act like he did
+around his parents. He could do it because he knew, with perfect
+confidence, exactly where he stood. He was enthusiastic about things he
+was allowed to be enthusiastic about, and otherwise proper. When he
+strayed over a boundary, as he had with Narcissa two days ago, she would
+correct him at once, and Draco obeyed at once.
+
+It was nothing like the relationship Harry and Connor had with their
+parents, but Harry suspected it might work just as well.
+
+``Well, Mr. Potter,'' said Narcissa, ``please open your gifts.''
+
+Harry turned his attention to the first gift, which, when he opened it,
+proved to be from Draco. He held it up and caught his breath. It was a
+glass ball, and inside the ball floated a miniature model of the solar
+system, the sun a dazzling speck too bright to look at it in the center,
+while around it surged the nine planets and their moons. Harry gently
+touched the glass, and the rotation sped. He took his hand away, and it
+dropped back to the same stately dance it had been before, for every
+planet except tiny Mercury, which went on zipping around the sun like a
+Seeker after the Snitch.
+
+``Thank you, Draco,'' he whispered. He had no special interest in
+Astronomy, but it was the beauty of the gift that counted, and it was
+very beautiful. Draco, in the middle of opening yet another gift,
+grinned at him.
+
+``Now mine, Harry,'' said Narcissa, and Harry registered the change in
+name, the slightly greater warmth in her voice. She knew how impressed
+he was with her son's gift, and that had earned him points in her eyes.
+
+Harry, filled with an eerie contentment, unwrapped the gift with the
+neatest silver paper. He smiled as he found a copy of the book he had
+been reading yesterday, on the history of Slytherin House.
+
+``Draco told me that you had almost no prior knowledge of Slytherin,
+since you'd expected to be Sorted into Gryffindor,'' Narcissa explained.
+``I thought you might like this book.''
+
+``It's very thoughtful of you, Mrs. Malfoy,'' Harry said. ``Thank you.''
+He turned to the final gift, aware of Lucius's eyes on him.
+
+He unwrapped what seemed a blank piece of glass at first; he thought it
+was a mirror, but when he moved his hand in front of it, nothing
+happened. Then he made out a shadow in it, located towards the side
+nearest the tree, and far more distant and shadowy figures located in
+what seemed to be the back of the mirror.
+
+Harry blinked, and then shivered a bit as he recognized it. It was a
+Foe-Glass, a mirror that would show him his enemies. As they came
+nearer, it would show their faces.
+
+``Thank you, Mr. Malfoy,'' he said slowly, and lifted his eyes to meet
+Lucius's. ``I am sure that I will find it useful.''
+
+Lucius inclined his head, and said nothing.
+
+``Oh, Mother!'' Draco exclaimed, starting up suddenly. ``I forgot! The
+sun is almost up.''
+
+Narcissa blinked, then stood. ``Excuse us, Harry, please,'' she said,
+with a nod. ``Draco and I always watch the sunrise on Christmas morning.
+It's a family tradition.'' She cast the Summoning Charm, and a pair of
+jackets, one large and one small, streaked into the room. She bundled
+Draco up, and then herself, and they left the room, hand in hand. Draco
+half-leaned towards his mother as he walked.
+
+Harry watched them go, imagining what they must look like as they
+watched the sunrise together, and then turned as he heard a faint sound
+behind him. Lucius had risen to his feet.
+
+``I find myself in need of some more light,'' he said. ``My study has
+candles that light themselves. Will you not come with me, Mr. Potter? We
+have not yet had any private time to talk, and I would appreciate it.''
+
+Harry nodded slowly. He was alone with Lucius Malfoy, and he could guess
+some of the things that would happen in this conversation. Lucius had so
+far kept his claws sheathed, for the sake of his son and his wife. He
+was about to extend them now.
+
+Harry noticed, with a sort of distant amusement almost hidden behind all
+the memories of pureblood customs he was marshaling, that the shadow in
+the left side of the Foe-Glass acquired a face as Lucius swept past him
+and towards the door.
+
+\subsection{*Chapter 17*: The Dance}\label{chapter-17-the-dance}
+
+\textbf{Chapter Sixteen: The Dance}
+
+Harry walked into the study directly behind Lucius, not wanting to give
+him time to set up traps or firecall an ally. The room was wide and,
+Harry thought, five-sided, though enough bookcases crowded the walls
+that it was hard to be sure of that. More wards coiled and hissed around
+him as he entered, letting him pass only because of whom he walked in
+with. The walls were the blue-gray color of the front door, of the old
+Malfoy crest, and bore no decoration save one portrait above the
+fireplace.
+
+Harry turned back to face Lucius's wand, drawn and pointing directly at
+him. He grabbed for his own, trained reflexes springing into action.
+
+He moved only a second behind Lucius, but that was enough.
+
+``\emph{Probo Memoriter,}'' Lucius intoned, and a jet of faint blue light
+sprang from his wand and struck Harry.
+
+Harry closed his eyes and waited for the spell to take effect. He
+reminded himself forcefully that the spell could not be offensive, or it
+would dishonor both Lucius's son and his wife. Of course, the Death
+Eater he'd heard stories of might be ruthless enough not to care about
+that.
+
+He felt his mind bulge and ripple oddly, and then he was remembering a
+day when he and Connor had been five, and Lily had had them playing on
+the lawn outside the house at Godric's Hollow. Connor had been playing
+with a toy broom, catching it out of the air like a Snitch when it flew
+past him. Harry had been reading a simple spellbook that described the
+charms he would be practicing that night when Connor slept, things like
+\emph{Wingardium Leviosa} and \emph{Alohomora.} The sun had shone, the
+sky had been a brushed, cloudless blue, and their mother had sat not far
+from both of them and watched them with wide eyes from which, for once,
+all shadows had fled.
+
+The remembered scene flowed to that night, when Harry had practiced the
+charms and managed to levitate his pillow on his third try. Lily had
+come in during the middle of that and held him tightly for a few
+minutes. So vivid was the memory that Harry could feel her arms clasping
+him around the waist and shoulders.
+
+The scene flowed to one of himself, seven years old, and mentally
+repeating the long list of pureblood courtesies he had learned that day
+as he lay on his back in the grass and watched the stars with Connor.
+Remus was telling Connor a story about the day a young wizard and a
+young Muggle had become friends. Harry had already had his story from
+Sirius, who, if he thought it odd that his young godson wanted to hear
+about formal dinners in the House of Black, never failed to indulge him.
+
+Now Harry was nine and managing his first bits of wandless magic, after
+which he would always collapse immediately. But he persisted, and
+between May and August, he improved by leaps and bounds. Once he had
+looked up and seen their mother watching him from the doorway, her face
+bearing a faint smile both proud and worried.
+
+And now Harry was ten---
+
+Harry, struggling beneath the surface of the memories, managed to open
+his eyes. He realized that they were creating images that hovered in the
+air between him and Lucius, playing out in dazzling color and sound.
+Lucius had his eyes locked on them, a faint frown on his face.
+
+Harry had never heard of this spell, but he had a fair idea of its
+effect by now. He gritted his teeth and called up the will that had
+served him so well in the forest. He shoved at the faint blue light that
+crackled about him, seeking out and displaying more memories.
+
+\emph{Leave me.}
+
+The web of light bent and flexed around him, stubborn at first, but
+Harry was more stubborn. He clenched a hand in front of him, and the web
+abruptly snapped.
+
+Harry staggered back one step, then managed to recover his balance and
+look up at Lucius. The older wizard stood with his wand extended still,
+watching Harry as if he were a particularly interesting species of fish.
+
+Harry spent a few moments getting his breath back. It was impossible to
+hide that he was somewhat disconcerted, but he wanted to look as
+composed as possible. A weakness was a \emph{faux pas} in the dance,
+worse than a mere wrong glance or gesture. A wrong glance or gesture
+might be a mistake. A weakness was far more likely to be a truth,
+something the weak wizard should have hidden.
+
+``Mr. Malfoy,'' he said at last, ``you have used a spell on me without
+warning and without my consent, and in response to no slight that I can
+see. You extended an invitation to come to your study with you, and I
+accepted it. For you to treat me as if I had broken the guest-laws is
+unacceptable. I'll wait for Draco and Mrs. Malfoy to return, so I may
+bid them farewell. I ask that you have a Portkey waiting so that I may
+return to Hogwarts when that is done. I bid you good day.'' He turned
+and walked towards the door of the study.
+
+Lucius locked it with a nonverbal spell before Harry reached it. He
+turned around, this time with his magic poised about him. He could not
+remember being this coldly furious before. He had done everything
+correctly. Lucius had \emph{no right} to act as he had been acting. To
+be a Death Eater was one thing, but Lucius was breaking the ancient laws
+left and right. It offended Harry on a level he hadn't even known
+existed in himself.
+
+``Mr. Potter,'' said Lucius quietly, ``please accept my apology. I
+thought that you would attack me when the spell was lifted. Instead, you
+have abided by the laws, and would even depart before I could tender an
+apology.'' He dipped his head, his eyes never leaving Harry's. ``That
+spell was a test, as was the gift of the Foe-Glass and my impolite
+staring last night and everything else I have done since you came here.
+Each time, you have responded as though you were the son of two
+pureblooded wizards, and, moreover, one trained in the most ancient
+courtesies. I assumed that you would act as the son of a Mudblood.
+Forgive me for so assuming.''
+
+Harry held himself rigid for a moment, waiting, but that seemed to be
+the end of Lucius's little speech. \emph{He} was waiting now, and Harry
+had to respond.
+
+Of course, there was a test happening even now. If Harry reacted to the
+word \emph{Mudblood}, he would confirm Lucius's assumptions, and that he
+did not deserve the apology. If he attacked Lucius, he would break the
+guest-laws, which, technically, had not been broken. Testing was
+permitted under the dance, was in fact the biggest part of the dance,
+and the spell had not been offensive or harmful.
+
+\emph{He was digging out information from my memories to see what
+Connor's strengths and weaknesses are,} Harry thought. \emph{Of course
+it was harmful.}
+
+But Connor was not actually here, and the spell had inflicted no harm,
+physical, emotional, magical, spiritual, or mental, on Harry himself.
+That was the set of steps Lucius was using, as proven by the fact that
+he hadn't apologized for any specific effect of the spell. Harry had to
+respond in the same kind of dance, or give up the protection of the
+guest-laws.
+
+\emph{So do what you have to. Survive. Make it through the holidays so
+that you can make it back to Hogwarts, and Godric's Hollow, and Connor.
+And forgive yourself for what you have to do in the meantime.}
+
+Harry met Lucius's eyes again and said, ``Mr. Malfoy, I accept your
+apology. I insist, however, that you ask me before performing any spell
+on me in the future. I consider myself to be the son of a Mudblood and a
+pureblooded wizard who has been fortunate enough to receive a nearly
+complete pureblood education from his father and Sirius Black.'' He
+registered the spasm of distaste that crossed Lucius's face at Sirius's
+name, but he didn't allow it to dissuade him. ``I am also the brother of
+the Boy-Who-Lived, and only immense guarantees of safety have allowed me
+to feel comfortable in Malfoy Manor. Any deviation from those guarantees
+makes me nervous. I am sure that, as a pureblooded wizard yourself, you
+understand.''
+
+Lucius studied him for a long moment. Harry waited. He hadn't missed
+either the spasm of distaste, nor the flicker of shock in those chill
+gray eyes when Harry had called his own mother a Mudblood. Of course,
+Lucius would have understood---Harry was acting the pureblood part he
+must---but he still must not have thought Harry would do it.
+
+Harry sighed to himself. \emph{Connor would not have. He would stick to
+family pride and honor, and claim Mum proudly. I wish I could do that.
+And perhaps I could, if I wanted to endanger my life.}
+
+\emph{I can't. My life doesn't belong to me. It's Connor's. And this is
+what will let me get out of here and return to his side.}
+
+Lucius at last nodded, once, and then relaxed, his mask of ice seeming
+to melt for the first time. ``Please, sit down,'' he said, gesturing to
+a chair in front of the hearth. ``I promise that the only spells on this
+chair are ones to make it more comfortable.''
+
+Harry nodded, murmured his thanks, and walked over to it. The chair was
+narrow, hard, high-backed, and high. His feet didn't reach the ground.
+Harry ignored that. If he complained about it, the advantage would go to
+Lucius.
+
+``Since it is Christmas, I believe that mulled cider may be in order,''
+said Lucius, and waved his wand. Two mugs of a steaming drink appeared.
+He carried one over to Harry, then took a seat in an identical chair
+across from him and inclined his head. ``You may make the toast, Mr.
+Potter.''
+
+Harry didn't hesitate. Too long a pause would also convey weakness. ``To
+being alive,'' he said, and drank. The cider tickled the inside of his
+mouth unpleasantly, and he couldn't escape the thought that it might be
+poisoned---except that Lucius would be beyond stupid to poison him now,
+while Harry was still inside the protection of the guest-laws. Harry had
+as much confidence in his enemy's intelligence as in his willingness to
+poison him, so he drank three mouthfuls and then put the cup down on his
+lap. It made his hands tingle with greater warmth than the fire could
+convey.
+
+Lucius sipped at his own. His eyes never left Harry's. A moment later,
+he settled against the back of his chair and said, ``I see that you have
+trained long and hard. Unusual to see such mastery of wandless magic in
+one so young, never mind such a repertoire of difficult and valuable
+spells. Tell me, Mr. Potter, why have you trained so? You are the
+brother of the Boy-Who-Lived. The Dark Lord is vanquished. You have your
+parents and your teachers to watch over you. Even my son, though I drive
+him hard in other ways, has more time to learn his magic.''
+
+Harry kept his face still. If Lucius wasn't going to refer to how he
+gained those memories, neither was he. ``I do not believe in resting on
+laurels, Mr. Malfoy,'' he said, and sipped at his cider again. ``I
+believe the Dark Lord will come again. And we must all be ready to meet
+him when he does.''
+
+``Ah,'' said Lucius softly. ``Then your brother, the Boy-Who-Lived, also
+undergoes the same intense training program?''
+
+Every time Lucius spoke of Connor, Harry felt as though his insides were
+being scraped over with a dull knife. But he ignored that as well. He
+was still the weaker partner in this dance. He had to guard himself,
+which in turn would guard Connor. And, he told himself, Lucius could not
+know for certain that Connor did not have the same training. He had not
+seen enough memories to be sure of that. ``His training is complementary
+to mine,'' Harry chose to say.
+
+Lucius's eyes flickered again, though Harry could not be sure which
+emotion they held. He sipped. Harry sipped.
+
+``My son has spoken of you a great deal,'' Lucius said. ``When I first
+read his letters, I was surprised. A Potter in Slytherin? A Potter
+willingly becoming friends with a Malfoy?'' He smiled, but this time
+only his mouth moved; his eyes had gone cold again. ``Tell me, Mr.
+Potter, why have you befriended my son?''
+
+\emph{This is the protective father,} Harry thought, and felt
+instinctively more comfortable. Lucius was not the perfect frozen
+pureblooded wizard on this ground. He would be easier to shove and push
+off-balance if Harry had to, and Harry thought he could do that best by
+telling the absolute truth.
+
+``Draco has befriended me, more than the other way around,'' Harry said.
+``I would not wish to reject him. And I am certain that he wrote to you
+about his life debt to me and how he chose to fulfill it.''
+
+``Yes,'' said Lucius. ``Of course, he did not explain the circumstances
+of the debt to me---how it came about or how you saved his life.''
+
+``Life debts are such private things,'' Harry murmured. ``And such
+ancient ones. I think it is an honor done to tradition if we invest them
+with mystery.''
+
+Lucius smiled, genuinely, and lifted his cider mug in a brief toast to
+Harry. Harry checked his own emotions, and found himself caught in the
+same odd pleasure he had experienced since coming to the Manor. Lucius
+was a murderous Death Eater who would no doubt stop at nothing to insure
+that Connor died or was given to the Dark Lord. But he could also be
+counted on to stay inside certain boundaries, borders, cages, when not
+actually in battle. Such boundaries permitted certain moments of mutual
+respect and admiration. Harry knew his relationship with Lucius would
+ever be strained, but it worked beautifully.
+
+``Enough about my son,'' Lucius said. ``How \emph{is} it that the son of
+a Mudblood received a pureblood wizarding education?''
+
+``I wished to have it,'' Harry said. ``My family had no reason to deny
+it to me.''
+
+``Interesting,'' said Lucius, raising his eyebrows. ``I would have
+thought that any son of James Potter would be encouraged to follow the
+Muggle-lovers' traditions. To worship Dumbledore, for example. To avoid
+the word \emph{Mudblood} as if it were a curse. To not know any
+pureblood traditions as a matter of pride.''
+
+Harry kept his face blank. That was a perfect description of Connor,
+who, while he had bits of pureblood tradition in his head, didn't know
+what they were, and had certainly never been taught them separate from
+the rest of his general wizarding education.
+
+``My family had no reason to deny that to me, either,'' he said.
+
+Lucius leaned a bit back in his chair. Harry was certain he was
+accepting that, processing it, evaluating it, and concluding that Harry
+knew both worlds. It happened to be true. It might also make Lucius
+hesitate when going after Connor, if he thought that Connor had a
+similar education.
+
+\emph{Connor will need it,} Harry thought, with an aching in his heart.
+\emph{I know he'll resist it, but we} must \emph{start this summer. We
+may already have left it too long in our desire to protect his
+innocence.}
+
+``Then why are you in Slytherin House?'' Lucius asked, abandoning
+subtlety altogether and thus changing the steps of the dance. Harry sat
+up, hearing the quicker, more dangerous music playing. ``That might
+indicate that you are choosing one side of your education over the
+other.''
+
+``A student does not choose his own House,'' said Harry.
+
+Lucius laughed at that. Harry blinked. The chuckle was rich, with a
+hiccupping sound near the end of it. It was very hard to imagine a man
+who laughed like that torturing and killing children. Harry would have
+been inclined to think that Lucius had a cold laugh, like the one he
+heard in his dreams sometimes.
+
+``Come, come, Harry,'' said Lucius. ``You can tell me. What did the Hat
+say to you when it put you in Slytherin?''
+
+Harry tilted his chin. What he was about to do next was dangerous, but
+if he allowed the change of names to pass unremarked, then he was
+accepting an unequal position to Lucius's. He would not allow that to
+happen.
+
+``Why, Lucius,'' he said, ``I imagine that it said much the same thing
+it said to you.''
+
+\emph{There,} Harry thought, as the elder Malfoy's face was wiped blank
+again, \emph{let him chew on that for a while, and wonder what I meant.}
+
+There was silence for a time, while Lucius sipped his cider and watched
+Harry. Harry watched him right back, wondering what the next sally would
+consist of.
+
+``Did you know,'' Lucius said at last, his voice sinking a little,
+``that your magic is very powerful, Harry? Flexible and adaptable.
+Nearly as strong as I remember being when I was a child.''
+
+Harry reached out briefly towards Lucius, but could feel nothing. He hid
+his own magical strength behind a series of carefully constructed
+shields. Harry nodded. He had no way of knowing whether Lucius's
+statement was truth or lie, and therefore no reason to take such a
+compliment seriously.
+
+``Thank you, Lucius,'' he said. ``But, in truth, I am only the brother
+of the Boy-Who-Lived.''
+
+\emph{There.} There was one flash of wide, suddenly alert gray eyes.
+Harry concealed a smile. Let that rumor guard Connor. Anything that
+might protect him was a help.
+
+Lucius surveyed him in silence again. Harry drank his cider and
+pretended this was a pleasant, private meeting together.
+
+Then someone knocked on the door of the study, at the same time as
+something tapped on the window. Harry looked up and saw a magnificent
+tawny owl waiting to be let in with a letter around his leg. The knocker
+proved to be Draco, who was calling in the next moment, ``Father? Harry?
+Are you all right?''
+
+Lucius rose gracefully to his feet and went to let the owl in. His eyes
+never left Harry as he did so, however, even as he removed the letter.
+
+``Thank you, Harry,'' he said. ``This has been most enlightening. Now,
+if you wish, please rejoin my son. He sounds anxious about you.'' He
+paused for a long moment. ``I cannot imagine why.''
+
+Taking those words as the truce offering they probably were, Harry
+nodded and put his empty mug on the arm of the chair. ``Thank you for
+the cider and the conversation, Lucius. Both were uniquely flavored.''
+
+Lucius smiled, though it was less a smile than a baring of teeth. ``I
+look forward to meeting with you in the future, Harry Potter,'' he said.
+
+Harry inclined his head and went out, where he had to first reassure a
+frantic Draco that nothing had happened, and then tell him that, no,
+that didn't mean he'd changed his mind about Lucius being a willing
+Death Eater. Then Narcissa came walking back in, a black eagle-owl that
+Harry recognized as Godric on her arm. Godric bore a letter from his
+twin.
+
+Right behind him came two more owls that Harry recognized as his
+mother's and Remus's. Lily's owl had two letters.
+
+With a sigh, Harry went to read his family's anxious inquiries about
+whether he had been killed, and to reply that, no, he hadn't been.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+Lucius waited until the door had closed before he unfolded the letter.
+Of course it was a breach of the guest-laws for a guest to attempt to
+read the post uninvited, but that didn't mean that Harry Potter wouldn't
+find a way.
+
+The letter was brief, to the point, and really nothing more than a
+confirmation of another letter he had received some weeks before. Lucius
+wrote out a brief reply, attached it to the owl's foot, and watched it
+hurtle up into the blank winter sky, heading north. That really meant
+nothing, of course.
+
+Lucius walked back to finish his cider, and consider what he had learned
+in this conversation, or rather stuttering waltz, with Harry Potter.
+
+The boy was everything his son had promised, and more. Lucius could see
+why Draco was so fascinated. Harry's magic made his own pulse pound with
+attraction to the power, interest in the wielder, wariness in case it
+was turned on him, and the competitive desire to match that power with
+his own.
+
+What he had not known was that Harry had such full command of wandless
+magic, of spellbreaking, and of pureblood courtesies. He would have done
+James's grandfather, the last Potter really worthy of the name,
+proud---and he would have done him proud as a scion of eighteen or
+nineteen, ready to take his place as formal heir of the family. Control
+like that was unnatural in a child so young, just as the powerful magic
+was. Lucius knew of no reason that Harry should possess it.
+
+Now that he was alone, he let one fist clench a little at the lost
+opportunity that the \emph{Probo Memoriter} spell represented. He had
+seen that the Potters had trained their elder son hard, but he had not
+learned the purpose behind the training, nor what kind of education
+Connor Potter might have. Of course, Draco thought the boy was weak, but
+Draco was too absorbed in both Harry and himself to make rational
+judgments of that kind.
+
+And then Harry had snapped the spell with a minor effort, and acted as
+an offended pureblood heir would, instead of the hot-tempered,
+Muggle-loving boy Lucius had expected to find.
+
+\emph{Well, that only makes sense, doesn't it? He does have a temper,
+but he keeps it hidden. And he is not a boy, whatever his age.}
+
+Lucius let a faint smile play around his lips. Of course, the Potters
+had already chosen the side that would lose in the end---the letter he
+had received today was proof of that---but he felt a fierce gladness
+that he would get to face an enemy like Harry Potter on the battlefield
+before that end.
+
+\emph{If the boy} could \emph{be turned\ldots{}}
+
+Lucius did not let himself think like that, though. It was possible that
+Harry would be turned, by his friendship with Draco and his presence in
+Slytherin House if nothing else, but eleven hard years of training did
+not seem to have altered him into the kind of wizard who would even
+entertain it as a possibility. More, the boy preferred the most ancient
+ways, for all that he had followed the modern dance without missing a
+step. Pureblood customs that formal most often ended by forming people
+who would break before they would bend.
+
+And yet, the boy had said \emph{Mudblood}, as if he spoke it every day.
+
+Lucius briskly shook his head and snapped his fingers to call Dobby with
+his mantle. He was spending too much thought on this young friend of his
+son's. It was time that he leave on this errand for his lord. He had to
+retrieve a certain item hidden on the coast of Scotland. He wanted to do
+it, and then be home before lunch, so that he might spend Christmas with
+his family.
+
+\emph{And our most unusual guest, of course.}
+
+\subsection{*Chapter 18*: Interlude: Concerned
+Relatives}\label{chapter-18-interlude-concerned-relatives}
+
+Yes, I know this is a short chapter. That's why another one is upcoming
+in a bit, when I get it written.
+
+For now, enjoy Harry's letters and his replies.
+
+\textbf{Interlude: Concerned Relatives}
+
+\emph{December 24th, 1991}
+
+Dear Harry:
+
+It's so lonely here without you! The tree is gleaming, and there's a big
+pile of presents underneath it, and Sirius and Remus are singing silly
+Muggle Christmas carols, but I still wish you were here. Did you really
+\emph{have} to go to the Malfoys' house? I could have had Hermione look
+in the library to see if there's a way to remove life debts without
+killing the other wizard. I bet there's a way.
+
+I'm sorry about all the Howlers Dad and Sirius sent you. I think it was
+awful of them, and I made them promise to apologize. Dad's even writing
+you a regular letter now. I hope it has an apology in it.
+
+I've got to go. We're going to have mulled cider and then go walking out
+in the snow. Then it's coming back and sleeping the night away until
+tomorrow!
+
+Have a Merry Christmas, and give Malfoy a big punch in the nose from me.
+
+Love,
+
+\emph{Connor.}
+
+\emph{December 26th, 1991}
+
+Dear Connor:
+
+I miss you, too. I meant what I said about spending every Christmas
+together from now on. It feels unnatural to be apart from my twin
+brother for this long.
+
+I promise, it's not awful here. The Malfoys are purebloods, so they do
+things differently than we do, but they've still made me welcome and
+even comfortable, in a weird way. They gave me gifts, which they didn't
+have to do. They haven't said anything disparaging about Mother or
+Father, and Draco and I play in the snow all the time. You ought to see
+Draco when he has snow in his hair. He's really just a normal kid,
+Connor. You ought to get to know him when we're back at school.
+
+Mrs. Malfoy is very cool and proud and elegant, and one of the most
+beautiful women I've ever seen. I've treated her like I would one of
+Sirius's relatives. She seems to accept that, even appreciate it. Mr.
+Malfoy has also made me welcome, though he's even more reserved than his
+wife. That's all right. No one's tried to kill me or poison me or stab
+me with a sword in the night.
+
+I certainly will not give Draco a punch in the nose from you. But a
+snowball down the back of his jumper isn't out of the question,
+especially if he doesn't stop whining at me to come play outside when I
+am busy writing letters.
+
+I'll see you in a few weeks.
+
+Love,
+
+\emph{Your brother, Harry.}
+
+\emph{}
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+\emph{December 24th, 1991}
+
+Dear son:
+
+All right, yes, the Howlers were uncalled for. Your brother scolded me
+for embarrassing you in front of the Great Hall. I remember how much I
+hated it when my mother did that to me, and I apologize.
+
+But the Malfoys! They've insulted and belittled the Potter line for as
+long as both our families have existed. You don't know the terrible
+things they've done to us---you were too busy learning courtesies. I
+suppose the courtesies are important now, since they're helping you
+survive there, but you should know that Abraxas Malfoy, Lucius's father,
+once challenged my father, John, to a duel, and then tried to curse him
+even before the duel properly began. You can't trust a Malfoy, just as
+you can't trust a Slytherin. Be careful, son.
+
+I've written to Headmaster Dumbledore asking about a Re-Sorting for you
+again. He hasn't written back yet, but I'm hopeful.
+
+I know that you couldn't have gotten out of the life debt, but I do wish
+that you were here at Godric's Hollow with us, where you belong, rather
+than in that den of snakes.
+
+Be safe.
+
+\emph{Your loving father, James.}
+
+\emph{December 26th, 1991}
+
+Dear Father:
+
+You don't need to apologize for the Howlers. I know that you were
+worried about my safety, and I didn't answer any of the letters that you
+sent me otherwise. To tell the truth, I didn't have the courage to open
+them. I knew what they would probably say, and I knew I could not change
+the circumstances of the life debt, and had to come with Draco anyway.
+
+The Malfoys have been lovely to me. They even gave me gifts, which they
+didn't need to do. They haven't said anything about the Potter line, and
+I haven't insulted theirs. The portraits sometimes insult me, but it's
+easy enough to ignore them.
+
+I'm glad that you've written to Headmaster Dumbledore, Father, and I
+wish you good luck in your query. I think he will probably say no, but
+thank you for writing. It is a dream of my heart to be among
+Gryffindors.
+
+\emph{Your loving son, Harry.}
+
+\emph{}
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+\emph{December 24th, 1991:}
+
+Dear my son:
+
+I know that will return alive and well from the Malfoys', so I do not
+feel the need to warn you to be careful. Here is a list of things that
+you may want to look for:
+
+Do Lucius or Narcissa Malfoy ever mention Connor in conversation?
+
+Is Narcissa Malfoy Marked as a Death Eater? We could never find out if
+she was, or if she served the Dark Lord in some less official capacity.
+
+How jealous of Connor is Draco? I cannot trust half of what Connor says
+about him, as he knows Draco mostly as a Slytherin and the boy who has
+taken his brother away from him. (When you return to school, spend some
+more time with your brother. He is feeling neglected).
+
+Has either of the Malfoys made any threatening moves toward you?
+
+Are there any Dark artifacts on display in their house?
+
+I look forward to hearing from you, son. In the name of the trust and
+honor that we both share,
+
+\emph{Lily Evans Potter.}
+
+\emph{December 26th, 1991}
+
+Dear Mother:
+
+Lucius Malfoy tried to pry information about Connor out of me, using the
+\emph{Probo Memoriter} spell. I snapped it, and used pureblood
+courtesies to force him to apologize. He then danced with me for a good
+half hour on the topic of my training and Connor's training. I managed
+to hold him off this one time, and I do not believe that he discovered
+anything important. Mrs. Malfoy hasn't mentioned Connor at all.
+
+I've seen Mrs. Malfoy's arms on several occasions as she plays the
+piano. She bears no Mark.
+
+Draco doesn't seem to think of Connor at all, now that we aren't at
+school. It's odd. He always talks about him there, as the ``Gryffindor
+prat'' or ``your prat of a brother,'' and seems jealous whenever I leave
+to spend time with him. Here, he talks about himself and me and the
+gifts that he got, and we're either playing or reading or he's begging
+me to play or read. I don't know if he strictly thinks of Connor so much
+as he thinks of him as a Gryffindor.
+
+(I didn't realize that Connor was feeling neglected. Please convey my
+apologies to him, and tell him that we'll certainly spend more time
+together once we're back at school).
+
+Lucius Malfoy threatened me with \emph{Probo Memoriter}, and obliquely
+in our conversation, but nothing since then. Mrs. Malfoy seems glad that
+I'm friends with her son, and has said nothing at all political.
+
+There are no Dark artifacts openly kept about, though I have noticed
+several of the portraits holding images of them. I suspect that the
+artifacts may in fact be stored in the portraits, which is clever. I
+will have to work out how they did that.
+
+\emph{Your dutiful son, Harry}.
+
+\emph{}
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+\emph{December 24th, 1991}
+
+Dear Harry:
+
+Sirius has finally stopped shouting about your going to the Malfoys' for
+Christmas, so it's rather quiet here. Well, it will be, once Sirius
+stops singing those silly carols and pestering me to join in. I should
+never have taught them to him.
+
+I hope that you are happy with the Malfoys, and that your Christmas is
+going well. I would not fear too much for your life. While you are under
+their protection, and especially the life debt protection of their son,
+they can do nothing to hurt you. And I know that you're too smart to
+step out of those protections on purpose.
+
+Come back safe to us, and make sure to visit with us over Easter
+holidays. It seems too long since I've seen you, and I'm not used to the
+noise that just one little boy makes around here! I need two!
+
+\emph{Love, Remus Lupin.}
+
+\emph{December 26th, 1991}
+
+Dear Remus:
+
+Thank you for writing to me. You didn't have to.
+
+I'm glad that Sirius is reconciled to it now, and sorry that he was
+upset. Please apologize to him for me. I know that he hasn't written me
+a letter because it would be like admitting he was wrong, but you don't
+have to say that part.
+
+The Malfoys have been---a pureblood wizarding family. This isn't like
+Christmas at Godric's Hollow, but it \emph{is} very interesting, and I'm
+glad I came. I have learned many fascinating things to tell you over
+Easter holidays, which I will certainly spend at home, which is my
+proper place.
+
+\emph{Love, Harry.}
+
+\subsection{*Chapter 19*: Between
+Brothers}\label{chapter-19-between-brothers}
+
+Late enough here that I'm not going to try and do review responses to
+chapter 16 for tonight. Sorry! They'll be up in my LJ tomorrow.
+
+This chapter is more a series of disconnected scenes than anything else,
+but they lay necessary groundwork (and cover some necessary time).
+
+\textbf{Chapter Seventeen: Between Brothers}
+
+Harry swiveled between opposing currents of air, his eyes locked onto
+the gleam of gold ahead. He knew it was going to dive an instant before
+it did, and he was beneath it, catching it and holding it snugly in his
+palm.
+
+The commentator, who had called each of Harry's moves before this with a
+tone of shock bordering on awe, now seemed stunned into silence. It was
+a moment before he could cough and call out, ``And Potter catches the
+Snitch! Slytherin defeats Ravenclaw, 250-100.''
+
+The cheer that erupted from the Slytherin stands made Harry feel good.
+It was almost enough to drown out the hissing from the Ravenclaw and
+Gryffindor stands, and the corresponding sink in his heart. He landed,
+carefully, on the far side of the field, and climbed off the broom to
+stretch his legs. He felt---all right, really. He didn't mind defeating
+another team that Connor wasn't on. He would just have to watch what
+happened in the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff game to insure that he wasn't
+going to take the Quidditch Cup away from Gryffindor.
+
+He only had a moment to relax before the rest of the Slytherin Quidditch
+team swooped down on him with triumphant roars. Harry blinked as Marcus
+Flint actually picked him up and shook him, before enveloping him in a
+bone-crushing hug. He cackled and whispered gleefully in Harry's ear,
+``You're all right, Potter, really,'' before opening his arms and
+tossing Harry to the Beaters, so they could embrace him and roughly pat
+him on the back in turn.
+
+Harry blinked and tried to protest, but they weren't listening.
+Slytherin and Ravenclaw had been tied at one hundred points each, and
+the rest of the teams had, apparently, been watching the Seekers like
+falcons, all the while trying to steal the Quaffle from their own very
+evenly matched opponents. No one had sent Bludgers at the Seekers, too
+afraid of giving the opposing team a chance to gain control of the balls
+and hit their Seeker in turn.
+
+Harry hadn't been aware of it. He'd dodged the other Seeker, sought out
+the Snitch, kept it in sight, and caught it as soon as he could. He had
+a distant feeling of gladness. He wouldn't have wanted the pressure.
+
+He walked back to the changing rooms in the midst of the team, listening
+to jokes cracked at the expense of the Ravenclaws in wonder. The
+Slytherins had never treated him like this before. Mostly, they'd seen
+him as Draco's odd little hanger-on, and treated him like an extension
+of Draco, or an extension of Connor when the Gryffindors had done
+something to annoy them. Harry had gotten used to having Draco as his
+only friend in Slytherin, a situation that only convinced him further
+that he really belonged in his brother's House.
+
+Now he shed his green robes for the first time in comfortable
+companionship, and even smiled when Marcus Flint performed an
+``interpretation'' of the Ravenclaw Seeker, all flailing arms and
+popping eyes, that had the others roaring in more laughter.
+
+``Um, Harry. Can I talk to you for a minute?''
+
+The laughter ceased at once, and Flint spun, getting between Harry and
+the door. ``No hexing our Seeker allowed, Gryffie,'' he snapped. ``We
+won, fair and square. Go away.''
+
+``It's Connor,'' Harry said, shoving at Flint's shoulders. ``He's hardly
+going to hex me.''
+
+Flint stayed right where he was, blocking Harry's access to and sight of
+Connor, both. ``I wouldn't put it past the Gryffindors,'' he sneered.
+``They were upset that their precious Ravenclaws couldn't defeat us.
+Next thing, they'll be saying that they managed to win the match we had
+against them by something other than dumb luck.''
+
+Harry could imagine how Connor's face would be flushing at \emph{that}.
+He hadn't revealed the secret of Harry defeating the Lestranges to
+anyone else, but he did wince every time someone mentioned his
+spectacular Quidditch victory.
+
+``Let me talk to him, Flint,'' Harry said, as calmly as he could. ``He
+only does want to congratulate me on the game, I'm sure.''
+
+Flint sneered at Connor again, and then told Harry, ``Five minutes. Then
+we're having a party in the dungeons, and you better be there, or we'll
+find you, turn you into a turtle, and crack your shell.'' He and the
+rest of the team poured away, leaving the room suddenly thunderously
+quiet. Harry blinked and rubbed his ears, grateful that he could feel
+them. He'd been flying for over an hour in the chill January air, at
+speeds and heights that couldn't help but steal the warmth of movement
+away.
+
+``Harry,'' said Connor. ``Congratulations on winning the game.'' His
+voice was oddly formal.
+
+Harry nodded back, at a loss for words. They'd been back at school for a
+few weeks, and so far his promise to spend more time with Connor was one
+he hadn't pursued. Draco kept him busy, and so did the fiendishly long
+and difficult and frequent Quidditch drills before the match with
+Ravenclaw. Harry had often caught sight of Connor watching him from a
+distance across the Great Hall, but there was always a Slytherin in the
+way when he went to talk to him. After this victory, Harry suspected,
+there would be more than ever, as much out of genuine friendliness as
+the need to train or a dedication to keeping him apart from Gryffindors.
+
+Connor shifted back and forth. ``Father heard back from Dumbledore,'' he
+said after a long moment. ``The request for Re-Sorting failed.''
+
+Harry managed a smile. ``I thought it would.''
+
+Connor leaned forward, suddenly intense. ``I only have one thing to ask
+you, Harry,'' he said. ``I thought it would be more, but you have a
+party to go to in five minutes, after all.'' His tone as he said that
+made Harry wince.
+
+``Go ahead, Connor.''
+
+``Do you \emph{like} being in Slytherin?'' Connor asked him, blunt as a
+hammer. ``Do you really like going to parties in the dungeons and
+spending all your free time with Draco Bloody Malfoy?''
+
+Harry winced again. His suggestion that Draco and Connor get to know
+each other after Christmas holidays had gone over spectacularly badly
+with both of them. The one lengthy meeting Harry had had with his twin
+before this one had been to plead with him not to hex Draco's ears off,
+after Draco made an ill-timed comment about Hermione.
+
+``It's not a matter of liking, Connor,'' he said quietly. ``Most of them
+are pretty indifferent to me most of the time, and I know that I'm just
+a toy for Draco, a prize that he can show off. I think he'll tire of me
+quickly, maybe before next year. Then I'll have more time to spend with
+you.'' He smiled, hoping that was what his brother wanted to hear.
+
+``But you don't actively hate it, and you're not pining for Gryffindor
+the way you were at the beginning of the year,'' Connor summed up.
+
+``Connor\ldots{}''
+
+But his brother was pulling away, a grimace on his face. ``That was all
+I wanted to know,'' he said, and walked away.
+
+Harry started to go after him, but a green bolt of light he didn't
+recognize barred his way, and then Flint and the others came to drag him
+off to the party. Harry remembered little of it afterwards, blurred as
+it was by his grief and bewilderment over Connor, except that Draco had
+staged a recreation of the game that included a bunch of peas,
+representing the Ravenclaws, falling all over the table in shock when a
+salt shaker, representing Harry, caught the grain of salt he'd spelled
+to shine gold like the Snitch.
+
+What bothered Harry most about that memory was that he remembered
+laughing, with all the others, and then wondering what he was becoming.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+Harry hissed under his breath as Snape examined his potion. It wasn't
+the same glass-cleansing potion as the other first-years were brewing.
+Snape had assigned him a complicated sleeping potion that Harry
+privately suspected was another part of the preliminary steps in the
+Wolfsbane improvements. Harry hardly dared do less than his best, not
+only because that might end up costing an innocent werewolf his or her
+life, but because Snape would know. Snape suspected that anything less
+than perfection was Harry not doing his best, in fact.
+
+``Very good, Mr. Potter,'' Snape pronounced. ``I see that \emph{someone}
+from your family has finally inherited a smidgen of talent. Fifty points
+to Slytherin.''
+
+Harry flinched and lowered his head, hearing the murmurs coming from the
+Gryffindor side of the room. It was the most points Snape had ever given
+in a single class, and even given the fact that he'd been handing points
+to Harry since February started, it was a bit ridiculous.
+
+Connor led the objection. Harry loved him for that, even as he feared
+what would happen to his twin for exposing himself to Snape's wrath. His
+brother had led Gryffindor to victory over the Hufflepuff Quidditch team
+last weekend, though, and Harry doubted that he could have stopped
+Connor now with anything short of a \emph{Stupefy} spell. ``Why is Harry
+making a different potion than the rest of us, Professor Snape? None of
+the rest of us knows how to do it. Maybe he's just boiling water over
+there and tossing random ingredients in, and you're giving him points to
+make yourself feel better.''
+
+That touched off a few shocked giggles among the Gryffindors, which
+lasted precisely until Snape rounded on Connor.
+
+``Giving points to Slytherin is the only thing that makes this wretched
+class tolerable for me, Mr. Potter,'' Snape said, his voice colder and
+softer than Harry had ever heard it. ``It reminds me that competent
+Potions students do indeed exist in the world, and that I do not need to
+kill myself because none of my students can grasp the basics of my art.
+I do have talented students, simply not ones who are convinced that they
+know everything there is to know without my instruction---'' a glance
+stabbed Hermione ``---or who add any ingredient they please without
+bothering to read the instructions---'' a cool stare at Ron ``---or who
+speak up and disrupt the rest of the class to distract attention from
+their own incompetence.'' He was staring at Connor now. ``Detention with
+me for a week, Mr. Potter, to be served at eight-o'-clock every night.''
+
+``But---'' Connor said, and then slammed his mouth shut. He turned back
+to the glass-cleansing potion, his movements furious. Harry winced as he
+made three mistakes in the next minute.
+
+Eight-o'-clock at night was the time that the Gryffindor Quidditch team
+had taken to practicing on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
+
+Harry looked up to see Snape watching him, expression merciless.
+\emph{Object,} his eyes said, \emph{and I'll add more time to it.}
+
+Harry glanced away and bottled his potion, aware of both Snape's eyes on
+him, pleased, and his twin's eyes, wide and betrayed.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+Harry was getting desperate.
+
+It was the middle of March, and still neither Ron, Hermione, nor Connor
+had approached him about the Philosopher's Stone. Oh, there had been
+some sidelong stares, some conversations between the three of them that
+hushed when Harry walked into Gryffindor Tower, and some mutters between
+Ron and Hermione when he passed in the halls, but nothing like the
+coordinated effort to pry his secrets out of him that Harry had expected
+by now.
+
+They \emph{had} to move soon, Harry thought. The end of the school year
+was only a few months away. Come summer, Dumbledore would have the time
+and the leisure to move the Stone elsewhere, and probably would; Harry
+had the sense that keeping the Stone where it was had been a stopgap
+measure at best, always intended to be temporary. Then Connor would lose
+an easy chance at heroism, and a victory that would be truly his.
+
+So Harry decided to lie, again. He knew that his brother's silence
+around him, his faint smiles and his deliberately shorter visiting times
+with Harry, were born of suspicion that Harry was actually enjoying the
+dubious attractions of Slytherin House. It shouldn't be too difficult to
+work with that, and get Connor to sit up and pay some fucking attention
+to what he was doing.
+
+So, on a Wednesday night just before curfew, Harry went up to Gryffindor
+Tower. He gave the Fat Lady that week's password---\emph{strong of
+soul}---and she opened. Harry glanced quickly around the common room,
+making sure to breathe loudly enough that everyone looked up at him.
+
+``Where's Connor?'' he asked.
+
+``Upstairs,'' said one of the red-headed twins who were Ron's older
+brothers. Then he grinned. ``Say, Harry---fancy trying a sweet?'' He
+held out a tray of sweets covered with oddly-glowing spells. Harry would
+have known not to try any of them even if not for Connor's emphatic
+warnings to never eat anything the twins gave him, \emph{ever.}
+
+``No, thanks,'' he said, and then ran up the stairs to the first-year
+boys' room.
+
+Connor was alone, thank Merlin, reading his Transfiguration book. He
+glanced up and gave Harry a distant smile.
+
+``Harry,'' he said. ``What's the matter?''
+
+Harry exhaled loudly, shifted from foot to foot, and chewed his lip. He
+had the feeling he was overdoing it, but if he was too subtle, then
+Connor might not think anything was wrong. He did at least succeed in
+gaining his brother's attention, as Connor laid down his book and leaned
+forward.
+
+``Harry,'' he said. ``What's wrong?''
+
+``Nothing,'' said Harry, shaking his head. ``I thought I could talk to
+you, but---no, this was a bad idea. I'll leave.'' He turned towards the
+door.
+
+Connor spelled the door shut before he could leave. Harry felt a moment
+of odd pride. The situation reminded him of his talk with Lucius Malfoy,
+though he suspected it would turn out far differently. For one thing,
+Harry was utterly in control of this conversation.
+
+That made him feel odd, so odd that he missed Connor's next query, and
+only snapped back to reality when his brother shook his shoulder.
+``Harry, I think we should go to Professor McGonagall,'' he said,
+looking almost frightened. ``Or, at least, Hermione.''
+
+``No,'' Harry whispered. ``I have to talk to you. You're the only one I
+trust.''
+
+Connor perked up considerably. ``What is it, Harry? You know I'll help
+however I can.''
+
+Harry met his brother's eyes and said, ``Connor, there are whispers in
+the dungeons. I think that someone's plotting something. Maybe not the
+Slytherins, but they all know about it. They stop talking whenever I
+walk into the room.'' He made sure not to lay any emphasis on the words,
+so as not to say that he thought the Gryffindors were doing the same
+thing.
+
+Connor leaned nearer, eyes wide. ``And what do you think they're talking
+about?''
+
+``The Philosopher's Stone,'' Harry whispered. ``I'm sorry that I didn't
+come and talk to you about this before, Connor, but---but I suppose I
+thought I was betraying Slytherin honor. I'm sorry. I didn't think.''
+
+Connor sat back from him. ``So what changed your mind?'' he asked. ``Did
+you finally realize there's no such thing as Slytherin honor?''
+
+Harry stared at him. \emph{That}, he hadn't expected. He supposed that
+Connor had been spending more and more time with Ron, since he hadn't
+spent it with Harry, and that that had influenced him.
+
+For just a moment, he felt the most nonsensical urge to insist that his
+Housemates did too have honor.
+
+Harry shook it off. He couldn't afford silliness like that. He had to
+hurry up and give Connor the clues that he needed, and then get back to
+the dungeons before he was missed. Snape was given to checking at least
+once a week in the tunnels around the dungeons, to insure that all his
+charges were safe in the common room, and he hadn't done it yet this
+week.
+
+``You could be in danger,'' he whispered. ``That's what changed my
+mind.''
+
+``Why?'' Connor asked, and his face became skeptical. That was one of
+the things that Harry loved most about him, how open and malleable his
+face was. His expressions changed from moment to moment, and it was
+always possible to tell what he was thinking. He didn't hide his
+emotions under the layers of deception that Slytherins used, that Harry
+himself had learned to use before he ever came to Hogwarts. ``I don't
+think the Stone has much to do with me, Harry.''
+
+``But think who might want the Stone,'' Harry whispered. ``And think
+about the way they stop talking around me.''
+
+It didn't take Connor more than a few moments to make the connection.
+His hand flew up and settled on his scar, and he winced, going pale.
+``Voldemort,'' he whispered.
+
+Harry nodded, his second impulse. His first had been to correct Connor
+from the use of Voldemort's name to the use of ``Dark Lord,'' which
+really \emph{was} a sign that he'd been around Slytherins too long. ``I
+think that's it. And I think that you need to try and find the Stone.
+I've been looking, but I don't have many clues.'' He could reveal the
+clues later, dependent on another lie, if Connor really did need them.
+
+Connor chewed his lip. ``We could find them,'' he said. ``Ron, and
+Hermione, and I.''
+
+Harry bowed his head. ``You don't trust me. I understand.''
+
+Connor's hand touched his shoulder, and Harry looked up. ``It's not
+that, Harry,'' Connor said earnestly. ``I swear it's not that.
+But---well, Hermione's good at research, and Ron's good at telling me
+things I never knew about wizarding history and Gryffindor history and
+how everyone thinks of the Boy-Who-Lived, and I'm good at deciding what
+to do. And Ron doesn't trust or like you as much anymore, and Hermione's
+not sure. Please? It's just for a little while. There's no reason for
+you to involved, since you're not the Boy-Who-Lived, and you'll be in
+danger, now that Slytherin House is talking about it, if you show too
+much interest.''
+
+Harry felt his heart jump a little. There was both the independence and
+the Gryffindor attitude he'd wished to encourage. ``All right,'' he
+said. ``Whatever you think best, Connor.''
+
+His twin hugged him, hard and unexpectedly. ``Thank you, Harry,'' he
+said. ``For coming and telling me, I mean. I know that it can't have
+been easy for you, even if Slytherin honor doesn't exist.''
+
+Harry hugged him back, and hurriedly sneaked out of the Tower, since it
+was almost curfew. He held the memory of the hug to himself, and the
+fact that Connor trusted him, and tried to ignore the ridiculous hurt
+that Connor had said those things about Slytherin House. They were true,
+weren't they, to anyone outside the House?
+
+And, besides, Harry could recognize the potentially dangerous signs in
+himself. Sometimes he thought he could slide away from Connor's side, to
+find friendships and causes of his own in Slytherin. And that was
+something he couldn't afford. He was born and trained to fight at
+Connor's side, to defend him from Voldemort until he was old enough to
+save the world.
+
+He couldn't afford any other allegiances, any other loyalties. He had to
+remind himself of that.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+Snape waited outside the common room door. He smirked when he saw the
+lone boy trailing back towards it, face bowed so that he didn't watch
+where he was going. But his head snapped up when he was still a distance
+from Snape, and his eyes were wide and wary for a moment before his face
+shut down even further than it did in class.
+
+Snape was proud of that. Harry was better at controlling his emotions
+than he had been when he first came to school, and that was saying
+something. Someone---Lily?---had tutored him very well in that already.
+Snape intended to push him until the boy could lie with his face, which
+still wasn't possible for him yet. At best, he could convey blankness
+that made it difficult to tell what he was feeling.
+
+``Well, well,'' Snape drawled, stepping away from the wall. ``What do we
+have here, Mr. Potter? An insistence on wandering the halls at night.
+One might wonder why.''
+
+Harry was still, not even the sound of his breathing audible. He waited
+for Snape to say what he wanted to say and then leave.
+
+Snape moved a few steps closer, bringing his shields up further. He knew
+it was impossible. All the laws of magic insisted it was impossible. But
+if it were not impossible, he would have said that Harry's power had
+\emph{grown} since he started attending Hogwarts. Snape certainly needed
+to raise his shields higher each time. Of course, that could be the
+effect of familiarity with Harry.
+
+``This next week,'' he snapped, ``you will begin working on fifth-year
+potions in our class.''
+
+Harry inclined his head, but said nothing.
+
+``I will also begin lending you extra books on the art of potions,''
+Snape continued. ``You will read them. You will master them before the
+end of the year. I do not intend to let you take the books back home
+with you over the summer, for one mutt to chew to pieces in his
+moon-rage and another to piss on them.''
+
+Harry's shoulders lifted, but he only nodded.
+
+``And finally,'' Snape finished, whispering now, ``instead of creeping
+off into the deserted areas of the school to practice your spells, you
+will come to me. You are very good at defensive magic, Mr. Potter, but
+your offensive spells need work. You must be able to attack, not only
+defend. It will cost your brother dearly some day if you do not know how
+to do it. You saw that with the Lestranges.''
+
+Harry's eyes did show a bit of shock this time before they closed in
+resignation. Then he nodded again. He stepped past Snape, whispered the
+password, and vanished into the Slytherin common room.
+
+Snape watched him go, well-contented. Harry had acted considerably more
+Slytherin ever since he had come back from Christmas with Draco Malfoy.
+That he had survived Lucius was testimony enough to the boy's
+character---or, as he still insisted on seeing it, the lack of it---but
+Harry had also taken to keeping secrets, talking more often with the
+other Slytherin students, walking and standing like Draco, and reacting
+in class like a pureblood heir. Snape wondered if the boy realized it.
+
+Then he snorted. \emph{Of course not. If he did, he would rush to reject
+such mannerisms.}
+
+It was tiresome, sometimes, Snape reflected, that he could not merely
+tell Harry what he wished to do---raise the reputation of Slytherin
+House once again---appeal to the boy's ambition, and enlist him as an
+ally. But he knew Harry would recoil if he suspected that real reason,
+and he would utterly refuse to act against his brother if he thought
+that Snape might ultimately do something worse to Connor than detentions
+during Quidditch practice.
+
+No, he had to break Harry of his loyalties first before he could explain
+why he had broken them, and coax him out of Connor's shadow before he
+could show him what that shadow had done.
+
+Snape turned back to his offices with a swirl of his robes.
+\emph{Patience,} he counseled himself. \emph{Patience. You have waited
+this long. You have your candidate. You are training him. Before his
+seventh year, everyone shall see Slytherin rise again.}
+
+\emph{That is soon enough.}
+
+\subsection{*Chapter 20*: Putting the Pieces
+Together}\label{chapter-20-putting-the-pieces-together}
+
+Review responses now up in my LJ. Thank you for sending them!
+
+This is the third-to-last chapter. The story should, with any luck,
+conclude on Wednesday. Then there'll be a short pause, and then I'll
+start posting the second year, \emph{No Mouth But Some Serpent's.}
+
+In the meantime, enjoy!
+
+\textbf{Chapter Eighteen: Putting the Pieces Together}
+
+``But, Professor McGonagall---''
+
+``No buts,'' said the Head of Gryffindor House's voice, which, following
+on his twin's voice, made Harry anxious to know what was going on. ``I
+am very disappointed in both of you, Mr. Potter, Miss Granger. To be
+caught out of bed is no trivial matter. Fifty points from Gryffindor,
+each, and two weeks' detention. Also for each one of you,'' she added,
+as though she thought she had to make that clear.
+
+Harry eased closer and peered around the corner. Connor stood with his
+head down in front of McGonagall, looking incredibly dejected. Hermione
+stood beside him, and seemed near tears. Blaise stood smugly off to the
+side, arms folded and head nodding---at least until McGonagall rounded
+on him in turn.
+
+``And you, Mr. Zabini,'' she said. ``Twenty points from Slytherin for
+being out of bed after curfew, and you will serve a week's detention.''
+
+Blaise blinked and began to splutter. McGonagall swept past him, not
+bothering to listen to his objections, and down the corridor. Harry, who
+was returning from one of his late-night sessions with Snape in the
+second floor dueling classroom but doubted that McGonagall would be in
+the mood to listen to that, flattened himself against the wall and
+thanked Merlin that she was taking the opposite corridor from him.
+Connor and Hermione trailed back in the direction of Gryffindor Tower,
+still looking dejected.
+
+Harry watched his twin's back in frustration. It was now May, and
+\emph{still} Connor hadn't come and spoken to him about the
+Philosopher's Stone. Harry didn't understand what was going on. Of
+course, Connor hadn't spoken to him about a lot of things, even when
+they did spend time together, but Harry could not believe it was taking
+this long for Connor to put together the one mysterious, guarded
+location in the school where nobody was to venture upon pain of death
+with the Stone.
+
+A moment later, he shook off his disappointment. Blaise was coming down
+his tunnel, since it led to the dungeons. Harry at least had the chance
+to find out what had happened.
+
+``Hi, Blaise,'' he said, stepping casually out of the shadows. ``What
+was that all about?''
+
+Blaise froze for a moment, then forced a laugh. ``Oh, just a prank on
+the Gryffindors that went somewhat wrong,'' he said airily. ``They were
+carrying a dragon up to the Astronomy Tower, if you can believe that. I
+suppose they dumped it over the side.''
+
+``A dragon?'' Harry's heart began to pound. He hadn't heard anything
+about that. His thoughts immediately leaped to Hagrid, whom Connor had
+developed a friendship with, and then to the Forbidden Forest. Had
+Connor been in the Forest? Had he encountered Quirrell?
+
+``Yeah, a Norwegian Ridgeback, one of Hagrid's pets.'' Blaise sneered.
+``I saw them with it in his cabin earlier this week, and then I saw them
+take it out of his house tonight. I thought I might earn some points for
+Slytherin if I told McGonagall about them being out after curfew.'' He
+scowled. ``But the old cat wasn't in the mood to be reasonable.''
+
+``And what were \emph{you} doing out of bed after curfew?'' Harry asked.
+
+``Spying on the Gryffindors,'' Blaise retorted. ``I just told you
+that.''
+
+Harry raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything, letting his doubting
+silence speak for him. Blaise scowled at him in turn and edged away.
+Harry studied his face carefully. Vince and Greg had always been too
+loyal to Draco to give Harry any trouble, and they shied off from
+teasing Connor because Draco did. Blaise was---different. He seemed
+sometimes to take it as a personal affront that a Slytherin had a
+Gryffindor brother, and had started to go out of his way lately to tap
+Connor on the shoulder, laugh at him, trip him, and taunt him. Harry
+hadn't given it much thought, other than nodding in agreement when
+Connor went on a tirade against Blaise. It was just normal House
+rivalry, just normal childishness.
+
+\emph{Wasn't it?}
+
+``Why did you track them down in Hagrid's house and spy on them in the
+first place?'' he asked, more quietly.
+
+Blaise gave his head an arrogant toss. ``Because I wanted to know what
+they were doing, of course,'' he said. ``That half-giant is a menace. I
+have no idea why Dumbledore keeps him on. Having a dragon in a wooden
+house, \emph{honestly}!''
+
+Harry eyed him for a long moment, and said no more. Blaise was already
+seeking to turn matters around, from the expression on his face.
+
+``And what were \emph{you} doing out of bed after curfew?'' he asked,
+trying to look as if he had a plot and failing. ``Hmmm?''
+
+``You'll have to ask Professor Snape that,'' Harry said with a shrug,
+and then turned back in the direction of the Slytherin common room.
+
+He could feel Blaise draw in his breath to demand an explanation, but in
+the end he let it go without saying anything, and followed Harry. Harry
+whispered the password---\emph{rigor mortis}---and walked quickly
+through the common room. He didn't want to spend a minute longer with
+Blaise than necessary.
+
+Of course, once they were both washed and in their beds, then Harry lay
+awake and thought about Blaise until it was nearly dawn.
+
+\emph{What does he want? Could he be after Connor because he's a Death
+Eater?} That made Harry frown, though; Blaise's sole living relative was
+his mother, and Arabella Zabini had never shown signs of being a Death
+Eater. A Dark witch, yes, but the two weren't the same thing.
+
+\emph{Could he even be the traitor who let the Lestranges through?}
+
+Harry tensed up for a moment, then shook his head. No. Their mother had
+written him several times, and whenever she talked about the treachery,
+she gave the impression that it was not only an adult but someone in the
+Order of the Phoenix. Blaise certainly wasn't \emph{that}, whatever else
+he was.
+
+\emph{Then what does he want?}
+
+Harry didn't know, but he resolved, as he finally began to drift off to
+sleep, to cast \emph{Consopio} on Blaise from now on, before he left for
+his late-night training sessions with Snape if possible. It would do no
+one any harm if Blaise was back in bed before curfew, and sleeping when
+he ought to be.
+
+\emph{And, come morning, I can just happen to mention that Blaise was
+the one who lost points for us, and he won't be very popular for a
+while.}
+
+Of course, most of that was just a distraction from the one thought he
+really didn't want to think.
+
+\emph{Why didn't Connor tell me about the dragon?}
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+``His name is Norbert.''
+
+Harry frowned at Connor. His brother had finally come to talk to him,
+after Harry had sent a rather insistently-worded invitation via Hedwig,
+this morning, right before the Slytherin-Hufflepuff Quidditch match. He
+was pulling on his gloves when Connor slouched into the training room,
+ignoring Flint's glare, and came up and stared at Harry.
+
+``And?'' Harry pressed, unable to keep a certain coolness from his
+voice.
+
+Connor shrugged. ``And we gave him to Charlie Weasley---Ron's brother.
+He works with dragons in Romania. Norbert will be safe there.''
+
+Harry let his breath out. This was the question he most wanted to ask,
+and it seemed that Connor wouldn't volunteer the information on his own.
+``Why didn't you tell me about it?''
+
+Connor jerked away from him, eyes wide and hair falling into them. He
+looked tired, Harry noticed, and one hand went up to rub his scar in
+what Harry was sure was an unconscious gesture. ``Because I don't know
+if I can trust you,'' he said, loudly enough for everyone else to hear.
+``You've gone over all \emph{Slytherin}, Harry.''
+
+The rest of the team's preparations stopped. Harry closed his eyes in
+dread, knowing who would speak up next.
+
+``And so what if he has?'' drawled Marcus Flint, stepping forward. ``We
+happen to like him that way.'' He was smiling, but his eyes were hard.
+Harry winced. He wouldn't put it past Flint to punch Connor in the ribs,
+right here and now. The Slytherin Captain wasn't forgiving of anyone who
+tried to rattle his players before a game began, unless the rattling
+came from him.
+
+``It's just words, Flint,'' Harry said quickly. ``He doesn't mean
+anything by it.''
+
+``Yes, I bloody do, Harry!'' Connor stopped, their father's temper
+flaring in his eyes. ``I do, and it's time I said it! You've gone too
+quiet. You hang out with Slytherins when you could come up to Gryffindor
+Tower. You \emph{smile} at the most awful things they say, as if they
+were actually \emph{funny.} You don't even care that they think less of
+you because you're a half-blood! That's disrespectful to Mum, not just
+you! You've changed, Harry, and I hate the person you're becoming!''
+
+Harry shut his eyes, feeling as if he'd been punched. He'd had arguments
+with Connor before, but nothing this serious. And in that moment, he
+really would have renounced everything that made the Slytherins accept
+him. He wanted to beg his brother to forgive him. He'd been hurting
+Connor again, just as their mum had told him in her Christmas letter,
+and he hadn't made it right yet.
+
+And then, startlingly, abruptly, and unexpectedly, at least for him, his
+hurt changed to anger.
+
+Harry opened his eyes, and saw Connor back away from him. Harry took a
+step nearer. He was shaking and couldn't seem to stop, any more than he
+could stop the words that flowed out of his mouth in the next moment.
+
+``I'm just trying to make the best of the situation, Connor! No, I wasn't
+happy when I got put in Slytherin, but it isn't all awful. All right, I
+joke with them and spend time with them, but they're my
+\emph{Housemates.} I would spend more time with you if you seemed to
+want to do it! You're barely happy any time I'm there. You'd rather talk
+to Ron and Hermione. I don't blame you for---for listening to them, for
+picking up their prejudices, but don't say that this is all my fault!
+It's partially yours, too!''
+
+He was shouting by the end, which had \emph{never} happened. Usually
+Connor got upset and Harry stayed calm, asking for forgiveness when his
+brother had spent the initial flood of his temper. But now Harry's fists
+were clenched, and he saw Draco, come to wish him good luck before the
+match, sag against the wall, one hand on his forehead and his face pale.
+Harry was glad that he didn't have his wand. He ignored the increasing
+temptation to use wandless magic.
+
+And he kept his gaze on his twin, long enough to see shock replace the
+anger in Connor's eyes, and the ashes replace the fire.
+
+``I didn't know you hated me that much, Harry,'' he whispered. ``I---''
+
+``Get out, Gryffindor.'' Flint's voice had gone deep and quiet as the
+growl of a huge dog. ``I'm giving you five seconds to get out of here
+before I pound you flat, and that's only out of respect for your
+brother. One. Two. Three---''
+
+Connor turned and walked away. Harry watched him go, and waited for the
+coolness of shock to crash down on him in turn.
+
+It didn't. He still felt angry, and the foremost impulse in him was to
+make Connor pay. Shutting his eyes, he tried his best to rein in his
+temper.
+
+He opened his eyes when Adrian Pucey, one of the team's other Chasers,
+pounded him on the back. ``That's more like it,'' Adrian said, his voice
+aglow. ``Go out there and \emph{win.} Show the bloody Gryffindors that
+they can't rattle you.''
+
+Harry nodded back, smiled tightly, and then moved out of the changing
+room, leading the team onto the pitch.
+
+Slytherin beat Hufflepuff 410 to 190, and Harry had rarely exulted in
+catching the Snitch so much. The celebration afterwards, and even the
+way the entire team shielded him on the way back to the dungeons, so
+that, Adrian explained, he ``wouldn't have to see any Gryffindors you
+don't want to see,'' weren't half-bad, either.
+
+All the while, Harry kept waiting for his anger at Connor to transmute
+to shame, the way it would have at any other time, and to feel the
+impulse to apologize to his twin.
+
+It never came. Harry had nothing to shut in the secret box of his
+thoughts that night, because he couldn't convince himself that his anger
+was unjustified.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+``So Connor's too stubborn to come right out and ask you where the
+Philosopher's Stone is. But I'm not.''
+
+Harry glanced up. Hermione Granger was standing next to the table he and
+Draco had found for studying in the library, her arms folded and her
+intimidating gaze boring into him. Harry almost smiled. Sometimes,
+Gryffindor forthrightness was an advantage.
+
+From the blaze in his eyes, Draco didn't seem to think so. ``Go
+\emph{away}, Mudblood---'' he began.
+
+Harry said, ``Draco,'' in the way he'd heard Narcissa Malfoy say it.
+Draco shut up and glowered down at his book. Harry leaned across the
+table to pat his shoulder. ``I'll be right back,'' he said, and then
+stood and moved away from the table with Hermione, into the deeper
+corners of the library, where they were less likely to be overheard. He
+did find himself craning his neck for a sight of Connor---it'd been two
+weeks since their fight, and still his brother hadn't approached
+him---but Hermione seemed to have come alone.
+
+``Spill,'' Hermione said. Her arms still hadn't unfolded, and she had a
+look that would have put Lily's ``scolding face'' to shame. Harry
+inclined his head and admitted the truth.
+
+``The Philosopher's Stone is behind a certain door on the third floor,
+being guarded by a giant dog of some kind.''
+
+It was miraculous to watch the way Hermione's face changed, as her
+racing brain put all the pieces together. A moment later, she muttered,
+``\emph{Stupid,}'' and slapped her forehead, which Harry had to admit was
+also gratifying in its own way.
+
+Then she frowned at him. ``But if it's protected, then why did you want
+to warn us about it?''
+
+``Because I saw Professor Quirrell trying to get through the door a few
+times,'' said Harry. ``He'd go in, talk to the dog, and then always come
+running out. Then Professor Snape warned him off. I don't think he ever
+did work out how to pass the dog. But---''
+
+``Oh, no,'' Hermione whispered, and her face had gone pale.
+
+``What?'' Harry demanded, standing up fully.
+
+``Hagrid said---he said that the man who gave him Norbert was asking him
+about Fluffy,'' Hermione said. ``That's the dog's name,'' she explained,
+when she caught Harry's blank stare.
+
+``Fluffy,'' Harry couldn't help but repeat.
+
+``Don't \emph{ask}, it's \emph{Hagrid},'' said Hermione, as if that
+explained it all, and Harry supposed it probably did, if one knew
+Hagrid. He determined to get to know the half-giant a bit better next
+year. ``The man was cloaked, and Hagrid couldn't see his face, but he
+told him something about Fluffy being charmed by music. What if the
+cloaked man was Professor Quirrell, and he's going to try again, now
+that he knows how to get past the dog?'' Her face had flushed with
+hectic color now, and she looked as if she would run from the library
+and try to inform Professor Dumbledore immediately.
+
+Harry put out a restraining hand. ``It's rather odd that he hasn't tried
+so far, don't you think?'' he asked.
+
+Hermione reluctantly settled herself back against the bookcase. ``Well,
+yes. But then, why hasn't he?''
+
+``He's waiting for something, I think,'' said Harry, and frowned. ``But
+I don't know what that something would be. Dumbledore's probably going
+to move the Stone at the end of the year. The longer Quirrell waits, the
+more of a risk he runs.''
+
+``Maybe there are other traps, too, and he doesn't know how to get past
+them,'' Hermione offered. ``Or maybe there's another deadline
+approaching, something he wants to do first.''
+
+Harry stiffened. ``Hermione,'' he asked, ``where is Connor right now?''
+
+``In Gryffindor Tower,'' she said, frowning at him. ``As you would know
+if you'd bothered to come and talk to him at all in the last two
+weeks.''
+
+``We had a fight,'' Harry said shortly. ``But---listen, is there any
+time when he might be alone? Without you or Ron to protect him? Out of
+reach of anything the Professors can do?''
+
+Hermione closed her eyes and assumed an expression of intense
+concentration. Harry wouldn't be surprised to know she was rattling
+immense amounts of information around in her head, seeking for the
+perfect answer. He knew she'd found it when her eyes flared wide again.
+
+``The detentions,'' she whispered. ``Professor McGonagall said that
+Connor was going to serve detention with Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest
+next week. Something's been killing unicorns, and they want to find out
+what it is.''
+
+Harry almost told her it had been Quirrell, but checked himself. Quite
+apart from the inevitable questions he'd have to answer about why he
+hadn't told Dumbledore yet, Hermione would go running to the Headmaster,
+and then Connor would be pulled off that detention and Quirrell would
+wait for another time to strike. Just as with the Quidditch game, Harry
+thought, it was better to know when and where Connor's life would be in
+danger rather than rush around on it.
+
+He thought, for a fleeting moment, that that was Slytherin.
+
+\emph{And so?} was his next thought.
+
+``All right,'' he said. ``I'll be with him there, Hermione.''
+
+``But \emph{you} don't have detention,'' she pointed out, frowning at him.
+
+``I know,'' said Harry. ``I'll sneak along. Professor Quirrell won't
+know I'm there. And don't tell Connor, either, or he'll try to do
+something stubborn and stupid,'' he added.
+
+Hermione sighed, made a few half-hearted protests, and then agreed.
+Harry suspected she was tired of the feud between him and
+Connor---Connor had apparently spent most of his time since then moping
+around the Tower---and grateful for anything that would end it.
+
+Harry watched her leave the library, then walked back to his study
+corner with Draco, rehearsing everything he would need in his head. He
+stopped when he reached the table and saw Draco staring expectantly at
+him, rapping one finger on the corner of his parchment.
+
+``Philosopher's Stone?'' he asked.
+
+With a sigh, Harry sat down and began to explain. At least he could
+trust that Draco wouldn't go running to Professor Dumbledore.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+Harry shook his head as Hagrid split Connor and Neville Longbottom, who
+had a detention for a stupid mistake he'd made in Potions, up. Both of
+them were to fire red sparks into the air from their wands if they ran
+into anything dangerous, and green sparks if they found the person who'd
+been killing unicorns. Except that Hagrid called it a ``creature,'' of
+course. Hagrid was going with Neville, and leaving his big dog, Fang,
+with Connor.
+
+Harry waited until the sound of Hagrid's crashing had faded into the
+bushes, then stepped out of his hiding place and walked along beside
+Connor. Connor was so caught up in his misery that he didn't even notice
+Harry at first, and then he turned around and cast him an ugly
+expression in the light of the lantern he was carrying. His other hand
+gripped his wand.
+
+``What do you want, Slytherin?'' he asked.
+
+``For you to stop acting like an idiot,'' Harry replied, falling into
+step with him and brushing a trailing vine out of the way. ``It's been
+nearly a month since we fought, Connor. Don't you think you're dragging
+this out too long? I \emph{am} your brother, in case you forgot.'' His
+own hand was in his pocket, on his own wand, and he warily watched the
+bushes. So far, there was no sign of Professor Quirrell, and Fang hadn't
+given any warnings, but Harry was not sure how far he trusted the dog's
+nose. He would trust his own magical senses more. They weren't picking
+up anything either, though.
+
+``I didn't forget,'' said Connor, his face twisted with anger and hurt
+and broken shards of pride. ``That's why it hurt so much. Why did you
+\emph{abandon} me, Harry? We're supposed to be twins. Best friends
+forever. We're not supposed to argue and jostle each other like we've
+done. Look at Fred and George Weasley. I've never seen them have a
+fight.''
+
+``They're in the same House,'' Harry said.
+
+Connor turned away from him. ``So you're going to let that matter more
+to you than our blood relationship?''
+
+``No, or \emph{I} would be in my bedroom right now,'' Harry said, and
+brushed away another vine. The trees rustled and creaked in a wind too
+high for them to feel. The lantern lit the path ahead better than a
+\emph{Lumos} spell would, which Harry was grateful for. ``I came out
+here when I didn't have to, when I knew it'd be hard for you to run,
+Connor, so we could talk.''
+
+``Hermione told me about the Philosopher's Stone,'' said Connor. ``That
+you knew right where it was all along.''
+
+``Yes,'' Harry admitted. ``And I wanted you to be the one to discover
+it, and bring the news to Professor Dumbledore. I thought that would
+make you feel important, special, happy. You'd be able to claim a
+victory as truly your own, and start taking your place as a leader.''
+
+``But it would have been you buying me the victory again,'' said Connor,
+his words grinding in more pain. ``I don't \emph{want} that, Harry.''
+
+Harry turned and caught his brother's arm, spinning Connor to face him.
+Connor glared at him in the lantern's light. He had the beginning of
+tears in his eyes, and he brushed angrily at the tears with the back of
+the hand that held his wand.
+
+``Then decide what you do want,'' Harry said quietly. ``The reason I've
+been working so hard for you, Connor, is that I want you to be the
+leader. I want you to be the Boy-Who-Lived. I want people to look up to
+you. It hasn't happened so far. Ron and Hermione like you, but the
+Slytherins think you're a git, and the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs think
+about you only when you do something spectacular---like the troll or the
+Lestranges.'' He saw Connor wince and close his eyes. ``It's going to
+take more than that. I thought pushing you into it subtly would do the
+trick, but it didn't. So. Tell me what you want. What are \emph{your}
+plans? What are you going to do to unite the four Houses behind you? Woo
+the pureblood wizards? Make everyone trust that you have the confidence
+and the strength to take on the Dark Lord? Win allies among the magical
+creatures?''
+
+``Why should I have to do all that?'' Connor protested. ``I defeated
+Voldemort when I was a baby. I know more now. I should just have to face
+him again, and he'll be destroyed completely.''
+
+Harry sighed. ``I think it will take more than that, Connor.''
+
+``Why \emph{should} it?'' Connor stepped away from him and traced his scar
+with the edge of his wand. ``This is what it means to be the
+Boy-Who-Lived. I have this scar, and that's all I really need.''
+
+Harry felt his heart melt with pity, and so melt the last of his anger.
+He and Lily had done no favors by keeping Connor so blind. He really
+should have learned about politics in the wizarding world from the time
+he could walk, even if his love was essential to defeating Voldemort.
+Their mother had found a way to teach Harry in secrecy, under their
+father's nose, and Sirius's and Remus's. She could have found out a way
+to convince Connor of the truth without taking away his purity.
+
+``Connor---'' he started, meaning to apologize.
+
+Another vine dropped from the trees above them just then, and curled
+around Connor's neck. He let out a startled cry and dropped the lantern.
+Harry scooped it up and held it frantically higher, ready to shoot off
+red sparks to let Hagrid know they were in danger.
+
+It wasn't a vine that dropped out of the trees in the wake of that
+snatch, but a huge snake, whom Harry could almost imagine was laughing
+at them instead of hissing. She wound a portion of her body tight around
+Connor, and then took off into the Forest, bearing him with her.
+
+Harry shouted and fired an \emph{Incendio} at her tail, but missed, so
+quickly did she slither. He ran after her, feeling his fear and anger
+give his feet wings, and his scar begin to burn.
+
+The snake disappeared among the bushes ahead of him, but Harry could
+follow the trail of bent grasses and leaves she left, and the growing
+pain in his head was a sign of its own. It wasn't long before he made
+out the snake coming into a clearing where a cloaked figure waited. The
+snake dumped Connor at its feet and then slithered behind her master,
+still making that hiss that sounded like laughter.
+
+Snarling, Harry grabbed his wand and stepped free of the bushes.
+
+``\emph{So.}'' It wasn't Quirrell's voice speaking, but that cold one,
+which Harry had heard once before. It made his scar flare like fire, and
+Connor stirred and gave a weak moan as though his scar was also paining
+him. ``\emph{Harry Potter. At last.}'' The figure bent over Connor.
+``\emph{And the Boy-Who-Lived, who will shortly be the Boy-Who-Died. I
+have waited so long for this moment.}''
+
+Harry gathered himself, and sprang into battle.
+
+\subsection{*Chapter 21*: The Boy Who
+Lived}\label{chapter-21-the-boy-who-lived}
+
+Thank you for the reviews! Review responses aren't up yet, but they
+should be soon.
+
+There will be one more chapter after this, posted tomorrow. Then
+\emph{No Mouth But Some Serpent's} starts on Monday, to continue the
+story. That means \emph{this} particular story will stop updating after
+tomorrow, so don't be surprised when that happens!
+
+And here is the battle, wherein I proceed to mess with everyone's head,
+but most especially poor Harry's.
+
+\textbf{Chapter Nineteen: The Boy-Who-Lived}
+
+Harry's Blasting Curse melted against invisible shields, but it had the
+useful effect of making Quirrell stop reaching for Connor and stare at
+him. Harry readied another spell, his mind spinning through the various
+effects, looking for something that would cause Quirrell considerable
+pain as well as fling him backwards.
+
+Then the snake was on him.
+
+She moved faster than she had when dragging Connor through the bushes,
+her jaws open and her body scything the grass as she struck. Harry
+darted away from her, and her mouth hit the ground, but she whirled and
+headed for him again. Harry cried out, ``\emph{Protego!}'', only to have
+the snake's jaws shoot through the Shield Charm and rip the cloth of his
+sleeve. He stepped further back, hearing her hiss as though she were
+laughing, and cast a glance at Connor.
+
+\emph{At least I know she's a real snake, not a magical one.}
+
+``\emph{What is this?}'' the cold voice asked, its accents harsher than
+ever. Harry fought the urge to sink to his knees as the pain in his scar
+became worse. Quirrell was staring straight ahead, from what he could
+see, and Harry could not reconcile that cold voice with the blank
+expression on his face. ``\emph{Finish him, Nagini!}''
+
+The snake---Nagini, apparently---hissed and gathered herself. Harry had
+the feeling that this strike, when it came, would be too fast to avoid.
+
+Meanwhile, Quirrell was reaching for Connor again.
+
+Harry cast a hand out and snapped, ``\emph{Wingardium Leviosa}!'' He
+performed it wandless, so as to keep his wand pointed towards Connor. It
+worked. His magic arrested Nagini in the middle of her charge and
+bounced her into the air like the Muggle balloons Harry had seen on one
+of their birthdays.
+
+Harry wound up the force of the spell and threw Nagini over the
+Forbidden Forest. She soared away with a trailing hiss that sounded
+oddly like a cry of pain. Harry dismissed that. He wasn't thinking
+clearly.
+
+He faced Quirrell and pointed his wand.
+
+Quirrell had stopped reaching for Connor once more. His stare this time
+was more pointed, but also more leisurely, and Harry went back to trying
+to think of a spell that would hurt, get around the shields, and cast
+Quirrell out of range of whatever protections he had. Harry had been
+squinting since he came into the clearing, but he couldn't make out the
+lines of wards. These spells were more complicated than the ones he'd
+trained himself to see, then.
+
+``\emph{You are unusual, boy,}'' the voice said. ``\emph{So much power. Why
+did I not sense this about you at first?}''
+
+Harry saw no point in answering such irrelevant chatter. He had chosen
+his spell. Admittedly, it was an odd choice, but this was an odd battle.
+Quirrell, or whoever he really was, had had time to prepare his ground,
+and Harry had not.
+
+``\emph{Reducto}!'' he intoned, and packed behind the spell all the force
+of his will, joining it to the force of his wand. He envisioned the
+shields splitting and cracking, the way the egg had when the centaurs
+tested him.
+
+The spell flew straight and true, and showed the shields as it smacked
+against them in a rainbow aurora of light. Harry saw faint cracks
+outlining its impact, and memorized their position as the light flared
+and vanished. ``\emph{Reducto}!'' he cried again, this time targeting one
+of the cracks.
+
+It shattered, and some of the force of the curse got through and to
+Quirrell, who staggered. Harry came in, fast and low to the ground, just
+behind the spell, trying to get Connor and drag him away before Quirrell
+could recover.
+
+The cold voice said, ``\emph{Cavea},'' a spell that Harry had never heard
+of before, and blue light flashed into existence around Connor. Harry
+tried to thrust his hand through anyway, and recoiled. He might as well
+have tried to punch a fist through solid steel.
+
+He climbed to his feet and got in between his brother and Quirrell---an
+easy task, because Quirrell showed no signs of coming closer just yet.
+Harry breathed harshly. He could feel the beginnings of sweat on his
+cheeks and forehead. His heart blurred and burned in his ears, loudly
+enough that he found it hard to make out what Quirrell was saying.
+
+``What should I do, master?'' whined the voice that Harry knew from
+class, minus the stutter. ``The boy is too powerful for me to easily
+face.''
+
+``\emph{Unleash me.}''
+
+Quirrell gave a little shudder, but it was gone when he looked and
+smiled at Harry. ``Yes,'' he said softly. ``That might be best.'' Then
+he turned his back on Harry.
+
+Harry snapped his wand up. \emph{Is Quirrell stupid? This is such a
+prime opportunity to strike---}
+
+\emph{No, no. He's not stupid. He must be planning something.}
+
+Warily, Harry held his spells, and watched as Quirrell began to unwrap
+the back of the turban.
+
+Harry expected to see bare skull at most. What he saw, as the purple
+wrappings fell away, was a second face imposed on the back of Quirrell's
+head. The nose was stretched and pressed flat, the eyes impossible
+narrow slits of crimson, the mouth a gash. The eyes pierced him, and
+from the mouth came the voice in a high, cold laugh familiar to Harry
+from old dreams.
+
+His scar roared fiercely to life, sending him to his knees. Harry
+couldn't hold back a cry this time, and it was echoed by a choked
+whimper from Connor. A quick look over his shoulder showed that his
+brother was unharmed, though he felt around the edges of the cage spell
+with a bewildered look on his face.
+
+``\emph{I should have known,}'' the voice said, in a hiss that would have
+done credit to Nagini. Harry forced himself to listen around the pain in
+his brow. What the voice was saying could be important. ``\emph{The
+prophecy was never whole, and Peter Pettigrew has always been a fool. It
+was you. The older one, the more powerful one. What I saw as a nuisance
+to be dismissed was in fact the object of my desires.}'' Quirrell took a
+step backwards, so that the face moved closer. Harry smelled its breath,
+cold and foul as grave dirt. ``\emph{How does it feel, boy, to know that
+you are facing Lord Voldemort for a second time?}''
+
+There was a pause, as though Voldemort truly expected some sort of
+answer. Harry dug his hands into the ground and gave one. ``I admit I'm
+impressed, since this is only the first time I've done it. But
+reassured, since I have the boy who defeated you at my back.''
+
+The voice began to laugh, and laugh. The pain in Harry's head grew
+worse, strong enough that his training couldn't fight it. He catapulted
+forward and lay on the ground, losing consciousness for a brief, intense
+second.
+
+When he woke, Quirrell held him, staring into his face with his own,
+normal one. Harry wanted to cast a curse, but couldn't find his breath
+for a long moment. When it did emerge, it was in a sob of pain. His head
+felt as if it were about to crack like the egg-shaped stone.
+
+``My lord commanded me to be done with the Boy-Who-Lived,'' Quirrell
+whispered. ``I admit I didn't foresee doing it this way, but it is
+useful.'' He dropped Harry and took a step backwards. Harry scrabbled
+for strength, knowing that whatever was to come would be bad.
+
+Quirrell didn't disappoint him. ``\emph{Crucio}!''
+
+The spell snapped Harry's weakening Shield Charm. Agony exploded from
+his belly this time, and traveled outward through his limbs, rivaling
+and then eclipsing his scar. Harry screamed. There was no shame in
+screaming, his mother had told him once, the first evening that she
+revealed he was likely to be tortured. Torture often broke a man. Harry
+couldn't allow it to break him, and so the worst thing to do would be to
+combat and try to override the pain. He would roll with it instead,
+scream, writhe, beg, do whatever he must to emerge on the other side
+alive and fighting for Connor.
+
+He was down to babbling pleas when the curse was lifted. Harry gasped
+and curled up on his side, then uncurled hastily. His sides ached with
+perfectly timed bursts of anguish. It felt as though one of his ribs was
+broken, though so far as Harry knew that wasn't a side-effect of
+\emph{Crucio.}
+
+``\emph{That,}'' said Voldemort, ``\emph{was payment for the first few
+months I spent as a bodiless spirit, powerless to affect the world,
+gazing on their celebrations, the weak fools who thought they'd defeated
+me. There will be many more to come. I have years and years of suffering
+to pay you back for, boy.}''
+
+Harry lifted his head. Tears blurred his sight, and he'd shaken his
+glasses off, blurring it further. But he didn't think he could ever
+mistake again the figure that stood before him. He would know the sight
+of Quirrell, and the sound of Voldemort's voice, until the day he died.
+
+He did wonder, hazily, what Voldemort was babbling about, but that
+didn't matter. A sequence of spells had entered his head, beautifully
+timed and perfectly rendered. He could pull it off, if he could only
+summon enough strength to make Voldemort angry. And it had to be the
+kind of anger that would make him react without thinking, charging
+forward to punish Harry physically instead of with a curse from a
+distance.
+
+Harry tested his shaking limbs, and nodded. It would have to be now. He
+didn't think he could run if he took another \emph{Crucio.}
+
+``You're the weak one,'' he said, and put as much contempt into his
+voice as he could. ``Not having another measure ready in case something
+like this happened to you, a backup plan? What do you think you are? A
+Slytherin?'' Harry laughed weakly, and then coughed. He didn't like the
+sensation in his body when he coughed, or the fact that some of the
+specks that landed on the back of his hand were red, but there wasn't
+much he could do about that. He \emph{did} like the fact that Quirrell
+had gone tense and still, that his silence was a listening one.
+``\emph{Dumbledore's} twice the Slytherin that you'll ever be. At least
+his plans stand a chance of \emph{working} once in a while, and he
+wasn't defeated by a \emph{baby.}''
+
+Quirrell came for him.
+
+Harry called on his wandless magic. He couldn't hold a wand right now.
+``\emph{Wingardium Leviosa}!''
+
+Quirrell flew into the air. He performed the countercharm, of course,
+and was already coming back down, but that bought Harry a few seconds.
+
+``\emph{Cavea}!''
+
+That did nothing at all, as Harry had expected, but it enraged
+Voldemort. ``\emph{You think to use my own spell against me?}'' he asked,
+hard enough that Harry thought flecks of spit were probably flying from
+the mouth on the back of Quirrell's head. ``\emph{You insolent,
+impudent}---''
+
+``\emph{Expelliarmus}!'' Harry yelled, throwing such a force of will
+behind that word that he felt drained afterwards. It worked. Quirrell's
+wand soared out of his relaxing grip and fell to the ground beside
+Harry. Harry didn't try to touch it. He still couldn't hold it, with his
+hand shaking, and he didn't want to risk contamination, as he couldn't
+be sure that Voldemort wasn't linked to Quirrell's wand core somehow. He
+continued speaking, not giving Voldemort a chance to get a word in
+edgewise. ``\emph{Fumo! Specularis! Protego}!''
+
+Smoke washed up from the ground around him, and the Shield Charm snapped
+back into existence. Harry forced himself shakily to his feet. He
+\emph{had} to run, \emph{had} to move, which was the whole purpose of
+the Smoke Charm. He kicked Quirrell's wand in front of him as he
+staggered forward, hoping to keep it from the Death Eater's grip as long
+as possible.
+
+He darted towards Connor, whom the blue glow of the \emph{Cavea} spell
+revealed pounding on the walls of his prison and mouthing what looked
+like obscenities. Harry gathered will and love both as he ran. No
+trouble, no trouble, harnessing love this time, when his beloved twin
+was in danger.
+
+\emph{Crack,} he told the force of the \emph{Cavea} spell.
+
+It did nothing at all.
+
+Harry slid to his knees beside the prison, bracing his own hands on the
+blue light. Connor met him, palm-to-palm, but Harry couldn't feel him at
+all. He growled and focused the clear \emph{Specularis} window on just a
+tiny point right past his left hand. \emph{You will crack. I will it so.
+I want}---
+
+A powerful rope snared him around the middle and tugged him away from
+the prison. Vengeful hisses in his ear told him that Nagini had
+returned. Harry struggled wildly, but he was no match for a snake as
+large as she was. She carried him firmly away from the spell and Connor,
+and deposited him at a pair of feet as the Smoke Charm vanished
+abruptly.
+
+Quirrell said nothing for a long moment. Harry closed his eyes and tried
+to breathe. His head and his ribs and the middle of his belly, where
+Nagini had grabbed him, all shouted at him in a symphony of aches. He
+had never hurt so much.
+
+``\emph{You have caused me too much trouble,}'' said Voldemort's voice.
+``\emph{I would have been content to torture you to death and then pass
+on. That is not enough, not now. Now you must watch your brother die.}''
+
+Harry's anger woke.
+
+Nagini let him go with a shriek that sounded too human to Harry's ears
+as her body burst into flames. Harry paid no more attention to her,
+though he had the vague impression she was rolling about, trying to put
+out the fire. He struggled to his feet, snapping, ``\emph{Accio} wand!''
+
+His wand settled into his left palm a moment later, the familiar feel of
+the cypress wood soothing him and solidifying his rage. Harry stalked
+towards Voldemort. He felt as though he wore immense robes, like Snape's
+perhaps, and couldn't understand the feeling until he saw the grass
+bending away from him, some of it beginning to smoke and take fire.
+\emph{This} was his magic, spreading around him like wings, rising in a
+silent, deadly wash that hummed until Harry's ears burnt. He was no
+longer tired, and all his pains had vanished.
+
+Quirrell backed away a few steps. ``M-m-master?'' This time, Harry felt
+certain, the stammer in his voice was real.
+
+\emph{Not Connor. Not Connor.} The words were under Harry's skin,
+blazing in his shoulders, rife in his ears, beating just beneath the
+roof of his mouth. He called more magic, and then more, more than he had
+ever dared summon under Lily's supervision or even in the centaurs'
+trial. The air in front of him blurred with a haze of power. It wasn't
+entirely unfamiliar. Harry blinked, and caught a glimpse of green light,
+and a crib beside his own, and Voldemort's startled face---
+
+Then that was gone as someone else's magic answered his, as rich, as
+powerful, as destructive. It was Voldemort's, and he was laughing, a
+sound of purest exultation.
+
+``\emph{I know more than you, boy,}'' he said, while his magic locked and
+linked with Harry's, bearing an answer to every defense, a sheath for
+every sword, a key for every door. ``\emph{I have had time, and more than
+time, to develop my defenses. You are a worthy opponent, that I will
+grant you, but you simply---cannot---stand---against---me.}''
+
+For every one of the last five words, his magic became a battering ram
+and struck at Harry's. Harry gasped as his pain returned, and then new
+pains started, weak points opening and running in his defenses. Once one
+crack spread, a dozen new ones sprouted. Harry tried to protect himself,
+tried to spread the wings and then curl them around in front of him to
+shield, but he was too new at this manipulation of raw force, and
+Voldemort was not.
+
+With a shivering of the air like a fall of dust, one of Harry's weak
+points gave way. He fell to the ground, feeling the Dark magic above him
+flowing over his like serpents. They twined and writhed and hissed at
+him, sounding as human as Nagini, and more human than Voldemort.
+
+``\emph{Enough toying. I would have enjoyed taking longer, but we cannot.
+We must retrieve the Stone. Quirrell. Take his brother, kill him, and
+then turn and use the Killing Curse on the boy. We must take no
+chances.}''
+
+``Yes, Master,'' Harry heard Quirrell say, from long ago and far away
+beneath a dark sea. He managed to open his eyes against pressing weight
+in time to see Quirrell stride up to the blue light and dismiss it with
+a gesture. Connor lay helpless before him, crawling away and probably
+trying to mouth a spell, but unable to muster any defenses.
+
+Harry tried to lunge upward. The weight of the serpents pinned him.
+Desperate, writhing, hating this with every fiber of his being, he sent
+a flow of love towards Connor.
+
+\emph{I have loved you since we were children, brother, playing
+together. You were destined for a life of pain. I wanted to keep you
+innocent. I waited too long. I'm sorry, Connor, so sorry. Please live. I
+want that more than anything. Please live.} Live.
+
+Quirrell's left hand gripped his wand. With the right, he touched
+Connor.
+
+A moment later, he howled.
+
+White light, bright as magnesium, enveloped his hand. He hopped
+backward, wringing it and yelling, but that didn't stop the light. It
+spread fiercely up his arm, eating. He whirled around, and he was near
+enough now that Harry could make out the radiance crisping his skin,
+sloughing it away, revealing layers of flesh and muscle beneath that it
+also consumed like a starving beast.
+
+``\emph{Shake it off! Shake it off! Fight it!}''
+
+The weight of the Dark magic on him was gone a moment later; Harry
+thought Voldemort had pulled his power home to fight the destruction of
+his host body. He leaped to his feet, the pain vanishing again, the
+wings spreading, his own magic roaring in gladness. He struck home, and
+hard, the Blasting Curse springing from his lips and hitting Quirrell.
+
+Quirrell, of course, was already dying. Harry had only struck to express
+his own anger, and he watched, not wishing to miss a moment, as the
+light spread and captured Quirrell's face, taking his head almost
+gently.
+
+Voldemort hissed, and then a mass of dark light grew like a boil on the
+back of Quirrell's head and erupted, spraying like pus into the air.
+Voldemort flew low over Connor as he soared free. Connor screamed and
+screamed, one hand rising to clutch at his scar.
+
+Harry ran to him and crouched over him, shielding him both from the
+sight of Quirrell's last moments and from any harm that Voldemort might
+try to do him. If the Dark Lord possessed his brother now, he would have
+a fight on his hands. Harry would show him.
+
+The Dark Lord did no such thing. ``\emph{Until we meet again, Harry
+Potter,}'' he said, sheer hatred in his voice, and then his formless form
+flowed away over the Forbidden Forest and was gone.
+
+Harry exhaled and glanced towards Quirrell. The flame had finished its
+work. For a moment, it glowed, a dying star at the heart of a black
+night sky, and then it disappeared with a \emph{crack.} Quirrell's
+remains collapsed into ashes.
+
+Harry thought of something and gripped his wand, but when he looked
+around, there was no sign of Nagini.
+
+They breathed in silence for a long moment, and then Connor whispered,
+his voice shaky, ``Harry, how did I do that? What happened?''
+
+Harry smiled and pushed the hair away from his brother's scar to trace
+it with a finger. Connor shivered. The heart wasn't bleeding, Harry was
+glad to note, but it did have an angry silver glow to it, like the light
+that had flashed between him and Draco when he accepted the life debt.
+The glow faded as Harry watched. ``You don't know, Connor?'' he asked.
+``You told me the answer before the snake took you and started this
+whole mess.''
+
+Connor blinked at him. ``I did?''
+
+Harry nodded and hugged his brother close. He tried to think how near he
+had come to losing him, and felt his mind recoil. He could not
+comprehend that, not right now. He could feel love, and rejoice, and he
+did so. ``You said that you were the Boy-Who-Lived. You are. Voldemort
+couldn't touch you. The force of your love ate his flesh. That
+\emph{has} to be it. Voldemort is corrupt, he couldn't bear something so
+good. One touch, and Quirrell---'' He hesitated, because he had prevented
+Connor from seeing that death for a reason, and then finished, ``Was
+gone.''
+
+Connor shuddered for a long moment, his breath coming short and fast.
+Then he said, ``Yes. That's it, isn't it?''
+
+Harry nodded slowly, and closed his eyes. His pains were making
+themselves felt again. He coughed, and felt something thicker than
+saliva bubble in the back of his throat. He wanted to sink down on the
+earth and never move again.
+
+On the other hand, Connor wasn't safely back at Hogwarts yet, and that
+thought urged him to move. He stood, gently tugging on Connor's hand.
+``Get up.''
+
+``But I'm so tired,'' Connor whispered.
+
+``Lean on me,'' said Harry, and took Connor's weight on his left side,
+the less injured one. ``Where's your wand?''
+
+After a moment of searching, Connor found it, and they proceeded slowly
+back in the direction of Hogwarts. Connor paused to fire off red sparks
+every few steps.
+
+Harry, meanwhile, depended as much on his own happiness to carry him
+along as his body. He wouldn't have minded doing a dance, if he had been
+up to it.
+
+\emph{This proves it. This} bloody \emph{proves it. Connor can defeat
+Voldemort. He's protected from his direct touch, and if the Dark Lord
+takes another host body, the same thing can happen to it. When Connor's
+strong enough, he's going to face him, and he's going to rid the
+wizarding world of him.}
+
+There were the things Voldemort had said, of course, the personal hatred
+in his voice for Harry and the babble about Harry being something or
+other, but Harry had already decided what to believe about that.
+
+\emph{The Dark Lord is a liar. Who can trust what comes out of his
+mouth? I would rather trust the light that ate Quirrell when he tried to
+touch Connor. Light tells no lies.}
+
+\subsection{*Chapter 22*: Truth}\label{chapter-22-truth}
+
+Phew.
+
+This is the last chapter of \emph{Saving Connor}, in which the first
+school year concludes. Once again, this is \emph{not} the end of the
+whole story. I'm going to take a few days' break, and then begin the AU
+of CoS, \emph{No Mouth But Some Serpent's}, on Monday. (If you want to
+confirm this title, or any other, just look at my bio). I love writing
+this too much to give it up.
+
+Review responses for chapter 19 will be in my LJ in a short while. I'm
+also going to start posting chapters of \emph{Saving Connor} there,
+since I got an e-mail informing me that some people can't access it on
+this site, but all the stories will still be posted here first unless
+I'm forced to remove them.
+
+Many, many thanks to the reviewers, who are part of why I've had such
+fun. I hope this last chapter, while it may infuriate you, will keep you
+reading on to the second year.
+
+\textbf{Chapter Twenty: Truth}
+
+Harry knew that Hagrid had found them, and he knew that Hagrid had sent
+Neville running to the castle when Connor babbled out some version of
+the past hour involving ``Voldemort'' and ``snake,'' and he knew that
+Connor was safe; he would not have been able to sleep if Connor wasn't
+safe.
+
+But he didn't remember falling asleep, or falling unconscious, or
+whatever he had done to wind up being carried in Hagrid's arms back to
+the castle.
+
+``What?'' he mumbled. He twisted, and then hissed as the broken rib, or
+whatever it was, pierced his side.
+
+``It's all right, Harry,'' Hagrid said, holding him more firmly. ``Yer
+brother told me what happened. You-Know-Who and all.'' He shivered, a
+shiver that shook Harry, and which he rode out with all the stoicism he
+could muster. ``We'll soon get yeh to Dumbledore, and he can heal yeh,
+and then---''
+
+``Where are you going with my student?''
+
+Harry started, then moaned despite himself as that caused the pain to
+work deeper. \emph{Of course. Snape.} Snape would have gotten irritated
+when Harry didn't show up for their training session, and then probably
+resolved to look for him. Harry had expected to receive a berating about
+it the next day, since no excuse he made up for missing the faux duel
+would be good enough for the professor. He certainly hadn't thought
+Snape would look outside, nor that he would come upon them like this.
+
+``You leave him alone!'' said Connor's fierce voice, before Hagrid could
+say anything. Twisting his head, Harry saw his brother get in between
+him and the Potions professor, hands clenched. He would probably be all
+but spitting as he said the words, though Harry couldn't see his
+expression. His eyes would be flashing. ``He stood up for me in the
+forest, when Voldemort showed his true face, and---''
+
+``Give him to me.''
+
+Harry felt Hagrid hold him closer. ``He's bad hurt, Professor Snape,''
+the half-giant said. ``Vomitin' blood before I picked him up. I think
+Dumbledore ough' ter see to him---''
+
+``No. Not yet. Escort Mr. Potter to the Headmaster. I am sure that he
+will want to know what happened,'' said Snape. ``In the meantime, I will
+take care of his brother.'' Harry managed to turn his head enough to see
+that Snape was actually \emph{holding out his arms,} which made him want
+to laugh hysterically. Even more than that, though, he was sure that he
+wanted to stay with Connor.
+
+``Professor Snape,'' he croaked, ``really, you don't need to. Connor
+might need---''
+
+He coughed, then, and felt the stabbing pain go deeper, and then he
+couldn't stop coughing. Blood stained the front of his robe. He felt his
+eyes roll back in his head, and heard a tight voice saying, ``Don't be
+an idiot, Potter, I have potions that will take care of this,'' and then
+he was passed over.
+
+Connor's hand briefly touched his forehead. ``Stay safe, Harry,'' he
+whispered, with the first touch of fear in his voice since they'd left
+Voldemort's clearing. ``I'll see you soon.''
+
+Harry tried to say that he didn't want to stay safe, he wanted to go
+with Connor, and then Snape bore him off. The professor walked more
+smoothly than Hagrid. Harry gritted his teeth and closed his eyes,
+concentrating on not coughing again. He didn't want Snape to have more
+opportunities to attack him.
+
+``What did this to you?''
+
+Harry opened his eyes, but could see little, since they were already
+back in Hogwarts and moving through dim corridors at a rapid pace---and
+he had his head pressed into Snape's shoulder besides. Annoyed, he tried
+to sit up, but the stupid agony in his ribs wouldn't let him. He decided
+to answer the question, though. The sooner he did, the sooner Snape
+could heal him and he would be able to rejoin Connor.
+
+\emph{And if he's so concerned about healing me, why isn't he taking me
+to the hospital wing, anyway?}
+
+``The Cruciatus Curse,'' he whispered. He felt Snape make a small
+motion, though he could not tell if it was of fear or disgust or only
+remembered pain. As a Death Eater, he would certainly have used the
+curse, and been subjected to it. No one had ever claimed that Voldemort
+was sane in the last year of his power.
+
+Snape bore him through a familiar door, and into his office. He shifted
+Harry in his arms, muttered a spell, and Transfigured one of his chairs
+into a divan. Down Harry went, and then Snape whirled and strode across
+the room, searching for something in the racks of potions against the
+far wall.
+
+Harry watched him from hazy eyes. Snape was intent, frowning, and a
+moment later he snatched two vials, one of them filled with a purple
+liquid and one with a clear one, and came back. Harry licked his lips
+nervously. Snape had no special wish to see him die---Harry would have
+felt much more uneasy if he was taking care of Connor---but he
+\emph{was} James's son, and Snape really \emph{should} have taken him to
+Pomfrey.
+
+``Drink this,'' Snape ordered him, holding the vial of purple liquid
+out.
+
+Harry took it, eyed it in resignation, and then swallowed the liquid.
+
+His breathing eased at once, and a spreading warmth swallowed the pain
+in his side. When he coughed again, only ordinary spittle came out.
+Harry sighed as a tremor in his limbs that he'd barely noticed ceased,
+and he even managed a smile at Snape. ``Thank you, sir.''
+
+``What happened out in the Forest?'' Snape walked over to the fireplace
+and called a house elf before Harry could answer, ordering a goblet of
+pumpkin juice. He indicated the clear liquid when Harry started
+questioningly at him. ``This one must be taken when mixed into a drink.
+That does not mean that you have to gape at me like a witless idiot
+until the drink arrives, Potter.''
+
+Harry shut his mouth. ``Connor defeated Voldemort, sir.''
+
+``As he defeated the troll, and the Lestranges,'' said Snape. ``As he
+caught the Snitch in our match with Gryffindor. Of course he did.''
+
+Harry stiffened, then winced; his muscles still ached, although the
+worst consequences of the \emph{Crucio} must be almost gone. He was
+thinking back on his victories earlier in the year, though, with a trace
+of regret. If he had hidden them better, then Connor would not have been
+under suspicion, and Snape would have had no reason to think that Harry
+was telling other than the truth.
+
+\emph{Of course,} Harry thought, as he met Snape's eyes stubbornly,
+\emph{it would also help if I didn't have a bloody suspicious git of a
+Head of House.}
+
+``He did, sir,'' he said quietly. ``Voldemort was hiding---attached
+somehow, I don't know how---to the back of Professor Quirrell's head.
+Quirrell tried to touch Connor, and he started \emph{burning.} Voldemort
+detached himself to save his own life, and then blew away over the
+Forest.''
+
+``All of which says nothing about why you have suffered the
+\emph{Crucio},'' Snape noted, almost clinically. A house elf appeared,
+carrying a tray on which the goblet of pumpkin juice was prominently
+displayed. Snape took it; the house elf bowed and disappeared. As he
+mixed the potion into the juice, the professor never removed his eyes
+from Harry. ``Or why you have enough power to kill four experienced
+Aurors raging around your body.''
+
+``Everything happened the way I told you, sir,'' Harry protested.
+
+Snape sneered at him, then strode over and handed him the goblet of
+pumpkin juice. Harry downed it without protesting. It was probably
+something to make him sleep, and while that would further separate him
+from Connor for a time, it would also stop Snape asking him questions,
+so Harry was all for it.
+
+He blinked when he had finished the juice. It eased the pain in his body
+even further, but it seemed to do that by making him not concentrate on
+it. He stared at the goblet, and nearly let it fall. Snape plucked it
+from his hands and set it on the desk, then swooped down in front of
+Harry and stared into his face.
+
+``I have had enough of your excuses,'' he whispered. ``I \emph{know} that
+you are not telling me the whole truth. Now I intend to leave you no
+choice.'' He paused, for a long moment, and then a malicious smile spread
+across his face. ``That was Veritaserum that you just swallowed,
+Potter.''
+
+Harry failed to grasp the implications for a long moment. The
+Veritaserum was making him think about other things---
+
+Then he understood.
+
+And the slight trust he'd carefully built up in Snape, through their
+dueling sessions and the tasks Snape had handed him in Potions if
+nothing else, vanished into a howling whirlwind of betrayal.
+
+Harry fought. He tried to stand, tried to move away, tried to argue. He
+couldn't. All his motion was in his head. He floated there, and watched
+Snape's mouth open with indifference, at the same time as his magic
+strained to get at the Potions professor.
+
+``Why were you outside, Potter?''
+
+``I learned from Hermione last week that Connor would be serving a
+detention tonight in the Forbidden Forest,'' said Harry's mouth, without
+his will guiding it. ``I thought Quirrell might try to strike at him
+then, since there wouldn't be any adults around. I tagged along so I
+could keep him safe.''
+
+Snape's eyes narrowed slightly. ``Why would you think the Forbidden
+Forest was the likeliest place for an attack?''
+
+``Because I saw Quirrell there in November, drinking unicorns' blood.''
+
+Snape looked as if he would gag for a moment; his eyes certainly grew
+wider. ``Merlin,'' he breathed. Then he stood and paced around the desk
+for a moment. Harry took the chance to struggle against the Veritaserum
+again. It didn't move, continuing to feel like a combination of stony
+weight on his chest and airy lightness in his head.
+
+Snape whirled back around. ``November. When in November?''
+
+``A week before the Quidditch match and the Lestranges' attack,'' said
+Harry's traitorous mouth. ``I knew that something would happen then,
+although I didn't know that he'd be able to set Death Eaters free. I
+knew there was a traitor among Dumbledore's friends. I trained and
+practiced until I thought I was ready for anything, and I was.''
+
+Snape narrowed his eyes to slits. ``You stupid, \emph{stupid} boy,'' he
+hissed. ``Why didn't you come to me? Or to Dumbledore?''
+
+``I thought that Dumbledore would tell the traitor,'' said Harry. ``And
+I've always protected Connor. That's my task.''
+
+Snape tilted his head. ``Task?''
+
+``Since Voldemort's attack,'' Harry continued, serenely on the surface
+while shrieking inside, ``it's been my job to defend Connor. Mum told me
+so. That's why I learned the extra magic. I want to be able to protect
+him, to kill for him and to die for him if necessary. And I want to make
+myself look ordinary, so that everyone else thinks the magic is
+Connor's.''
+
+Harry didn't understand the expression on Snape's face at that. Surprise
+he'd expected, but not black fury, nor the brief flash of a look that
+made him seem close to vomiting.
+
+Snape closed his eyes and hissed for a long moment, as if he needed the
+sound to calm him down. Then he opened his eyes. ``Do continue about
+tonight,'' he said. ``What happened when Quirrell attacked your
+brother?''
+
+``He sent a snake first---'' Harry began.
+
+He told the whole story all the way through, punctuated only now and
+then by Snape's questions, mostly asking him to clarify what spells he'd
+used or to talk in more detail about Voldemort's babble. Harry let his
+mouth prattle on. He sank down beneath the surface of his thoughts,
+grimly examining the pale chains that the Veritaserum had wound about
+his free will. He knew that he should be able to shatter them, as he'd
+shattered the stone, but he'd never seen anything like them before. And
+he was exhausted from the battle with Voldemort. He didn't know if he
+could work up the strength to break them for some hours yet.
+
+He finished the story, and Snape stared at him in silence for a moment.
+Then he stood up and took a long, smooth step towards Harry. Harry
+instinctively cowered back on the divan.
+
+``This proves it, Mr. Potter,'' Snape whispered. ``\emph{You} are the
+Boy-Who-Lived.''
+
+Harry shook his head. ``That's not true,'' he said, and the Veritaserum
+let Snape hear that it was what he really thought.
+
+``Yes, it is,'' said Snape, his voice acquiring force, though it didn't
+rise in volume. ``You are the one whose scar burned in the presence of
+the Dark Lord. You are the one whom he cursed and laughed at, saying he
+would pay you back for his years of suffering. He recognized his
+opponent. And your power, Mr. Potter. Near a match for his. Training
+will make you stronger. \emph{You} are the one who will rid our world of
+him, perhaps before you leave school.''
+
+``He wanted to kill Connor,'' said Harry. The Veritaserum insured that
+everything he said was born of his ultimate convictions. ``Connor's scar
+hurt when Voldemort passed above him. And he called him the
+Boy-Who-Lived. If you're going to believe anything, believe that. My
+scar's just a---a scar. Connor's scar is a connection to \emph{him}.''
+
+``I would think you would want to believe me.'' Snape sneered, eyes
+alight in a way that Harry had never seen before. ``After all, it would
+spare your beloved twin pain.''
+
+Harry answered reluctantly again. Merely doing so was going against the
+rule he talked about. ``But it would draw attention to me. That can't
+happen. Everyone's supposed to think of me as just an ordinary student.
+That's the way Mum and I planned. I promised. I haven't been very good
+at sparing myself attention so far, but I've got to get better.''
+
+Snape laughed at him. ``You are \emph{not} ordinary, Mr. Potter,'' he
+said. ``You never will be. I know of no other \emph{child} with your
+power. I know of no \emph{child} who would receive the blast of
+\emph{Crucio} and yet go on fighting. Any ordinary \emph{boy} would run
+to his professors the moment he found out Quirrell's plans, or be found
+and killed. You fought and planned as though it were a battle, and you
+\emph{won}.'' He still had that strange light in his eyes, as if he
+thought that Harry would want anything to do with him after this. ``You
+are a soldier.''
+
+``Yes,'' Harry acknowledged unwillingly. ``Mum trained me to be. But a
+quiet one.''
+
+Snape shook his head. ``I will make sure that everyone knows of this,''
+he said. ``Unless you go to Headmaster Dumbledore yourself and tell him
+what truly happened.'' He bowed his head and surveyed Harry mockingly
+from beneath half-lowered eyelids.
+
+Harry found himself doubting that Snape would really tell
+everyone---that would just make Harry a target, and Snape didn't seem to
+want that---but even a few people could be disastrous. Harry could
+hardly bear being a rival to his brother in Potions or Quidditch. He
+shuddered to think of what would happen if that arena should expand.
+
+But there was an out. There had to be.
+
+He muttered, dropping his eyes, ``All right, I'll tell the Headmaster.
+But, the white light from Connor. How do you explain \emph{that}?''
+
+Snape waved a hand. ``There are many old enchantments, Potter, magics
+based on sacrifice. The life debt is merely the most common and
+well-known one. You love your brother. I believe that it was your love
+that spared him, not his own innate strengths, of which---'' here he
+sneered again---``I believe him to have few.''
+
+Harry snorted, but nodded as if he agreed. \emph{I know too much about
+the world to produce that kind of love. I've argued too much with
+Connor. It has to be his own innocence and purity that produced it. I'm
+too much like Voldemort.}
+
+``You will learn to love Slytherin that way,'' Snape said softly, his
+tone a promise. ``I will see to it.'' Harry stared at him incredulously,
+but he showed no sign of realizing that what he had said was completely
+and utterly mad.
+
+He stepped away, and his face became neutral again, save for a hint of
+glee in the dark eyes. ``I have done enough this night,'' he said. ``Go
+to Headmaster Dumbledore, and tell him the truth, or be assured I shall
+find out about it.''
+
+``Of course, Professor Snape,'' Harry murmured respectfully, and then
+stood and limped to the door of the room.
+
+``Harry.''
+
+Harry blinked and glanced over his shoulder. Professor Snape was staring
+at him, and he had no expression on his face, or in his eyes, at all.
+
+``Well done,'' he said softly.
+
+Harry shook his head. He knew how rare compliments from Snape were, but
+he did not care to acknowledge this one.
+
+\emph{He forced Veritaserum on me.}
+
+Harry made his way carefully towards the Headmaster's office, willing to
+seek out one of the other Professors if he had to so he could learn the
+password. The Veritaserum's influence on him was fading. He would have
+to choose his words carefully, but he rather thought he could convince
+the Headmaster of what he wanted him to believe. He had always been a
+good liar, and besides, he had the force of truth---\emph{ultimate}
+truth, a power stronger than sneaky Slytherins and their underhanded
+games---on his side.
+
+\begin{center}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}\end{center}
+
+Snape smirked as he glanced around the Great Hall. It was the
+end-of-term feast, and Slytherin had done well. The walls were draped
+with green banners, and the cheerful noise from his charges' table was
+loud, while the Gryffindors cowered at theirs and looked sullen and
+resentful. The Quidditch Cup was theirs, thanks in large part to Harry
+Potter's beautiful flying, and they also led in House points, so the
+House Cup would be theirs in a few moments.
+
+Harry Potter sat next to Draco Malfoy near the far end of the Slytherin
+table. He was quiet, as he had been since that day Snape had forced him
+to tell the truth, only rubbing his forehead occasionally. He had
+managed to tame his power, and it no longer tore at Snape's shields as
+it had when he first came back. Snape knew his impressions earlier in
+the term had been correct, though. The boy's power \emph{had} grown.
+That was supposed to be impossible.
+
+Snape was coming to accept that the impossible was the usual with Harry
+Potter, and he had decided to work with that. The boy had returned his
+Potions books to him promptly, and had shown himself willing to master
+fifth-year work. His dueling spells were stronger than they had been.
+Snape had given the boy ``extra'' summer homework intended to improve
+both his knowledge and his power, and Harry had accepted without
+complaint. His rebelliousness had not gone away yet, but Snape had cowed
+him sufficiently that it had been driven back underground for the time
+being.
+
+Dumbledore tapped his fork on his silver goblet and rose to his feet
+just then. The chatter ceased at once, and the students turned and
+looked expectantly at the Headmaster.
+
+``I think it only fitting,'' Dumbledore was saying, ``as we cross into
+summer, a time of hope and renewal for most of us, and of rest from
+school---''
+
+Most of the students cheered then, the Weasley twins the loudest. Snape
+rolled his eyes. The longer they cheered, the longer they would be held
+here. \emph{Idiots.}
+
+``That we get around to the rewarding of the House Cup, the symbol of so
+much effort and work during the school year,'' Dumbledore finished.
+``And, I must say, all our Houses have done exceptionally well this
+year.''
+
+Snape snorted and looked at the green banners. Everyone already knew who
+had won. The Slytherins waited with smiles, while the other Houses
+muttered and cast harsh glances at their table.
+
+``In fourth place, with three hundred twenty-seven House points,''
+Dumbledore began, ``Hufflepuff House.''
+
+Polite applause, mingled with sneers, from the others. Snape leaned
+forward and wished Dumbledore would get on with it. Since he knew the
+old man wouldn't, he began daydreaming of what James Potter would say
+when he realized that his elder son had helped win both House Cup and
+Quidditch Cup for Slytherin. True, Dumbledore hadn't awarded Harry any
+points for that night in the Forest, but his Potions work was a large
+part of the reason that Slytherin was so far ahead.
+
+``In third place, with three hundred forty House points, Ravenclaw
+House.''
+
+Snape contemplated sending a taunting letter to James Potter smeared
+with one of his experimental potions, one that would let him see the
+expression on Potter's face when he read it. That might be worth it.
+
+``In second place, with three hundred seventy-two House points,
+Gryffindor House.''
+
+Snape roused himself to glance at the Gryffindor table and smirk at the
+scowling face of the boy hero. Connor Potter needed to grow up and be
+reminded of his place, though not as badly as his brother had a
+fortnight ago. This would not teach him that place, but it would be a
+first, and most pleasant, step on that journey.
+
+``And in first place, with four hundred seventy-two points, Slytherin
+House.''
+
+The cheers from his students were deafening. Snape moved his gaze over
+them, and paused when he saw Harry was not cheering. On the other hand,
+he watched the head table intently, as if he could change the figures by
+sheer force of will.
+
+Snape smirked. \emph{Not this time, boy. There are some things that are}
+not \emph{going to go your brother's way.}
+
+``But,'' Dumbledore continued, ``it seems to me that the awarding of
+House points is not yet finished.''
+
+Snape frowned at him. \emph{What is the old man babbling about now? No
+one has awarded points at the feast before.}
+
+He felt a sudden, and odd, and brief, surge of hope. \emph{Perhaps he
+means to award Harry his points in front of everyone. Then he cannot
+hide. On the other hand, would that be wise? To reveal to everyone all
+at once that their beloved savior is not who they believe him to be?}
+
+``We have among us students who relied on evidence not only from rumor
+and hearsay,'' Dumbledore continued, ``but from their own eyes and ears.
+They sought out an artifact they believed was in danger, and then
+reported to me that it \emph{was} in danger, and, not least, from whom,
+on the night that Lord Voldemort was prevented from seizing it.'' He
+smiled amid the buzz and gasp of gossip as rumor was at last proved
+fact, and smiled at two of the Gryffindor students. ``To Ron Weasley and
+Hermione Granger, fifty points each for acts of tact, bravery, and
+intelligence far beyond their years.''
+
+Snape clenched the table so hard that he felt blood vessels break in his
+hands. \emph{No. He cannot do this.}
+
+``And there is among us even a greater example,'' Dumbledore went on,
+voice softening perceptibly. ``To Connor Potter, who faced and defeated
+the Dark Lord in the Forbidden Forest by the power of love alone, one
+hundred points.''
+
+He paused for a moment as the noise grew tumultuous, then said, with an
+even wider smile, ``I believe that necessitates a color change in our
+banners.''
+
+He clapped his hands, and a wind appeared to blow through the Hall,
+changing every banner it touched to Gryffindor red. The noise from the
+Gryffindor table was now a happy shout. The boy hero's face had changed
+completely.
+
+Snape was shaking, and a red haze threatened to blur his vision.
+\emph{There is no doubt at all of which House you prefer, Albus,} he
+thought violently. \emph{No doubt at all.}
+
+Dumbledore raised his goblet in a toast to the students. Only the
+Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs echoed him. The Slytherins
+remained white, silent, and motionless to a student.
+
+When the Headmaster sat back down, Snape leaned towards him and hissed,
+``How could you do that?''
+
+Dumbledore glanced at him and chuckled lightly. ``Now, Severus, I feel
+that what young Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger did deserves some
+recognition. Not least young Mr. Potter. It is not every day that a
+child fights the Dark Lord and survives.''
+
+Snape snarled. ``Then Harry Potter did not tell you what happened in the
+Forest?''
+
+Dumbledore raised his eyebrows. ``Of course he did. And his testimony
+agreed with his brother's, jot and tittle. I suggested a much greater
+reward, actually, at first, but young Harry was the one who persuaded me
+that House points would be a fairer method of settling the debt that
+Hogwarts owes to our brave Gryffindors.''
+
+Snape snapped his head around, facing the Slytherin table. Harry was
+leaning forward, staring at him.
+
+Snape could read the ``Fuck you'' in his eyes from this distance.
+
+He had not tamed Harry Potter's rebelliousness, after all.
+
+Snape opened his mouth. With a few words, he could cleave this farce
+apart and restore the world to the way it should be, the House Cup to
+its rightful owners---
+
+And then he would have to reveal how he had gotten the information. From
+forcing Veritaserum on a helpless child.
+
+Or, at least, a child who could play helpless with unnatural intensity,
+and who was also a skilled and accomplished liar.
+
+Snape clenched his fists. It would have been intolerable for any other
+Potter to best him at this game.
+
+But \emph{this} Potter was a Slytherin, and strong enough to down four
+Aurors.
+
+And, Snape was now convinced, the true Boy-Who-Lived.
+
+Snape swallowed his anger. He took up his own goblet and raised it, in a
+late, private toast, to the only person who would understand the
+gesture, and to whom it would matter.
+
+Harry regarded him for a long moment. Then he inclined his head in a
+slight bow and swept his half-open hand in front of him at chest height.
+
+The gesture of a challenge given and accepted, Snape found, after
+racking his brain for a moment. An ancient one, one that not even
+purebloods used very often anymore.
+
+Snape sat back in his seat, sipping his goblet and watching as Draco
+distracted Harry and began complaining, probably about the general
+unfairness of life, and Harry answered, his hands gradually moving in
+more and more animated gestures. Snape couldn't be sure whether Harry
+was agreeing or disagreeing with Draco.
+
+It didn't matter. Snape was sure that, either way, Harry would return
+next year just as ready to defy him, and just as full of power and so
+much a Slytherin that he remained Snape's best chance for earning his
+House respect.
+
+Forcing him to be what he was was going to be a challenge, indeed.
+
+\emph{One}, Snape thought, as he emptied his goblet, \emph{that I am}
+quite \emph{looking forward to.}
+
+\end{document}