Title: A New Teacher

Author: Azure K Mello

Part number: chapter one

SPOILERS: HBP

Pairing: Draco/Harry

Summery: Can Harry accept his new Occlumency teacher and find what he needs to learn or will his own preconceptions tear them apart?

Thank you to Cassy for the beta read!

"Who's his Secret-Keeper?" asked Harry resignedly.

"Hm?" asked Dumbledore distracted by his own thoughts.

"Malfoy must be in hiding, even if he is at the Manor. He won't feel safe now. So who's hiding him?"

"Insightful, Harry, ten points to- oh I suppose that won't do much- if you go you will find the answers."

"How will I find it if he has a Secret-Keeper? I need to be told by the Keeper. Unless. . . please tell me that I'm not the Secret-Keeper?"

Chuckling Dumbledore said, "Good idea, but no. You'll see it, Harry, take me at my word."

The air around the Wiltshire estate was cold even though it was late July and caused Harry to shiver. Typical, what had he expected? A cozy little place with warm light pouring out of the seams? He saw the serpents on the gates as he pushed the wrought iron doors open. They creaked as though they hadn't moved in months; maybe they hadn't. As he walked up the front path with his possessions floating behind him, the door to the house swung open and the air got suddenly colder, if that was possible.

A very, very thin Draco gave a shadow of a smirk, "Come in if you're coming." The blond turned his back and walked back into the depths of the house. "You're letting the cold out," he called over his shoulder.

With slow steps Harry entered the house. It was dimly lit but he supposed that made sense as Draco was alone in the house. He followed the lit path to a small sitting room. Draco was reclining on a fainting couch, half asleep. There was a fire burning but it gave off no heat and Harry shivered again.

"You'll get used to it," Draco said without looking at him, "It's a morgue. I see no point in heating the house." He stared into the fire for a long time before he spoke again. "You can sit, if you want, Potter, you don't have to be on your best behavior. I can hardly throw you out. You know that when he said you had to come he didn't mean tonight? It would have been polite to wait until daybreak."

Sitting down slowly Harry asked guardedly, "He talks to you too?" He saw no point in telling Draco that he had left in the middle of the night so that he wouldn't have to face Hermione and Ron. He had left them a note and carefully omitted Snape's name from his explanation as to where he'd gone.

"All the time," Draco sounded haunted, but then, Harry reflected he was -in fact- being haunted, "One is supposed to speak with one's Keeper frequently."

"Clever, I wondered who it was. I didn't think you were eligible if you were dead."

"You're not, he and Severus set this up months ago, apparently," the final word was seeped in bitterness. "Did you know all along too? Was I the only one who was being played."

Harry didn't understand what the boy meant but then it dawned on him and he replied, "I didn't know you were trying to kill him. I knew you were up to something, thought you were behind the necklace. But no: I didn't know everything."

"Thank god for small miracles," Draco sniffed dryly.

"I knew you were a Death Eater from the moment we met in Diagon Alley."

"When? When we met there at eleven or last year?" Draco asked with another ghost of a sneer. He never looked at Harry and always stared into the fire.

"When we were eleven I'd never heard of Death Eaters."

"Honestly, you really were born with a silver spoon shoved down your throat, weren't you?" there was no malice in the tone. Finally looking away from the hearth he asked, "Why are you here?"

"Dumbledore wants me to learn Occlumency from you."

"Yes, that's why he wants you here. But why did you come?" He treated Harry to an almost roguish smirk.

The blond was looking him in the eye and Harry shrugged, "I don't really know," he said honestly, "I," he stumbled over the words he didn't feel, "I forgive you for what you almost did."

"No you don't!" Draco laughed and sounded old, "But you might yet, and that's frightening."

"Are you in my head?" Harry tried to break eye contact but couldn't do it.

"I'm just seeing how deep I could get without you even realizing it. It's quite pathetic, we have a lot work to do," standing he stretched slowly. His inner arms was exposed as he extended them over his head. The place where the Mark had been was visible. The brand had been sliced off and a blade had scrapped out any trace of it. Draco saw where Harry's sight was directed and hastily lowered his arm, "It not like subscribing to the Daily Prophet; you can't just cancel your subscription, they strip it from you."

Harry gasped at the horrible image he saw as Draco looked him in the eye. He saw the boy writhing as they used spells and barbarian tactics to rape every vestige of the Death Eater from him. Breaking eye contact he felt ill. That they could do that to one within their fold was somehow even more frightening than the fact that they could do it to outsiders. But then, Draco wasn't really in the fold.

As Draco caught Harry's eye again and laughed, "Oh, Potter," he said in a knowing tone having seen Harry's thoughts. "We aren't on the same side. I did know what they were when we were eleven, hell, I knew what Death Eaters were when I was four and I wanted nothing more than to be one. The Death Eaters are glamour and respect embodied in human form; they are everything I was brought up to believe in and idolize. I haven't got a white hat hidden in the recesses of my closet. We're both up the same creek and we each have half a paddle to work with. That's all." He sounded sadly accepting as he said it. "It's time for bed. We'll start lessons in the morning." Picking up a candle and motioning for Harry to do the same they left the room silently. Draco led him up two flights of stairs before saying, "I'm third on the left. If you need anything, ask one of the house elves." He stopped at the room that was to be Harry's. "If you feel the urge to kill me in the night," Harry waited for the threat he been expecting since entering the house, but Draco just smiled tiredly, "You'll be doing me a favour while fucking yourself over. Goodnight, Potter."