Chapter 17

Draco sat back on the couch in the Nott living room, swirling his Firewhisky. He watched the fire crackle in the hearth. Bits of wood popped in the flames every so often. A hearth should instill a feeling of warmth, family and security. It didn't feel like a home here though.

Nott Manor was cold. Empty. Heartless.

Growing up, Theo had always done his best to get out of the house, and Draco did his best to help him.

At least Nott Senior wasn't home now.

"How goes it with everyone's favorite reptile?" Theo quipped, blue eyes crinkling in amusement.

Draco shot him a warning look. "You'd best watch your mouth, Theo."

He was going to get his bony, snarky arse killed one day if he kept that up. And it certainly wasn't for lack of trying by his tosser of a father. Nott Senior wanted Theo to join the Dark Lord's ranks. Theo refused, and occasionally paid the price for it.

"Zero," Theo said emphatically. "Fucks."

"What?" Draco shifted his posture on the couch.

"That's how much I give," Theo replied, scratching the back of his neck and then running his hand through his short brown hair.

They drank in silence and Theo leaned his head back on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. Draco knew his friend felt trapped. Because Theo refused to join the Dark Lord's army, his father threatened to cut him off from his inheritance and wouldn't let him get a job or do anything else besides. Theo wanted to leave the house and strike out on his own. But he couldn't without a job, and his father was sabotaging every attempt to secure one.

Theo was trapped and angry. Similar to Draco.

But he was also bored. A bored Theo was a dangerous Theo. It made him liable to do something stupid.

"Is Pansy coming over?" Theo asked, still staring at the ceiling.

"No." Draco shook his head. "It's just you and me tonight. Daphne and Blaise are also busy."

"Busy," Theo repeated, making air quotes. "Is that what the kids are calling it these days?"

"Jealous?"

"Absolutely," he replied, unashamed. "I don't remember the last time my purple one-eyed monster has seen a breathing female."

"He's seen a non-breathing female?"

"Walked right into that one," Theo snorted.

Draco summoned the bowl of peanuts and popped a few in his mouth. He should get the chess board out since no one else was able to come tonight. "If it makes you feel any better, I don't see anybody anymore that isn't involved with the Dark Lord's army. Even Pansy. Not since Azkaban."

Theo shuddered visibly. "Dementors?"

"Fun times."

"You know…" Theo brought his head up. "You would see the rest of the group if you weren't the lizard man's favorite whipping boy."

Draco glared at him. "Not anymore. He's naffed off at everyone now."

Theo offered him a look of mock concern. "Are you feeling neglected?"

Draco wordlessly sent Theo the two fingered salute.

"I'm essentially a prisoner in my own home. Please tell me you're at least having fun at the Ministry?" Theo shifted his posture on the couch, leaning more to the left. "I'll live vicariously through your adventures."

"My adventures?" Draco looked at Theo in disbelief.

"Your world of bribery and extortion," Theo wagged his eyebrows. "The power behind the power. Tell me some tales, Draco. I'm dying here."

Draco considered his friend. Theo would never betray him, and he wasn't stupid. Most of the time. But even so, sharing details of what his father and Draco were doing could get him in trouble. The Dark Lord compartmentalized his operations to prevent leaks and spies from having much of an effect. It was an intelligent strategy. Not just to prevent the impact of information getting out but because not all of his followers were circumspect. Some were in it for the power and the money, some were complete and utter morons, and others had loose lips.

If Draco shared too much with Theo, and word circled back to Nott Senior somehow, they could all get in trouble with the Dark Lord.

Perhaps he could share a bit of what he was doing. Theo must feel like he was in a cage. At least Theo was intelligent enough to realize that a cage was better than being a Death Eater.

"I'm seducing an intern to get files."

Theo leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "You can't be serious. Lucius is actually encouraging that kind of behavior in his sole heir?"

Draco bitterly recalled his father's dismissal of his affair with a lower class, poorly bred, pure-blood witch. He would never hand wave away Draco's secret desire for Granger, even if there was no affair. Malfoy's simply didn't corrupt themselves. Corrupting others though? That was a different matter entirely.

Draco shrugged indifferently. "It's not as if she's a Mudblood. They're all in hiding or in prison. And I'm not going to marry her. What were you expecting to hear?"

"I suppose I was hoping for stories about corrupt officials having their weaknesses exploited."

He nodded. "Oh, we do that too. There's plenty of adultery. I thought the Ministry was inefficient because it was a bureaucratic shit show, but apparently everyone is so busy fucking one other behind closed doors they don't get any work done. Ministry co-workers." Draco sipped his whisky. "It's a thing."

A wry grin appeared on Theo's face. "Remind me to pursue a career in the Ministry."

Draco scoffed in disgust. He couldn't imagine a worse place to devote one's time and effort. "There are a few with financial problems. Gambling, expensive purchases, mistresses, living a lifestyle that they can't afford. They're easily bribed, and then blackmailed once they've accepted the bribe."

Theo motioned to him with his glass. "See, now this is how I imagine your father spending his days."

"You sound like it's something to aspire to."

"Well, he did bag Narcissa."

Draco glared at Theo, but he just smiled, smacking his lips loudly after taking a long sip of his Firewhisky.

"Tell me more about the adventures of Lucius and Draco: Father and son, corrupting the Ministry. Sounds like a good title for a book."

Draco rubbed the rim of his glass with his finger. "The corruption is already there to exploit. You just have to find it. Co-workers rat each other out. After you develop a rapport with them, a simple lunch at an expensive restaurant can sometimes get you enough information to work with for an entire year. So many have used their position for financial gain. They can be blackmailed as well."

Theo considered this, his tone serious now. "Maybe I won't work in government."

"Don't," Draco considered his long-time friend, and then looked into his glass of Firewhisky with disdain. "The Ministry is a cesspit. They deserve what they get."

Theo eyed him apprehensively. "Surely they're not all that bad."

Draco sat back, thinking of Alexandra Wexler and the two others he had to Imperius since then. "No, they aren't. That's what the Imperius Curse is for."

"I'm imagining a flow chart of sorts here with arrows pointing to blackmail, bribery, seduction and the Imperius Curse."

Draco huffed a laugh. "You're not wrong. That flow chart is in my father's head. It's what he's trying to teach me."

Theo spread his hands out as if framing a title. "The Master Manipulator's Flow Chart. How to Take Over the Ministry in Ten Easy Steps. The Idiot's Guide to Corrupting Your Own Government." He grinned at Draco. "You feed me the information and I'll dumb it down for mass consumption. I don't need a job to get out of this prison; it will easily be a bestselling book. Fuck my father and my inheritance. We'll split the profits fifty/fifty."

Draco chuckled.

Theo.

"Fifty/fifty sounds like a shit deal to me."

"I agree," Theo replied easily. "I'm doing most of the work here. You at least get to shag interns. Eighty/twenty."

Draco smiled at his friend. Theo had kept Draco from going spare sixth year, despite Draco's attempts to isolate himself. No one knew what the hell was going on or why Draco was rejecting his friends. He and Theo had been close growing up, but he would never forget how Theo stood by him during that time.

"Is the sex good at least?"

Draco sneered. "We haven't progressed that far. It's more teasing and the occasional snog. I'm only too happy to keep it on that level if she is."

"She's not attractive?"

"It doesn't matter, I'm not interested."

"What's her name?"

Draco paused. It was a common enough name. "Elizabeth."

"You can't at least enjoy her somewhat?"

Draco stared at Theo. Didn't he understand? Draco was being used like a tool. His body wasn't his own. "Would you?"

Theo studied him in thought. "No, I guess not."

Draco took another sip of his Firewhisky. His thoughts returned to casting the Imperius Curse on Alexandra Wexler and other Ministry officials. Unlike the other two Unforgivable Curses, he was able to perform and sustain it effectively. He was now simultaneously controlling three separate people.

Draco hadn't found anything relevant on Unforgivables at Malfoy Manor, and wondered if his father had pre-emptively hidden any books they had. Clearly, he didn't want to discuss with Draco the effects of extended Imperius Curse use; merely warning him to use it as a last resort. Draco didn't know if his father was trying to shield him for his own good or make him more amenable to performing the curse by not understanding the consequences.

Draco wasn't sure of his father's motives for a lot of things.

Regardless, he was being kept in the dark and he didn't like it. But the Nott library was fairly extensive.

"Do you have any books on the effect of Unforgivable use on the caster?"

Theo tapped his fingers on his knee, considering Draco for a few moments. "You're able to torture people now?"

He shook his head, and Theo looked relieved. "I'm interested in the Imperius Curse."

"I'm sure we do; remind me and we'll go check the library before you leave tonight if you're not too sloshed."

Draco nodded in thanks and then returned to one of the reasons for his visit in the first place. "We need to see everyone. Change of pace."

They both did.

"Definitely," Theo continued in a more lighthearted tone. "If we have a shindig of sorts, I'd rather it not be here if my father is home. I don't know when he's home anyway. I have even fewer fucks to give about my dad's schedule than the zero I gave regarding the consequences of coming up with new nicknames for that albino serpent wannabe."

Draco tried not to snort his Firewhisky.

"Your house is obviously off limits," Theo said, shuddering. "Zabini's?"

Draco leaned back into the couch and sighed contentedly in thought of the visual benefits of going to Blaise's house. He gazed back at Theo with a lazy grin. "I don't need an excuse to see his mum."

Theo raised his glass. "To Zabini's mum. Physical embodiment of the Oedipus Complex."

Draco raised his glass. "To Zabini's mum, inspiration for my first wank, and innumerable others." He knocked back the rest of his Firewhisky.

"To Zabini's mu- Fuck!" Theo's tumbler suddenly broke and a glass shard cut into the palm of his hand.

Draco jumped up and grabbed the broken tumbler, placing it on the coffee table. "Hold on, give your hand here."

Theo winced and pulled his hand back.

"Quit moving it's only going to go in deeper," Draco said, tugging Theo's wrist towards him. Delicately, he pried the glass shard out of Theo's palm and dropped it in the broken tumbler with a clink. Blood dripped from Theo's hand into the glass, mixing with the Firewhisky.

Draco squeezed his wrist while aiming his wand at the cut. More blood dripped out, nearly spurting.

"Bugger!" Theo cried out in pain. "What the hell are you doing?"

Draco glared at him impatiently. "I'm trying to hold you still so I can heal this." He clamped his fingers around Theo's wrist hard, so he wouldn't move. His blood dribbled into the glass. "Quit moving." He aimed his wand at Theo's palm. "Wuss," he muttered under his breath.

Theo rested his chin in his other hand and rolled his eyes. "My hero."

It wouldn't be the first time Draco had healed Theo's cuts and bruises. Nott Senior was cruel.

"I didn't know you cared," Draco said as he sealed the cut and set the bloody broken tumbler to the side.

"I don't." Theo yanked his hand back and inspected the wound that Draco healed with an air of superiority. "Passable. Barely."

"You're welcome."

Theo released a greatly put-upon sigh. "I guess this will have to do."

"So," Draco said with a grin as he summoned the Firewhisky bottle, another tumbler, and poured Theo a fresh glass. "Pansy."

Theo's blue eyes warily met his as Draco held out the full glass towards him. "She's fair game, right?"

Draco hadn't been with Pansy since his terrible sixth year when he pushed her away along with everyone else. He summoned the chessboard and pieces.

"She is," he affirmed, not looking at Theo as he set up the game. After a few moments he chanced a glance at his friend while putting on the pieces in place.

Theo tried and failed to suppress his smile as he took another sip.

Chapter end notes:

My favorite Theo is the snarky/slightly unhinged Theo of Olivieblake's 'How to Win Friends and Influence People,' and 'The Bachelorette.' He served as inspiration for this fic's Theo.

Also, the next three - yes you heard me. THREE! - chapters are all Draco/Hermione. Turning the heat up...