Chapter Seven of 'Corybantes'- Answers and Asking

[lomonaaeren]

Title: Corybantes (7/12)
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing this story for fun and not profit.
Pairing: Harry/Draco
Rating: R
Warnings: Violence, OC character death, profanity, sex, mentions of random fetishes and suicide. Ignores the DH epilogue.
Summary: A mysterious death has occurred at Draco Malfoy’s club, Corybantes, which specializes in using magic to make its clients’ deepest fantasies come true. As Auror Harry Potter investigates, he finds himself admiring Malfoy’s courage and determination in achieving success. Which could be a problem, as there’s a fairly large chance that Malfoy is the murderer.
Author’s Notes: Corybantes were servants of the goddess Cybele who worked themselves up into ecstatic trances with drumming and dancing. Though applying to a different kind of ecstasy, it seemed a fairly good name for Draco’s club. This story will be about ten or twelve chapters long.

Chapter One.

Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Seven—Answers and Asking

“I’m not going to eat you.”

Harry thought making that statement, especially with a slight smile, would calm Shadow down, but instead she only stared at him and then looked down at her wrists again, tracing the faint lines between the scales with her finger. Harry sighed and held out a cup of tea towards her. It was some time before she noticed it, but when she did, she nodded jerkily and took it with a murmur of thanks.

Harry stepped back from Shadow and sat down on the couch across the room. He would let her have as much space as she needed to make her decisions. She had multiple ones to make—whether to talk to him at all, and how much to tell him. Harry was confident that she knew more than one thing about why Malfoy was acting so strangely. Leon had said that she’d been with Malfoy since the beginning. She must know a lot.

Maybe she even knows why Malfoy desires me so much, when there’s no way that he can really know who I am.

Harry sipped his tea and waited. As he had thought would happen, the silence and the lack of pressure began to loosen Shadow’s nerves. She took a deep breath and picked up the cup of tea, cradling it as she stared into the depths, now and then blowing across the surface. Harry waited for her to drink, but she didn’t. Was the warmth enough comfort for her, he wondered, or was she afraid that he had put Veritaserum in it?

“I know that I have to tell you,” Shadow said at last, lowly. “It’s a betrayal of myself and my principles if I don’t. But it’s a betrayal of him if I do.” She looked up, her face anguished. Harry was surprised how easy it was for him to read that from her, even with her gem eyes and strange teeth.

Harry sighed slowly. He hadn’t expected this. Since Shadow had made an effort to tell him whatever she had to say twice before, he had assumed she would speak without hesitation when they were finally alone. But he reached out, because he had to, and held a hand towards her in the air, since she was too far away to touch at the moment. “You don’t have to speak if you don’t want to,” he said.

“Yes, I do.” Shadow bowed her head. “If it had always remained a secret, private between him and me, there would be no reason to tell you. But I knew the moment I saw you in Corybantes that it had gone too far.”

What went too far? But Harry doubted that asking at the moment would do anything except make Shadow dither further. So he waited. The tea felt thick and heavy in his mouth when he sipped it again.

Shadow spoke in a whisper that Harry could hardly distinguish from his own breathing at first, but her voice swelled with power as she went on.

“I know that he used to wonder what it would be like to be your friend. When he went through the trials that he did after the war, that was one of a few fantasies he could feel any interest in. He clung to it. It obsessed him more than was healthy. I knew that the first time he told me about it, but I didn’t think much of it then. I was obsessed with changing my appearance, too, and as long as neither of us hurt other people to get what we wanted, who cared?”

Harry nodded. He had plenty of sympathy for that view. His friends and Kingsley would make noise about taking holidays, but Harry’s hard work solved cases and hurt no one. He had no idea why they were so interested in seeing him travel to some hotel and lie about doing nothing.

Shadow took a deep breath. “He came up with the idea for Corybantes. He founded it. He made it successful. It’s far more than what you think it is, you know,” she added abruptly. “It involves people who want to recover from wounds, and people who want to learn to know themselves, and people who want an encouraging environment because they’ve been abused all their lives. There’s more than one entrance. There’s more than one kind of fantasy room. Some of them are used exclusively to allow people to face their demons and their fears. It’s—a loving environment.”

“But that’s not the one I was invited into,” Harry said. “Malfoy invited me into the one that involves sex and darkness. Why?”

Shadow stared at him. “Because Keatson died there.”

“I don’t think,” Harry said carefully, clenching his hand around his teacup and doing his best not to crack it, “that that’s the only reason.” He waited some moments, and Shadow kept up the steady stare. Harry grew tired of this, and added sharply, “Is it?”

Shadow jumped and flinched. Harry clenched his teeth and took a slow, steady breath. I can get answers without hurting people, without frightening them. I know I can. I just have to remember that those answers might not come as quickly as I would like.

“No,” Shadow whispered at last. “His fantasies changed, as he watched you through the newspapers and saw how busy you were. I think he expected at first that you would slow down someday—have the children and the wife and the perfect family life that your parents had and that everyone agreed you wanted. But as time passed and that didn’t happen, he started talking more often about how hard you worked and how it wasn’t right that you were all alone. ‘I could help him, Shadow,’ he said more than once. ‘Who knows more about getting people to relax than I do?’”

Harry bared his teeth. “So that’s what you wanted to tell me? That he wants to have sex with me? He implied as much himself, so I’m not sure why he made you keep it secret.”

“He doesn’t want to just have sex with you,” Shadow said. “He would have made himself a false Harry Potter and fucked him if that was all he wanted.” She leaned forwards. “He wants to ease your loneliness. He wants to teach you how to enjoy yourself and live a normal life, things he thinks you’ve forgotten. He wants to fulfill your fantasies. He wants to do for you what he wants to do for every client of Corybantes, but with a passionate, devouring desire that is eating him alive from the inside.”

Harry found himself relaxing instead of tensing, which was the last thing he had expected given Shadow’s news. He understood, though. Malfoy needed rescuing. Maybe it was from the pleasures he’d let swallow him instead of from criminals, but that didn’t matter. Harry could act now in good conscience. He wasn’t hurting Malfoy and opposing something he wanted; he was ultimately going to help him.

“You know that he can’t really have what he wants,” he said. “He doesn’t know me. He doesn’t have the slightest idea of what I might require of him, and that means that he could condemn himself or do something genuinely repugnant to his principles just because I might demand the impossible.”

Shadow’s hand reached towards him, her fingers trembling. “Haven’t you paid attention to what I said?” she demanded. “That doesn’t matter to him. He knows enough about you to think that you would never ask for anything repugnant. He wants to give you pleasure no matter what. The harder you are to please, the more he would like it.”

“But that’s mad,” Harry said, baffled once again at the enigma that appeared to be Draco Malfoy.

Shadow’s hand dropped as though someone had cut it off, and she nodded, her eyes fluttering with what looked like exhaustion. “Yes. Now you understand.”

“So he is mad then?” Harry considered the way Malfoy’s eyes had flashed when he made some of his statements, or the pleasure he seemed to take in holding information back from Harry. Harry never would have suspected the existence of the star-globe with Keatson’s fantasies embedded in it if Malfoy hadn’t told him about it. Harry wondered if someone could be sane in some circumstances and mad in others.

“Not exactly,” Shadow said. “No more than I was when I longed to change my body and had no hopes of magic that would let me do it. No more than he was when he desired your friendship and thought he would never win it.” She paused, then added, “No more than you are when you investigate crimes and desire to solve them.”

Harry stared at her, baffled. “Being an Auror is hard work, not an indulgence,” he said.

“I wonder,” Shadow said, and gave him what Harry decided was supposed to be a wise look, though he had no idea why she had decided that he would fall for it.

“So you’re worried about what Malfoy might do to fulfill these fantasies of his,” Harry said. “I can understand that. And Malfoy prevented you from telling me this—why? Did he simply want the telling under his control?” It would explain why Malfoy had revealed his fantasies almost casually and in private.

Shadow shut her eyes. Her voice had descended into a whisper again, and Harry wondered if she was trying to protect her employer even now. “I’m worried about what he might do, yes. I’m worried about what he might have already done.”

“You’re worried that he killed Keatson,” Harry said flatly. “Why? To lure me into the club? Could he be that short-sighted? He has to know that there’s no way I would ever agree to fulfill the fantasies of a murderer, and he couldn’t think that becoming one more criminal would mean anything special to me, when I’ve arrested so many of them.”

His breath was coming short, he realized, and his eyes hurt as though he had rubbed sand in them. He didn’t want Malfoy to be a murderer. The parts of him that made sense to Harry—the courage with which he had fought against his reputation after the war and chosen his job, for example—resonated with Harry, who had become an ordinary Auror instead of the Head Auror or the Quidditch player or the stay-at-home husband or the public speaker that so many people had thought he would.

“I don’t think he killed him,” Shadow said at once, too quickly. Or was it? Harry was so occupied with his own reactions that he knew he wasn’t judging hers as clearly as he would like.

That’s been the problem from the start of this case. I’m occupied with what I’m doing, thinking, saying, when I should be thinking about what the potential suspects are doing, thinking, saying.

At least the realization let him shake off his intense hopes and say, calmly, “Why is that? Did he have an alibi?”

Shadow nodded. “He spent that evening with me and Leon. Both of us will vouch for him. Both of us would be willing to swear to the truth under Veritaserum,” she added, as if she had known the next question Harry would ask. “During the time Keatson must have died—sometime between nine and eleven—Lord Malfoy was with us, organizing the business of the club and discussing whether we should grant the petition of a woman with self-destructive fantasies to come to Corybantes.”

Harry cocked his head. “I don’t understand. If Malfoy didn’t commit murder, what is it that you fear he might do to gain my attention?”

“Destroy himself,” Shadow said. “Neglect his duties and let the club fail as a business, which he could never forgive himself for—once he noticed it.” She hesitated, and a small, bitter smile crossed her mouth. “Expose his most vulnerable thoughts and feelings to someone who cares nothing for them, or him.”

Harry blinked and then stared hard at her. “Now that I know there’s actually some risk of that, I’m going to take care of him,” he said. “Not try to destroy him. Not try to hurt him. I know a few people who do professional work with people who wrap them up in fantasies. Mind-Healers who are private and discreet and who’ve helped me out of more than one problem and have my permission to talk about those situations to Malfoy if you think that would help.”

Shadow was silent for some moments. Then she said, “I fear that your trying to help him would be more likely to destroy him than your ignoring his advances.”

“Why, for God’s sake?” Harry flung himself to his feet and turned away to pace the room. He knew that he shouldn’t be letting Shadow have this effect on him, but he couldn’t help himself. No matter what he did, it seemed that people blamed him for not doing enough.

Not relaxing enough, not solving the case fast enough, not being sympathetic enough to Malfoy, he thought, pausing to run his fingers along the bricks above the hearth. Their roughness soothed him in a way that touching something soft wouldn’t have. I can’t please them with ordinary efforts, but I try to do something extraordinary and then I have my friends and Kingsley—and now Malfoy—screaming at me about taking it easy. I don’t understand.

“Because you are approaching this the way you would approach anyone else who needed your help,” Shadow said. She stood up and moved to his side, which was so unexpected that Harry blinked and focused on her instead of the problems that crowded his head and which he dearly would have liked to think about. Shadow reached out and took his wrist in her hand, moving her fingers slowly across his skin. “And he wants special consideration from you. He wants to be unique in your life.”

“What exactly what you suggest I do, then?” Harry snapped.

“I don’t know.”

Harry gave her a small smile. “At least that’s more honest than I could expect from a lot of people.”

Shadow watched him with those gleaming, unchanging eyes and didn’t respond. Harry turned away from her and spent a few minutes pondering the lines in the wall. He had been in situations like this before, and he knew the first thing to get rid of was the crowding feeling of panic that was only closing in on him because he didn’t have all the answers right away. He had time to make things right. It wasn’t as though Malfoy was about to charge off a cliff this moment, especially because he had put his desires out there and Harry had rejected them.

Harry closed his eyes and immersed himself in the considerations of what had to be done. He had to find Keatson’s murderer or prove suicide and close the case, of course. He had to show some kind of proof to Kingsley and the customers of Corybantes that would satisfy them. He had to keep Malfoy from destroying himself because he had built up this precarious fantasy world where Harry was his—

What? Harry shook his head. Master, or friend, or puppet, it really didn’t matter, because Shadow seemed to think that any conclusion he came to could be dangerous enough to wound Malfoy mortally.

“Would you agree to submit to questioning under Veritaserum?” Harry asked, opening his eyes and turning back towards Shadow. “And what about Leon? There are certain questions I need to ask so that I can rule out possibilities about Keatson’s death, and even though I might trust what you’re telling me, my superiors won’t without proof.”

Shadow said, “It would depend on how you would use that information. If it was against Lord Malfoy, then—”

“If he committed the murder,” Harry said, with the quietest but most forceful tone he could use, “then he should be in St. Mungo’s.”

Shadow glanced sideways at him.

“From the way you describe him, he does sound mad,” Harry continued, gaining confidence. He couldn’t believe that he hadn’t thought of this solution before now. Malfoy committing the murder wasn’t the end of the world, because there was a large chance that it wasn’t his fault. He had probably been pushed towards madness by his unfulfilled desire for Harry, in the way that Shadow had hinted, and that meant it was Harry’s duty to cure him. “I wouldn’t arrest him for something like that. I would make sure that he got the treatment he needed.”

Shadow watched him in silence for some time, then gave a slow nod. “Yes. All right. But Leon and I, even under Veritaserum, will only tell you the same things I have already told you. We were both with Lord Malfoy all evening, and he did not commit the murder.”

“It’s more for my superiors than anything else,” Harry assured her again, finding room on his face for a smile. “They won’t believe you without the evidence. I’m willing to.”

Shadow nodded again. “All right.”

*

Kingsley frowned. “I don’t see how this testimony implicates Malfoy,” he said, studying the Pensieve memories of the conversation with Shadow that Harry had placed in front of him. “All it means if she’s telling the truth is that Malfoy didn’t commit the murder, and that doesn’t tell us who did.”

“It frees me from a suspicion that’s been distracting me,” Harry said frankly, gathering the Pensieve memory so that it would coil back into his head. “And that means that I can pursue my course with a clear conscience.”

“Of course,” Kingsley said. Then he leaned back in his chair and watched Harry with that thoughtful air that meant he was going to say something more, something else. Harry sat on the edge of his seat and waited. He was good at looking both alert and patient, so that it wouldn’t seem as though he was pushing Kingsley to reveal the information before he was ready.

“I’ve come to some conclusions that I didn’t want to come to,” Kingsley began, “having watched you perform on this case.”

“Sir?” Harry asked uneasily. He wondered if Kingsley had extra reasons to be suspicious of Malfoy, or of Shadow for that matter, that he had managed to pick up from Harry’s reports but which Harry had ignored.

“You’re losing control of your emotions,” Kingsley said, with that devastating gentleness that he used when he had told Harry that all the other Aurors were refusing to partner him. “You’re getting too personally involved in this case. I think it would be better to pull you off it.”

Harry lowered his eyes to the floor. He hadn’t been pulled off a case since he started working alone. He was the miracle Auror, the one the Ministry called in when all the others had gone wrong or were likely to run into trouble. For him to fail now would probably be the beginning of the end. Kingsley would be asking him to retire soon.

But if he acted angry or upset about it, Kingsley would only use that as more evidence that of course he was doing the right thing. Instead, Harry held his breath for a moment and then asked calmly, “What makes you think I’m losing my head, sir? I can feel sorry for the victim and yet not be personally involved.”

“It’s not the victim I’m worried about,” Kingsley said. “I’m perfectly satisfied that you’re preserving the proper distance from Keatson and not letting your sympathy for his family overwhelm you. Malfoy is the problem, Harry. And I think you know it, so I’ll ask you not to play stupid with me.”

Harry stared up at Kingsley. His face was set in harsh, uncompromising lines. Harry licked his lips. Most of the time, he didn’t try to change Kingsley’s mind. He either agreed with him and stopped whatever he was doing that had caused Kingsley to disapprove, or he acted on his own and found evidence so convincing that Kingsley had to agree with him.

This time, though, Harry knew of no way to conceal his participation in the case at Corybantes. He had no reason to go there for his own pleasure, and no friends who worked in the club that he could contact under the pretense of associating with them rather than investigating.

“May I ask why, sir?” he repeated, when enough time had passed that he didn’t think the repetition would annoy Kingsley.

Kingsley leaned forwards. He was rubbing his right thumb along the back of his left hand, and his voice and eyes were soft and kind.

“How long has it been since you looked in the mirror, Harry?” he asked.

“Yesterday after I got out of the shower, sir.” Harry frowned. Usually he knew where Kingsley’s metaphors or comparisons were going, but not this time.

Kingsley stood up and came around the desk. Harry rose to his feet. He should have been perfectly at ease sitting down while Kingsley stood over him, but not this time.

Kingsley reached out and shook his shoulder. “I’ve watched you turn into a brilliant Auror these last few years,” he said. “You’re driven. You’re intelligent. You can obey the rules when you want, and work within them, and yet arrest the criminals who most need arresting. And you had professionalism I honestly never thought you capable of when you were still an adolescent and I was watching you in action.”

“All of those sound like reasons for keeping me on the case, not taking me away,” Harry had to say.

Kingsley pinched a furrow of skin on his forehead with his free hand, but never took the other from Harry’s shoulder. “It’s gone too far,” he said. “You’ve transformed yourself until I don’t think that any of that adolescent is left. There should be something left, Harry. I appreciate your brilliance, but you need to relax once in a while. I’m putting you on holiday, starting today. I knew at some point your composure would start to crack and you would need that holiday, but I put it off and put it off, telling myself we could use your help on just one more case and I’d send you home with orders to rest after that. It didn’t happen, of course. Things you put off that long almost never do. So I’m making sure it happens now. Go home. Relax. Buy a Muggle telly and watch it. Take your godson shopping. Do whatever you need to make yourself a functioning human being again.”

Harry shut his eyes, arranged his teeth in a straight line, and took a breath that made him feel as if his ears would burst. Then he said, “How long should I keep away from work, sir?”

“Six weeks,” Kingsley said.

Harry’s eyes flew open, and he started to repeat the words incredulously, but Kingsley continued as if he had anticipated no interruption, “I’ll make sure the leave is paid, of course. For all the work you’ve done, I could do no less.”

“But I’m not—” Harry started. Kingsley’s implacable face stopped him. He stretched his hand out imploringly. “Sir, without the job I’m not anything. Give me a few more days, and I’m sure that I can find the murderer.”

“It has nothing to do with your not finding the murderer so far,” Kingsley said. “It has to do with me wanting to save your life and sanity. If you’d listened to the words you spoke just now, you’d know that. Go home.”

“But—”

“Harry.”

It was impossible to argue with that voice, but Harry still tried an appealing look that foundered on the rock of Kingsley’s mild, steady stare back. Harry turned and marched out of the office, his cloak whipping behind him.

He even managed to stride calmly out of the Ministry, looking all the while as if he had somewhere important to go.

He waited until he had Apparated home to put his head in his hands and have a fit of the tremors.

What the fuck am I supposed to do, if I’m not working on a case? Kingsley thinks he’s saving my life, but what is my life apart from my work? He’s letting his concern for me override the case that needs to be solved, and in the end, that’s what will harm both me and the case.

And how the fuck am I supposed to help Malfoy now?

Chapter Eight.

Comments

[sarasusa.livejournal.com]

I'm enjoying this story too--and loved this image: "an appealing look that foundered on the rock of Kingsley’s mild, steady stare back."

[songquake.livejournal.com]

oh, harry.

it's auror-professionalism against the-saving-people-thing. kingsley is so right. i think harry needs to get himself back to those mind-healers he was recommending for draco.

and poor draco! having to deal with a non-harry auror!

[groolover.livejournal.com]

Somehow I have a feeling Harry's not going to just sit at home watching telly :p

[lunasky3.livejournal.com]

I think Malfoy has a few ideas how Harry can help him :)

[daftfear.livejournal.com]

Awwww poor Harry! This was a really emotional chapter. Shadow and how much she cares for Draco... wanting to help him but not betray him. And then Harry getting put on leave and... that last line. Guh. I kind of want to cry because this has wrung it out of me. *stares in awe*

I really hope that Harry will be alright. And Draco too. I do love the way you've written Harry... having changed from youth and not understanding why everyone is worried about him when he's doing what he needs to do. "It's not hurting anyone." No, Harry's only hurting himself.

Ooo you are so fantastic in your craft. :)

[theshadowpanther]

Oh YES! There's the plot twist I was looking for. *glee* Gee, I wonder what Harry's going to do for six weeks? :> Muahahaha.

I also liked the twist in Shadow as she went from hesitant and timid to challenging Harry with wise looks and shooting down his efforts to help Malfoy (until the very end at least). Glad to see as well that it's not Malfoy beyond doubt, or Shadow or Leon (if not them, then who?), but still looking forward to seeing just how this mess is cleaned up. I still think the case is going to go to smithereens around Harry, but this time as he charges in without thought because a) the Auror's injured, dead, or unconscious and b) Draco is in the storm somewhere and he has to save him. Oh Harry.

Looking forward to how Harry "tries" to help Draco, and how Draco, through deftly avoiding Harry's tactics, manages to unravel Harry instead. Muahahah...

[(Anonymous)]

Aww Harry...I'm sure Draco can come up with something for you to do...lol, anyway.

Certainly a very straightforward chapter. Harry's finally managed to convince even Kingsley he needs an enforced break, but I highly doubt Draco was hoping that Harry would get a break while in the middle of his case. Though if Harry comes back unofficially (although he'll still be mentally in auror-mode) Draco might finally break Harry down far enough to accept some real relaxation time. I look forward to this greatly. Or, Draco pounding down Harry's door, pissed that another Auror is on the case suddenly.

Shadow's quite the interesting character, but again, straightforward. Nothing she said about Draco was all that surprising, though...that his obsession with Harry has morphed over time; that she fears Draco's focus on Harry will make him destroy himself or harm the club. Which is ironically similar to Harry's current situation: that each of the men might become so focused on one thing it will ultimately cause life around them to erode or lead to self-destruction. Nice parallel.

Oh, and now I have another two words to add to my connotative word list: desire and obsession, along with dreams and fantasies. Though you used obsess as a verb, so maybe it won't go on the list. Still, I love the various connotations. Or just reading too deeply into things. Both are good.

Can't wait for the next update!
-Jolene

[hogwartshoney.livejournal.com]

Well, that's a rather large spanner thrown into the works there....

[enchanted-jae.livejournal.com]

Yup, Harry definitely needs a break, but right now is not a good time, Kingsley!

[neji-chan.livejournal.com]

I don't know what to say about this chapter. So many new info about Malfoy, so many things about Harry... I can't think. Great job! :D

What I can say is that I loved Shadow's devotion to Malfoy, and how she's worried about what might happen to the club for his sake, not hers. I also have the feeling Harry didn't quite get what Shadow revealed about Malfoy, that there were a lot of things he didn't understand.

No matter what he did, it seemed that people blamed him for not doing enough.

I think the problem his friend's, Kingsley and Malfoy have it's not that he's not doing enough; it's that he's doing nothing for his enjoyment (outside work, which is everything to him).

If you’d listened to the words you spoke just now, you’d know that

Ah, that's what I've thought for some chapters. Good for Kngsley for saying it, yet I doubt Harry will pay attention to that unless something happens.

[ldydark1.livejournal.com]

Oh wow. Intense!

[kelahnus-24.livejournal.com]

Poor Harry! it sucks when you don't know what to do beyond work

[b00kaddict.livejournal.com]

Brilliant chapter.

I loved this line: "Their roughness soothed him in a way that touching something soft wouldn’t have."

The part where Harry said that without the job, he's not anything was heartbreaking. Good plot development, though--I can't wait to see what happens!

[jtsbbsps-dk.livejournal.com]

omgomgomgomg!!!!

WAY TO GO KINGSLEY!!! But God, damn! What the hell is Harry going to do now?! O.O Will Malfoy come visit?

Awesome of you to drop a bomb like that! Loving this!

[invincible-sum.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I have to say that if I were Kingsley, I wouldn't necessarily think that it was a good idea to just cut Harry loose for such a long period without counseling or some other sort of safety net. His addiction to work has been allowed to go on so long, that he might end up doing something desperate, just as Shadow was warning about Draco and his obsession.

[star-faerie.livejournal.com]

I keep trying to comment on your chapters, but I find myself unable to. I feel closer to Harry in this story, and so at the end of the chapter I find myself reflecting his frustration at the situation he's in which is not conductive to leaving you good comments. Which is wrong, because you deserve them. You've created a world where, in some ways, it is harder to tell reality from fantasy partly because of Corybantes and partly because neither Harry nor Draco seem to live in it.
I'm torn about Kingsley's decission. There's a part of me that wonders if it was a big mistake on his part. By forcing Harry to take a "holiday" I wonder if he is playing more into Harry's hero complex. If he would, perhaps, not have been better to place Harry on another assignment or desk duty. At least that way there would be safety checks.

I think that this is a fic about obsessions more than it is a fic about fantasy/reality. Harry is obsessed with his Auror work. Draco is obsessed with Harry. I think this is a fic that shows how dangerous obsessions can be, how they consume us.
I look forward to reading how you resolve the fic.

[dphysh.livejournal.com]

I wonder if Harry realised his last thoughts were of the case and then Draco and that that was a big part of the problem and what will Draco do when he realises Harry is off the case? Fantastic fic!! Loving it, so . . . mote soon please!! :)

[yanagi-wa.livejournal.com]

Harry does need to rest but if Kingsley thinks he's going to rest with a case on, he's off his rocker. Very interesting developments.