lomonaaeren (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lomonaaeren) wrote2008-06-08 06:46 pm
lomonaaeren) wrote2008-06-08 06:46 pm
Chapter Thirty-Six of 'Changing of the Guard'- What Can Be Worked With Will
Thank you again for all the reviews!
Chapter Thirty-Six—What Can Be Worked With Will
Draco was glancing far more frequently at Harry than Harry, or the people who thought they had Draco’s full attention, would have been pleased to know. Thus he saw Nusante’s arrival, and snatched several glimpses of the conversation he had with Harry, though of course he couldn’t hear the words over the music and the distance that separated them. Harry bowed his head and kept it bowed for a few moments after one of Nusante’s little speeches. Draco hid his sudden agitation with an emphatic nod to the pure-blood witch who was talking to him, an acquaintance of Pansy’s who was discovering, to her amazed delight, that gay and lesbian and bisexual people were much like normal wizards.
But he fixed the remembrance of Harry’s gesture in his mind. He would have something to speak to him about later.
Then he took his next glimpse, and saw his father standing in front of Harry.
The witch he was talking to hadn’t finished her spiel yet. Draco didn’t want to offend her by suddenly departing, however. He took her hand, brushed a light kiss over the knuckles, and winked, which had the effect of making her blush and shut her mouth. “Excuse me,” he murmured. “There’s a confrontation approaching that I’ve relished happening for a long time. My father is meeting my lover.”
“Oh,” the woman said, her eyes widening. “Of course.” She didn’t have any more words, so Draco gave her one more smile and then turned towards the gap in the wards, forcing himself to walk without hurrying.
Draco studied the relative position of Lucius and Harry’s bodies as he came up behind Harry’s shoulder. Harry was leaning forwards, his hand on his wand, not bothering to disguise his eagerness to have Lucius try something. Lucius had drawn his wand now, but he was tapping it idly against his leg. He looked up and nodded when he caught sight of Draco, as if he wanted to prove that he didn’t need to focus on Harry to defeat him.
“I wondered if you would bother to speak to me again,” he said.
Harry didn’t turn around as Draco came to a stop at his shoulder, but his body went tight. Draco slid a hand slowly up the back of his neck, meaning to reassure Harry but not distract him from his focus on his enemy. Harry was the wiser in this confrontation. If something suddenly changed, Harry could react faster.
“I wondered why you would want to, when you disowned me,” said Draco.
Lucius’s face worked, but if there was really emotion beneath the surface of his coldness, its struggle was brief and doomed from the beginning. The longer he watched his father, the more Draco doubted that emotion was real. Instead, Lucius wanted it to seem as if he were affected by Draco’s words.
Hmmm. Draco let his hand fall away from Harry, into a better position for the both of them—for him if he needed to move fast, for Harry in case he was worried about defending the gap through the wards. What does he want?
“I have figured out your plan now.” Lucius’s voice was soft and careful, as if he were picking his way over uncertain ground. Draco held his face motionless. Even his wanting me to think he is cautious is a deception. I’m certain of it. “You wanted me to disown you so that you could have greater freedom away from me.” His eyes flickered once to Harry. “You chose the surest method you could think of. Of course, if you will not reproduce the Malfoy line, I have no reason to choose you as my heir.”
Draco let his silence speak for him. Lucius’s wand was still tapping against his leg. Draco watched it, but it didn’t flick up or sideways into any spellcasting pattern he recognized.
“I am not the man you thought I was,” Lucius whispered, and his eyes glittered like river stones. “I am cleverer, more perceptive.”
Draco just barely restrained himself from nodding with approval. He had been sure Lucius would speak of his love for Draco, which would have made Draco laugh in his face. But this tactic was intelligent, because it ensured that he could talk a little longer.
“I have carefully studied your past love affairs,” said Lucius. “I know you once slept with women, and one does not lose the taste for that. You can still marry and father heirs for the Malfoy line.”
Draco parted his lips in what he was careful to show as a sigh, though not the type of exaggerated one that would have mortally offended Lucius. “And why should I wish to?” he asked. “When such a sexual relationship would constitute an abandonment of my partner?”
“I refer to ability,” said Lucius. “Not willingness. I have known men too perverted by the way they lay with men ever to tolerate a marriage bed. I make only the point that you are not one of them.”
Draco looked his father in the eye and ignored the way Harry was shifting restlessly next to him. He would not let himself be bothered by the word “perverted”; he had heard worse things from Weasley’s mouth, and from some of the people here tonight. “You disowned me,” he said. “You can’t convince me to crawl back to you, and you won’t suddenly make me your son and heir again. You’re too proud.”
Lucius lifted his wand. Draco tensed, but Lucius only drew it gently from his heart to the base of his throat. Draco thought the gesture odd; still, though, it was no motion of a spell he knew, and Lucius’s left eye tended to twitch when he was using a nonverbal incantation. That didn’t happen this time.
“Think on it, Draco,” Lucius said. “You could have back your old life. You could have—“
Harry whirled around and Apparated from between them with such an economy of motion that admiration stunned Draco speechless for a moment. He knew what that meant, of course. There was a large disturbance at some other point in the wards. Lucius’s presence at this one was probably just a distraction.
“You won’t convince me to come back to you,” Draco said. He had not recovered from the sudden shock of Harry’s disappearance, but he didn’t think Lucius could notice that in his voice. He also had no intention of moving or going after Harry. That would leave this gap undefended, and Lucius or his friends could come through. “I chose the course most calculated to irritate you. I gave up the lands and the money that I expected to possess, and I’ll have a life without many of the luxuries I’ve always enjoyed because of that. Do you really think I’ll come back when I was willing to risk that?”
Lucius drew the wand smoothly up over his throat to his brow. He was still holding it oddly, but Draco thought now that was only for dramatic effect. His father could become quite invested in pointless gestures at moments of extreme tension.
“Luxuries are not as important to you as your own will,” Lucius said. “Do not think I have not noticed that, Draco. And so I propose a compromise. Do the one thing I wish you to; come back to the family and promise to marry. You may do anything else. You can retain your Potter lover and send your money to whatever rebellious groups you desire.”
“I won’t do it.” Draco made his words as rough as possible, containing all his disgust, as a deliberate contrast to his father’s cultured voice.
Lucius said, “Alas,” without any expression in his voice, and paused. He had slipped his wand back into his sleeve, but Draco didn’t allow himself to relax. Lucius watched him unblinking for a moment more, than added, “Your chosen bride is Alice Moonstone.”
“Better her than her sister,” said Draco. “But you should find a different heir, one who would love her.”
“You can love her,” said Lucius, and gave him a wolf’s smile. Then he vanished, with that silent Apparition he could master when he wanted. He rarely cared to put forth the effort, of course.
Draco forced himself to look thoughtfully at the spot where his father had stood for some moments, and not to show any open sign of frustration. Then he drew another ward up that enclosed the gap Harry had been standing in, and would alert him instantly of anyone approaching, by Portkey or Apparition or broom.
Only then did he dare to turn his back and seek Harry with his eyes.
*
The attack was coming at the point where Harry had suspected it would come, a “corner” where several wards joined and were weaker for that reason, as power passed from spell to spell. He’d made it noticeable and attractive, a joining point for five wards instead of the more usual three, and then layered an alarm ward behind it the way he’d often layered glamour under glamour. Unless the witches and wizards serving in Counterstrike or among the bigoted Aurors had received certain very specific training, then they wouldn’t see the alarm even if they looked carefully.
Harry appeared beside the corner, behind an oak tree ornamented with swaying pink lanterns, with a small grim smile on his face. He suspected the attackers hadn’t come far enough yet to unravel the wards, which meant that Counterstrike or the Aurors hadn’t yet discovered his special surprise.
He swept the potential battlefield with swift eyes. As he had ordered them to do, the wizards and witches watching the border of the wards had sent off distress signals of red sparks and then herded away the curious, the fearful, and the terminally fearless. Harry didn’t want targets in the way, and he didn’t know any of the watchers, mostly from the core of Nusante’s group, well enough to feel comfortable with their fighting at his back.
He drew his wand when he discovered a witch in heavy dark robes—nondescript, and not made of the special cloth that indicated Aurors—had cut through three of the wards at the corner. It was nearly time to bring up the special spell he’d set, which was different from the other magic on the party field merely encouraging good cheer and peaceful conduct. If he had left this spell out in the open from the beginning, then most of their enemies would have sensed it and not attacked. And Harry had wanted an attack, to show how their group responded to violence.
It would not be by bringing more violence.
The witch had probably recognized him, because she sped up the Severing Snake that was chewing through the wards. A moment later, the strands of the guard spells parted with a crack like tent ropes releasing a stake, and then the witch and several other dark-robed companions piled in.
Harry made the threefold pass that triggered his special spell, hissing the incantation under his breath. The chance was small that any of the attackers would know this spell, yes, but still, he would prefer that it not be turned against him at some later date. “Veritas absoluta!”
A wind tossed the hoods covering the attackers’ faces back, and a flash of lightning in the next moment burned their clothes away without touching their flesh. Several of them stumbled to a stop, and Harry heard loud, confused cries. Some were clutching at their crotches or their breasts, as if that would really prevent anyone from looking. Harry heard a few Apparitions, but most were scrambling for dropped wands.
Marks on their bodies began to glow brilliantly—tattoos, scars, freckles, moles, anything unusual that might identify them. Harry laughed as he noticed a small phoenix tattoo just above the buttocks of the witch who had sawed through the wards. She’d obviously tried to cover it up with layered glamour spells, but it was stirring now, as though the light of the spell were life to it. It spread its wings and beat them, and then flames cut across the witch’s skin. Though they obviously hadn’t hurt her, she whirled away from Harry, her face brilliant with embarrassment.
Harry whistled.
A figure stirred under the oak tree, where he’d been standing with a carefully applied Disillusionment Charm covering him. Therris lifted his camera and began to take pictures of the wizards and witches who had thought they could get away with raiding the celebration of a group of people who had never done them harm. Click, click, flash, flash, and the scrambling of the victims grew more and more desperate. A few more of them had found their wands and Apparated away, but still not many. There were also five or six who seemed to think that screaming at Therris would make him stop.
Harry laughed again, and then felt a tug at his awareness. Another strike was going on at the second weakest place in the wards, concealed behind a large bush where the intruders must have felt confident no one would see them come in. He nodded to Therris—though he thought the reporter was having far too much fun to notice him—and Apparated. He had relaxed the wards for himself as well as Draco, a few minutes after the trickle of visitors had slowed. No sense in tearing his own protections to pieces or moving so slowly that he might arrive only after someone had been injured.
And no one was going to be injured tonight. He had meant it when he told Garrett and Draco that he wouldn’t let anyone in the party retaliate with violence, or be hurt. That meant the Counterstrike members or Aurors had to be protected as well, from Nusante or friends of his who might have had enough of silent suffering.
The bush rustled as Harry landed next to it, but the small group of wizards filing through the hole in the wards only had time to look up before they found themselves each confronted by an illusion of Caroline Garrett. Like the spell that had started the Weird Sisters music for the dancing, this was a time-delayed piece of magic, and it also utilized a very simple principle of Legilimency. It located whatever sexual memory the victim found most embarrassing, and then the illusion of Garrett began to explain gravely what sexual disease or perversion the memory was symptomatic of.
“Obviously, sir, you’ve been repressing fantasies of bestiality all your life—“
“How interesting, madam! I never would have thought that someone as highly important as you are could have advanced so far in the Ministry without someone suspecting her tendency towards pedophilia—“
“Did you know that those who dream often of sex with their mothers may actually have inherited a tendency towards incest?”
Harry let the illusions speak for only a moment before he swept his wand around in a circle and called, “Accio leaves!”
The leaves on the bush blew off, revealing several parchments with branches stuck through them. Over each parchment traveled a busy Quick-Quotes Quill, transcribing the words the illusions spoke.
Harry winked at the nearest horrified face, then raised a block that would prevent them from coming any further into the camp even if they managed to break away from the charmed rapport before the illusions—Garrett, when she agreed to let her image be used, had suggested adding a bit of hypnotism to the magic—and Apparated again. A third attack was coming in a fairly daring point, near the gap in the wards he had been guarding, and he had no specific trap set up to receive it.
But that didn’t matter. He had his magic, surging and seething around his shoulders as if it were excited to be used for something beyond Transfigurations and glamours, and he had his presence. That would work.
The moment he landed near a ragged entrance cut in the wards, the spell that alerted him to the presence of fabric in Auror robes twinged hard across his chest. Harry breathed as if he were about to dive underwater. The other attackers could have included Aurors, but if so, they had been probably unofficially associated with Counterstrike. These would be men and women who had the Minister’s permission backing them up.
But why should he let that change things? He had informed Kingsley, along with everyone else in wizarding Britain who possessed the ears to listen, of what he planned to do, and he wouldn’t hurt the Aurors. Nor were the spells he had planned to use on them illegal, and Harry himself would watch to see that they didn’t cause unintentional harm.
He stepped forwards and blocked the Aurors’ path into the grounds, smiling a little. “I own this land,” he said, tilting his head to make sure that the light of the bonfire fell across his face and revealed his scar. “Do you have a reason for trespassing? I’m assuming you’re trespassers, understand, and not legitimate visitors, because otherwise you would have used the front entrance.”
He expected many things, including the anger and disdain and worry that swept through the Aurors staring at him. He didn’t expect the convulsive movement from the middle of the line, or Ron’s voice calling, “Harry! Mate!”
Harry held still. He kept his arms folded as Ron hurried towards him, stopping maybe five feet away and scanning his face with a desperate eagerness that wrung Harry’s heart. It would have been easier if Ron had showed up hating him and calling him names. But Harry had long since become resigned to the fact that his life would never deserve the adjective easy, whatever else he might choose to call it.
“Thank Merlin we found you!” Ron’s eyes were shining. He fumbled for his wand, not seeming to notice the way the motion made Harry take a step to the side. “I know that you wouldn’t have agreed to this of your own free will. Malfoy must have enchanted you. And Hermione gave me a charm against the most powerful mind-controlling enchantments.”
Harry found his tongue. “Ron,” he said, as gently as he could. His heart wavered and vibrated as if it were a glass balanced on the edge of a table and stroked by a breeze. “You’re making a mistake. Listen to me.”
“I know that you wouldn’t betray us like this,” Ron was babbling on. He had his wand free now and was waving it straight up and down in broad passes Harry wasn’t familiar with. “You would have told us if you were seriously considering being open about your homosexuality, let alone dating Malfoy. I know you would.” He smiled at Harry.
“Ron, I love Draco,” Harry said strongly. “I was waiting for an owl from you before I came to you, but I—“
“It’s all right, it’s almost done,” Ron said soothingly. “Apsolvo mentem!”
Harry winced. It felt as though someone had tossed a stinging puff of sand into his eyes. He staggered, coughing, and winced again as his head began to ache. He put a hand up and massaged his temples. He didn’t think there was any change, but at the same time, that had been powerful magic. Ron was by no means a weak wizard; it was his temper and his emotions that got in his way.
And that’s about to happen again, Harry thought. For a moment, just a moment, he was shaking like a newborn fawn. Here was one of those moments he had begun Metamorphosis in the first place to avoid. He didn’t want to choose between his friends and living a life that was exciting and fun for him. He didn’t know if he could bear it. He knew that something in him would shatter irrevocably at the look of betrayal on Ron’s face.
He plunged himself into Brian’s courage and opened his eyes.
Ron was smiling at him hopefully. “Say it now,” he urged. “Say now that you love Malfoy, or that you’ll really prevent us from arresting anyone who’s engaging in public displays of homosexuality here.”
Distantly, Harry knew he was twisting apart, wrung with pain as exquisite as a snakebite. He managed to smile, though, because it was Brian and not Harry who was moving behind his eyes now. “No,” he said quietly, his voice deepened into Brian’s. “I still love Draco. And I still won’t let you hurt anyone here. Including yourselves.”
Ron’s face crumpled. Harry saw tears in his eyes in the moment before he unleashed the spell he’d decided to use on them.
It was the same enchantment that Dumbledore had used on Ron and Hermione in Harry’s fourth year when he’d put them to sleep under the lake. They’d wake when someone who worked for the Ministry touched them, and not before. For now, they fell to the ground, snoring. Ron’s face washed clean of anguish and sorrow as he tumbled, and moments later Harry could have imagined that he was seeing his friend asleep on his own pillow at home, with nothing more than dreams of an argument with Hermione to trouble him.
Harry turned around and began vomiting uncontrollably. He leaned forwards enough that it didn’t drop onto his robes or his shoes or his legs. The persona named Gerald whom he’d used for bodyguard work, as fierce and wary as a wild cat, flickered into existence in his head and kept watch even as some distant part of him expelled every bit of food he’d taken in that day. When he was down to dry heaves, Gerald pulled him back to his feet and forced his stomach to stop spasming with a muttered spell. Whilst he was busy being weak, someone else could have sneaked past his defenses and into the party.
But when he listened, there was nothing but the music and the chattering from the dance floor. Slowly, he relaxed. The party hadn’t been disrupted; some of the attendees would leave certain that no one had even tried to invade. He had preserved the peace and the lives of those involved. No one could ask for more.
Then he turned and saw one who could striding towards him. Draco’s hair was brilliantly colored in the light of the lanterns he passed beneath, now straw, now gold.
Gerald tensed. There was no way he could allow Draco to realize who had come here. He would probably insist on casting some spell on Ron that would make things worse between them, or on making Harry talk about it. And Gerald had already made some important tactical decisions. For one thing, Harry had betrayed his friends and would have to atone for it somehow. That made a confrontation with them as soon as possible inevitable. If he wanted to preserve their friendship, he would need to explain. Confronting them in Draco’s company was impossible, since it would only result in shouting and a wider rift. Therefore, Harry would have to do it alone, and lying to Draco by omission was a necessity.
For another, Draco would not be pleased that Harry had had to call on personas to survive the aftermath of Ron’s accusations. He was so joyful that he was getting the real Harry, as he would call it, back. Should Gerald allow the happiness of the person most important to Harry to be disrupted, when he had gone to such lengths to preserve the happiness of relative strangers?
No, he thought not.
There had been one disastrous year with failure after failure. There would be no more.
Gerald closed his eyes and folded himself into the back of Harry’s mind as Draco came closer and closer. It would have to be Harry who met him; Draco would accept no less. But Harry would have the silent strength of hundreds of others backing him up.
And as soon as ever he could, he would get away and make arrangements to contact his friends.
*
Draco thought Harry was rather pale and quiet when he came up to him at first, but almost immediately he understood it must have been a trick of the light. Harry smiled at him and reached out to embrace him, bowing his head and sighing deeply. Draco stroked his back.
“Everything’s all right?” he whispered.
“Everything,” Harry said, and then looked up at him, his eyebrows rising. “Unless you left the gap in the wards unguarded.”
“Garret is watching it,” said Draco. “And I put up blocks of my own, secured with both certain spells I know and a potion, which no one is going to get past without a Potions mastery. You deserve to have some food.”
“And to dance?” Harry asked. “I’d like that.”
Draco relaxed. The action against the attackers must really have gone well. Harry wouldn’t put his own pleasure ahead of duty. “Of course,” he said, and hooked a hand under Harry’s elbow, and led him towards the dance floor.
Chapter 37.
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Lucius was doing something with his wand, some spell, or some communication, or something. I loved how Draco stood up to him.
But oh, Ron. This is mostly Harry's fault, for never standing up to Ron, for never having a backbone where his sexuality was concerned around his best friend. Ron wouldn't have felt so betrayed if Harry had once stood up for himself. It hurts now, hurts Harry, too, by disorienting him so severely that he needs his personas to help him get through it.
At least Ron knows that Harry is not under any enchantment. Though that probably hurts him more, it is important that he and Hermione KNOW that Harry is serious about this, serious about Draco.
Great chapter.
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And yes, I think a lot of it is Harry's fault. There's probably even more that's no one's fault (the homophobia of the wizarding society, the dynamics of the relationship between Harry and his friends after Hogwarts), but Harry could have told Ron that he was going to date wizards and Ron had better accept it. He was absolutely terrified of being forced to choose between his friends and his sexuality, though, so he didn't do it.
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The fear might be more appropriate for Chapter 37, actually.
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Loved Harry's creative spells :)
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Ron...*shakes head*...I felt bad for him here, so sure that Harry would have told them first, and so wrong about it. He doesn't know his friend half as well as he thinks he does.
Oh, and Harry's spells? Brilliant!
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Ron did know Harry once, and he knows the mask Harry has presented to him. It's partially Harry's fault for not letting Ron and Hermione know him better, honestly.
And thank you!
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Oh, Ron. I so wish that confrontation didn't take place, and it was interesting to see Harry's reaction to Ron's spell. Perhaps the sickness was a combination of the spell and a stress response to the situation, and can I just ADORE the way 'Gerald' came in and handled things for a while, but then faded into the background so that Harry could deal with Draco. I thought it was a really good way to describe Harry's mental process and how difficult it was for him to force his own personality into the forefront.
Kick arse chapter. Really stressful and filled with tension.
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There's the problem of whether the other attackers could have seen Lucius's wand from where they were standing/waiting.
The sickness came partially from terror, for sure. Harry was waiting to set up a confrontation on his own soil so it came out well, and then Ron stole that advantage from him.
His personas are probably the most effective tools he has at the moment- but unfortunately, he's using them to keep Draco away from him as well.
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Yes, that's true, but not completely unreasonable given his past. He's used his other personas to escape, but also to cope, and I like that you let us realize that he knows that he's doing it though; that he realizes that the 'real' Harry Potter needs to come out. I think he's a bit afraid of being that vulnerable, and it'll be most excellent when he finally surrenders to Draco.
It's a bit strange (but fun) debating back 'n forth with you about *your* characters! ;o)
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Harry's got some multiple-personality syndrome for sure! To conjure up both Brian and Gerard like that. Whoo. Freaky-deaky.
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Chapter 37 should, I hope, explain this in detail.
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Lucius' spell whatever it was was very well executed. Heart-voice-mind, I assume that was what the wand movement signified. Kind of 'Bind the heart to the mind verbalised by this mouth'. Obviously it would be smooth and sleek just like Lucius himself and would slowly try to coerce Draco into a feeling for his new bride Alice Moonstone. Very good work on Lucius.
I adored Harry's trick into making his attackers known by their specific marks and features. That was brilliant idea.
I have just one small problem. I can't believe that Hermione would want Ron to confront Harry in public and in such a way. I really find this weird. I don't know if that's some kind of underestimation of Harry's magical ability, some weird form of 'getting back' or sheer stupidity. Harry reached for them, they could have cast this spell on him and made sure what his feelings are. This action, far too Slytherin on their part, only caused another rift between them. I am offended on Harry's behalf and I'll admit I start to find Harry's attitude of taking it all like a good Gryffindor a bit irritating.
Don't get me wrong, I don't mean I don't like your writing or plot. I don't like this side of Harry. I think it doesn't sit well with me in regard to his up till now 'I want to be my own person and not a puppet of anyone' attitude. I did however like how his personae are now more 'mature' (for lack of better word). Harry has finally started to have a face of his own and he can finally have all his other masks there, waiting on the very border of the real him, ready to step in and offer help.
I'll be eagerly waiting for Harry's meeting with Ron and Hermione. And I'll hope that Harry will stop be so pathetically Gryffindor on them, when they are so nastily Slytherin on him.
Thanks for the chapter.
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Lucius is trying. Of course, who knows exactly what he's trying to do at the moment?
Harry figured out that humiliation is an even more potent political weapon than violence, considering how the Ministry would react to violence on the part of Harry's group.
This is one of the limitations of writing the story from solely Harry and Draco POV. If I could nip off to Ron or Hermione's head for a moment, I could give their perspective on the situation. But I can't do that, so the information on what they're doing will have to wait until Chapter 37.
One reason for Harry's accepting attitude will also be explained in future chapters (either Chapter 38 or 39; I'm not sure which at this point). You may notice, though, that he doesn't take this shite from just anyone. It's people who are important to him that's the dividing line.
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And humiliation was the best possible choice, as it serves a few purposes at the same time. Exposes the current attackers to the world (and yes they'll probably get some of the public favour for trying to put a stop to 'the unnaturalness of those people'), humiliates the people themselves, gives a fine warning to every possible future attacker, which might make Lucius' Counterstrike a bit more ineffective
As for what's going in Ron and Hermione's head, I'll wait to see it through Harry's eyes, but they don't look good from where I'm sitting. I was expecting that at least Muggleborn Hermione will be more tolerant, but I'll give her credit that maybe Draco isn't the easiest choice to accept.
And yes, Harry's attitude is restricted to those he cares about, but they'll just have to convince me, they are deserving of it. So far they don't manage to achieve that.
I'll just wait for you to reveal things slowly. I like the pacing of the story so far, and I can't see it finishing in less than 10 more chapters, but that's good too - the more there'll be to enjoy. Take care and write at your pace, I'll be waiting for new chapters.
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What was wrong? Was Harry's reaction to the spell supposed to be like that? Or is it some psycological mess-up?
And Lucius... I do hope there, though it does seem hopeless, that there was no spell. I don't think Harry will be able to distinguish between Draco really having second thoughts and Draco under a spell. Or will he?
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Harry's vomiting was mostly psychosomatic. One of the worst things that he could ever do, something he'd been trying to avoid for twelve years, has just happened: he's betrayed Ron. Before, he could believe that he hadn't really done that because he did plan to explain to his friends just as soon as he could. But now it's happened.
It will probably depend on whether Draco can describe the wand movements to him.
CotG 36 (aka Tales from the Front)
Lucius was quite correct in finally discerning Draco's original motives, though I'm wondering how much Narcissa had to spoon feed him the Draco wants more freedom thoughts, before they sunk in? “I am not the man you thought I was,” Lucius whispered, and his eyes glittered like river stones. “I am cleverer, more perceptive.” Sorry to quote the entire line, but this just made me guffaw hysterically. Yes, Lucius, you were following a maniacal and homicidal dark wizard that you knew was a half-blood all along, right?
I'm quite unsure if Lucius was only giving signals with his wand movements or was it a non-verbal spell, though Draco's observations seem to make that unlikely? Of course, it could have been both, for all we know. If Darco starts mooing over Alice (yes I know it's a terrible pun-thingy), I guess we'll have an answer.
Harry's spell casting was marvelous! Turning the attackers naked and their markings glowing for better identification, not to mention mortification, was brilliant. Therris taking a page from the Colin Creevy book of candid camera was glorious. The mind-reading Caroline images were downright scary in a therapeutic way and quite hysterical, though some of the perversions revealed were deeply disturbing! thanks goodness it was all being captured for posterity. And it was wonderful how you described Harry's magic getting a little exercise, "He had his magic, surging and seething around his shoulders as if it were excited to be used for something beyond Transfigurations and glamours."
And then Ron, though this line hit something base with me, "But Harry had long since become resigned to the fact that his life would never deserve the adjective easy, whatever else he might choose to call it." The spell was bad enough, but Harry's inner turmoil was what came to the fore for me. The reason he created Metamorphosis in the first place and the need to choose between his childhood friends and his choice of passion, let alone occupation was so contextually reverential (if that makes sense). It was tragic that he had to slip back into the Brian persona, but not entirely without justification. The sleeping spell was so de minimis in impact and yet Harry had to throw up. I'm not sure exactly why and I hope it's not an imposition to ask if you could explain what exactly was the cause? I can see a lot of either proximate or actual causalities, but there was something about what he did or more precisely, what he had to do, the choices he made at that moment, that the finality of it, the turning of a page in his friendship with Ron, that made him lose his lunch. Gerald coming to the rescue, was equally helpful and concerning. I'm not going to excoriate Hermione, yet, at least until I've heard her explanation, but I'm not feeling for her right now, either.
And then Harry starts falling back into old patterns, "lying to Draco by omission was a necessity." rationalizing this away is precisely the kind of thing that will get him in trouble and only make matters worse in the long run. Trusting Draco has been forgotten and that's not good!
And then you tease us with that almost forgotten mystery, "There had been one disastrous year with failure after failure. There would be no more." I really want to know so much more about that because it seems to be the linchpin of all the neuroses that make up this Harry.
Simply put, I adored this chapter and will read it again in the daylight to make sure I catch more of the nuance! Thanks for sharing with us again!
Re: CotG 36 (aka Tales from the Front)
Draco will have other things to talk to Harry about than Nusante, very shortly.
Well, Lucius is clever enough to master a few political moves. What he's bad at is perceiving his son. That's always been his weakness.
Thanks for the compliments on the spells! I thought it was time to put a little more humor back into the story, as well as a way of keeping Harry's promise not to use violence.
Harry was vomiting because of the betrayal, not because he had to cast the sleeping spell. He wouldn't have done it if he's just used the spell on strangers. But his friends are special and important to him, although for ten years they haven't known the most important facts to him.
Hermione will be doing most of the talking in Chapter 37.
You're absolutely right that he's falling back into old patterns, and that is not a good thing.
Thanks for commenting!
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He's starting to do exactly what Draco didn't want him to do - lie to him under the impression of protecting Draco and - Ron. Draco is not going to be happy when he founds out. And I'm not as well.
Has Harry forgotten that Draco wants to get to know, to see his other personas? How is he going to do that if not in action? Does he think he'll make some kind of show for him, like "And this is Gerald, my bodyguard- and now, this is Osiris-"? Really. I mean, it's okay to be afraid, and it's okay wanting to protect Draco (and his friends), but honesty works so, so much better for that. He could have been honest, and if Draco would have wanted to hex him, he could have told him no, and Draco would have done it. And why does he think Draco would enforce his presence in this confrontation between him and his friends? I thought they had agreed that both of them should go alone, and anyways, Draco would understand why he shouldn't be there. He'd probably insist on staying at Harry's home for when he gets back, but that's all.
I understand it's still hard for Harry to trust, but I thought he at least trusts himself. If Draco insisted on something Harry absolutely does not want - like hexing Ron, or accompanying him - then Harry could make him not do it, no matter how much he wants to.
I also think Lucius hexed Draco somehow with this wand-movement-thing. So what if his left eye didn't twitch - Lucius knows Draco knows about that, so he could have used a glamour, or trained so it wouldn't twitch, or whatever. I don't trust Lucius as far as I can throw him.
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At the same time, he doesn't want to hurt Draco by refusing a direct request. That's always been one of the core problems, as well as one of the reasons he started Metamorphosis in the first place: Harry wants to give people what they want, and sometimes he does evil in order to do it.
And it's a good idea not to trust Lucius!
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Draco is so, so not going to like that, especially since Harry is hurting himself in the process. It's time Harry realises Draco doesn't want anything from him but the truth.
Draco is too trusting :(
If I had a father, I would have (if I had survived...) suspected something. Lucius wouldn't come there simply to talk a little and then leave again - even if he appeared to be only a distruction. Anyone could have done that.
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go harry, nice defense. and ron, i hate his prejudice, but he has been lied to by harry for so long. you don't seem to like him or hermione much, they are usually such twits in your fic
luffed the chapter ♥
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It's not that I don't like Ron or Hermione; it's that I don't think I write them very well, and in particular, I usually don't find their romantic relationship very interesting in and of itself, so I find it even harder to write them as a couple. So I usually try to get them out of the way somehow, and unfortunately, that often results in some conflicts.
And thank you!
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And just what is bad old Lucius up to now?
I sense more badness afoot…
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I can't answer that yet!
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The metaconception of the wizarding world as major-duty homophobic resonates with me a lot -- I'm old enough to have watched cultural change occur in such places. Doesn't surprise me the ww is as backward in this as it is in other things....
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One reason I chose to do that is because I think the wizarding world is very nineteenth-century in a lot of its attitudes (other than the fact that women can hold more jobs than Victorian British women could). And though a lot of homosexual activity was around in Victorian England, it was also socially disapproved of.
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Ugh, Ron. D: And even Hermione. I hope they'll get their long awaited talk next chapter!
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I didn't expect Ron's reaction. In a sense his friendship and loyalty are more heartbreaking than if he had verbally abused or sneer at Harry. He wanted to save his mate! Ouch! He will really feel betrayed and baffled. In his head, he can't understand why Harry would want to publicly fight for the rights of Gays and Lesbians. They really have a long way to go...
I really tought Harry's booby-traps were brilliant and a reflection on how he enjoys being himself again.
Of course, his painful meeting with Ron had him temporarily retreating into other personnaes. It's sad that his reflex is to hide it from Draco in order not to disappoint him.
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