lomonaaeren

A new fic idea, which I wanted to give a title before I posted about it but which is evidently going to remain nameless for now. Like “A Black Stone in a Glass Box,” very self-indulgent.

Harry is an Auror, working mostly on cases where Dark magic is used in murders. Then he’s pulled into the Head Auror’s office and told that special devices in the Department of Mysteries have picked up traces of what feels exactly like Voldemort’s magic coming from Malfoy Manor—now the home of the constantly partying Draco Malfoy. Harry’s concerned, naturally, but he believes that Voldemort is dead and gone, so he suggests other possibilities. The Head Auror convinces him that the alarms can’t be mistaken, and Harry agrees to investigate.

He hates the Head’s next idea much more. Naturally, there’s no way Draco will simply allow an Auror to waltz into the Manor, especially if he’s involved in trying to resurrect Voldemort, so the Head Auror wants Harry to give him a series of gifts that will get him noticed and invited to the 24/7 party. Specifically, he wants Harry to court Draco.

Harry thinks this is a stupid idea. He suggests approaching Draco openly and points out that he has no gift for acting. But the Head Auror is dead-set on the courting idea. (He’s a bit thick). Finally Harry agrees to do it, inwardly intent on sabotaging the elaborate set of rituals he’ll have to learn as much as possible and doing what it’ll take to really gain the required information, not what the Head Auror thinks it’ll take.

So off he goes, grumbling, to write stupid letters and buy stupid gifts that luckily the Aurors are going to reimburse him for. It gets him invited to the party. Harry feels his scar burn when he steps into the Manor, so there’s no doubt that Voldemort-activity is happening somewhere in the background.

Draco has changed during the intervening years. He’s far more laid-back, far more interested in pleasure than in power—except with Harry. He goes out of his way to irritate Harry. But Harry, accustomed to a life of fame that people try to take advantage of for themselves, thinks he sees something different behind the façade. He thinks Draco has built himself up into a position that he thought he wanted and only now discovers was rather hollow.

This makes Harry feel even worse about the deception he’s practicing. He determines that he’ll do his best to get Draco out of the trap of notoriety and shallow friends and sexual predation (and, as it turns out, blackmail) that he’s built for himself.

Except, of course, there’s the problem that Draco’s house stinks of Voldemort…and the little problem of what he will do to Harry if he finds out the courtship was false from the beginning and thinks Harry is only one more of the users surrounding him.

This is a “Harry pursues Draco, but without having loved him for a long time” kind of story—which is about the only way I can write one, because I find it hard to conceive of Harry being in love with Draco for years without prolonged friendly contact. But it also involves identity and power and magical power and mystery. So, self-indulgent.