The World's Gone Crazy . . .
By Allanasha Ke Kiri

Chapter 37

James woke up the next morning, surprised to find himself uneven and against something warm. Frowning, he opened his eyes. He blinked several times upon seeing who he was in bed with. Draco.

Why is Draco in my bed?

Slowly, he sat up, putting his weight on his elbows as he looked down at the still sleeping blond. Shifting once more, James raised a hand to brush Draco's hair away from his face. His hand froze a moment later as everything from the night before came back.

The 'attack', the 'deal', spying . . . asking Draco to stay.

He barely managed to bite back the curse that was immediately on his lips. Silently, he rolled away from Draco, intent on leaving the room to get himself under control, but a hand on his arm had him stopping.

"Yeah, Draco?" he asked, turning back.

"You okay?"

James nodded slowly. "I will be."

"What was wrong?"

James sighed. "I . . . I can't tell you."

Draco scooted across the bed so that he was next to James and wrapped his arms around him.

"Couldn't have been good. The only other time I've seen you cry was after you thought you'd somehow caused the attack on my family. Which could have only been possible if you were with Dumbledore."

James couldn't help but stiffen.

"James?"

"Sorry, it's just the thought of joining him is . . . unthinkable."

Except I have to think about it, don't I?

"Tell me about it," Draco agreed. "It's not right, what he does. And everyone that joins him is just as bad."

James froze for just a moment before he forced himself to face the other. "What . . . what about those who are forced to join him?"

Draco frowned. "Forced to join him?"

"You know, to . . . to save someone else."

Draco's frown deepened. "You think he'd do that?"

You're looking at one.

James shrugged, hoping it at least looked nonchalant. "He could. I mean, it's not like we know everything about him."

"I suppose. . . ."

"It doesn't matter," James said, waving away the issue, realizing that the course the conversation was going could be very dangerous.

Draco looked at him confused. "Are you okay, James?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, still tired, I guess."

"Well . . . That's easily fixed," Draco said, pulling James back down on the bed, and pulling him closer.

"Draco . . ."

Draco stiffened. "I'll go if you want me to."

"No!" James' hold on Draco tightened. "I don't want you to go."

Draco was silent a moment. "Then I'll stay."

James just nodded, not loosening his hold on the blond.

"I don't have much choice," Harry said as soon as he entered Tom's office Thursday night.

He'd felt eyes on him throughout the rest of the week. At first, he tried to tell himself he was paranoid, but the feeling wouldn't go away. He was fairly sure that Draco knew how jumpy he was, because the boy very rarely left his side. Not that James was complaining; the closer Draco was, the less likely he was to be attacked. Not that James really thought that they'd attack Draco, not until the week was over at any rate.

By Thursday, Nataniel wanted nothing more than to have his poison so that he could bite Dumbledore for making James so stressed. He had, however, promised not to. Or, he had when James told him that it would endanger Draco and his family.

I will not endanger your mate, had been Nataniel's reply.

He was sure he'd been red the rest of the day.

"Harry," Tom said, "You do have a choice."

"No. I have the resemblance of a choice. I can refuse, and he goes after the Malfoy's right away, or I can accept and they stay safe. Not much of a choice to me Tom. And, let's not forget, once I join, I can either be a good little follower, something Voldemort was never able to get me to be, or I can be a sneaky little spy that does what he can to foil his every plan. Again, not much of a choice."

Tom shrugged as Harry sat. "You are sure about this?"

"I don't have a choice, Tom. My only problem is that I have no clue who I would give my information to."

"It would be wise for you to give it to me. I would then give it to those who could use it."

"People aren't going to be watching your mail."

Tom nodded once.

"Alright, but how would I get it to you. If I owl you after every meeting, they'll begin to get suspicious, especially if they coincide with whatever he has planned."

Tom was silent a moment, a thoughtful look passing over his eyes. "We'll work that out as we near the problem. It's not something that's bound to come up just yet. And, if it does, we have our meetings to disguis it."

Harry nodded once. "Alright. I'll send the owl to him tomorrow."

Tom nodded silently before pulling out his wand. "Ready?"

"No, but let's give it a shot anyway."

"Clear your mind."

Harry had half a second to do so before Tom attacked.

"Legilimens"

Owl to Albus Dumbledore from James Medin, Friday, February 1

Sir

After some careful consideration, I have decided to accept your more than kind offer. I hope that it is still available, and that I am not too late to lay claim to it.

J'HP'M

Owl to James Medin from Albus Dumbledore, Saturday, February 2

Harry

You will be happy to know that the offer is still open, and that we gladly accept you into our ranks. I will owl you with instuctions and the information you will need at a later point in time. I hope you are well, and that you will continue to be so until our next meeting.

James carefully folded the letter and put it away. He'd burn it later.

Sighing, he rubbed his head; it was a little sore from the night before, but Tom said that it was to be expected. They had finally found a 'material' that seemed to work as a shield. Water. Which was just very strange to him, however, Tom said that it made sense, as a shield was supposed to be an extension of the person; a piece of theirself shown to help protect them. Water went were nothing else dared to go, and it could fit into just about any mold, until it was released. Put like that, it did sound remarkably like him.

"Bad news?" Draco asked.

James shrugged. "Nothing I wasn't expecting."

"You're not going to avoid me for weeks again, are you?"

James frowned. "No. Why?"

It was Draco's turn to shrug. "It just seem that, every time you get mail, you start to avoid me."

Either he was imagining things, or Draco was hurt. James gave him a soft smile and wrapped an arm around him.

"Not this time," he whispered, giving him a chaste kiss on the lips.

Draco gave a smile back.

James tried not to think about signing his life away to this world's version of Voldemort, but it was hard when his Occlumency lessons had lengthened in an effort to get him prepared for his 'first' meeting with Dumbledore, whenever that happened to be.

James sighed, rubbing his eyes. The last few weeks had exhausted him, and he hadn't even been doing much! Opening his eyes, he found his eyes drifting toward his drawer, where his Valentine gift to Draco was carefully hidden. He hoped it was well recieved; it had cost a pretty penny, as the muggles would say.

With a small smile, he silently opened the drawer and pulled out the small velvet box. Then, with a cautious glance at the door, he opened it. When he had seen it, he couldn't help but want to gift it to his boyfriend. He just hoped that Draco didn't scoff at it. With a worried sigh, he snapped the box closed, and quietly replaced it in it's hiding spot.

Tomorrow was Valentine's day; tomorrow he'd know for sure if he'd made a mistake or not. Merlin, he hoped not.

Alright, this is shorter than I wanted it to be, but, once again, my muse has decided to stop. It wants to get on to the next thing on the agenda, and , apperantly, it can't do that in this chapter. frustrated sigh oh the finicky-ness of my muse. dodges muses' flying fists Sorry!!

Please placate my wonderfully creative muse by telling him that you like what he does! I'm begging you!!

Also, I got a review from someone last chapter telling me that they didn't understand why Harry/James was so upset with the thought of spying. It's a good question, and I'd like to answer it here, because I'm sure that others wondered, but didn't ask . . . Anyway, Harry/James wasn't upset just from the thought of spying. It was everything piled up on top of everything else. He's in a world where he'd not the Boy-Who-Lived, and (since he's pretty much given up on getting back) he was looking forward to being completely normal. Now Dumbledore comes along and shoots it all to heck by forcing him to do something that he doesn't want to do, join a war - more specifically, join a war on a side he doesn't agree with. Added to that is the thought that, if he refuses, the Malfoy's are as good as dead. As for spying, Harry/James is not very good at lying, and he knows his shields aren't that great, so the chance of discovery (should he need to face Dumbledore soon) means that he would be discovered, thus putting the Malfoy's in danger yet again.

. . . I hope that explained it. If not, ask for more clairification and I'll go back over it and see what I missed.

Until next time,

Allanasha Ke Kiri