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Part Six

"Hello, Draco. I did not know that you intended to visit today."

Harry blinked at Lucius. He sounded perfectly composed, and also faced Draco with his hands clasped behind his back, as if he had met his son in Hogsmeade. Harry sighed, a little enviously, a little worshipfully. He would have given a lot to look and move like that.

Maybe that's something I can learn, once I've learned more from Lucius about how to protect myself.

"Don't change the subject, Father! What are you doing? And with Potter's brother?" Draco pointed a shaking finger at Harry. "I demand to know what you are doing this instant!"

"He's auditioning me as a possible stepfather for you," Harry said.

Draco gawked. Harry had never seen someone with their mouth that wide open, and he supposed he appreciated that he got to see Draco's tonsils and know what they looked like. But it only lasted a second, as Draco spun to his father and said, "Tell me that he's joking, Father! That you wouldn't shit on Mother's memory like that!"

Harry gasped a little, not at the question, but at the way Draco had worded it. He didn't think Lucius would tolerate a family member doing that, most of the time.

Nor did he. Lucius spent a moment studying Draco, as if he would like to Transfigure him into something else, and then sighed. "You will not use words like that in front of me or the man I'm courting, Draco."

"But—!"

"No. And you know that I am not defiling your mother's memory. She asked me to marry again so that I might find joy in my life, her dying request. That it took me three years of mourning until I felt ready is between me and her spirit."

Harry blinked. He hadn't asked Lucius in any detail about Narcissa, but it did hearten him a little better to know that that had been her dying request.

"But Potter!"

"Not the one you whined about extensively in your letters, I assure you."

"But a man!"

"You should rejoice, Draco. It means that I will have no children to replace you. Which is an option that appeals at the moment."

Draco turned such a bright red that Harry thought even some of the Weasleys wouldn't be able to compete, and actually stamped his foot on the floor. Then he decided to face Harry instead of Lucius, which was a wise choice only in some ways, Harry thought. "You! Potter! What do you think of this, replacing a beloved wife?"

"I think that I get Lucius out of the deal, so it's a pretty good one by me."

That caused more gaping, longer this time. Lucius's hand found Harry's elbow and tightened on it. Harry had no idea if that meant Lucius appreciated what he had said or not. He didn't look at him. He was too busy enjoying the new shades Draco's face was turning.

"I am not going to be brother-in-law to the Boy-Who-Lived!"

"You wouldn't. You would be his stepson-in-law." If Ian even exists once Lucius and I get through with this work.

Draco made a spluttering noise that made it sound like something was wedged in his lungs. Then he turned and marched out of the room, nose so high that Harry was astounded he could see where he was going.

"The nearest Floo is the next wing over. I wonder if he remembers that."

Harry finally laughed and turned to face Lucius, who was giving him an intense look, and leaving his grip in place on Harry's elbow. "Sorry if that didn't fit with your plans on how you wanted to introduce me to Draco."

"No, it was perfect. Someone who tried to appease Draco would have to put up with being trampled by him as well. And that kind of person wouldn't be a good match for me."

"Or the kind of person who would want the kind of revenge that I do."

"That is also the case." Lucius bent and let his lips brush over the back of Harry's hand. "Now, shall we talk in more detail about what we are going to do to your lovely brother?"

"Yes. And we should do something else."

"What is that?"

"I'd like to kiss you myself.'

Lucius's eyes widened, and his hand tightened on Harry's until it was almost painful. "I am not opposed," he breathed. "But—why? I had thought that the level of physical affection we showed each other was as much as you were comfortable with."

"Seeing Draco reminded me of something." Harry reached up and slid his hand into the hair at the back of Lucius's neck, which made his eyelids flutter pleasantly.

"Oh?" Now Lucius's voice was truly breathy, and Harry smiled.

"Yes. We've been concentrating so hard on Ian and his circle, and each other, that it was easy to forget other people existed. But they do, and they're going to have their own reactions to us getting married."

A small furrow appeared in Lucius's brow. "That is true."

"And I want to show them all that I do want you, and that I don't have to think about how they feel just because Ian's my brother, or just because you were married once." Harry leaned up on his toes, so that his mouth was hovering in front of Lucius's. "So. Can I kiss you?"

Lucius inhaled, softly, hoarsely. "Yes."

Harry kissed Lucius, and it wasn't his first kiss—he had taken Padma Patil to the Yule Ball—but it was incredible. Soft and warm and strong in a way that made him feel as if he'd drunk a whole bottle of elf-made Firewhisky at once. He tightened his hand on the back of Lucius's neck and sighed.

Lucius kissed him back, suddenly, fiercely, strongly. Harry gasped a little in surprise, but willingly opened his lips, and let Lucius's tongue touch his and sweep around inside his mouth. It made his blood sing a song of triumph in his veins.

"You are powerful," Lucius said as he broke free, and he sounded drunk, too.

"Power of a sort that that Magus Marker couldn't detect?"

"Yes. Because it is your courage, your resilience, your desire to keep living, and the way you make me feel."

Harry closed his eyes as he felt Lucius's hand touch his brow, the place where Ian had the lightning bolt scar, and Harry had nothing. Harry had spent a lot of time when he was eleven and twelve envying Ian that scar. Yes, it came with things like people trying to kill you that were terrible, but at the same time, it meant you were somebody. Harry had never been anyone to the Dursleys or their neighbors.

Now, he felt blessed and marked by Lucius's touch in a way that Ian couldn't have matched.

He opened his eyes and gazed up at Lucius. "What's your idea for taking revenge on Ian?"

Lucius gave him a wicked smile and one more touch to his forehead before he stepped back. "Come with me. You'll love it." He presented his arm in that escorting gesture again, and Harry smiled as he rested his hand on Lucius's elbow.

"Will you still escort me like this when we're married?" he asked.

"I will do whatever you like, my Harry."

The sound of those words went straight to parts of Harry that couldn't have a role in this conversation. He had to take a moment to close his eyes and compose himself before he could let Lucius lead him out of the Floo room.

At least he noticed that Lucius had a bit of difficulty walking, as well.

Harry stared down at the book in front of him and shook his head. "This will be brilliant if we can pull it off."

"You think we can't?"

"You said there were lines that you wouldn't cross."

Lucius, seated on the other side of the library table from Harry—and the other side of a dinner the elves had brought them when they had to spend hours hammering out the plan—waved a lazy hand. "This resembles the line, but it isn't the same thing. The enchantments are completely independent."

Harry took a moment to look at him. Already, he thought he could estimate if Lucius was telling the truth, which meant he should be able to tell if the man was lying, as well.

All he saw was sincerity. Harry leaned back with a long sigh. "Good."

"Of course, we do need to get the thing close to him. The one problem with this method of vengeance is that we cannot strike at a distance."

"What about the ritual to trap the Longbottoms and make the Weasleys turn on each other?"

"That can be done from any distance we like." Lucius's smile made his eyes shine like they were on fire. "And do you know why?"

"Honestly? No."

"Because they have already set up the foundations for us. We will build our ritual on top of their decaying one."

Harry gave a great shout of laughter before he could stop himself. It was exactly the kind of behavior that Ian would have declared uncouth and not pureblood enough, but Lucius only watched Harry with admiration.

That gave Harry the confidence to ask the next question. "Does that mean that our ritual will decay, too?"

Lucius shook his head. "We will not make the mistake they did, by tying our circles to the lives of the people involved. Someone can die, and the ritual will continue on. We are going to inscribe the rituals on their auras."

"But I thought that was something we'd have to get close to them to do."

Lucius smiled a little. "Not when the runes already exist. Only when they were first inscribed. We will be altering them a little. Not replacing them."

Harry stretched his arms with a long sigh. "I'm so glad that I met you, Lucius. And not just because you showed me the truth. Or because you kiss really well," he added, and had the pleasure of making Lucius blush for once. "Because you're every bit the bloody-minded bastard I need in this situation."

Lucius inclined his head. "I will do whatever you like. Be whatever you like."

"I want you as you are, devoted to me."

Harry felt ridiculous even as he said the words. Surely this was going too far. He hadn't known Lucius that long. The courtship was still at the very beginning stage, at least the renewed one that he'd said Lucius could start. How could he say these words? Lucius might react by backing off and becoming—

But he was watching Lucius closely in fear of that very reaction, and he saw the moment that Lucius's eyes widened, his pulse beat and fluttered in this throat, his jaw dropped the slightest bit.

"That is what I want," Lucius whispered. "That is what I sought out the Diviner for. That is what I will have." He closed his eyes and seemed to battle a moment, trying to get himself back under control. Without looking at Harry again, he said, "But I must give you a warning."

"Yes?"

"If we get far enough in the courtship that we are betrothed and not just courting, you must be sure that you will complete it, Harry. Otherwise, I will not cease my efforts to win you if you break it off."

Harry could feel his own pulse fluttering and dancing in his throat. It should have been scary, he supposed. Ian would probably say it was, and Neville, and Ron. It was just—

They had had all the love and friendship and good memories they could have wanted. Harry had gone years without that. Why wouldn't he want it now, concentrated like this, to overwhelm him with the flow of fierce affection?

"I have to give you the same warning."

Lucius gave him yet another new smile, this one tender and on the edge of shyness. "No one has ever wanted me like you do."

Harry had to go around the table to steal another kiss. Except that it probably wasn't theft when Lucius met him willingly, hand in his hair, other hand on the back of his neck, body warm as fire.

Harry tore himself out of sleep when he heard an enormous crash. He sprinted out of bed, his hand gripping his wand, before he properly awoke, and stared around. Had one of the elves been floating something and accidentally dropped it? It had sounded like that.

But then he heard the crash again, and realized that it was coming from inside him. He clapped his hands to his ears as pain flooded him.

The pain was centered in his head. In the middle of his forehead, where Lucius had touched him earlier that day.

Over where his scar would have been if he'd had one.

Harry didn't know where the certainty came from, but he was absolutely certain. Ian is trying to transfer the Horcrux.

"Lucius!" he shouted.

Lucius must have had house-elves listening for him. It could be the only reason that Harry's door flew open thirty seconds later, and he bounded into the room. "Harry, what is the matter—"

A second later, he hissed and gripped his left arm.

The Dark Mark. Harry closed his eyes. Yes, it was the Horcrux, and he didn't have any idea how to stop it.

Another crash struck the inside of his skull, and he screamed, bending over, less from the pain than from the shock of it.

He felt hands grip his forearms, but he couldn't open his eyes. He tried to battle what was happening without having the slightest idea how to battle it. He sent waves of rejection towards it, but it didn't seem to matter. His forehead continued to flare with agony, and he thought he could even feel the faint trace of magic creating a lightning bolt scar.

"Harry!"

Harry strained to open his eyes and straighten up. Lucius was important. He had brought Harry this far, given him freedom and truth and the chance at revenge. Harry had to listen.

Lucius's face was so close to him that Harry found it hard to focus, even given that he didn't have his glasses on. "Think of your rune!" Lucius screamed at him. "Think of it, and use it against this!"

My rune?

But no, he knew what Lucius meant, and he only had to shake his head a little to get his brain into good enough order to think about it. He concentrated on the crosshatched Nauthiz, and tried to move his lips in a way that would allow him to speak the word. He hurt so much that he wasn't sure he succeeded, but he was trying.

Lucius's fingers moved on his arm, tickling. Harry wasn't sure what he was doing, but then he recognized the way his hand was tracing, and smiled a little. Lucius was trying to inscribe Nauthiz on Harry's skin.

It didn't seem to be helping. Even with the rune now glowing in Harry's head with the sunrise-like power he had seen in the gardens, the pain was getting worse, and Harry thought he could feel the distant echoes of thoughts that weren't his own. Memories of death and ashes, pain and torture, and torturing.

I only want to torture some people!

Lucius pressed his wand to Harry's breastbone. Harry felt himself calm and center, and he managed to look at Lucius again.

If you have to do it, kill me so that the Horcrux doesn't get into the Manor, then do it.

Harry spoke the words with his mind and eyes and was absolutely sure that Lucius would understand, no matter that he couldn't speak them aloud. And also that Lucius wouldn't hesitate to do what needed to be done, unlike a lot of people.

Lucius spat a word that Harry didn't recognize. It seemed to hang on the air and echo through the room longer than an English or Latin word would have. And then it reached into Harry's forehead and scooped out the Horcrux.

Harry screamed, but it was again with shock as much as with pain. He watched a chunk of darkness fly away from his face and into the wall, making a smoking hole. He stared and thought he saw it traveling further.

At the same time, Lucius made a pained hiss and sagged to his knees.

Harry turned to look at him. A huge chunk of flesh was missing from Lucius's left forearm, and blood was spraying all over the place.

"Malfoy elves!" Harry yelled. He didn't know if they would listen to him, especially since he didn't know any of their names, but he needed them here. He fell to his knees, trying to cast a healing spell on Lucius's wound with shaking fingers. It took him perhaps three seconds to remember that he didn't have his wand, something that he needed. Lucius might die—

There were cracks as the Malfoy house-elves Apparated into being. Two of them froze as if they didn't know what to do. The third one, the little blue-eyed elf who had informed Harry about breakfast being ready the first day, blurred across the distance between her and Lucius, and slammed her hands into place over the wound.

Blue-green magic cocooned the injury, and Lucius made another pained sound and passed out. Harry patted at his face, but the elf reached out and caught his wrist.

"Master Harry will not be doing that. It is not necessary. Master Malfoy is simply asleep."

Harry shuddered and bowed his head. He wrapped his hands around Lucius's neck and his head, cradling his face. After a moment, he stroked Lucius's hair with pained tenderness.

I nearly lost you, so soon after I found you.

"If you please, Master Harry? We will be moving Master Malfoy to his bed."

"Yes, of course," Harry said, and stepped back. The other two house-elves seemed to have come out of their shock, and also to be embarrassed about it. One of them helped the blue-eyed elf float Lucius into the air, and the third disappeared, probably to make sure that Lucius's bed was ready to receive him.

Harry swallowed. "Will I be in the way if I follow you?"

The blue-eyed elf examined him gravely. "No. Not if Master Harry is quiet and sits by the bed and does not touch."

Not touching would be hard, but Harry was prepared to do exactly as the elf said. Obviously she knew a lot more about what Lucius needed at the moment than he did, given that she'd prevented Lucius from dying.

"What's your name?" he asked as he followed the elves, partially to make conversation, but also because he wanted to know.

"My name is Waterfall."

"Winter," said the other elf, keeping his eyes firmly on the ground.

"Thank you, Waterfall and Winter."

Waterfall just nodded and kept walking, one hand raised and moving back and forth in smooth little conducting motions that seemed to be keeping Lucius steady in the air. Winter blushed green and muttered something.

Lucius's bedroom was enormous, of course, and the bed was decorated with green and silver patterns in snake scales, resembling a serpent coiled with its head lying on its tail. Harry snorted despite himself. I suppose he has some House pride he hasn't told me about.

Or maybe he just liked snakes or something. Harry didn't know.

There were so many things he didn't know about Lucius, things he was just beginning to discover, and Ian had nearly taken them all from him.

Harry sat down in the chair next to Lucius's bed, watching him closely but not touching, and seriously considered whether what they had planned for Ian was terrible enough, or if dismemberment would make more sense.

"Harry?"

Harry woke up with a start. He didn't remember falling asleep, and would have said that he was too nervous to do so, but he was awake now. He turned immediately to Lucius, and reached for him. Then he hesitated, eyes flitting to the wound on his arm that was still glowing with house-elf magic.

"I'm perfectly well."

"Uh-huh."

Lucius rolled his eyes and grabbed Harry's hand with his left one. "I am. Much better than I expected to be, honestly. I thought the wards would take over and not let me bleed to death before the elves could get there."

"I called the elves. I didn't think I could do anything else."

"I am flattered to owe a life-debt to such a charming man."

"Shut it," Harry muttered, flushing again. At least Lucius was smiling at him and this smile was one he'd seen before, self-satisfied and plotting. "I suppose that Ian might have tried to transfer the Horcrux to me through the ritual, but how did you block it?"

Lucius hesitated a moment, but Harry just waited. Someone not telling him the truth immediately was fine, when it was someone he could trust to do so eventually.

"I spoke a Curse," Lucius said at last, the capital letter audible in his voice.

"How is that different from an ordinary curse?"

"It forces something simple to happen in an immediate area, and ensures that whatever it enforces will go on happening. If I were to speak the Curse for Drown, for example, a room or patch of air or pond or whatever else I was speaking to would immediately drown whoever entered it. And it would continue to do that unless it was destroyed utterly."

Harry stared at him. "I want to learn."

"Harry—"

"Do you think I can't?"

"No. Only that Curses are, in some ways, worse than the Unforgivables, and are only not outlawed because the magic kills most people who attempt to learn it, so the Ministry has never seen the need."

"Do you think I could learn it? Is it a matter of raw power?"

Lucius spent a moment blinking at him, and then said, with a bewildered smile, "I sometimes still think of you the way I would anyone who came of your last name and Hogwarts House."

Harry raised an eyebrow at the Slytherin-colored sheets. "Yeah, I don't think that you get to hold the House thing against someone, exactly."

Lucius laughed again, and leaned forwards to run his hand down Harry's cheek. "Well. Yes, I do think that you could learn a few Curses, at least. It requires strength of will, not raw magical power, and you seem to me to have plenty of that."

Harry nodded. "I think I would have tried to break away from Ian and the others sooner," he said, speaking something he would never have thought was the truth only a week ago. "I just didn't know where to go, and I did think that Ian loved me, he was just disappointed in me. But now that I have you…"

"Yes."

"What was the specific Curse that you used? Not drowning, obviously."

"No. It was a word of Refusal." Again that audible capital letter. "I refused entrance into Malfoy Manor, the whole of the grounds, for anything related to the Dark Lord. It banished the Horcrux, and it took the Dark Mark. I suppose that if he left anything behind as far as artifacts or the like, they might have gone as well. I will have to have the house-elves check."

"Is there a reason you didn't do that a long time ago?"

"I will have a scar."

Harry nodded slowly. He wanted to say that it didn't matter, but it obviously mattered to Lucius, so he said, "I'm glad that you made the choice for me."

"How could I not?"

Harry squeezed Lucius's hands, and then moved out of the way as a tray of food popped up on Lucius's lap and the soup began pointedly to steam. "I suppose Waterfall thinks you ought to have that."

"What did you call her?"

Harry glanced at Lucius, alarmed. Had Waterfall told him something she wasn't supposed to? It was true that the name wasn't much like Dobby or Winky or the other house-elves Harry had met. "Is—that okay?"

"It is her true name," Lucius said slowly. "House-elves' true names are usually related to natural phenomenon, especially water. Waterfall did not tell me hers until after I turned against the Dark Lord and aided the Order in his defeat."

"So she considers me—"

"Worthy to know it, yes."

Harry looked down at his lap and struggled for a moment. He wasn't sure if it was a struggle against pride, or tears, or something else.

It didn't matter, because Lucius held Harry's hand with his while he ate.

"I am extremely angry at your brother."

Harry smiled at Lucius over the top of the History book that he'd taken off the shelves to read earlier that day, while Lucius slept. "I am, too."

"You don't look it."

Harry shrugged. "Anger with him is my default state at the moment. And worry that you were injured came first."

Lucius looked away from him again. Then he said, "I would say that we should try to find out what made him try to transfer the Horcrux yesterday, but I am not sure that knowing would give us any useful information. We have the trap prepared. We do, however, need an excuse to get close to him."

"We have that."

"Oh?"

"Me."

"If you think that I will let you use yourself as bait, you are suffering a temporary lapse in your intelligence, Harry."

Lucius's voice had become cold enough to send a shiver through Harry's bones, but he pushed ahead. One thing he trusted, besides Lucius's desire to protect him and tell him the truth, was that he could survive Lucius's anger in a way that it had never occurred to him he might survive Ian's. "Not—not that way. I'm not just going to march up to the Longbottoms' wards and offer myself for capture. But I am going to represent myself as a recently escaped kidnap victim."

Lucius cocked his head. "Go on."

"I'll say that you had me under the Imperius. No, a love potion. That'll be more believable, given that I could throw the Imperius off in my fourth year. And then you stopped giving it to me because you believed that I would stay with you of my own accord."

"Why would I do such a thing?"

Harry ducked his head and rounded his shoulders, the way he had so often with Ian. "B-because I'm so p-pathetic that you believed there was no way I could fight back."

Lucius snarled softly, but this time, Harry was absolutely sure it wasn't directed at him, and only smiled. "That will work," Lucius said. "But can you be sure that Ian will come to you by himself, and not with someone else who might overpower you?"

"I'll ask for you to come with me, Disillusioned. Or a house-elf, if you think the Longbottom wards might resist you."

"They might," Lucius murmured. "And it's true that we must move, before they simply retreat behind the wards and try some other method to transfer the Horcrux that I might not be able to guard against." He nodded. "Yes, that is the best plan we have. Though I will add some additional protections."

Harry lifted Lucius's hand and kissed the back of it.

"What was that for?"

Harry smiled. He enjoyed how low Lucius's voice had become. "I love how practical you are. Other people would balk at being accused of using a love potion, but you don't mind as long as it serves our goals."

Lucius looked at him with half-lidded eyes. "If you knew how wonderful it is to find someone who appreciates me." His voice was low.

Harry leaned in and kissed him again, burning with the fire of happiness and the desire to utterly destroy their enemies.