Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, characters, universe, etc. I make no money from this.

Warnings: AH! I got lime juice in my eye! There be SMUT!

Acknowledgement: Have I mentioned lately how incredibly cool my beta is? Yes? Well, I may as well do it again! Thank you bluefirefly5! You're super-duper awesome!

Chapter XII

"You Seem To Have That Effect On Me"

x_x…H_P...x_x

24 July 1996 – Wednesday

I woke up to something tickling my nose, and immediately smiled when I discovered that it was soft, blond hair. Draco was using my shoulder as a pillow, his arm coiled around my chest and his legs tangled through mine. Overall, I couldn't think of a much better way to wake up. Well, we could both be naked, but… This was nice too.

I ran my hand lightly down his back, over the nightshirt I'd transfigured for him. I didn't know what the material was, but it was really soft. Softer than the pajama pants I'd ended up transfiguring for myself. I wondered if there wasn't some hint into my subconscious buried in that… Then I decided that I didn't really care. Examining my sanity – or lack thereof – was not what I wanted to be doing right now. I'd spent entirely too much of the last week on that dubious task.

And I had much more important things to think about at the moment. Like Draco's body coiled around mine. And morning wood. Though I doubted that anyone could wake up with Draco pressed against him and not have that particular problem. I employed the hand not wrapped around the blonde to slide lightly down his chest, his stomach… I smiled again when I found that he was evidently experiencing the same problem.

"Are you awake, Draco?" I asked quietly while my hand brushed very softly down his length.

He responded with a wordless groan, pushing his hips forward in search of more contact.

My own cock throbbing with interest, I wrapped my hand around his as much as I could through his pants and squeezed lightly, eliciting a delicious gasp.

"H-harry," Draco moaned, his whole body trembling.

I shifted my hold to maneuver him so that he was on top of me, his legs straddling mine, and pulled his gorgeous mouth down to mine.

"Mmn. Harry… morning breath," Draco grimaced.

I chuckled briefly and my magic rose almost without a conscious thought. My mouth tingled slightly as it filled with the cool taste of mint. "Better?" I asked, kissing him again before he could answer, though he did manage to hum something that sounded like agreement. I tugged his hips down to meet mine and barely thought how much I'd prefer we were naked before it was so. Gods, this wandless, nonverbal magic came in amazingly handy sometimes. Draco seemed to think so too, if his rather loud moan was anything to judge by. With that in mind, I silenced the room before I forgot, and then allowed myself to get lost in the perfection of the body pressed against mine.

After a few minutes of snogging and rutting against each other, my fingers strayed between those perfect cheeks to the tight pucker concealed there and I was very quickly consumed by how badly I wanted to be in there again. I stroked my dry finger down the crack lightly and back up, putting just a little pressure on it and Draco groaned.

"Fucking Gods, Harry. You're trying to kill me," he gasped out.

I chuckled breathlessly, utterly high on my ability to do that to him. After a moment of consideration, I dug my fingers into his arse and urged him to move until he was straddling my chest. While he looked down on me from above, I nibbled on the leaking head resting on my chin, and wandlessly summoned that tub of lube from the bedside table. I wet my fingers and slid one slowly into him while he leaned heavily against the headboard and rapidly devolved into a gibbering, cursing mess of blonde perfection. His eyes were squeezed tightly closed as a second finger joined the first inside him and I drank in the sight of his pretty face distended in the pleasure that I was giving him.

I resisted the urge to tend to my own aching problem while one hand gradually prepared that hole and the other teased his balls as my mouth titillated his cock. I had more restraint than I'd thought as I lost myself in bringing my lover – and I did love assigning that word to him – to the point of insanity. Not until he finally gave up and started begging me for more did I relent.

I removed my fingers and eased him back down my body until he was straddling my hips, then angled my length as I wanted it, but I did no more, allowing him to set the pace. If I moved now, I knew that I'd be inside him in a heartbeat, and I didn't want to hurt him again.

He didn't waste any time in lowering himself onto me, moaning softly while I fisted the bed sheets and willed myself to stay still. Once I was seated fully inside him, he leaned forward so that our torsos were flush and slipped that delicious tongue into my mouth again. For the moment, I let him lead, not even lifting my hands to touch him as I suspected the temptation to move him would be too much.

Thankfully, he didn't wait too long before he started moving, his tight heat receding only to envelope me into that wonderful nirvana again. He took his time, experimenting with the angle until he evidently found one that he liked because his groan vibrated down my throat and he immediately began moving faster.

I have no idea how long I lasted before my impatience got the best of me. Grateful for the ridiculously huge bed, I flipped him over sideways and rolled on top of him so quickly that we barely broke the rhythm. It took me a minute to find that angle that made him make such wonderful noises, but I knew I'd found it when he started screaming profanities at me and giving orders along the lines of "faster" and "harder" and "fuck, Potter, yes, just like that!".

I found myself utterly spellbound in watching the expressions flickering across his face as the pleasure built and built into a blazing inferno inside me. When I realized how close I was to ending this whether I liked it or not, I grabbed Draco's cock and managed only two desperate tugs before the inferno engulfed me in its euphoric blaze. I barely heard Draco's cry of ecstasy.

When my brain started working again, I found myself lying on top of a panting Draco. I slid out of him carefully and leaned forward to kiss my way up his neck and jaw, finally claiming his lips in a heated but brief kiss before I collapsed onto the bed next to him. We were both sticky with sweat and Draco's spunk. I cleaned us with an errant thought.

"Well. Good morning," I smirked when our breathing had slowed.

Draco chuckled. I decided that I loved that sound. It was one I'd never heard from him before this week. He rolled onto his side and propped himself on his elbow so that he could look at me. "I like you like this," he said thoughtfully.

I lifted my eyebrows in response. "What? Naked and thoroughly shagged?"

His amused smirk was utterly gorgeous. "Well, yes. That, too. I was going for 'happy' and 'relaxed' though."

Hm. I actually was. It was definitely a nice change from last night. Until I'd seen Draco, I'd been unable to stop dwelling on how I was going to destroy Dumbledore utterly before I finally let him die. I smiled at Draco. "You seem to have that effect on me."

"Of course, I do," Draco replied, managing to pull off haughty and arrogant while lying naked in my bed. "I'm irresistible, Potter. You're rather slow on the uptake to only now be figuring that out."

"Is that so?" I purred dangerously, leaning up to face him directly.

I saw one brief flicker of uncertainty flash through his eyes before the arrogance returned. "It's obvious. My Lord." The bastard smirked the title at me.

Struggling to contain my grin, I very slowly and deliberately pushed him onto his back and pinned him to the bed. I loved this playful side of him. "You are far too cheeky for your own good, Malfoy," I informed him. It may have been slightly more ominous if I hadn't been nibbling on his neck while I said it, but the prat was just fucking edible!

The pop of a house elf arriving distracted me from my chosen breakfast, and I contained a sigh as I lifted my head. "Yes, Gabby?"

The elf bowed happily, utterly ignoring our nakedness and compromising position. "Breakfast is being starting, Master Lord, sir!"

"Thank you," I nodded in dismissal. Once she was gone, I leaned down to kiss Draco once more before getting up to face the rest of the world again.

x_x…H_G...x_x

Hermione paused in the doorway of the dining room when she arrived for breakfast. Thus far, only Slytherins were present. Severus was sitting to the left of Harry's empty seat. Lucius was at the foot of the table again with Narcissa on his left. Draco wasn't here yet, nor any of the Weasleys or Luna. Neville and Ginny weren't going to be relieved of the dreamless sleep until this afternoon.

She moved to sit next to Severus without any real thought about it. However Lucius and Narcissa may be now that they were all serving under one lord, Hermione had no doubt that they still thought of her as the "mudblood". Lucius particularly, as he hadn't been here long. Hermione would work with them if she needed, but she'd just as soon not force herself on them any more than necessary.

Severus, on the other hand, had become her closest companion in the last week. She didn't blame Harry for not having much time with her. She couldn't even imagine the pressure that he was under right now. Honestly, she still wasn't entirely sure how she felt about everything that had happened. Not that she'd had a lot of time to think about it. She'd been working almost nonstop since coming to the manor. Between getting Lucius exonerated, working on the Creature Equality Act, and trying to continue her research into the horcruxes, she'd hardly had time to breathe. Of course, she loved that, and working with Severus had been amazing. Ever since that first night he'd taken Ron and her out of headquarters, he'd been a lot less formal than she'd ever seen him before. But then, they weren't in the student-teacher dynamic here, even if he did sometimes slip into lecture mode when they were discussing their research. He was… Well, "nice" was too strong a word. He was civil – almost polite.

But their academic discussions... She got a thrill just thinking about it. He was utterly brilliant, of course. Some of the details that he could conjure from memory were staggering, and he always knew exactly what book she needed when she wanted a more in depth clarification of something. They could and had gone on for hours discussing the history of magical creatures and the ministry, and if not for the helpful house elves popping in with reminders, they'd have missed more than one meal. She had never in her life felt so intellectually stimulated. It was thrilling!

That was why she'd been too distracted to fully examine the fact that she'd somehow ended up a minion of the next dark lord. A dark lord who happened to be Harry Potter, her best friend of five years. The very idea of serving a dark lord sent a shiver of disgust down her spine, but she did recognize that that had a lot to do with the last dark lord. Harry was different. She would refuse to call him a dark lord at all if she hadn't witnessed him kill five people without batting an eyelash. She'd had a few nightmares about that, honestly. Not that she felt a lot of sympathy for those people who'd murdered a family like hers. It was the ease with which he did it. The way he seemed to dismiss the entire incident almost immediately afterward.

And she really was concerned about his mental health. Personality flips like his didn't just happen to sane people. Well, at least they didn't in the muggle world. Given what they'd discovered about the compulsions on some of them, maybe they really did happen in the magical world. Which brought up another distressing point. She truly had no idea how to broach that subject with Harry. He was their leader now, and his temper was shorter than ever. One did not just ask him if he'd considered the fact that he may be under compulsions that were affecting his personality. She'd wait until after breakfast and get Severus' opinion on it. He'd survived serving Voldemort, so she was sure he could figure out how to handle Harry. Though it did rankle a bit that she was afraid to talk to her own friend. He was just so different. She had no idea how to approach him about anything personal.

"Hermione."

She blinked and looked up to find Severus looking both concerned and exasperated. She gathered that that wasn't the first time he'd tried to get her attention. "Hm?"

"I thought you were going to spend the morning in bed," he pointed out with mild chastisement in his tone.

"Oh. Yeah, I was," she admitted. She'd told him as much last night when she'd convinced him that she didn't need a dreamless sleep as her compulsion hadn't really affected her personality much so she should adjust without much difficulty. "When I woke up, I felt fine, so there didn't seem to be any point. Wow, your eyes are really pretty."

Severus blinked.

Hermione realized what she'd just said and instantly turned what she was sure was a rather violent shade of red by how hotly her cheeks were burning. Merlin, had she really just said that? Out loud? Maybe she should have stayed in bed.

Severus' lips twitched slightly as they did when he was trying not to be amused, which made her blush even hotter. "Yes," he nodded somberly. "Clearly you are 'fine'."

Hermione made a point of staring very hard at the gold-rimmed china sitting empty on the table in front of her. "It's possible that I'm still in the adjustment phase," she admitted, keeping her tone as clinical as humanly possible. She didn't think she'd ever been more mortified in her life. Not when she'd taken that polyjuice and ended up as a cat/witch hybrid. Not when her teeth had grown twenty centimeters long in front of Severus and all of her potions class. Not when Ron had said those horrible things about her and Viktor. This topped them all. She'd just told Severus Snape that he had pretty eyes. And right in front of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy.

Merlin, surely she could just die right now.

"No doubt it will pass," Severus murmured, though a touch of humor remained in his tone.

"Ron!" She was sure she'd never been happier to see him, though by the way he flinched and blinked at her, she thought she may have been a bit more exuberant than was completely warranted at seven-thirty in the morning.

"Morning, 'Mione," he said cautiously, his eyes moving over the open seats at the table for a moment before he took the one in front of her. He pulled a book out of his pocket, opened it at the bookmark, and immediately focused all of his attention on it.

Hermione grimaced slightly. She could curse him for not providing a better distraction. What had happened to her friend that could be counted on to whinge about being hungry or sleepy first thing in the morning? Damn him!

"What are you reading, Ron?" she asked, still carefully not looking at Severus, though she could feel his eyes on her.

The redhead looked at her with a frown, then lifted the book so she could read the title on the spine.

She tilted her head for a better angle. "Notable Battles of the Last Five Centuries," she read. Even the title sounded dry. Oh, it sounded interesting, just not the kind of interesting that she would have imagined could hold Ron's attention. Sometimes she really wondered if the whole world hadn't gone mad. "Is it any good?" she inquired when it seemed that he was content to go back to reading and ignoring her.

He looked up at her again with that little, slightly irritated frown. "It's interesting," he shrugged before looking at the page again.

Hermione contained a frustrated sigh as Luna drifted into the room, humming some unfamiliar tune under her breath. "Good morning, Luna!" she said brightly.

Luna gave her a dreamy smile and slid into a chair to Lucius' right. "I agree with you," she said, improbably.

Hermione frowned at her uncertainly. Talking to Luna was always a bit odd. Sometimes, she wasn't even sure that they were talking about the same thing or if Luna was having a completely different conversation. "Um. About what?" she asked cautiously.

"He does have pretty eyes."

Hermione clenched her jaw and ignored what might have been a faint snort from her other side.

"Who's got pretty eyes?" one of the twins chirped as the pair bounded into the room.

Hermione closed her eyes in mortification. This was not happening.

"Severus," Luna answered carelessly while the twins flopped into the pair of seats between Hermione and Luna.

"Blimey, Snape?" the one closest to her exclaimed.

"No, I agree," the other put in. "The man's a bit dreamy, really."

"We're not at school, Weasley," Severus bit out. "I may not be able to take points, but I can curse you."

"I think he means it," the one nearest her said in a stage whisper.

"Too right, brother mine."

"Getting cursed is a peril of following a dark lord, I hear."

"Yes, but isn't it supposed to be Harry cursing us?"

"Well, he probably doesn't have the time."

"Dreadfully busy, being a dark lord."

Both twins yelped simultaneously.

"I always make time for my followers," Harry smirked as he strolled into the room, lazy confidence and power absolutely radiating from his every move. Hermione was struck again by how very different Harry was. Oh, he'd always been powerful. Every now and then, usually when they were in life and death situations, she'd seen a hint of this side of him, but it had usually been laced with desperation and angst, not amusement.

Such was Harry's presence that she didn't even notice Draco coming in behind him until he sat down between Harry and Ron. The latter closed his book over one finger and turned his attention to Harry for the moment.

Harry looked at Severus while the twins were still licking their wounded pride. "How are Ginny and Neville?"

"Still sleeping peacefully, Harry," Severus replied, his eyes lingering for just a second on Draco before he turned his full focus to Harry. "Ginny may take a few days to fully recover, but Neville should be fine by dinner tonight."

"And Hermione?" Harry asked, turning bright green eyes on her.

"I'm fine," Hermione tried not to blush.

Harry lifted an eyebrow at her.

She cleared her throat quietly. "Um. I'm still adjusting, but it's not bad."

He nodded this time, and thankfully didn't question her any more as his attention was drawn to the door where Remus was hesitating. "Good morning, Remus," he greeted with a warm smile. "How are you feeling?"

"Confused," Remus admitted, choosing a chair next to Ron rather than the one by Narcissa of the two remaining vacant.

"Is there anything that I can clear up for you?" Harry offered amiably. Honestly, she'd been a little out of it last night given what she'd learned about Dumbledore's manipulations, but she did remember what Harry had looked like – what his magic had felt like – when he was angry. He hardly seemed the same person this morning. It was a nice change, but a little unnerving when she was never sure which version of him to expect.

Remus hesitated a moment, his eyes lingering on Lucius before he looked at Harry again. "I'm having a little trouble sorting out which of my recent memories are real and which I dreamed," Remus admitted. "You killed You-Know-Who?"

"Voldemort," Harry corrected mildly. "Yes. Him and a bunch of Death Eaters."

Remus nodded. "And then you swore us to you and declared war on Dumbledore?"

"Yes."

"And…" he hesitated uneasily. "There were a bunch of compulsions in my mind?"

"Yes," this he said more grimly.

"Hm," Remus frowned. "Never mind. I don't think I dreamed at all."

Harry smiled a little. "Gabby." The elf arrived with a pop and a bow. "You may serve breakfast now."

With a snap of her fingers, the plates on the table were filled with food and the house elf vanished again.

For a little while, the only sound in the room was the clink of the dishes and the soft scrape of forks and knives on porcelain.

"Lucius," Harry said after a few minutes.

"Yes, my Lord?"

"Any progress on the Defense teacher?"

"I am narrowing down the options, my Lord."

Harry nodded. "I'll need your best candidates by the end of the week. We wouldn't want Albus to find someone first, would we?"

"No, my Lord."

The table fell into silence again for a little while. Ron went back to his book, reading while he ate. Hermione was slightly impressed by just how quickly he could shovel food into his mouth without losing his place, though she did wonder if he even knew what he was eating before it was in his mouth. Draco, she noticed, seemed to be trying hard to ignore Ron's less than refined eating habits.

The twins started whispering to each other after a while. Hermione couldn't make out what they were saying even sitting right next to them, but the two of them whispering like that made her instinctively wary. Merlin, she hoped that they didn't try to prank Harry. At least she was pretty sure that they'd taken the pretty eyes comment as coming from Luna. She did not need the two of them finding ways to embarrass her about it.

The meal was nearly finished when Harry suddenly laughed.

Everyone froze to look at him.

Harry's mirthful green eyes were focused on the twins. "Oh, I wouldn't recommend it," he advised.

They frowned and exchanged cautious looks. "Why not?" the one near her asked.

"I love you two like brothers," Harry informed them, "but I will not stop him from cursing you."

"But, Harry-"

"-you wouldn't let him-"

"-hurt your brothers!"

"Would you?"

They both did a passable imitation of pathetic puppy eyes.

Harry just smirked.

"I reckon he would…"

"Aye. Rotten brother, he is."

"Well, the two of you bring it on yourselves."

"What a horrible-"

"-thing to say!"

Harry was very obviously not chastened.

"Hm."

"I think he's set on that."

"He is."

Hermione didn't want to know how long they'd have gone on had they not abruptly lost their voices. She smiled slightly. She didn't understand Harry's new grasp of magic, but she did appreciate it when he did that.

The house elf that had evidently become Harry's personal elf cleared the table and then delivered the mail with a snap of her fingers. Ron got one letter. Lucius and Narcissa each got a small pile and a copy of the Daily Prophet between them. Draco got two letters. Remus and Severus got none. Hermione got one letter that she noticed warily was from her parents. Her copy of the Prophet was under it. Harry got a large stack, which he ignored in favor of the paper.

Hermione decided that the letter from her parents could wait until she had time alone. She wasn't sure what they'd have to say, but she guessed it would involve the last few headlines in the paper. She was pretty sure she was going to have to lie to them – or at least stretch the truth into unpleasant shapes – to keep them from freaking out. She couldn't very well say, "no, mum, I'm fine. Yes, my best friend is a murderer, but it's okay because he doesn't harm his minions?" She internally cringed and unfolded the paper.

Not surprisingly, the headline was about Lucius. There had been a special addition released yesterday afternoon that had had the basic story, but Lucius Malfoy turning out to have been a good guy all along was the kind of story they could run with all summer if not longer.

There was an actual transcript of the trial deeper in the paper, she found, and speculation about Harry and their involvement. She grimaced slightly when she saw the highly suggestive comments about Harry and Draco's "friendship". They were evidently trying to make it into some sort of grand romance. She hoped Harry wouldn't take offense to that.

"Narcissa," Harry's voice drew everyone's attention from their mail.

"Yes, my Lord?" It was still strange to hear Harry addressed that way, however accurate it was now.

"Set up an interview for me later in the week. After Lucius' interview. We can discuss our story tomorrow. Make them both with Skeeter if possible. She's controllable."

"As you wish, my Lord."

Harry set his paper aside and started flipping through the letters. His brow rose slightly at a couple of them, and then his eyes darkened and his fingers clenched, creasing the parchment. After a moment, he opened it, and Hermione caught a glimpse of the Hogwarts seal. She didn't think that she was the only one to notice it as the room grew rapidly very quiet while he read.

Harry's eyes turned red for the first time that morning and there was just a hint of his overwhelming magic in the air as he finished reading and very calmly tore it in half, fitted the halves together and tore it again. When there was nothing left of it but tiny shreds, he made a neat pile on the table in front of him and watched as it burst into flame and burn to ash within seconds. He then vanished the ash with a casual sweep of his hand, revealing an unmarked surface beneath.

He breathed a cleansing sort of sigh and banished the rest of the letters with a flick of his fingers before rising from his chair. He started toward the door, with just one word. "Severus."

The professor rose gracefully and followed Harry out of the silent room.

The silence was broken several seconds later by a huff from Ron. "Mum's demanding that Ginny and I come home," he directed at the twins. With a shrug, he stuffed the letter into his book and left in the direction of the library.

"Being minions is fun," the twin nearest Hermione declared cheekily.

She sneered at the pair of them and headed for the library herself. She'd have to talk to Severus later.

x_x…S_S...x_x

Severus was, he believed, appropriately wary when he followed Harry out of the dining hall. He seemed to be in a good mood this morning – and Severus was not going to speculate as to why – but he was pretty sure that letter he'd creatively demolished had been from Albus. And if there was one person who could put Harry into a killing rage, it was Albus Dumbledore. Well, Voldemort had done as well, but he was dead now, wasn't he?

Thus far, Severus had not seen Harry misdirect his anger onto any of them, but he wasn't foolish enough to let his guard down.

Harry led them into his sitting room and waved his hand at the door. Severus felt wards rise, silencing, locking, and repelling, he thought.

He remained silent while Harry paced to the window and stared out into the little courtyard for a few minutes. Finally, he took what sounded like a bracing breath, and turned back to Severus. His eyes, happily, were green. "I need you to check me for compulsions," he said soberly.

Severus restrained the urge to gulp. Considering how Harry had reacted to discovering compulsions on his friends… Well, he supposed there wasn't anything for it. Harry did need to be checked, and Severus was glad that Harry had brought it up before Severus had had to do it. He nodded and looked at the seating area. "Perhaps we should sit."

Harry gave a stiff nod and moved to sit on the edge of the chair while Severus took the near side of the sofa.

"I'll be as gentle as I can," Severus said cautiously when Harry hesitated. He didn't doubt for a moment that Harry was remembering their disastrous attempts at occlumency last year. He'd never thought to even look for compulsions then. Who would compel the Boy-Who-Lived? He was certain that Albus would have prevented that. But, of course, he hadn't assumed that the old man would be the one doing it to his precious Golden Boy. He'd never suspected that there might be a need. Harry had seemed the perfect little hero.

Harry nodded and took another breath before meeting Severus' eyes.

Severus thought it best not to hesitate and slipped into the unguarded mind as carefully as he was able. He felt Harry tense, but the young man didn't try to fight him.

Severus shivered uneasily as he got a look around the mind of his Lord. Harry's mind had been chaotic, disorganized, and tumultuous last year. Now, any of those descriptions would be far too mild. The boy's mind was… Chaos personified. Thoughts and feelings seemed to flit about at random, some occasionally taking hold and growing and building, only to vanish away into the maelstrom the next moment. There was a constant, blazing darkness of fury and agony, held at bay by an iron will of purpose and ambition enough to shame any Slytherin. And beneath it all, there was this lurking, impenetrable liquid abyss that he could not even begin to categorize. He'd never felt anything like it. Nothing that could compare at all. It felt of power and intent and malice. There were no true emotions there. Indeed, it was more like a void of emotion.

And Severus did not doubt for an instant that it was that abyss that they had glimpsed last night when his eyes had gone black.

It took an inordinately profound exertion of will for Severus to look away from that abyss, and he literally breathed a sigh of relief when he'd done so.

Harry conscious mind, he noted, when he was able to think clearly again, existed in a bubble of something like sanity that seemed utterly incongruous amidst the chaos. It did help to explain the boy's behavior though. The madness that would consume him was held at bay, but he was sure that it slipped slightly every now and then. He would most certainly be keeping that in mind for future dealings with the boy, though he wasn't sure he'd ever be able to look at him again without recalling that terrifying infinite abyss.

Finally, he was able to turn his attention to actually searching out compulsions. It took quite a bit longer than it should as he worked to search his way through the mess that was Harry's mind – being mindful to avoid that abyss at all costs. He felt certain that, should he touch that, his mind would never emerge.

His blood chilled as he found the ragged remains of a compulsion that had been crudely ripped free. And then another.

And another.

Sweet Merlin…

There were dozens. Severus highly suspected that they'd all been snapped simultaneously. And he was willing to bet that he knew exactly when that had happened.

Six days ago.

He couldn't tell if it was Voldemort's killing curse or Harry's own magic that had done it, but he suspected the latter. Given the way Harry had been acting when he'd arrived at the manor that night… It was very possible that it had just happened.

The strain on a mind from having that many compulsions removed simultaneously was enormous, particularly considering that some of them seemed to be nearly as old as Harry. The damage inflicted by crudely tearing them free rather than carefully severing them should have been enough to land him in St. Mungo's long term ward for the rest of his life.

The fact that Harry was still functioning, much less so well… Everything that Severus knew of the mind arts told him that it should be impossible.

Well, this was Harry. He made a habit of doing the impossible, didn't he?

Severus got as much information as he could from the remnants before withdrawing.

Harry lifted an eyebrow at him when Severus blinked. "How bad is it?" he asked knowingly. Severus didn't doubt that he'd expected it to be bad. Doubtlessly, that was why he'd waited to do this privately. The boy's capacity for good sense was something that Severus was still learning to accept after so many years of assuming that he had no such thing.

"It is… difficult to tell with a great deal of accuracy just how many compulsions there were," he admitted.

"Were." Harry didn't sound all that surprised by the past tense.

"Thirty," Severus offered. "Perhaps more."

Harry huffed a quiet sigh and nodded grimly. "What can you tell me about them?"

"The oldest were likely installed when you were about a year old. Quite a few were placed in your first year. More in your second, third, and fourth. There were a couple that were probably only a month or two old."

Harry slipped off his glasses and leaned forward, his head braced on one hand that shielded his eyes from Severus' sight. The magic that was radiating from the boy was not so easily concealed. Harry was, understandably, very angry. "What kind of compulsions?"

"I couldn't determine the specifics exceptionally well given the present condition of the remains. What I could tell… Loyalty to Albus. Pliancy. Timidity. Amiability, in general. Aversion to all things 'Dark' or 'Slytherin'," he didn't quite growl that last, but only because he was afraid of pushing Harry's tentative hold on his temper. "Distrust of and distaste for me, in particular, which I believe was installed in your first year. He asked me, when last we spoke, why you would trust me enough to allow me near you. I understand now why he was so surprised."

Harry nodded silently.

"Affection toward Sirius," Severus went on quietly. "Aversion to academia. Love of Quidditch. Loyalty to Gryffindor."

Severus couldn't prevent himself from twitching slightly when he felt the heat of Harry's anger fall rapidly into ice. He stiffened his spine to hold off a shiver as that abyss came to mind again.

"What else?" Harry's lifeless voice inquired.

Severus took a silent, bracing breath. "I cannot determine much more, but… One of the newest ones was a dormant affection for Ginevra – almost identical to the one she had toward you."

Harry stood swiftly and moved back to the window. Severus caught just a glimpse of black eyes as he did.

"Thank you, Severus. Inform Draco that I wish to see him."

"Yes, my Lord," Severus barely whispered, happily fleeing the room. He really hoped that Draco had some idea of what he'd gotten himself into.

x_x…H_P...x_x

I stared out the window at the bright, beautiful day for a long moment before I stepped outside. The door opened for me, and I honestly wasn't entirely sure if I'd done that or not. I didn't care. I turned my face toward the heat of the sun and let my eyes drift closed. The sun felt nice on my skin.

What Albus had done to me… It went beyond anything… everything… He'd made me into a puppet. Like Remus. We were both just tools to him. He'd molded us to fit his needs. No thought to the fact that we were human beings. In some ways, my situation was even worse than Remus'. The oldest of his compulsions began when he was eleven. He'd had eleven years to build his own personality, and when all the compulsions were gone, he could look back on that and try to figure out who he was supposed to be. Mine had started when I was one. So many modifications to my personality. Who would I have been if not for him?

Who was I? Who was I supposed to be?

I should be furious. I knew that I should be. I should be envisioning the slowest and most painful ways to repay Albus for his treachery.

I wasn't. I felt… nothing. Perhaps it was shock. Perhaps it was insanity. I felt numb. Inside and out.

"Harry?"

Draco.

I turned to face him. He looked at me with nothing more than concern.

"Are you okay?"

I truly had no idea. I didn't try to answer.

Draco flinched slightly, right in front of me now. I didn't know if he'd moved or I had. Perhaps I'd apparated. It didn't matter. I touched his face gently, ran my hand through his hair. His eyes fluttered closed. Merlin, he was beautiful.

I didn't realize that I meant to kiss him until our lips were pressed together. Gently. So carefully. As though I might break him. And maybe I would, if I forgot myself. But I wouldn't forget. I couldn't. Because I could feel him. In this moment, he was the only thing in the world that was real and tangible and important.

"I will be, Draco," I murmured, drawing him into my arms and burying my face in his neck. Yes. I would be okay. I knew that I would be. What Albus had done didn't matter. Who I might have been didn't matter. What mattered was now and tomorrow and the day after that. What mattered was Draco and Hermione and Ron and all the others that gave their loyalty to me. I would be okay and they would be okay. Albus would die and Voldemort would die as many times as necessary and the world could burn around us, but we would be okay. I would be okay because I had to be. They would be okay because I wouldn't let them be otherwise.

Everything was okay.

A/N: Thank you all for the lovely reviews! Please keep them coming, and do let me know how you're liking the story thus far.