To Lay A Dragon

All of the delectable characters belong to JK Rowling.

Chapter 14

A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed. Enjoy…

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It seemed to Harry that Draco and Lucian stood together talking for hours. In reality it had been less than an hour and if Harry had continued to stare throughout, he would have seen that others had joined Draco's tête-à-tête with Lucian, coming and going and speaking with the pair. In reality the two had not spent all that much time speaking to one another privately.

Nonetheless, when Harry returned with Ron and saw that Draco was no longer speaking with Lucian, but had joined another small group of players in the front room, he purposely ignored him.

Ron had returned to his brunette whom he had had to wrest from the clutches of one of the Avengers and Harry moved to speak with Luna. She prattled on much the same way she had her entire life; wise words scattered in between a host of ridiculous theories and notions and he heard not a word of it. Harry was too busy watching Draco out of the side of his eye.

Someone conjured a music box and people began dancing to the loud music shrieking from it. It wasn't long before he saw his godfather and Remus enter the room and move to where he stood listening to Luna.

'The older set sent me to ask you to turn the music down a bit. They are having trouble hearing one another,' Sirius said with a grin.

Harry grinned as well, not wanting to display any of the turmoil that had begun to build up within him again and signaled to where the music box was situated.

Sirius grabbed Remus' hand and moved toward the box, but stopped before they reached it and began dancing wildly to the music. Well Sirius was dancing alone at first while Remus stood laughing at him for a few moments, but eventually he too began to shake his bones to the rhythm.

Harry saw Charlie, Bill and Tonks enter the room and start dancing as well. A small wave of amusement washed over Harry at the thought of Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, along with the other older guests, pressing their hands to their ears and voicing disgust for leaving the job of cutting the sound to Sirius.

Harry was just about to suggest to Luna that they join the dancers when he felt someone tapping his shoulder.

Startled, Harry sloshed is fourth? Fifth? drink a bit as he turned to see who was demanding his attention.

Draco.

'Have you seen Blaise?' Draco yelled over the music.

Wrong question.

'He left,' Harry said in an altogether unfriendly tone.

'He did? That's odd; he didn't say a word to me all evening.'

Harry shrugged, 'ran off in a hurry. He looked like he had somewhere to go,' he added drolly.

Draco wrinkled his brow, 'very unlike Blaise.'

Harry began to feel a little anger at Draco's ignorance of his tone which clearly indicated he was displeased. 'Maybe he saw that you were occupied and didn't want to disturb you,' He said, heavy sarcasm in his tone.

Draco quickly met Harry's eyes, some mirth swimming in his, 'with Lucian? That wouldn't stop Blaise.'

Harry's expression was wry, 'well the two of you looked pretty involved in conversation.'

'Just talking over old times,' Draco said lightly, albeit loudly, still trying to speak over the sounds.

Harry raised and lowered his brows quickly.

Draco grinned broadly and leaned in to speak in Harry's ear, 'so do you want me to stay and help you re-arrange things after the party?'

Harry hadn't expected that at all. He looked sharply at Draco and he couldn't help the slow grin that tumbled about his lips. 'All right,' he replied, unable to think of anything else to say.

Draco smirked.

Harry frowned.

Draco laughed.

So, Harry kissed him, just a short thing as Draco's mouth was open with laughter at the time, but it did serve to shut the Slytherin up.

Harry smirked.

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The party finally wound up at about six o clock in the morning. The older set had left sometime before and Harry had seen Sirius and Remus slinking off upstairs around five o clock, their arms wrapped about each other and still looking wide awake. He had a feeling, however, that he wouldn't be seeing them again until the next day.

Ron and managed to convince the brunette to leave with him a little before six and the last of the party goers left shortly after, leaving quite a mess behind. Nicolas had left a bit earlier, but he had stopped to tell Harry that he would like for him to come to Azkaban the next evening at six o clock. Harry had been a bit surprised at the request, but Nicolas indicated that he was gathering a number of people together for a small conference dealing with the case.

Harry had agreed to go, but it left him in wonder. A thought struck him once everyone had left and he turned to Draco who was gathering up cups with his wand and sending them to a trash bin.

'Did Nicolas mention anything about a meeting to you?' he inquired.

Draco looked up from his chore, 'yeah he did. He said that he was putting together some kind of conference tomorrow at Azkaban of all places and asked if I would come.'

'Are you going?'

'Are you?'

Harry nodded.

'I suppose I am,' Draco said.

'I wonder what it is about?'

'Who knows. Maybe they are going to add a few years onto my father's already long sentence.'

Harry frowned, 'I think they meant the poison chocolate case, not your case.'

Draco shrugged, 'same answer.'

Harry pulled a face, 'you think your father was involved?'

Draco grinned, 'not really, but you never know; he hates Snape.'

'Guess we'll find out tomorrow,' Harry murmured as he started shifting furniture back into place with his wand.

'Don't you have house elves to do this sort of thing?' Draco inquired a bit arrogantly.

'Ubin is sleep; well, more like passed out.'

Draco laughed, 'your house elf was drinking?'

'And dancing, didn't you see him?'

Draco continued to laugh, 'no, but then again, they are rather short.'

Harry inclined his head, 'he always parties with us here. I straighten up; I kind of thought you knew that since you offered to help.'

'That was mere pretext.'

Harry's head shot up, 'oh really?'

Draco smirked, 'you don't really believe I stayed to play house elf, do you?'

Harry grinned, 'well I had thought perhaps you had other reasons…'

'Perhaps I did.'

Harry met Draco's eyes and the two stared in silence for a moment, broken by Harry whose trademark wide grin had once again spread across his features, 'Can I top?'

A slow grin began forming along Draco's lips, 'why not.'

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Harry was straddled over Draco's legs on the bed in his master bedroom, using his wand to undo the buttons of Draco's shirt.

'I haven't been on this side of the equation for a while so…' Draco said.

Harry grinned, 'just relax; at first there is pain, but later the feeling is just incomparable!'

Draco burst out laughing, something that was quite rare for the Slytherin. But hearing his own words coming back at him struck him as inordinately funny.

'Just relax,' Harry repeated on a whisper as he sunk his lips against the expanse of skin the open shirt had revealed.

Draco moaned and placed his hands on Harry's shoulders.

'This won't hurt at all,' Harry murmured as he made his way downward.

From the next sound Draco issued, it appeared that Harry was right.

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Severus Snape sat alone in the Azkaban conference room when Sirius and Remus entered. The room was barren except for a long table that nearly met the end of the room on either side and a series of chairs that had been set around it.

'Snivellous!' Sirius declared as he entered the room.

Snape's scowl darkened tremendously and his black eyes began to glitter, 'look what the trash workers left behind,' he responded scathingly.

Sirius and Remus sat down across from Snape at the table. Remus stared down at the darkened oak of the table and seemed to fall into private contemplation. Sirius however never took his eyes from his nemesis.

'So,' Sirius taunted, 'how's Azkaban treating you?'

Snape's eyes snapped, 'I would say much better than it treated your black hide. As you can see, I haven't gone insane, which is more than can be said for you.'

Sirius laughed, 'about time they boxed you up; you were always a creepy, sniveling, greasy git; I knew you'd end up with your ass locked in a cell.'

Snape smirked, 'ah, but one day I will be released; and vermin like you won't be too happy about it.' Snape's expression became threatening, 'and that is a promise, Black.'

'Are you threatening me you little piece of-'

'STOP IT!' Remus cried suddenly, looking from one to the other, 'you two sound like you are eleven years old again; babies at Hogwarts. There may be no love lost between all of us, but that is no reason we have to sit here and act like children!'

Sirius looked at him with an expression bordering on mulish, 'he started it.'

Remus narrowed his eyes, 'no he didn't.'

'He called us trash!' Sirius exclaimed, looking at Remus as if he were the biggest traitor to have ever stepped foot on the earth.

'You called him Snivellous.'

'But that is his name!'

Remus rolled his eyes, 'I am just not in the mood for it tonight, Sirius, please just stop.'

Sirius crossed his arms over his chest and sat back in his chair fuming.

'You are acting childish,' Remus admonished.

'He can't help it, he is a child,' Snape muttered, 'and he is lucky that he has a little lapdog to watch over him or he would likely end up dead…once again.'

Sirius arose abruptly from his seat, clearly intending to use his fists instead of words, but Remus shoved him back down.

'Leave it, Sirius, he isn't worth it,' Remus said tiredly.

'Finally, someone to control the buffoon,' Snape remarked.

Sirius lunged against Remus' hold.

Remus looked at Snape, anger shooting from his eyes, 'you aren't acting any better. Just leave it; let's all just be quiet.'

'I don't follow the orders of werewolves posing as humans,' Snape replied evilly.

'I'll fucking kill you for that!' Sirius barked.

More restraint was required of Remus as his boyfriend jetted from his seat again.

'You just can't let it go, can you?' Remus said to Snape.

Snape scoffed at him 'it is a little difficult to do when one is faced with a person who tried to murder him at sixteen…and who, with his consort, recently tried again and failed.'

Remus looked at Snape and his tone when he spoke was as pragmatic as Harry's had become, 'you know, Sirius told you how to stop the movement of the Whomping Willow when we were younger, but it was you who decided to follow his advice and do so, and then walk into the tunnel. You knew the place was supposedly haunted which likely meant some danger for you; I would suggest it was as much your fault as his, so why don't you just let it go?'

Snape smirked, 'you fools! The truth is, I was far more intelligent than you gave me credit for back then. I had watched you traveling into the shack on the full moons and I had already worked out myself that you were a foul werewolf!'

Sirius' eyes grew wide, 'oh my god, you were a bigger moron than I gave you credit for. You knew Remus was a werewolf and you went in anyway?'

Snape's dark eyes snapped at Sirius, 'I was verifying my belief that the school was allowing a werewolf to endanger all of us. If Dumbledore hadn't illicited that promise from me in the way he did, I would have seen you all expelled and the creature put down.'

Sirius lurched forward again, but Remus knocked him back.

'So you see, your little plot to kill me didn't work,' Snape finished bitterly.

'Because James saved your stupid ass; I'd of let you get bitten! Would have served you right for being a damned nosey git; not to mention a complete imbecil!

'Bitten,' Snape sneered, 'you hoped I would be killed!'

Sirius' eyes took on a dangerous gleam, 'so that was my plan was it? I suppose I knew you would follow the advice of your sworn enemy, eh?'

'You hoped I would,' Snape retorted.

'I suppose I should have realized that an ignorant berk like you might.'

'You wanted me dead!' Snape snarled.

Sirius shrugged, 'fine by me if you wish to believe that. Actually, I rather like thinking that I might have tried to kill you and rid the world of a bit of scum. Would have been quite perspicacious of me.'

'And you and,' he looked at Remus with disgust, 'this creature tried again with this chocolate business.'

Sirius' grinned evilly, 'I really wish I could take full credit for all of it; oh what joy if you'd of died back then! And I truly worship whoever tried to dispose of you with the chocolates.' he snapped.

'I am certain they have wine here,' Remus cut across the conversation loudly, unexpectedly, and then waved his hand. A goblet appeared in his hand and he set it in front of Sirius. 'Drink!' he commanded.

Sirius looked at Remus a little angrily, but then his face softened and he reached for the glass, 'conjure that idiot a little poison will you?'

'Drink!' Remus demanded again. He turned to looked at Snape, 'we didn't try to kill you with the chocolates, Severus. As I said, there is little regard between all of us and I believe it is impossible for that to ever change. It would be best if we simply ignore one another for the rest of our lives.'

'That would suit me just fine,' Severus replied, turning away.

A simmering silence pervaded the room and was broken when the door snapped open a few moments later and several Aurors arrived.

'Looks like we made it before a battle broke out,' quipped one of the Aurors. His co-workers sniggered as they sat in chairs about the table. 'We were hoping for a knock down, drag out fight…we were watching on the monitor.'

'Very professional of you,' Remus said haughtily.

'We don't get much in the way of entertainment,' the Auror replied.

Both Sirius and Severus looked at the Aurors with disgust; it was evident that they both felt more hatred for the Aurors in that moment than one another. Their grudge, they felt, might be old and childish, but they'd be damned if anyone was going to make entertainment out of them.

The room filled up quickly then; the back door opened and Crabbe, Goyle, Mrs. Pettigrew and Lucius entered and sat down in chairs about the table. The front door opened shortly after and Nicolas walked in.

Nicolas smiled at all of those gathered, 'ah good, we are all,' he stopped and looked around, 'oh, there are a few people still missing.' He walked to the head of the table and stood. 'Hopefully they will be along any time now.'

As if his words were prophecy, the door opened once more to reveal Ginny and Mr. Weasley and just behind them Harry and Draco.

Draco looked at his father as he entered the room, a man he'd not seen for over a decade and their eyes were glued to one another for a moment. Then Lucius turned from his son and set his eyes on Nicolas.

Draco didn't react, at least not outwardly and Harry who had been standing next to him, gave his arm a little squeeze. They moved to two empty chairs next to one another and looked up at Nicolas.

'That is everyone I believe; we can begin,' Nicolas said jovially.

'The monitor is still on,' one of the Aurors commented.

'Thank you,' Nicolas responded and then he looked around the room and began quietly speaking again, 'this case has been very convoluted and tricky. Mr. Snape received a box of chocolates from Mr. Draco Malfoy,' he nodded at each of them. 'There was no poison in them at that point. Mr. Draco Malfoy also gave chocolates to Misters Crabbe and Goyle.

The latter two were able to switch two of those chocolates with two of Mr. Snape's chocolates and-'

'What?' Snape cried angrily.

'Yes, I am afraid that during the big to-do you had here in the prison the other day, your chocolates were left unguarded and they effected the change without your knowing.'

Snape looked murderously at the lads.

'You shouldn't be selfish with your chocolates, Professor!' Crabbe said a little evilly.

'However,' Nicolas said loudly to forestall any conversation, 'the chocolates they had did not contain any poison either. But as we know, when Mr. Snape passed the chocolates on to Miss Weasley, they did indeed have poison in them.'

Snape sat up in his seat, 'I did not poison the chocolates!'

'Of course you did,' Sirius said at once.

'Please!' Nicolas said, holding up a hand, 'if I may continue. As many are aware, Mr. Lucius Malfoy has little love for Mr. Snape.'

'If you are going to try to hang this on me, I'll-' began Lucius.

'Please, Mr. Malfoy, I am not hanging anything on you at all.'

'You had better not be if you know what is good for you!'

'Right,' Nicolas said abruptly, 'well I thought perhaps Mr. Lucius Malfoy may have wished to send Mr. Snape off to the wizard after-world a little early; however Mr. Malfoy lacked certain requirements of being a suspect. He had a motive, but no opportunity and no way of adding poison to the chocolates.'

Lucius nodded his head curtly and crossed his arms over his chest.

'The only time the chocolates were left unattended were when the fracas broke out here at the prison. I investigated the circumstances of that event and that is what led to my discovery of how this criminal act was achieved.'

'By that flea ridden dog and grimy werewolf; they have had it in for me for years,' Snape muttered.

'As a matter of fact, the poison was brought to the prison by Sirius Black and Remus Lupin,' Nicolas declared.

'I knew it!' Snape declared, his eyes alight and sparkling.

'What?' Sirius said angrily, looking quickly at Remus.

Remus flushed, his eyes trained on Nicolas.

'If you would all stop interrupting please,' Nicolas said a little wearily, 'brought to the prison by them, but not used by them.'

'Still, they would have only brought poison to the prison with the intention of killing me!' Snape declared.

'Please, Mr. Snape,' Nicolas sighed, 'they brought it along quite innocently in the form of a gift which they gave to Mrs. Pettigrew.'

All eyes went wide as heads turned in the direction of the older lady who sat staring at Nicolas in astonishment.'

'Yes. While I was looking around your cell I saw an object,' he looked to the Aurors and a small muggle knick-knack was handed over. 'As you see, this is a muggle item. The little scene you see inside this clear casing has a gelatinous substance about it. When you turn it over, as you can see, little white particles flow to the top. When I set it upright again, the little particles fall slowly downward, making it appear as if snow is falling over the scene.'

Nicolas looked at Mrs. Pettigrew, 'the gelatinous substance that causes the snow to fall slowly is the same substance that was used on the chocolates and it is poisonous if ingested.'

Mrs. Pettigrew gasped, 'my god! But how did someone get into my cell to get the substance?'

'No one did, Mrs. Pettigrew,' Nicolas said solemnly, 'you siphoned out a bit of the poison yourself and placed it on the chocolates.'

Nicolas shook the little clear case hard over the table and minute amounts of the substance dripped onto the table.

'You made a whole just big enough to retrieve some of the gel, but small enough so no one would notice.'

There was a universal gasp in the room.

'I did no such thing!' declared Mrs. Pettigrew, 'why ever would I do that? It makes no sense! How would I know it was poison? I know nothing about poisons!'

'She wouldn't do that!' Sirius concurred.

'I beg to differ. She did do that and you do know quite a bit about poisons. I have checked your library record and you have been studying the subject for some time.'

'I – I would never poison anyone!' Mrs. Pettigrew declared, clearly incensed.

'What reason would she have for wanting to kill Severus Snape?' Harry interjected.

'Because,' Nicolas continued, 'she is in love with Severus Snape and jealous of what she thought was a relationship budding between he and Miss Weasley.'

Another universal gasp.

'Why I never! I am NOT in love with Severus Snape. I have barely spoken to the man!' Mrs. Pettigrew's face was red with rage.

Snape was regarding Mrs. Pettigrew with a wary eye.

'Mr. Snape? Would you like to add anything?' asked Nicolas.

Mrs. Pettigrew turned to face Snape.

Snape looked at her a moment and then turned his gaze upon Nicolas, his eyes speculative. He sighed, 'it is true. She admitted as much to me.'

Mrs. Pettigrew yelped as she lowered her head in her hands, 'how could you Serverus? How could you!'

Remus looked at Mrs. Pettigrew in shock.

Sirius looked as though he might puke, 'you were in love with that-'

'Thank you Mr. Snape,' Nicolas cut in, 'as you can see, the game is up Mrs. Pettigrew. When the boys ran into you outside of Snape's cell, you were not going to the library. You were coming from the recreation room and you were going into Mr. Snape's cell to poison the chocolates. Chocolates that you knew he would not eat, but would give to Miss Weasley.'

Ginny gapped and Mr. Weasley slammed a hand on the table, 'of all the-'

'Please Mr. Weasley, they haven't given us very long here. I am almost finished.'

Mrs. Pettigrew began nodding her head in her hands.

'The woman having a fit in the hallway,' Nicolas continued, 'you had just left her in the recreation room; she was your first victim. You gave her a nice piece of left over cake from dinner and watched her eat it, then you led her talking to the entrance to the passage way. You hoped she would not recover, but she has and she explained to me what had happened to her.'

'Lies! All lies!' cried Mrs. Pettigrew, 'first they blame me for being in league with poor Peter and now this!'

'Poor Peter? But you said-' Sirius began, outrage in his voice.

'Sirius!' Nicolas cut him off, 'I have about five minutes, please let me finish. After that, you waited until you heard the Auror through the door indicate that Snape had a visitor and since the woman's convulsions hadn't begun, you shoved the poor woman to the floor. She screamed out and shortly thereafter began having the convulsions you hoped for. You waited only long enough for Mr. Snape to come into the hall and then continued to Mr. Snape's cell.'

'How did she know Snape would have a visitor right then?' Harry asked

'She timed it well; Snape's regular visitor comes at the same time everyday,' Nicolas declared.

Ginny blushed.

'And Mrs. Pettigrew here took her chances that Miss Weasley would arrive on time as usual.'

'Mrs. Pettigrew stopped her in-hand weeping and suddenly looked up. Her wailing, her eyes trained on Snape, 'y-you no sh-she is not ri-right for you! Sh-she is too young! You and I love bo-books! WE ARE MEANT TO B-BE!' she wailed.

There was disgust upon every face in the room.

One of the Aurors stood, 'I think we have heard enough,' he turned to Nicolas, 'thank you detective.' He faced the group again, 'Severus Snape, for your admission during this session and the information you gave us at the time of your incarceration, the Ministry regulation force us to remove time for your sentence and that time exceeds the amount of time that you have remaining. Thus, you are now a free man.'

Snape gapped at the man.

'You can thank Mr. Benet here for bringing that to the Ministries attention; we'll explain it all at the desk. We will send everything from your cell along, merely indicate a direction.' He turned to face the guilty party, 'Mrs. Pettigrew, for your additional crime, you will have to make another court appearance. We are finished here. Session dismissed!'

Everyone stood at once and the prisoners moved back toward their cells, the others left the room.

Snape smirked as he passed by Sirius and Remus who were speaking with Nicolas as they slowly made their way out of the room.

Sirius looked at Snape, his eyes unfathomable.

'Don't worry, Black,' Snape remarked snidely, 'I have no intention of keeping my promise. I've been here too long already and have no notion of returning. Frankly, even you are not worth it.'

Sirius said nothing; he merely watched Snape move ahead of them down the hall.

'Well that was a surprise,' Remus remarked.

Sirius turned to face him, his brows raised slightly.

'I'd of expected a cutting remark from you.'

'I realized something,' Sirius said slowly.

Remus did the brow raise this time.

'The man likely has no where to go.'

Remus' eyes widened, 'and you care? Don't tell me you care.'

'No I don't. But his leaving reminded me of…my own. I didn't have anywhere to go either; only a destination.'

Remus' eyes filled up at the reminder of his ancient distrust of one of the people who among other things, had been one of his best friends his entire life. He regretted terribly that he had not been there for Sirius.

Sirius laughed and hugged him. 'Remy, don't even start. You know in your heart if I had come to you…that is, if you weren't at Hogwarts and I had come to you, you would have listened to me. You would have taken me in.'

Remus nodded.

Nicolas chuckled, 'well I will leave you love birds now. I must go to my own nest.'

Sirius and Remus shook his hand and watched him move to speak briefly to Harry and Draco before moving down the hall.

'Let's offer Snape the cabin,' Remus said suddenly, 'we never use it, it has nothing personal of ours in it.'

'Our cabin up north?'

'Yes, the one we went to a month ago that we hadn't visited in five years – and won't likely visit for another five!'

Sirius laughed, 'he would spit in our faces.' His eyes narrowed and his voice grew terse, 'and he doesn't deserve it – not after all he did! And besides, I can feel pity for the greasy git without having to do anything about it.'

But then Remy met his eyes and Sirius saw way too many emotions in them; all readable, and all soaring straight to his heart.

'Oh all right. But you go offer and I have nothing to do with it. Besides, I don't feel like having greasy-git spit on my face tonight.'

Remus smiled a little at that and moved down the hall. He saw Sirius move to speak with Harry, Draco, Mr. Weasley and Ginny as he made his way to the Auror offices. Snape was still there as he expected he would be, arguing with the Aurors about holding his things for a day or two.

'Severus,' Remus said quietly.

Snape turned and scowled when he saw Lupin before him.

'Severus, Sirius and I would like to offer you the use of a cabin if you need it for…for a while.'

Snape's eyes narrowed, 'now why would you want to do that?'

'It is up to you. It is in the North; you can check it for traps and such before you enter, I know you are good at that. It is not that kind of offer, it is a sincere one. If you want to stay there you may.'

Snape looked at Remus and spat nastily, 'I don't trust either of you.'

'I know,' Remus said in his soft tone, 'it is up to you.' Remus walked to the edge of the desk where a scroll and quill sat for office use. He wrote information on it and then handed the scroll to Snape.

'Up to you,' Remus repeated and without another word he turned and headed back down the hallway.

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More to come…