THE FRIENDSHIP OF RIVALRY

Notes:

Disclaimer - I do not own the setting of Harry Potter or any of the characters; those are the property of J.K. Rowling. I have however added a few new names, given that this story is centered on the time after Harry and Draco have graduated. The plot is entirely mine.

This story is a male x male slash so please don't read it if you don't like to read these types of fanfics. For those who do not know, male x male slash is when the story is told around the relationship of two boys or guys, meaning this is a gay fanfic settled around the main characters of the story.

Key:

"Thoughts"/"Telepathy"

"Speech"

~Parseltongue~

-"flashback"-

Chapter 25: Don't touch the fur (Remus)

At first, he heard, felt and saw nothing. But the memories of what happened calmed him and he forced himself to stay as still as possible. He still heard nothing, but the smell of the place alerted him to a fact that they were in a place that wasn't visited often, if even at all.

He still couldn't move his body and he knew that he probably wouldn't be able to move it for another hour. Remus just hoped that the students did not intend to torture him while he is still unable to move. Voices reached him and he stayed deathly still. The door opened and Wayne stepped in, at least from what Remus could tell by his smell.

"The wolf hasn't moved at all, that's good. According to the place I got the stuff from, it will knock him out for about a week. That will allow us more than enough time to wait for Potter to appear and as an added bonus the wolf will be extremely weak after not eating or drinking anything for that long, which will make him easy to kill without him fighting back if he doesn't join us."

The boy moved over to him and he fought the instinct to growl. "It would have been nice to have another slave, but we need comrades instead. Oh well, we'll have Potter for that. I'm very sure that Draco will allow us to play with his toy as well after we've helped him." Moony growled inside his. As if Draco would really do that to Harry.

"But Draco looked really happy having him for himself even though Potter ruined his life as well. He doesn't even know that we're doing this so shouldn't we inform him and get him on our side first?" Remus relaxed. If they contact Draco, he might be able to capture them, but they seemed to be extremely delusional.

The Hufflepuff spoke again. "We can't tell him unless we get him out from whatever potion or spell that Potter has him under if he is being influenced by something. He is our prince and we are obligated to help him. Potter not only ruined our families, but he also did something to Draco and that is why we are luring him here. He will try to save his Godfather and I'm sure that killing or fake-killing Professor Lupin in front of him will break him. Then we can force him to tell us the spell before we break him even further. We will give him to Draco as a slave since he had wronged our prince the most."

Hurried footsteps neared the room before what sounded to be a girl stood in the doorway. "My cover has been blown. Malfoy and Harry came into the Gryffindor common room and taught the group I was in, a lesson. I barely escaped with the portkey. It seems the wards around Hogwarts really are practically useless now. It seems like Malfoy is turning Harry dark enough to turn on his own house. I can't wait to have him as mine."

As soon as the woman said that, Remus heard the sound of a big gust of wind before a loud thud hit the other side of the wall and an angry Hufflepuff lost his patience. "Potter will never be yours, you useless woman. That privilege belongs to Draco. You've proven yet again that you are too useless to do anything right, but I will give you one last chance. Guard the wolf even though he won't be waking up for another four days. I am going to go have a talk with my father about what has happened."

With that, the three boys left. He could feel the woman look at him, but instead of staying, she stormed out and shut the door. It seemed like she would be guarding him from outside. He opened his eyes and looked around the room before grinning evilly to himself. They really couldn't have chosen a worse place to keep a werewolf.

Moony whined and Remus wondered why it sounded like he was in pain. A splitting pain suddenly shot up through his spine and he looked down to see his hands turning into paws, but after the splitting pain, he was suddenly shifting into his wolf form easier than ever. He didn't feel any other pain and he felt elated. The only problem was that it wasn't full moon yet.

The sound of a door opening drew his attention and he saw the woman entering before she screamed. His mind screamed out a stupefy and he was shocked to see that it actually worked as she hit the floor out cold. He couldn't really process it and his wolf shouted for him to run since the girl's scream must have alerted the others.

He paused to try and figure out whether he should jump out the window that seemed to be laced with silver, or if he should just quickly make his way to the front door. "Sectumsempra!" He jumped at the sound of someone shouting a spell and fortunately, it mostly missed him, or so he thought. Moony let out a loud roar and attacked the boy without a second thought, luckily the boy stepped back and tripped over a piece of the rug before falling down and hitting his head. Remus realized that the boy was out cold and so he left him. He really didn't want to be a murderer. He started seeing black spots as he looked to where the curse hit him.

Slashes had opened up all over his body and his legs. His body shook as he collapsed and he struggled to look up as Wayne and his last friend came into the room with their wands pointed at him. "Oh Professor, I didn't know werewolves could shift outside the moon-cycle. I would have loved to run a few experiments to find out why, but it seems like you are going to die since the only one who knows the counter-curse is Professor Snape and he's back at Hogwarts."

Remus saw his vision dim as his blood poured out of him. It really was ironic that Severus' spell would kill him after they just made up. The boy sneered and lifted his wand. "Cruc…" Remus waited for the pain, but instead, he heard a deeper voice shout a few spells. "Expelliarmis, Stupefy, Immobulus." He tried to open his eyes, but they grew heavy as footsteps rushed towards him. He heard a softly whispered spell, but couldn't make out what it was as his wounds closed.

Another spell forced him to turn back into his human form and a second later a potion was forced past his lips. He almost gagged at the taste of the blood-replenishing potion but swallowed it none the less. Remus forced his eyes open and he almost flinched at the mix of anger and relief that he saw in Severus' face. A hissing sound drew his attention to the miniature basilisk that was currently draped around the man's neck.

His body finally realized that he was safe and he closed his eyes in order to sleep, but Severus forced him awake. "You have a concussion, please stay awake. Blaine, contact Harry and tell him where we are. He will be able to find us through your bond. Ask him to bring the Aurors as well." The snake nodded and set about his task.

Severus turned his attention back to him. "The strategic part of me applauds your way of thinking, but the other side of me currently wants to kill you and then revive you before locking you in a room where nobody can ever harm you again." Remus flinched. He did enjoy the possessive sound in Severus' voice, but getting locked up in a room would drive him insane. He understood that Severus was angry, but he didn't expect him to be this angry.

Severus' face softened a bit and he easily picked up the wolf even though he protested. "Don't bother with trying to change my mind. You are hurt and I need to get you back to the castle. From now on you will be sleeping in my rooms even if I have to transfigure another bed in the spare room for myself." Remus looked to the side as he heard the sound of multiple apparitions. Harry immediately ran up to them, followed by Draco. The Aurors moved to secure the four teens.

"Severus, Remus! Are you okay?" They stopped in front of them but Remus could see that as much as Harry wanted to hug him, he knew it wasn't safe until Remus had been checked out by Madam Pomfrey…eh, Poppy. He smiled at him. "I'm alright, just give me a bed and a night's rest and then I will take those classes off your hands tomorrow." He barely finished the words before three glares turned his way.

Harry spoke first. "If you think that we will allow you back to work before two weeks are over then you must have been injured more than we thought." Severus nodded before he spoke. "That is why he will be sleeping in my quarters so that I can keep an eye on him. I will take over his classes in the meantime."

Draco and Harry's glares turned to the potions master much to Remus' surprise. Draco put his hands on his hips and glared at his Godfather. "You're not off the hook either Sev. What's with you running off like a bloody Gryffindor?" Twin 'hey's' followed his words but he ignored both Harry and Remus. "We all know that you are powerful, why did you have to try and prove it by going after Remus alone. We could have helped you and yet you confined us to the castle with a vow. If you ever do that again I promise I will break that vow and come after you even if it kills me to do so."

Severus glared at Draco when he replied. "Who is acting like the bloody Gryffindor now?" But before he could say something further, Harry yanked the blonde around to face him and Remus could see the blonde gulp as he saw the anger in Harry's eyes. "If you dare to even think that again I will lock you away in a room where only I can find you and where you can't find a reason for hurting yourself!"

A second or two passed where everyone was deathly silent before Remus and Severus actually burst into laughter. Both Draco and Harry were silent since they had never ever seen Severus laugh and it was shocking how it transformed his face. Harry then looked at them. "I didn't realize that I was making a joke."

Remus waved it off. "It's just that you said something that someone else kind of mentioned. Can we go back now? I want to get that check-up done so that I can actually have something other than a potion-induced coma." The other three looked at him blankly and he rolled his eyes. "I want to sleep! Such a transformation takes a lot out of you, you know."

Harry and Draco gaped at him. "You transformed without a full moon? How did you do that?" Remus just shrugged, but Blaine hissed and Harry paled. Remus could feel the apprehension running through Harry's veins and as soon as they made sure that the Aurors had everyone, they apparated.

They entered Severus' rooms after Remus was declared completely healthy by Poppy and Remus saw Harry giving Draco a meaningful look which caused the boy to also become pale. Severus saw this as well and he ordered the two to sit down, which they did without any fight.

Harry looked guiltily at Remus, but he received a small smile in return. "Harry, please tell me what happened to enable this? I don't feel the threat of the moon anymore even though I still have my senses. What did you do?" Harry looked slightly scared and that scared Remus and Severus even more. "I uhm, it was nothing, it was an accident. I was stupid and didn't take everything into account and…" His speech was interrupted when Draco hugged him.

Now Remus actually felt dread crawl in his stomach. "Harry you know you can tell me anything. Please, you're scaring me and probably Severus too, even if he won't admit it." The man in question glared at Remus, but he sighed and nodded at Harry. Harry looked at the blonde and Draco nodded as well, which caused Harry to sigh and slowly look up at them.

"In my second year, I faced Voldemort's Horcrux. He used Ginny's life-force to come back and she was almost gone. Long story short, he forced Slytherin's monster to attack me, which just happened to be a basilisk and during the fight, it stabbed me with a fang while I stabbed it with Gryffindor's sword. Fawkes healed it before I could die and that's why I have basilisk venom and phoenix tears running around in my veins."

Severus and Remus looked slightly sick at the thought of a 12-year-old boy being attacked by a basilisk, but it still didn't explain things so they kept that rant for later. Harry paused, but Draco took his hand and squeezed it, much to the secret relief of the two Godfathers who knew that the two men had been pining after one another.

Harry slightly gulped then spoke further as he looked at Remus. "As you know, Draco and I went undercover as first years and we came to you on the night of your transformation." Both Severus and Remus stiffened slightly as they realized that they might know what happened, but Remus was puzzled since Harry hadn't been injured at all.

"Well, I wanted Draco to stay outside the shack since I have helped Moony numerous times before, but unfortunately I kind of…uhm…I didn't calculate the fact that I was in an 11-year-old's body and Moony kind of sideswiped me since he probably didn't know that it was me." A cross between a growl and a whine left Moony's lips and he jumped up.

Harry could see that Moony was out and so he allowed the wolf to check him over for injuries. Severus and Draco seemed to instinctively know that they shouldn't interfere. When Moony was satisfied that his cub was fine, Remus' eyes returned to normal and he practically crushed Harry in a hug.

"Please Remus, I know this is hard and it wasn't your fault. I should have alerted you to the fact that it was me and not some intruder." The wolf nodded and reluctantly let him go before they sank down in their seats again. Severus automatically grabbed Remus closer and both Harry and Draco had to fight to stop themselves from grinning. It was clear that Severus didn't even realize what he was doing.

They all returned their attention to Harry. "Where was I? Oh yes. Draco stopped you with his merged form and he helped me. He cast a diagnostics spell and when he saw that the werewolf venom wasn't acting like it usually would, he realized that only dragon's blood or basilisk venom could counter it, yet both are deadly on their own as well. So the basilisk venom in my blood stopped the transformation, but Blaine mentioned earlier that he smelled basilisk venom and phoenix tears in your blood as well."

The potions master looked at Remus as realization dawned on his face and Harry nodded. "Yes, when Remus scratched me open, some of my blood must have mixed in with the wounds he already had on his hands since he had been clawing to get out of the room. The basilisk venom must have neutralized the werewolf venom and the phoenix tears kept the basilisk venom from killing him. I think that Remus will only have a wolf Animagus form now, even if it will be a much larger than average wolf."

No one but Remus dared to speak as the realization sunk in. "I have never been able to have an Animagus form since my wolf took up that space. Are you telling me that I could shift into a wolf now and it would only be an Animagus?" Harry nodded, but he cautioned him as well. "Yes but Moony might not be completely gone."

Remus shrugged. "Moony and I have made peace long ago and the only trouble was the forced full moon transformations." Harry smiled and motioned for him to continue, which caused Severus to glare at him. "I do not think Remus should attempt it tonight. It would be better if he rested first." This caused Remus to shake his head and smile.

"It seems that we both got lucky eh Harry? It's just creepy that they're both Slytherins." Harry and Remus laughed at the affronted looks on Draco and Severus' faced before Remus concentrated and shifted into his Animagus form. He was a beautiful rust colored wolf with random markings on his fur. He quickly changed back with a huge smile, but he turned towards Severus first.

"How did you know that you could use the spell to take me out of that form?" Severus frowned. "I didn't know that it was you since you looked different from your usual werewolf form and it was outside the full moon cycle. I thought someone else was also kidnapped and that my spell had been cast on them. They were in an animal form so I cast the spell to see who it is. I was shocked when I saw that it was you."

Severus then faced Harry. "You really are either very lucky or very unlucky. You just cured Remus of his curse." He then turned to Draco. "You will be showing me this merged form of yours so that I can be certain that it doesn't harm you." Draco nodded. He seemed too shocked to do anything else.

There was a knock on the door and Harry opened it. He was very surprised to see Tonks. She grimly smiled at him. "Hi Harry, I know that you and Malfoy aren't Aurors anymore, but I need your help. We interrogated the prisoners and it seems like there is an entire family out to get you. We need the two of you on the job immediately. The one boy also spoke about some kind of important book that you have, please bring that along since it will serve as bait. They are all in one place at the moment so we have to strike within an hour or two." She left and Harry and Draco stared at each other. Was this ever going to end?

Thank you for reading.

I am currently busy with a one-shot, so please tell me…Harry, Draco, and Severus or just Harry and Draco?