Chapter Thirty-Six of 'Soldier's Welcome'- What Can Be Held In Memory

[lomonaaeren]

Title: Soldier’s Welcome (36/45)
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing this story for fun and not profit.
Rating: R
Pairings: Harry/Draco preslash, Ron/Hermione
Warnings: Violence (and plenty of it), profanity, references to sex, takes account of DH but ignores the epilogue, heavy angst.
Summary: It’s the first year of Auror training for Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and…Draco Malfoy, But with Hagrid, Snape’s second Pensieve, rogue Death Eaters, Auror classes, and someone trying to start a second war to worry about, Harry might not have the time to pay that much attention to Malfoy. At first, anyway.
Author’s Notes: This story is the first in a trilogy called Running to Paradise, which takes its title from a W. B. Yeats poem. Each story will be novel-length, and each will cover a year of Harry and Draco’s training as Aurors. Though there are a lot of fics out there about them acting as Auror partners, there aren’t as many about their training, so I hope to cover some original ground there. I’m indebted to a reader named SP777 for suggesting a training fic for me to write.

Chapter One.

Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Thirty-Six—What Can Be Held In Memory

The first fall into the memory was so dizzying that for long moments Harry only held onto Draco, disoriented. Then he blinked and looked around, and the confines of the room seemed to snap painfully into focus.

They stood in a small, dark house, with a dim window that Harry could believe looked out on a garden full of deadly nightshade and strangling vines. The walls were lined with shelves covered with vials, clusters of leaves, and corks, and that meant potions, and he had never been comfortable around potions.

Draco pressed hard on his arm. Harry turned around and looked the direction he was looking in.

Snape stood over a bubbling cauldron in the middle of the room. Harry started. He had known that he would probably see the man, of course; he hadn’t expected to see him looking so exactly like he had just before he died. These memories must be recent, then, from the second war. Harry didn’t know why he’d expected them to be from the first.

The cauldron belched up green smoke that made Harry shudder. Draco leaned forwards, his shoulder pressing against Harry’s, his eyes intent. Presumably he understood what the potion was about. Harry didn’t and had no wish to.

Snape thrust a silver ladle into the potion and rapped it sharply against the side of the cauldron. As though the ringing sound the silver made was a signal, the potion belched one more time and fell silent. Snape bent down, muscles tensed as though he knew he’d have to flee any second, but the potion seemed to satisfy him. With an ugly smirk on his face, he stepped back and made a beckoning motion at a door Harry hadn’t noticed before.

“Come in, my lord. It is ready.”

Voldemort stepped through the door.

Harry bared his teeth and drew his wand. It didn’t matter that this was just a memory. It was an instinctive reaction.

Next to him, Draco turned white and swayed as if he would fall over. Harry promptly put an arm around his shoulders, his own disgust calming. If he had someone to take care of and help, then everything he suffered was simple in comparison. He could put it aside and concentrate on those other people he should help.

“Well done, Severus.” Voldemort barely seemed to look into the cauldron. Maybe he could tell what the potion was from just a brief glimpse. Harry didn’t know, because he still had no plans to learn anything about potions any time soon. “It is only a beginning step, of course.”

“My lord, of course.” Snape simpered and bowed, and Harry could understand why Voldemort never seemed to have suspected he was a spy. He had the manner of a cringing, cowardly Death Eater down pat. “The first step along a long and glorious road to an ending of your creation and vision. Who else could have dreamed this up? Who else would have dared interfere with natural law in this way?”

Voldemort laughed softly. Harry shuddered and felt Draco tremble as though with an electric shock. He pulled him closer, but didn’t look away from Voldemort. It really did seem as if he would attack any moment, and Harry had to be ready to defend Draco.

“Such power, Severus.” Voldemort crooned the words and spread his fingers. A handful of the potion rose from the cauldron and turned about, glittering. It was partially transparent, like thick green glass, so that Harry could still see his white and staring face through it. “The power to conquer death.”

Harry stood straight up. Draco jolted next to him. Snape bowed.

And then the memory twitched and threw them into another memory.

*

“When will they be ready, Rabastan?”

Draco blinked. Professor Snape’s house seemed suddenly to have ceased to exist, and they stood in a broad, flat room with plenty of space. Draco would have thought they were outside, except that there wasn’t the slightest gleam of light from above, either sun or moon or stars.

Not a room, Draco understood when he finally looked up to understand the contradiction, but a cave. The roof rose to a height of perhaps thirty feet above them and then dropped back. It was all plain grey stone, unmarked. Draco had thought at first that Professor Snape had sent him these memories so that Draco could track down the Dark Lord’s hiding places, but how was he supposed to do that without some kind of identifying mark? The professor’s small dark brewing lab could have been anywhere, and so could this cave.

“My lord.” The sound of cloth scraping the floor, and Draco glanced up. Rabastan Lestrange was bowing in front of the Dark Lord and Professor Snape. Draco shivered. At least the Dark Lord had his back to the watchers this time, so Draco didn’t have to confront his face. “Their capabilities are close to the strongest they can achieve, but they obey commands imperfectly.”

The Dark Lord swayed his head slowly back and forth like a snake considering where to strike. It was a gesture Draco had seen several times in the Manor when the monster was feeling thoughtful. The sight now made him want to vomit or flee, preferably both at once.

Harry’s arm around him tightened, and Harry whispered into his ear, “It’s all right. I fear him, too.”

Only Harry would comfort me by making a confession of his own weakness. But Draco relaxed and fought back the nausea because of that anyway. He wrapped his own arm around Harry’s waist, returning the support, thanking Harry for it, and, though Harry might not realize it, staking his own claim.

There was no way he would let someone who could do this much for him, who meant this much to him, go.

“Show them to me, Rabastan,” the Dark Lord commanded at last. “I have an ideal in mind, but in reality, they need only be ready for attack.”

“My lord,” Rabastan repeated, and lifted one arm in a sharp gesture that looked longer than it really was because of the flowing robe that trailed the movement.

The air above him shook and rustled. Then several shapes dropped from of the roof of the cavern and stalked forwards on unsteady feet.

Draco narrowed his eyes. They had four legs, he could make out that much, but a shadow seemed to cling about them and baffle his gaze when he tried to see more details than that. Their heads swayed back and forth in a way that made him think they had snakes in their ancestry. The tips of horns showed, and their feet scraped along the rock as though they bore hooked claws.

One of them opened its mouth and spat a gout of something red across the cavern, which fell with a lashing hiss and left pockmarks in the rock. Harry started beside him and murmured, “They look a little like the things that I fought in the Forbidden Forest.”

Of course. Draco thought he could understand now why Professor Snape had left him these memories, and that let him forget his fear. He straightened and nodded to Harry. “I think Nihil and the others must have found some of the experiments that the Dark Lord left behind,” he said. “They’ve improved them. I never heard of any Death Eaters able to return from the dead.”

“Except Wormtail,” Harry muttered.

Draco frowned at him.

Harry shook his head. “Private joke.”

From his twisted smile, it was no very amusing one. Draco would have liked to pursue the matter, but certain lines of hardness about Harry’s mouth convinced him it would be out of the question to ask about it now. Promising himself to ask later, he continued, “And these beasts are clumsy, nothing like the enemies you faced. Still, it’s not out of the question that Rabastan came up with the idea first and Nemo, or whoever really created those animals you fought, simply refined on it.”

“That would explain how Nihil and his followers became so powerful so quickly,” Harry mused. “If they didn’t have to do all the work themselves, then they could skip over years of magical theory and experimenting and go straight into practice.”

Draco found himself lifting his head higher and smiling at Harry. It was still a novel experience for him to have Harry agree with him instead of resisting and resenting Draco on principle. “Exactly,” he said. “And, for the first time, we have something concrete to tell the rest of the Fellowship.” The name still made him roll his eyes, but no one had proposed anything better and it was easier to say than “the group of people wearing jade bracelets” or “the instructors, you, myself, and whoever else they decide is trustworthy enough to be informed.”

“How concrete?” Harry gestured at the beasts, whom the Dark Lord was currently praising, with a raised eyebrow. “We might know that Nihil and Nemo and Nusquam aren’t entirely original now, but that doesn’t mean that we know how they bred these animals, or how they used the potion that Snape came up with to stop dying or conquer death or whatever it was. Snape himself said it was only the first step and they’d need a lot more research before they perfected it.”

Draco opened his mouth to retort, and the memory ended and spun them into another one.

*

Harry blinked and stared. This was a room at Hogwarts, or at least it might have been; the slimy stone walls looked like they were in the dungeons. The room was empty, though, except a single wooden table. Snape bent over a piece of parchment on the table, his lips moving silently.

“Why do you think this is important?” he asked, turning to Draco.

But Draco ignored him, stepping up and bending over the parchment. A bit disgruntled, Harry followed. He already suspected that whatever was written on the parchment wouldn’t be interesting enough to justify the way Draco and Snape stared at it.

He was right. It was a bunch of tiny pictures and lists, which were probably directions for brewing a potion. He stirred and sighed. “This is a picture of Snape’s own research,” he said. “Do you think it’s research for Voldemort? But what’s the use of putting this memory into the Pensieve if it doesn’t show us what the potion does? In fact, what’s the use of most of these memories? Why did he want you to know about all the experiments and such Voldemort did?”

“He showed me because he must suspect that these discoveries weren’t simply going to go away,” Draco said tightly. “He also must have known that few people would recognize them for what they were once they started appearing, and there were fewer still he could trust with the knowledge. So he gave it to me. Right now, I’m memorizing the instructions for this potion, and I can’t tell how long the memory will last. Be quiet, will you?”

Stung, Harry turned his back and wandered to the other side of the room. It wasn’t completely empty, he could see now. There were shelves near a door that must lead into another room, and various things that weren’t potions supplies stood on one of them. Harry could see books, a long rod that had a crystal bead at one end and a mirror at the other, and a Pensieve. That gave him a turn. It was probably the same Pensieve Snape had sent to Draco, the same one they were standing inside right now even as he looked at it.

Most of the books looked boring, but there was a single large one at the end, draped with dark cloth, the way Draco had had the Pensieve covered up, instead of properly bound. Curious, Harry reached up and took it down. It weighed heavily and strangely in his hands.

What’s this filled with, anyway? Rocks? But maybe it was; Harry knew that some wizards used hollow books as storage containers. He pulled it open, expecting to see no pages but just a hole in the middle that had rocks in.

No, there were pages. But they were covered with photographs. Harry frowned. He recognized none of the faces, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to. One and all, they were staring at the camera in terror and cowering as if they would have liked to run out of the side of the frame.

Harry flipped slowly through, trying to find someone he knew or at least a label of some sort. There was nothing of the kind. Probably whoever had put the album together had known these people and hadn’t thought about strangers looking through it. Harry didn’t have labels in his, either, but those pictures were of a much smaller number of people and he knew them all. He couldn’t imagine that Snape could remember the names of all these.

Maybe they were the victims he tested his potions on?

“Harry!”

Harry started guiltily and put the book back on the shelf before he turned around to face Draco. Draco shook his head, as though to say he would ask what Harry had been doing, but he knew it would be ridiculous before he heard the explanation, and then latched on to Harry’s wrist.

“I’ve memorized the recipe for the potion,” he whispered. “I can see why the professor thought it could lead to immortality. And of course the Dark Lord was afraid of death, so it’s not surprising that he would have had Professor Snape researching how to defeat that.”

Harry gnawed his lip. He wanted to say something about Horcruxes and how Voldemort had already secured his immortality, but he wasn’t sure how much he should say to Draco about that. Besides, it wasn’t as though Voldemort had to have only one way to be immortal. He’d been paranoid. He would probably always be interested in ways to secure his life in case the Horcruxes failed him.

And Draco knows more about potions than I do. If he says that it’s an immortality potion, I can’t disbelieve him.

“Is that the end of the memories?” Harry asked. “This one’s lasted longer than the others. Maybe we should leave the Pensieve?”

“This memory is longer than the rest because Professor Snape knew I would take some time to memorize the recipe,” Draco said impatiently. “But there ought to be at least one more, related to the beasts. If he ever managed to spy on Rabastan breeding them, that is.”

Harry wrinkled his nose. “No offense, Draco, but I really don’t want to see what the mechanics of that would look like—”

And then the world around them rippled, blurred, and faded again.

*

Draco blinked. He knew the room they were standing in now, for the first time. This was Professor Snape’s private sitting room, where he occasionally called his most talented students for “talks.” Those talks were ways to try and pressure them into pursuing Potions-related careers, but since Draco had always intended to do that in any case, he’d found the conversations pleasant.

This room had stone walls and floors, just like the other dungeons, but the floor was covered with brilliant rugs and the walls with tapestries. Each portrayed an intricately woven scene of the triumph of some Dark wizard or another, or sometimes their falls, provided those falls were glorious and also managed to kill many incompetent “good” wizards around the way. Draco found himself turning instinctively to seek out his favorite tapestry, which showed a black mountain illuminated by lightning and a full moon. A gold-robed wizard stood on top of the mountain, calling the lightning into his hands and using it to stab his enemies at the base. Professor Snape had never been able to tell Draco for certain which wizard that tapestry depicted, or maybe he had known and preferred the advantage of secrecy, but that had never destroyed Draco’s pleasure in its beauty.

When he turned about, it was to recognize the comfortable green chair sitting in the middle of the largest rug, with a bright lamp beside it, and Professor Snape sitting in it. A book was open on his lap, but he glanced up and began to speak as if he knew they were there, despite the fact that Draco knew they must have appeared as empty space to him.

“Draco. I wish you to know that I believe you will survive this war. The Malfoy family has managed survival, if not always success, for a long time. Your father’s error lies in mistaking money and political connections for the surest markers of success, when in reality one must live to enjoy those first.”

Harry lightly touched his shoulder and then faded back towards the walls. Draco swallowed a lump in his throat. Harry had a delicacy that Draco wasn’t sure he could have practiced himself, if he was curious to hear what someone said to Harry in a memory. No matter how impossible it was to prevent himself from overhearing, Harry would at least act as if he could leave Draco in privacy.

“You are a Malfoy,” Professor Snape went on, with the thin smile that always made Draco uncertain if he was being sarcastic or not, “but you are more than simply the sum of your father’s traits, and you will have gifts undreamed of by your father. Perhaps your mother has dreamed of them, but I rather suspect not. Constant, quiet, humble, and yet unsurpassed, they are these.

“You have the ability to observe and the wit to use those observations. You do not, as Lucius does, assume that what you do not want to be true cannot be true, even if you see it, or simply use your observations to support foregone conclusions. You can change your mind. You can admit your mistakes. I have seen this in the Potions classroom, and I am confident enough of my own perception to believe it extends beyond those confines.

“You will survive, Draco, but you will not necessarily become powerful in the way your father envisions.” Professor Snape leaned forwards, his eyes intent. “You will realize that the changed nature of the wizarding world, after the war, to some extent limits you. You will know that blood purity is no longer the guiding or only criterion that someone should use to make friends and allies.”

Draco started. He was sure that early that Harry’s side would win the war? He didn’t know exactly when the memory had been made, but he thought it must be at least a few months before Snape died.

“You must employ your talent and your intelligence.” Professor Snape leaned back in his chair and tapped his fingers on the cover of the book. “Thank heaven, you have those things to employ. There are few Potions masters; you could pursue that route. You might also use your father’s political connections to bring your abilities to the appropriate person’s attention. Or you could simply look at what surrounds you and make your way by your own effort.”

Draco had to smile, then, wondering if the professor would be disgusted to know that Draco had chosen the Aurors, or simply pleased that he had chosen one of the most powerful careers in the Ministry.

“You will make something of yourself,” Professor Snape said. “However, no one can go entirely without help. To you, I bequeath two things and recommend one.

“The recommendation is a good memory. Never let this fail you. Books succeed at preserving much, Pensieves and letters are useful, but they are outside your head and not inside, where they might be kept from others.”

Draco nodded. He could see why Snape would say something like that when he had left a whole potions recipe for Draco to memorize.

“However, books do have their place.” Snape absently smoothed the page of the one he was reading. “I bequeath my private library to you, all the books in my personal quarters at Hogwarts. No one should have disturbed them, since the rooms will have locked themselves upon my death. You must repeat the three most common names of wolfsbane in alphabetical order to unlock them.”

Aconite, monkshood, wolfsbane, Draco thought. That’s no problem.

Something else distracted him, though. Why had Professor Snape been so certain he was going to die? The way the Dark Lord had killed him was not something anyone could have foreseen. Perhaps he was simply pessimistic in general and had seen no reason not to make this memory. He could always destroy it if it turned out that he had no need for an heir.

“The second thing is the knowledge that you will have divined exists because of this Pensieve.” Professor Snape’s stare could have drilled holes in steel. “That knowledge must be used well and wisely, but it cannot be left to lie. Someone else will discover it if you hesitate, and they may not wield it to your personal advantage.”

Someone else already did, Draco thought, but that presented a new mystery to him. How exactly had Nihil, whoever he was, stumbled into the Death Eaters’ caches of artifacts and books and experimental notes? Pure luck? Draco would have thought he was a Death Eater, but the mocking use of their cloaks and masks for his attack force stuffed with grief magic argued otherwise.

Still, who else would have known about those caches besides the Death Eaters? Who else would have been there?

“Take this memory with you,” Professor Snape said, a faint sneer lifting the corner of his mouth. “A memory within a memory, as a moron like Potter would say. Tabula arcana.”

A starburst of light went off in front of Draco’s eyes, and he stumbled backwards, his arms flailing. He felt someone catch him, and knew it must be Harry, but he was so disoriented that he couldn’t be sure what was happening. The memory twisted around them, he thought they were leaving the Pensieve, and then—

The darkness behind his eyelids, burning with afterimages from Snape’s spell, turned the color of parchment. And Draco saw a vast map stretching there, showing England as well as Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and some of the islands scattered in the sea along the coasts, marked with burning spots where the caches lay hidden.

Draco gasped and shivered. He had not known such a spell was possible, or that it could be cast in a memory and affect the observer of that memory. He wondered what had happened to Snape when it was cast. Probably nothing. If he had the knowledge of the map already, he would have no reason to acquire it a second time.

“—aco! Draco! Are you all right?”

Draco blinked, and the map vanished, though he felt it lingering in his mind, ready to be called back at any time. He stood in their rooms again, and Harry had his hands clasped on Draco’s shoulders, massaging them. Draco turned around and felt a brief pang of sympathy. Harry looked the way he had, he was certain, when Harry had gone chasing monsters into the Forbidden Forest.

“I’m well,” he said at last. “And with some quite interesting knowledge to take to the Fellowship. A map of the places the Death Eaters hid their experiments.”

Harry nodded and cast the Pensieve a dark glance. “Snape to the last,” he muttered. “Leaving knowledge to you because he thought you might make use of it rather than because it could do good.”

Draco snorted and stretched his cramped fingers; his palms hurt where he’d dug his nails in. “What else would you expect him to do with it, Potter, truly?”

“Harry.”

Draco squeezed Harry’s shoulder in apology, because he sounded hurt. “Harry, what else would you expect? He was a Slytherin, and a faithful Death Eater at one time, no matter what else he might have been.”

“I know, I just—” Harry shrugged and looked away.

Draco thought it best to change the subject. “Look at it this way,” he said, and waited until Harry turned to face him again. “Now we know where Nihil got some of his material, and we’ll have knowledge that he didn’t expect—and maybe more knowledge from the caches he hasn’t found yet.”

This time, Harry’s smile was a hunter’s grin that matched his own.

Chapter Thirty-Seven.

Comments

[mathsnerd]

Lovely! I just keep enjoying this storyline more and more. Thank you for a wonderful instalment. Also, (because I think you're an American) happy Thanksgiving!

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you, for both the compliments and the Thanksgiving wishes!

[callistianstar.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what I was expecting to be in those memories, but while this wasn't quite it, I like that this helps them understand Nihil a bit better since they are almost completely in the dark about that organization still. Great job. And Happy Thanksgiving.

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Snape, of course, didn't anticipate Nihil, but he did think that Draco might have a use for that information someday.

[neji-chan.livejournal.com]

Ok… first of all, as usual, great chapter :)

I was kind of expecting to think something along the lines of ‘that information would have been a lot more helpful 20 chapters ago”. I’m glad I was wrong. If Draco hadn’t waited so long, the only thing I can think of that would have changed is that they would have started researching the places in the map sooner, and not even that soon.
I wonder though, how safe is to tell the Fellowship about every hiding place…

I’m also glad that I was wrong about Snape. I loved the fact that, as Harry said, left the knowledge to Draco because he thought Draco might make use of it, instead of because he knew what will happen. I loved the words he had for Draco and I especially liked this:

“You will know that blood purity is no longer the guiding or only criterion that someone should use to make friends and allies.”

I can’t help but think of Draco’s thoughts about Ketchum, and I’m amazed at how well Snape knew Draco.I always enjoy your Snape-Draco interactions and whished he wasn’t dead, because I would have loved to see one between Snape and the Draco in this fic.

I loved Harry’s support, and I too am curious about the pictures he found.

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Of course, Draco didn't wait so long deliberately. :) But yeah, the information would have meant much less to them without proper context.

Draco and Harry haven't told them yet. They really want some solid foothold in this mess, a sense of someone they cant trust.

Snape is giving Draco a warning of sorts with that statement. Of course, if he simply told Draco to leave the blood prejudice behind, he knows that Draco wouldn't listen (just to be stubborn), so he decided that he would couch it in these terms, as a statement of faith. Harder to ignore.

Harry won't know the truth about those pictures for a long time.

[elgraves.livejournal.com]

I knew it! I knew that Snape's memories would be important. Coolness about the memory inside a memory. I wonder if there is another clue inside his library.

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

There might be, but Harry doesn't think so, and doesn't want to venture back into the memories any time soon.

[critterel.livejournal.com]

This was a great chapter. I love very much how you write the interactions between the characters. I will hold a small bit of hope out for Snape's possible survival... who sent the pensieve after all? It would be a brilliant way to keep himself hidden and yet pass on the info. It's be lovely to see Snape's take on a developed relationship between Potter and Draco... (giggles at the thought)

Really nice update. You came up with really nice, pertinent and in character memories for the pensieve which I know I would never have the imagination to do. Bravo!

Clare

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Snape ordered the Pensieve delivered after his death.

[daftfear.livejournal.com]

OMG I love Snape. All of it. Especially that he managed to insult Harry even a year after his death, lol. XD And the fact that Draco was able to memorize a complicated potions recipe in minutes was very impressive and just the way I like Draco, hehehe. :]

TOOO awesome. Seriously. Nothing intelligent to say here except that you've exploded my brain (which is, frankly, not really intelligent at all.) Oh wells.

^^

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Draco has talents that Harry doesn't yet do more than suspect the existence of.

[vesperagain.livejournal.com]

Ah, Snape! He never fails to warm me with his good intentions carefully blanketed by rapier wit and a touch of secrecy. I'm so glad he left this for Draco...living on to help and protect even after dying, thats him.

Seems Harry still has a bit of growing up to do. He still feels he cannot tell Draco about the horcruxes, but why? Its not as if the making of one is such common knowledge and so easy, and Draco so evil that he might make one. I just hope its not going to be important.

So those creatures were Voldemort's gifts. And Nusquam and co. probably have the recipe of the Immortality potion. This is bad. Maybe Snape's library will provide a clue to counter it.

Just loved the way Snape addressed Draco in his memories; simple, direct, precise, yet with a touch of affection. And even the memory wasn't free of a dig at Harry, lol. No wonder the poor boy can't seem to warm up to him, even after everything.

Lovely chapter.

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Snape also wanted one of his students to succeed, and thought Draco would ahve the best chance.

Harry feels like the Horcruxes are a secret that he should keep to keep faith with Dumbledore. He kind of places it in the same category as the information about Snape and Dumbledore that he learned in his last year.

[(Anonymous)]

Well well well. Interesting indeed. Lots of new information to play with, and to tell or not to tell the instructors (and how much) will be the question of the day in the future, I assume.

It's so human, to see Draco slip up and call Harry "Potter", especially after being talked at by Snape. Ah, the relationship issues that will (eventually) need discussing. But that's far off in the future...*sigh* realistic relationship development means it takes forever to get to the slash...

Not that I read your work just for the pr0n content. But it's like icing on the cake when it's there. Hee.

Can't wait for the next update. Have a great Thanksgiving!
-Jolene

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you! At the moment, Harry and Draco are barely trusting anyone with anything. It's going to take them a while to (among other things) start trusting those jade bracelets.

Harry is nervous and so is Draco. Otherwise, they would probably have sat down and discussed their relationship before now.

Hey, I can always write one-shots if you really want porn!

[aubergineautumn.livejournal.com]

and a faithful Death Eater at one time, no matter what else he might have been....I like that POV of Snape. Also, the memory within a memory idea is cool!

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[jtsbbsps-dk.livejournal.com]

SQUEEE!!!!

FINALLY!!!

And BRILLIANT! XD

Snape is still Snape all the way through! :D And I absolutely glory in the fact that we mentioned 'Potter' xb Don't know why, I just do xP

And YAY! New information! *g*

AWESOME CHAPTER! And now, it shall be tomorrow and I shall somehow NOT be incredibly busy and have time to read the next chapter of Practicing Liars... NAO!

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm really glad that you liked it.

[invincible-sum.livejournal.com]

Another great chapter! Lovely interactions between Harry and Draco, and intriguing descriptions of the pensieve memories and of the spell embedded in the last one (cool!).

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I think that only Snape would have come up with a way to embed a memory inside a memory like that.

[yanagi-wa.livejournal.com]

This just gets better and better. The idea of a memory within a memory containing a spell was brilliant. Great work.

[lomonaaeren.livejournal.com]

Thank you!