Title: Bounty Hunter II: Black and White
Chapter Title: One of Us Always Lies
Author: Snippy of Snippy and Snarky
Pairing: H/D, Hr/SS, L/G (other pairings added as story continues))
Disclaimer: HP & Co NOT MINE – don't sue.
Synopsis: Note: Disregard sixth book as the first Bounty Hunter was written before it came out, and does not incorporate its plots and character arcs. The struggle between shades of grey is enough to tear a hero in two. . .
Rating: Mature, R, Adult – rated for language, explicit sexual situations and violence – reader discretion is advised. Not intended for underage readers.
A/N's: My beta is missing! The last time I heard from her, she was buried under Real Life! I don't suppose there are any betas out there that would like to volunteer to take over until she comes back? You'd have to read the next six chapters to catch up to the one I need done, so let me know!! Thanks!
Oh, and if you're disappointed about the lack of full throttle H/D action, please be patient. It is coming – I'm just waiting to put a few things back together first. Grin.
Peace, love and a couple of sarcastic snakes!
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As Dumbledore left, Bane, Harry and Draco slowly sank back down into their chairs. The silence in the air stretched and thickened, the earlier fight echoing off the Slytherin walls around them.
Harry looked at Draco. Draco felt his breath catch, his heart jumping. Then Harry shook his head and stood.
"What, Potter?" Draco asked, feeling inexorably weary.
Harry blew out a breath, turned around and left. Draco watched him go, and when the door closed behind Harry, Draco let his head fall to rest against the back of the chair, heaving a great sigh, and resting his hand over his eyes. He could feel Bane watching him, but he had no idea what to say, what to think even. He felt like a puppy that had been viciously kicked for no reason, but he couldn't quite explain why.
"Forget about him, Draco."
Draco opened his eyes, watching Bane pour two glasses of brandy. Draco raised an elegant brow. "Pardon?"
"He doesn't want you. Forget about him." Bane plunked a heavy snifter in front of the blond Slytherin.
Draco stood abruptly, grasping the rim of the glass in his long fingers and crossing the room to stare moodily into the green fire burning in the marble fireplace, the flickering forked tongues of flame reaching out to him. "Like I care what he wants."
"You do." Bane swirled the amber liquid around the heavy crystal, leaning a hip against the table Draco had abandoned. "I know you, Draco."
"Do you?" Draco's jaw muscled worked as he barely refrained from gritting his teeth. He forced a scoff through his tightly drawn lips. "I don't even know me."
"It's not enough for you to be with me." Bane inhaled the aroma of the aged liquor, before sipping slowly, savoring it on his tongue the way he savored sharp words. "You know that we're not exactly the same person."
"What are you talking about?" Draco turned to face Bane.
"Together, we may equal Harry Potter, but we're exact opposites. What I have, he does not, so to speak." Bane took another sip of brandy. "And being with Harry's bad qualities is not what you wanted, what you're burning for." Bane gave a dark laugh. "I'm your doorway, not your destiny."
Draco swallowed hard, his eyes entrancingly fixated on Bane.
"It is the qualities that I possess that let you get close to the noble Harry Potter in the first place. His changes, his choices in the past few years that actually contradict the rest of what he stands for." Bane took a long swallowing, wincing with obvious pleasure as it scorched through him.
"So, what? You're his 'dark side'? Is that what you're telling me?"
"Let's just say, he got all the scruples." Bane smirked over the rim of his cup. "I'm the part of him capable of accepting you, of wanting you. I was your doorway in. But I'm not the part that you want to possess."
"Destiny," Draco said, comprehension dawning.
"You want the good side, the hero, the Boy Who Lived, not the Man That Survived." Bane tipped his glass back again. "And I don't have any of that. I promise you."
"That's not what I want." Draco took a long drink of his own brandy.
"Drink up, Draco. It makes the denial much easier." Bane started slowly walking forward, his eyes a hawk's in sight of prey.
"Why would I want that?" Draco rasped, licking the alcohol off his lips.
"Perhaps because you can't have it. Seems like a Malfoy reaction to such a situation," Bane mused, a wicked glint in his eyes.
"There is nothing a Malfoy can't have."
"Besides respect, you mean?" Bane smiled. "But no, I don't think that's it exactly. Do you remember when I told you, that I didn't like you."
"No." Draco licked his lips. "Oh, wait. Before the fight with the Dark Lord?"
"Yes."
Draco frowned, He wanted to argue that it had been Harry, not Bane, who had said those things to him, but no – that happened before the separation. His pulse was racing, and blood thundered in his ears, but he couldn't block out the sound of Bane's voice.
"I told you that I didn't like you, but that you liked me. I didn't like you because of the temptation you presented." Bane stopped in front of Draco, draining his glass and reaching to put it on the fireplace mantle behind Draco. Their eyes locked. "I was the one who was tempted. He was the one that hated me for it."
Draco tossed back the rest of his brandy as if it were a shot. "My father would be ashamed of me treating aged brandy that way," he commented wryly, avoiding Bane's eyes.
"You want Harry, because he is all that symbolizes the light. And you still think you can be redeemed." Bane's smile tightened viciously. "But you can't. And he doesn't want you because of that. He could never forgive you for being the little whiny coward that you were, but he might have been able to respect you once you grew a pair, and surpassed your father in the Death Eater ranks. Except you switched sides. Who cares if you were on the opposing team, at least you could have shown some courage, some conviction. But no, you turned traitor, switched sides in mid-fight. It doesn't take a hero to spot the dishonor in that."
Draco threw his glass into the fire, savoring the shivery screams of glass breaking and alcohol igniting.
"And on top of that, he knows the truth about you, Draco. You always seek power, always land on the winning side. I suppose you probably can't help those survivalist Malfoy genes." Bane braced both hands against the mantle behind Draco's head. "And he knows that you've been with me. Make no mistake, he understands me as well as I understand him. He knows what I am, and in his mind, you've taken sides. Even if you went to him now, you would only be confirming his opinion of you as a traitor."
"It's not like I chose to wake up in your camp, you know!" Draco spat, his indifference slipping of his face like a mask tossed aside at a ball for a midnight kiss. "I was dragged here by Death Eaters. Sure that's happened to the all powerful Potter a time or two? You'd think it would buy me a little sympathy."
"Malfoys always want to buy emotions," Bane commented, licking his lips slowly as he regarded his proximity to Draco. "But you can't buy Harry. He doesn't care. He never wanted you. He was just punishing himself with you, for…well, the parts of him that are me."
Draco's breathing was turning shallow, Bane's words beating into his chest with the steady beat of a battering ram. "That's not true."
"You might have been dragged here by Death Eaters, but only because you landed beside me, not him. Even fate knows your nature, knows where you belong."
"And you think I belong with you?" Draco asked scornfully.
"Your redemption isn't coming Draco," Bane whispered in his ear. "He can't redeem you."
Draco closed his eyes, leaning back as if in pain. Bane brushed his lips over Draco's cheekbones, ghosting over his mouth. He felt the pull he had on Draco, the magnetic attraction like a well of gravity between.
"That's why he left just now. Why he took one look at you, turned around and walked out the door." Bane slid his fingers into the hair at the base of Draco's neck, tugging sharply to bring his head back. Bane's gaze imprisoned Draco's eyes as he said, "Harry disgraced himself with you."
"Maybe. But I did have him," Draco drawled.
"So you did," Bane replied, intrigued.
Draco smirked, "Had you."
Bane raised a brow. Draco pushed away from the fireplace, splaying his hands on top of Bane's shoulders and shoving him roughly to the floor. Bane sprawled back, looking up at with a lazily sinister face. Draco pulled his shirt out of his pants and tossed it away. "And I'll have you again. Right now."
Bane grinned his satisfaction and asked with mock innocence, "Why, what are you doing, Draco?"
"Harry disgraced himself with me?" Draco covered Bane's body with his own and fused their lips together in a fiery kiss, exploring, punishing, seducing Bane's mouth until he responded with equal fervor. "I'm returning the favor."
"How noble of you." Bane stretched his hands languidly above his head, rolling his body sinfully against Draco's.
"Who knew you were such a mind-fuck, Potter?" Draco muttered, lowering himself fully on top of the other man.
"Bane smiled. "Black."
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Hermione stood before the massive fireplace in the Ravenclaw Common Room. She trailed her fingers across the mantelpiece, her thoughts so focused on the disturbing conversation with Dumbledore earlier that morning that she didn't hear Severus enter and approach her.
"Knut for your thoughts."
"They're worth more than that," she whispered, not turning to face him.
He reached forward to place his hands on her shoulders when her fingers caught on something. Crack! A large groan sounded through the room and the fireplace pulled away from the wall, revealing a gaping black abyss.
"Bloody hell." Severus stared over Hermione's shoulders, instinctively wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her protectively against his chest. "What did you do?"
"Opened a doorway." Her voice sounded dreamy and distant.
"How did you know that was there?"
"I dreamt it."
Severus turned her around, grasping her chin firmly and tilting her face up to look into her eyes. A strange light ringed the cinnamon orbs of her eyes. "Hermione? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." She twisted away from him and tried to walk through the passageway she had opened. She was stopped by an ethereal blue barrier that flickered and then disappeared as she stepped back. "I can't go through."
Severus frowned, his stomach filling with icy dread. There was something off about Hermione, and the abyss seemed to be emanating a cold chill. He wanted the doorway closed, but couldn't explain exactly why. The same way he had known when a wizard had the Dark Mark without seeing it, he knew there was something wrong with this passageway, that it was not meant to be opened.
"I should have known that. What kind of Divination teacher am I going to be, if I don't start realizing these things before they happen?" Hermione seemed to be talking to herself.
"You agreed to teach Divination? Why?" He hoped engaging her in conversation could snap her out of the strange reverie she seemed to be in.
Her eyes snapped to him as if surprised that he was there. She stared at him wordlessly, her lips curving mysteriously.
"An enigmatic smile is not a substitute for a response."
"Dumbledore asked me to." She kept glancing back at the passageway.
"Why would he do that? Because of your dream?" Severus frowned. She had been strange since she her dream, drifting in and out of strange reveries. "Can't you close that thing?"
"Don't want to close it. Not yet." She frowned. Somehow she knew that the passage was supposed to lead somewhere. It had led somewhere.
"Hermione!" The sharpness of his voice recalled the strictest Potions Master that Hogwarts had ever had and brought Hermione back to attention. "Why did Dumbledore ask you of all people to teach Divination?"
Hermione's eyes were tinged with sorrow as she said, "I cannot tell you. But you'll know soon enough."
"You already sound like a Divination teacher," he scoffed. A chill ran down his spine, as if the cold from the passageway was creeping along his back, trying to pull him in.
"You have to trust me on this one." Her eyes were gathering that strange, wild light again. A warm wind blew through the passageway, ruffling her hair.
The room filled with a strange energy, and Severus shook himself, trying to break its hold on him. He struggled to focus on their conversation. "I don't like you keeping secrets from me."
"We all have secrets, Severus. You of all people should know that by now." Her voice had changes somehow, and Severus struggled to focus on it, fighting the growing dread still seizing him.
He felt desperate, as if there was something terribly important happening. The room seemed to be tinged with crimson. Severus was encompassed in emotion. A panicked urgency gripped him. "Secrets?" What were they talking about?
Hermione stepped forward, putting her arms around his neck and pressing her body firmly against his. Her voice turned hungry and sad. "Let's stop talking about this and make the most of what time we have."
"What time we have?" He echoed. He couldn't stop his hands from roaming over body, caressing her curves and pulling her inexorably closer.
Hermione pulled Severus down into a deeply longing kiss. Severus leaned down and scooped her up into his arms. Her need tugged him down into a whirlpool of fierce desire, like a siren calling to a lonely sailor. She whispered hotly into his ear, "Please. Now." He had never wanted to drown so badly.
Severus carried her over to the couch, overpowered by the depth of her emotion, undone by the desperate feel of her mouth on his. She made a gesture over his shoulder and he heard the fireplace crackle and snap back into place. He barely registered the sound as she began to claw at their clothing, ripping her shirt open and reaching for his trouser even as he pushed her skirt up around her waist. He tore her panties from her body, listening to the fabric rip with a sharp jolt of excitement before hurriedly tossing them aside.
Hermione spread her legs, her nerves on fire. He impatiently brushed her hands aside, pulling his cock out and thrusting deeply into her before she could even gasp. Back arching, teeth scraping, fingernails digging into the flesh of his hips, she writhed beneath him, panting. He moaned as he pounded into her, spurred on by her pleas for more. "I need you," she whispered. "I need you."
"One last time, luv." Severus didn't know where the words came from, or what they meant. He couldn't care about anything but the sweet thrill of their naked flesh. He had never been so rough with her before, but the intensity was still building, driving him mad.
Their eyes locked and his heart throbbed. He could feel little droplets of blood sliding down his back under her fingernails, knew the bruising force with which he thrust into her, but could not have stopped to save his life. Not to save hers.
This need in her eyes frightened him, called to darker parts of his soul than she usually touched. He was ashamed, enthralled, alive. He felt her come once, then again and again, and even when his body released, he knew he wasn't done with her tonight. Not nearly. Not yet. The look on her face as they held each other, panting rhythmically told him she would have accepted nothing less. And he never thought to question why.
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Harry squinted at the morning sunshine. Bane stood next to him, looking just as uncomfortable standing on the stoop of the small, secluded cottage in the English countryside. They each reached forward at the same time to knock firmly on the solid oak door, not even bothering to spare each other a glance.
The door opened, revealing a pale young woman with white hair in a thick braid down her back. "Finally. They'll be so glad you've arrived."
Harry blinked. "Apparently, we were expected."
Bane shouldered past Harry to follow the woman as she turned and walked back into the house. Gritting his teeth, Harry followed as well, closing the door with a firm click behind him. They entered a large room, with an airy ceiling. The back wall of the room was made of glass windows, overlooking the forest surrounding the cottage. The white carpet was thick, and Harry's shoes sank in with every step. Plush furniture was strewn about the room, accompanied by stacks of books on small tables. Two children sat on the couch, both as pale and white haired as the woman who had opened the door. The boy was sketching in a book on his lap, while his twin sister had her knees pulled up to her chest, staring up at the ceiling. Harry and Bane stared at the woman, expecting some kind of introduction.
"The pancakes are burning, mother," the girl said sweetly, sweeping her long hair over one shoulder. The woman smiled at her daughter and left the room.
Harry was about to clear his throat, when the boy spoke. "We're not stupid, you know. Tell the Headmaster we know the difference between copies of the same person and twins."
"How'd you know we were both Harry Potter?" They asked in unison.
"We didn't. You're both Black." The sister sighed.
"Excuse me."
"You're excused," the boy replied, setting aside his sketching. "I am Prophet, and this is Piper."
"Harr—"
"We know who you are." The boy cut him off. "Please sit down."
Harry set himself in a chair to the left of the couch, where he had a good vantage point on the exits to the room. Bane stood opposite of him, crossing his arms over his chest.
"So, what's so special about the two of you?" Bane asked.
Harry looked at him sharply, but remained silent.
"One of us always tells the truth, and one of us always lies," said Piper, impishly.
"Really?" Harry asked.
"No, not really." She smiled, sliding off the couch. Turning around, she lay back, resting her legs on the couch cushions and staring at them upside down. "But he's the liar."
Bane smirked, bemused. "They sort of remind me of us, Potter."
Footsteps sounded in the hallway. Prophet called out, "The syrup, Mother!" The footsteps retreated. Prophet regarded the two men on opposing sides of the room in turn. "You'll stay for breakfast."
Harry nodded. Why was Dumbledore so interested in these two? Piper looked at him knowingly, still upside down. She was a peculiar young girl. She was dressed in a soft, lacy, white sundress, with a pair of tweed shorts underneath, which was a good thing, as the full skirt of the dress was now bunched about her waist because of her upside down position. Her white hair was strewn about her impish, angular face. Her overly full lips were spread in a mocking smile. He found himself wondering how old she was.
"I am seventeen, Mr. Potter," Piper said impishly, rolling onto her stomach and resting her chin in her hands. She kicked her feet behind her and flipped her hair back over her shoulders again.
Bane appraised her with new eyes and a raised brow.
Harry's face flushed a little. He tried to remember the last time he had blushed. He was not quite embarrassed by his instant attraction to the underage girl or her notice of the fact, but he was not used to being read so easily. He looked away from her quickly.
Piper Vates was as odd mix, part childlike actions and expression and part overtly sensual features and adult eyes that saw too much. The effect was both unsettling and oddly alluring. Harry had long ago stopped analyzing his inclinations, accepting his darker needs, intentions and ambitions as long as he remained in control of his indulgence in them. The desire to surrender to his temptations flirted with his ruthless determination to accomplish certain goals that he had set for himself. Goals that had always kept his behavior in line. But those goals were gone now and Harry was more than lost without them. Sacrificing all wants to his ambition had become his code, and how could he make decisions when the code no longer mattered? When he had no ambition left?
Prophet scowled at his sister. "Stop it. I know what you're doing."
"I have no idea what you're talking about, bro," Piper said, smiling. She cast an appreciative look at Bane, who smirked back at her. Prophet and Harry glared at him.
Their mother, Rowena, came back in to call them to breakfast in the dining room. In a somewhat awkward silence, they filed down the hall and took seats around a large, perfectly set oak table. Prophet and Piper sat on one side, Harry and Bane on the other, and Rowena and her husband, Samuel at either end. Harry and Bane found black coffee already in steaming cups at their respective seats. As they began to eat, Harry asked if any of them had any questions about the twins attendance at Hogwarts.
"No, we're very comfortable with the arrangement," Rowena smiled softly, as if indulging a very silly question. She made a motion to her house elf, who began to dole out pancakes off of a silver serving tray. "Our only regret is that they will only be able to attend for a year, as the school has been closed this past many years."
"My wife and I both went to Hogwarts." Samuel glanced over at Bane. "We were Ravenclaws, Mr. Black."
Bane started. It was a little unnerving visiting the family of the strongest Seers known to wizarding kind.
Piper sat in her chair backwards, her legs folded under her and chin propped on the back of the chair as she peered at their guests. Her brother was sprawled back in his own chair, with one leg hooked over an arm of the chair, and his jaw propped on his chin thoughtfully. Their eyes were a strange, charcoal grey, and with their blond hair, both Harry and Bane were reminded of Draco Malfoy and shifted uncomfortably.
"Have you never had formal schooling before then?" Bane asked.
"We had excellent tutors," Piper replied. "Don't worry, we'll have no problems keeping up."
After they finished eating, the twins brought their trunks downstairs. Each trunk was black, locked and had a large umbrella lashed to the top of it. They quickly bid goodbye to their parents, leaving them to finish their coffee around the dining table. They gathered in front of the fireplace. Harry reached for the jar with the floo powder.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Potter. We will have to Apparate, and while my brother and I are more than capable of Apparating, we don't have our license yet." Piper kept a hand on the handle of her trunk.
"What do you mean, we're not going to be able to floo?" Harry tossed the floo powder in the fire, but nothing happened. "What the bloody hell…?"
"There is some concern that Lucius Malfoy might be back from the dead, and all floo networks have been closed temporarily," Prophet answered.
"How did you know that?" Harry asked, exasperated.
Piper laughed, reaching over to pick something up from the nearby side table. "It was in the Daily Prophet. It came this morning, just before you did."
"Oh. Right." Harry looked chagrined.
"Who's going to take me?" Piper asked, coyly.
Bane grinned and Harry glared at him, each acknowledging somewhere inside the double meaning to her words.
Piper smiled sweetly. "Mr. Bane, will you please Apparate with me? And Prophet, you can go with Mr. Potter."
"Fine." Prophet's eyes held a warning for his sister, but she just winked back at him.
Bane smiled and hooked an arm around Piper's waist, pulling her back against his chest. He met Harry's eyes over his head, enjoying the scowl on his doppelganger's face. Bane picked up her trunk, holding it in both hands in front of Piper, effectively locking her into his embrace. "Hold on tight now, luv."
Piper turned, wrapping her arms around his waist, and leaning her head against his shoulder. She looked up at him, eyes wide. "I'm ready."
"I'm sure you are." Bane smirked and with a pop the two vanished.
"Does your sister really always lie?" Harry asked, looking at Prophet's un-amused face.
"It's not that she's a liar," Prophet said, shrewdly. "Piper is possessed of a peculiarly persuasive personality."
"Say that five times fast." Harry raised an eyebrow.
"She tells you what you need to hear. The facts, although intriguing, are irrelevant." Prophet shrugged.
"And what about you?"
"I have my own perspective of the truth."
"I see." Harry snorted. "You ready to go, then?"
Prophet looked at Harry solemnly. "I trust that such close proximity is not a necessity."
Harry's lips twitched. He grasped the young man's arm at the elbow. "I'm pretty sure this will do."
Prophet grasped his trunk handle. "Let's hurry. I know exactly what she's going to do if we take too long."
Harry nodded and with a loud pop, they Apparated as well. They arrived on the road to Howarts, just outside the small town of Hogsmeade. The twins promptly pulled their umbrellas from the tops of their trunks and opened them.
"I really don't think you'll need those," Bane said, bemused. "It's really not that sunny."
Piper winked at him. "You never know."
As they started forward, a loud crack of thunder pealed across the sky, and the clouds opened up with a downpour. Harry and Bane stared at each other, completely drenched in just a few seconds, exchanging looks of annoyance.
"Coming?" Piper called, as she skipped up the path, trunk levitating along behind her and brother at her side.
Harry cursed and followed, Bane trailing behind him, both of them scowling at the twins walking calmly ahead of them, perfectly dry and clearly in private conversation.
This was going to be interesting.
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TBC…
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