AN: Here's the next chapter. Thanks for all the wonderful reviews. Hope you enjoy.

Conflict is Inevitable

September 1999

The tense silence in the dungeon quarters stretched. Severus waited until the door closed behind Harry, and then turned to Lucius and asked with mock solicitude, "Did he nick you? Potter has quite the temper when provoked."

"Bastard," Lucius growled. He struggled against the bonds holding him down. "Let me up, Severus, the boy's gone."

Arching a dark brow, Severus shrugged. "That's not an option," he said tightly. Let Lucius think Severus wanted him contained; there was no way he'd admit to the blonde he couldn't undo Harry's spell.

Lucius sneered. "I knew your depravities were legend, but I didn't realize they'd sunk to bondage," he snapped.

"My depravities are none of your affair," Severus said bitingly. "Do not think I'm unaware of your observation of Harry," he added warningly. Lucius had always been attracted to power, and there was not a more appealing example of power than Harry. Severus had seen the blonde size Harry up, and would not tolerate it. Judging by the sneer on Lucius' face, Severus trusted his point had been made.

He picked up a large mug of coffee and sipped slowly, relishing the caffeine. The fact that Malfoy was tied and unable to partake was an added benefit. Silence reigned for several minutes, and then Lucius smirked in a manner Severus was intimately familiar with. He'd certainly witnessed it enough times. Severus braced himself for whatever weakness Malfoy thought he'd discovered.

"This is the fifth time Potter has bested me," Lucius began with a contemplative air. "Tell me, Severus," he drawled, "does the Chosen One fuck as fiercely as he fights?"

Setting the cup down on the table with a loud thunk, Severus stood to his full height. A smug smirk curled Severus' lips. "That is something you will never discover." He flicked his wrist and his wand flew to his hand. Pointing the wand at Lucius, Severus silenced him.

Leading Devlin and Luc down into the dungeons, Harry hoped Malfoy hadn't given Severus too much trouble. He didn't trust the git not to provoke his lover. He pushed open the door and hurried inside. Severus was sitting on the couch reading a Potions journal, seemingly relaxed.

Malfoy glared, but remained silent. Harry looked between the two men and wondered what had happened while he was gone. Something felt off.

"Did he give you any trouble?" Harry questioned.

Severus shot him a look that said, 'don't be stupid, Potter'. Harry shrugged unrepentantly and grinned. Devlin ignored the byplay and approached the bound man, staring intently. Roughly tangling his hand in the immaculate blonde hair, Devlin tugged ruthlessly, forcing Malfoy to meet his eyes. "Lucius Malfoy, you have interfered with the Bar's business far too often," he said coldly. "Give me one good reason why I should not save us a great deal of trouble and end your miserable life right now."

Malfoy's lips moved, but no sound came forth. Devlin smiled with wicked intent. "I'm afraid I didn't hear a reason," he drawled with a smirk. "Harry, could I trouble you for one of your daggers?" he asked casually.

Rolling his eyes, Luc intervened. "Come now, Devlin," Luc said soothingly as he pulled Devlin away. "Let him go for now. I'm certain he'll be properly grateful and spill all his sordid little secrets."

"Fine," Devlin said with a sneer. "But if he doesn't…" Devlin paused to glare menacingly at the bound man, "I'm slitting his lying throat."

Biting back a chuckle, Severus released the silencing charm and added, "Potter threatened to cut his tongue out."

Malfoy glared at the two newcomers. "The devil of the Bar Sinister," he said, holding Devlin's eyes. "I see your reputation for boorishness is well-deserved."

Luc snorted, and Malfoy's head snapped around. "Ah, the family bastard," he said snidely.

Luc smiled beatifically. "Lucius, my misguided brother." Malfoy winced at Luc's words. "Little endearments like that will get you nowhere with us."

"You should have been drowned at birth," Malfoy spat.

"I echo your sentiments," Luc said dryly. "Though your death would have left our sire without an heir." Luc examined his nails. "Pity."

Malfoy opened his mouth to offer a scathing reply, but Severus interrupted. "Enough," he said firmly. "Lucius, I know you would like to continue baiting your…" he smiled maliciously, "brother, but if you don't shut up, Potter here will take offense and follow through with his threat."

Harry smiled and fingered the hilt of the dagger on his belt. "Either tell us why you're here," Severus continued, "or I'll happily address your tongue to Draco myself." His admittedly scant patience had been exhausted.

With a freezing glare, Lucius snarled, "I would be delighted to tell you why I dropped in, if one of you," Malfoy visibly swallowed whatever insult he'd though of, "would remove these damnable ropes and allow me to conduct this interview civilly."

Severus turned to Harry and raised a questioning brow. Harry paused, and then nodded. He pulled his wand from his pocket. While he'd used wandless magic to secure Malfoy, it wasn't that unusual for a wizard to perform wandless magic in times of high stress. But there was no reason to allow Malfoy to realize Harry was as proficient without a wand as he was with it. A flick of his wrist and the bounds dissolved. "By all means, let us have civility," Harry said sarcastically. He gestured for Luc and Devlin to sit.

Malfoy pulled back the sleeves of his robes and pointedly checked for bruises. He meticulously straightened his clothes, sat back and crossed his legs. Once he'd finished preening, Lucius spoke. "There are two reasons that bring me here. First, the Dark Lord is aware of my visit. So allow me to handle his business first."

At those words the other men in the room tensed. Harry kept his eyes on Malfoy's hands. The blonde's eyes were on Severus, so Harry slowly slipped his wand out of the holster and into his lap. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Devlin doing the same. It never hurt to be a bit paranoid.

"The Dark Lord is interested in how much would be required to secure your loyalty, Severus," Lucius drawled arrogantly.

Glaring at the blonde, Severus sneered. "My loyalty is not for sale. If I did not remain loyal out of fear or respect, what makes him believe money would motivate me?"

Malfoy smiled coolly. "It is a great deal of money."

One of Malfoy's hands disappeared into a pocket, and Harry leapt to his feet. In a heartbeat, Lucius had Harry's wand pressing between his eyes, and Devlin's digging into his jugular. Seemingly unperturbed, the blonde pulled a heavy leather purse from his pocket and tossed it on the low table. "A down payment," he murmured.

Without turning from Malfoy, Harry snapped, "Luc."

He heard the rustle of cloth as Luc examined the pouch. "It's cursed," Luc said after a moment. "But I don't recognize the signature."

"Severus," Harry said shortly.

Tearing his eyes from the tableau before him, Severus turned to the table. Stretching his senses, he felt for the magical signature on the leather bag. After a moment he sat back with a hiss. "It's the Dark Lord," he confirmed.

Harry nodded his head towards Lucius and raised a brow. Severus took his meaning and tersely ordered, "Lucius, look at me."

Cold silver eyes reluctantly met his, and Severus quickly searched the blonde's memories. "He didn't know," he said shortly.

Devlin met Harry's gaze and Harry nodded. The older man dropped his wand and stepped back. Harry pressed his wand harder against Malfoy until the blonde looked up. "Keep your hands out of your pockets in the future," Harry said warningly.

There was a tense silence as Harry retook his seat. Severus watched his lover re-holster his wand and wondered again at the brat's insecurities. In moments of crisis, Harry always leapt to take charge. A few years ago, he might have deferred to Devlin, or Severus himself, but now the young man snapped out orders like he'd been doing it all his life. And we all obeyed without thinking, Severus mused. Now to convince Harry of his obvious leadership skills.

Unaware of the direction his lover's thoughts had taken, Harry turned to Luc. "What curse?"

Luc smiled smugly at Malfoy and explained, "It's a clever compulsion charm. The more the pouch empties, the more you'll desire to obey the compulsion. By the time it's emptied, it would nearly equal the Imperius."

Harry shook his head. "That's really clumsy of Voldemort. I mean, Severus is well-versed in the Dark Arts, surely he had to know the charm would have been discovered."

As the group tried to figure out what Voldemort was up to, Lucius cleared his throat. "I believe I can shed some light on your dilemma."

Every eye in the room focused on him, and Malfoy blanched for a moment at the powerful stares, then regained his expression of cool disdain. "You will have to bear with me a moment, and allow me to explain."

After a moment, Harry sighed. "And why would you tell us anything?" he asked.

Malfoy lowered his eyes. "Because the Dark Lord sacrificed my wife, and now threatens my son."

Severus sat back heavily and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Narcissa's dead?" he asked woodenly. In the last few years, Severus hadn't taken the time to check on Narcissa and now he felt a surge of guilt. A moment here or there wouldn't have burdened him, but he had been relieved to be rid of all his Death Eater connections. He closed his eyes briefly in tribute to a woman who had not deserved her fate.

Harry noticed Severus's distress. He knew Severus had at least respected the woman. Narcissa Malfoy had never personally hurt him, and Harry felt badly about her death. "What happened?" he asked softly. Even a bastard like Lucius Malfoy deserved some compassion after losing his wife to Voldemort.

Malfoy took a deep breath and exhaled heavily. After a moment he seemed to regain his composure. "To achieve his rebirth, the Dark Lord used the Rwn Bryt ritual."

Luc and Severus paled and gasped, but Harry didn't have a chance to ask why. Malfoy's head shot up and he held Harry's eyes. "In his bid to resist your Black flames, the Dark Lord allowed Bellatrix to slit Narcissa's throat to ensure 'there was enough blood'."

Eyes clenched shut, Harry swallowed hard, trying to quell the urge to vomit. Another innocent victim had lost their life in Voldemort's obsessive quest to kill Harry. The guilt threatened to overwhelm him. He acknowledged the feeling for a moment and then pushed it away. Not now, he reminded himself. I'll deal with it later.

Opening his eyes, Harry met Malfoy's cold silver ones. "I'm very sorry," he said gently. "I didn't know your wife, but no one deserves that." After a long tense moment, Malfoy nodded stiffly.

Harry turned to Luc. "Can you explain that ritual to me?"

Still looking shaken, Luc took a deep breath and began. Harry listened in growing horror as the older man explained, Malfoy occasionally adding details from what he'd witnessed.

Like he'd done with Quirrell, Voldemort had directed the ritual from the back of Yaxley's head. According to Luc, Rwn Bryt was an ancient Aramaic ritual, meaning something like, 'the bodily coffin'. The name alone was enough to sicken Harry.

It only got worse. The rite only called for a small vial of blood taken from the family-line you wanted to gain resistance to. Not willing to take chances, Bellatrix had slit her sister's throat. The host body, Yaxley in this case, then drank the blood mixed with several disgusting and poisonous ingredients.

There were some ritual incantations involved, but in the end the result was that Voldemort had a new body. And given that Yaxley had only been in his early forties, he had a reliable one. According to Malfoy the body had retained Yaxley's features, except for the eyes. Apparently Voldemort's nature couldn't be hidden; his monstrosity was revealed by his serpentine red eyes.

"In short," Malfoy explained, "the Dark Lord's mind is not entirely stable."

It was a horrifying prospect. An insane Voldemort returned to a body and possibly resistant to the Black flames, but now was not the time to deal with it. Plans would need to be made, but not in front of Malfoy.

Harry turned his attention back to Malfoy. "Okay, we understand about your wife," he began. "But how is Voldemort threatening Draco?"

Pink stained Malfoy's high cheekbones. "Apparently his new body is capable of… activities his old wasn't," Malfoy said delicately.

Harry felt his eyes widen, and he had to bite his lower lip to stop the snort of shocked laughter from escaping. Devlin wasn't so polite. "Ah well, given who he is, the boy should be well prepared for life as a catamite."

As he eyes hardened, Malfoy sneered and spat, "A Malfoy is not a whore." He turned to Luc and shrugged. "Well, at least not the legitimate branch."

The look of astonished outrage on Luc's face was priceless. Harry doubled over and nearly choked with laughter. In between gasps he could hear Severus' dark chuckle. After several moments passed, Harry heard Luc huff, and snap, "It wasn't that funny."

After the tension of the earlier conversation, Harry appreciated the comic relief, and Luc's reaction made it that much better. When Harry kept laughing, Luc leaned down and asked, falsely solicitous, "Are you all right?" Harry couldn't stop laughing long enough to answer, so Luc pounded on his back way too hard to be merely helpful.

Harry sat up and wiped the tears from his face. "I'm sorry, Luc," he began, "but all I could think of was that day in my bedroom…"

Luc blushed, and buried his head in his hands. "You'll never forget that, will you?" he asked forlornly.

"I know I won't," Severus drawled darkly.

Seeing Luc at an apparent disadvantage, Malfoy struck. "Tell me, shame of the Malfoy name, if your heredity is so distasteful to you, why did you choose a name that could be mistaken for my own?"

"I didn't even know you existed when I chose that name," Luc said dismissively. He smiled coldly and added, "Since your education obviously does not extend to Italian, I will enlighten you." He sat back and took on a patient lecturing tone. "Luc means 'light'. I picked that name as a sign of my rejection of the dark bastard who sired me by raping an unwilling woman."

Though he sneered, Malfoy didn't respond to the pointed jibe. Devlin snorted. "Pretentious git, the world doesn't revolve around you," he said snidely.

Malfoy angrily turned on Devlin and spat, "I'm sure you have a similar trite reason for your name."

"Not at all," Devlin said with a shrug. "It was simply as close as I could come to devil in polite society." He gave Malfoy a wolfish grin.

Harry remembered a comment Vane had made sometime ago, something about Devlin's name meaning a lot to the man. But it wasn't important now. Tired of all the posturing and insults, he turned to Malfoy and asked bluntly, "What do you want from us?"

Way too early on a Monday morning Harry walked into the staff room and dropped tiredly into a chair beside Hermione. They were the only ones there and the quiet soothed him. She smiled indulgently and summoned him a cup of coffee. When Harry picked up the cup, she turned back to her newspaper.

When Harry reached the bottom of the cup, he sat up, feeling awake at last. "You're the best," he said with a smile.

Hermione shrugged. "What did you have going on this weekend?"

Sitting back with a sigh, Harry scrubbed his hands over his face. "Well, for starters, we found out how Voldemort came back this time," he began. "And then I promised to help keep Draco Malfoy safe from Voldemort's lecherous intentions."

The paper fluttered to the ground and Hermione whipped her head around. "You did what?"

Chuckling over her surprise, Harry explained.

"And Draco's staying at Sinister Place. Luc has promised to keep him in line," Harry concluded.

Hermione shook her head disbelievingly. "Lucius Malfoy assisting you, and Draco living with the Bar," she muttered. She looked up at Harry and smiled. "It could only happen to you, Harry."

Harry shrugged as he went to pour himself another cup. Picking the paper up off the floor, Hermione folded it neatly and set it aside. "You've had a busy weekend," she said sympathetically. "And now with that interview you gave about Professor Snape published, your week will be full too."

"It's out already?" Harry asked fearfully. He was so distracted he overfilled the cup, scalding his hand. "Fuck," he murmured.

Picking up the paper again, Hermione showed him the front page. There in bold type was 'Chosen One defends Death Eater'; in smaller print underneath the headline was 'Potter says, Severus Snape is really a hero'.

Harry stumbled blindly to the table and sat down heavily. The interview wasn't supposed to be out until next week. He hadn't told Severus yet. Harry winced; Severus was going to be livid. He didn't regret giving the interview; Severus deserved to have his name cleared. But Harry had planned to break it to him gently, knowing how much his lover valued his privacy.

Harry sat racking his brain, trying to find the best way to tell Severus, when a sleek grey owl flew through the open window. The owl landed on Harry's shoulder and impatiently thrust out a message-laden leg.

Recognizing the special breed of owl the Fianna used, Harry wondered what the trouble was. Untying the note, he noticed the owl remained. Glancing over the parchment, Harry muttered darkly, "Damn paranoid bastards." The message was written in old Irish. He'd learned to read it during his time with the Fianna, but it was slow going for him.

Harry,

We have received word there will be an attack on Diagon Alley sometime this morning. Your assistance is needed to prepare and defend the area. We will follow your judgment regarding Albus Dumbledore's involvement. The Ministry has been notified, but declined to take action. The Fianna are gathering in the abandoned building beside Flourish and Blotts. We await your arrival.

Brody

"Shite," Harry cursed. The Fianna had many resources supplying them with information on the Death Eaters' movements, so Harry knew the information was credible. And when they'd discussed Harry representing them in the Wizengamot, there had been a tentative plan to respond to a confirmed raid. It would show the wizarding world the strength and dedication of the Fianna, but Harry hadn't expected it to come so soon.

Especially not today. Harry had no time to explain to Severus about the interview. Pushing away his personal troubles, Harry concentrated on what needed to be done now. Making several quick decisions, Harry snatched a quill and blank sheet of parchment from the center of the table.

He quickly scratched out a message to the Bar and gave it to the waiting owl along with instructions to hurry. Harry blessed the Fianna's insistence on breeding their own owls for speed and stamina. He scribbled another note for Severus and then charmed it and the message from the Fianna.

Turning to a curious Hermione, Harry spoke quickly, "Can you give these to Severus the minute he comes in? It's urgent."

Hermione took the folded papers and asked, "Harry, what's going on?"

"Not now, Hermione," Harry said impatiently as he double-checked his daggers. They would have to do. Hopefully one of his brothers-in-arms would lend him a sword, because he didn't have time to fetch his. He caught the worried look on Hermione's face and gave her a reassuring smile. "I promise you'll know soon enough. But I have to go. Now."

As he passed behind her, he patted her shoulder gently. "Don't forget. Give those to Severus as soon as you see him."