Note: This chapter was surprisingly difficult to write! I've been working on this bit in my head for ages, but it changed up everytime. I feel pretty content with how it turned out, but let me know what you think. AKA, leave me a review ;)
Reviews: Some of you have expressed some dislike about Ron and Hermione. Oddly enough, that is exactly what I was hoping for. See, I've always found Draco/Harry fics that have Ron and Hermione being totally okay with the situation a little silly. It's Draco Malfoy we're talking about after all!
Now that Draco had given him his answer and there was no easy way to turn back, Harry had every intention of confronting Ron before the day was up. Ron, however, seemed determined to make this as difficult as possible. In short, Harry had come face-to-face with Ron's silent treatment. He had seen this method used before by his friend, but it had almost always been aimed at Hermione.
Harry's first attempt ended in disaster. The trio had left their first class together and were headed to Herbology when Harry began berating Ron on his insensitivity and close-minded this. He immediately regretted this tactic, however, as all it gained him was an even more infuriated Ron and a strong rebuke from Hermione.
"Harry, stop it!" Hermione grabbed Harry's arm as Ron picked up pace and stomped ahead of them. "I told you, this has nothing to do with you being gay!"
"Then why does he refuse to tell that to me himself?" Harry asked louder than was needed, intending more for Ron to hear the question than Hermione.
"Maybe if you weren't so mean about it you would get somewhere," she suggested.
"Mean?" But Harry knew she had a point.
Harry's next attempt at confrontation came during lunch. The three had sat together as usual and Ron had even chosen to sit next to Harry, but this was only so that he could avoid all eye contact. This time Harry tried a different approach.
"Ron, pass the butter please."
Ron passed the butter.
"Ron, hand me some of that gravy."
Ron handed over the gravy.
"Ron, why do you care that I'm gay?"
"Sod off," Ron flared up, picked up his things, and moved to another part of the table to finish his meal.
Harry gave Hermione a you-can't-say-I-didn't-try sort of look, but Hermione only shrugged and told him to give Ron time.
More time was exactly what Harry wanted later in the day when his last class had come to a close. His problems with Ron had kept his mind off of the meeting with Snape, but now that it was time to head towards the dungeons, Harry felt a great amount of apprehension. Talking about relationships with Snape was about the last thing Harry ever wanted to do.
"I'll catch up with you later," Harry told Hermione after class. He had given up entirely at speaking to the overly-silent Ron. "I have a meeting with Snape."
"What for?" Hermione asked. Ron stood behind her, waiting impatiently.
Harry brought his hand up to ruffle his already messy hair in embarrassment. "He wants to discuss the Malfoy thing…"
"You volunteered to visit with Snape for that ferret?" Ron piped in unexpectantly.
"Yeah?" Harry replied, surprised that Ron had said anything. "Turns out Malfoy might be in some sort of danger. I agreed to hear Snape out."
Something seemed to have clicked in Ron's brain, though Harry was unsure what it was. Ron's features began to soften from the scowl he had adopted and his eyes shown with some new realization. Harry wanted to know what he had done to cause such a reaction in Ron, but did not have the time to find out. He did not want to start out his meeting with Snape on the wrong side for being late.
When Harry reached Snape's office door, he pushed all thoughts of Ron out of his mind and tried one last time to prepare himself for what he knew would be a meeting from hell. When he had fully composed himself and had prepared a few snide remarks just in case they were needed, Harry knocked on the door. To his surprise the door opened to reveal Draco, not Snape.
"Hey," Draco greeted him with a small smile.
Seeing this smile from Draco rather than the sneer from Snape he had been expecting boosted Harry's confidence. He followed Draco into the room and the two sat down in the straight-backed chairs facing Snape's desk; Harry sat to the right of Draco.
Professor Snape was seated behind his desk and had adopted a face impossible to read as he waited for the two boys to sit down. When he was certain that he had their full attention, he waited a moment longer in silence before jumping into the matter at hand, skipping all forms of a welcome.
"I would like to start this meeting by telling you both that I do not support this. Your decision to bet with one another will complicate your lives and quite possibly ruin them. I have advised Draco that it is unwise to risk his life for such an arrogant, immature boy…"
"Severus…" Draco warned, but Snape held his hand up and continued.
"But I can tell that the two of you are too foolish and love-sick to pay any attention to my well-given advice. With that said, I feel it is my duty to explain to you in full what dangers lay ahead. I promised Draco's mother many years ago that I would do whatever is in my power to keep him safe, and if this means accepting you as the partner of my godson, I shall begrudgingly do so."
Harry was quite certain that his ears were deceiving him. Snape 'accepting' him seemed just as likely as Voldemort allowing him to live in peace. He turned to look at the boy next to him to gain some clue that he really had heard correctly. Draco did not seemed to be as surprised as Harry, but the look of relief on his face told him that Draco had not expected such a positive outcome.
"Now, as I am sure you aware, Mr. Potter, Draco's family is closely associated with the Death Eaters. I know that Professor Dumbledore has given you a general explanation of who the Death Eaters are, but did he ever go further than telling you they are the loyal supporters of the Dark Lord?"
Harry hesitated before saying, "No." Dumbledore had never properly explained to him what the true mission of the Death Eaters was. He had never noticed this lack of teaching on Dumbledore's part, but now that Snape mentioned it, Harry had an uncomfortable feeling the Headmaster had purposefully left him ignorant on this matter, afraid Harry might find himself sympathetic to the wrong side. After all, Harry had never had a particularly wonderful experience with muggles.
"So I suspected," Snape replied. His voice gave away his irritation at Harry's lack of knowledge on the matter, but his face remained eerily void of expression. "The Death Eaters are a sect of wizards and witches that have been around since the beginning of wizardkind, though they did not adopt their present name until the rise of the Dark Lord. Since the beginning of written history there has been evidence of the idea of magical supremacy, meaning that wizards have the right, and duty, to exercise control over muggles. Believe it or not, most of wizardkind believes in this idea of magical supremacy, though in varying degrees. For example, the Ministry of Magic has a small department known as 'Muggle Redirecting' which concentrates on keeping the muggle population from making any life-threatening errors. The Muggle Redirecting department of the Ministry of Soviet Russia was commended a few years back for their involvement in the halting of nuclear weaponry."
Both Draco and Harry were by this point utterly lost. Harry had never been the smartest when it came to the subject of history and Draco was entirely unsure of what nuclear weaponry was. Noticing the blank looks on the students in front of him, Snape gave a small cough and continued his lesson in a more accessible direction.
"Over the decades magical supremacists began to become more and more radical. Some began to push for the total annihilation of muggles and even more began to push for the purification of wizard blood. They planned to do this by removing all half-breeds, 'mudbloods,' and the sexually deviant, mainly homosexuals and wizards or witches who had married muggles. This movement is where the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters you are familiar with fit in. Do you follow?"
The question was more directed towards Harry, but both boys nodded in the affirmative. Snape seemed pleased by the lack of questions and continued.
"It is at this point that the dangers for Draco become apparent. Because he is a wizard, and more importantly a pureblood wizard, his descent in to sexual deviancy, as seen by the Death Eaters, is far worse than if he were a half-blood or muggle. As a pureblood Draco is expected to know what behavior is and is not acceptable. If he were a homosexual muggle, he would be considered naïve and weak. As a pureblood, however, he is seen as a traitor to the Death Eater cause."
"If Draco is considered a traitor as a homosexual, then why is it so horrendous that he should be with me?" Harry finally braved a question.
"Is it not obvious?" Snape asked, annoyed at the question.
Harry gave a blank stare until Draco added in his own sense.
"Because you're Harry Potter," Draco raised his hands for emphasis. "The Chosen One, The Boy Who Lived!"
"Oh, right," Harry replied, his face screwed up in thought. "But I still don't see what more danger I could add if he is already seen as a 'traitor.'"
The professor seemed to understand now Harry's confusion and made to explain.
"Presently Draco is protected by his family name. He will be disowned and shunned by the vast majority of the Death Eaters, many of which are his family and friends, but out of respect for his father's contribution to the Death Eater Cause, he will be left unharmed. The danger, then, lies in the fact that he has chosen the Dark Lord's greatest enemy as his lover. Malfoy or not, no Death Eater will allow such a traitorous act to go unpunished."
Harry felt himself become sick to his stomach. He had pieced together that Draco's situation must not be the greatest if he had felt the need to take his own life. But there was something about the matter-of-fact way Snape had used to explain the full situation that really him home with Harry. He was scared to look at Draco, afraid he might see that same defeated expression he had seen in the unused classroom, but he forced himself to look anyway.
Worried, gray eyes met Harry's, though harry realized from the way Draco searched his face that the worry was not for the dangers Snape had just described, but rather that Harry might decide all of this was too much to handle and leave. Although he was a little nervous to do so with Snape watching him, Harry leaned sideways in his chair and reached for Draco's hand to give it a reassuring squeeze. Snape pursed his lips at this show of affection, but when he saw Draco's expression soften at Harry's reassurance, his mouth relaxed just slightly.
"Now that you are aware of the dangers," Snape continued once Harry had leaned back in his seat and returned his hand to his lap, "I fully expect both of you to take any precaution necessary to avoid trouble. While you are here in the castle you will be safe, though if and when word begins to spread about the two of you, we will need to look into moving Draco away from some of the more zealous members of the Slytherin house. Until then, I advise both of you to use discretion with your relationship."
All Harry could do was nod, but Draco seemed to have a better hold of himself. The Slytherin stood up and thanked his godfather before turning to Harry and nodding his head towards the door. Harry understood the silent gesture and followed Draco out of the office, smirking for just a second as he realized he had made it through a full meeting with Snape without losing a single house point.
Note: Hmm, so that kind of turned into a history book reading. Sorry about that! The history major in me temporarily took over my better sense. It was kind of fun to come up with the general history of Death Eaters, though, haha. I wanted there to be a real plausible explanation why Draco is in so much danger. Did I do an okay job at it? Or are you all utterly confused?
As for the next update, I'm not entiredly sure when it will be. I have a doctor's visit tomorrow that will either leave me sitting at home bored, desperate to write more, or completely groggy and not wanting to do anything but sleep. We'll see. ~TJ