FIC: Surrender the Grey (5/30)
Mar. 30th, 2005 07:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
emmagrant01NOTE: This is the first draft of this story. The final version can be read HERE.
Title: Surrender the Grey
Author: Emma Grant
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Draco Malfoy returns to London after five years of self-imposed exile to start a new life with Harry. But will the secrets of the past destroy everything they've worked for?
Sequel to: Left My Heart. This will make much more sense if you have read that first!
Disclaimer: Not my characters, no copyright violation intended.
Length: 150,000 words
Status: COMPLETED November 2, 2005 (Posted March 2 - November 2, 2005)
Notes:
1. Please don't archive this story yet! This is the first draft, and in the next few months, it will be revised and edited. I'll post the final version on my website and a few other select archives, but in the meantime, feel free to link to this post.
2. There aren't enough words to say THANK YOU to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jedirita, hazelhawthorne, and charlotteschaos for beta-ing this story! These are some of the hardest-working betas out there, and they deserve lots of snaps for putting up with me for eight months.
3. Even though the backstory of this fic only assumes canon up through Order of the Phoenix, I stole a few cool ideas from Half Blood Prince. Cause they were cooler than mine...
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
(5)
27 February, 2004: Friday
"Are you okay?" Manny asked.
Draco looked up from his monitor and rubbed his eyes. "Just tired."
"Hope you don't mind that I got you a mocha instead of a latte." Manny held out the paper Pret cup and grinned at Draco's expression of horror. "Kidding, geesh. I know better."
"Thanks," Draco sighed. He pinched the bridge of his nose.
"No witty retort? Something is wrong." Manny waved his hand and the chair from his desk obediently rolled across the floor. Manny sat and studied Draco for a moment. "Is Harry keeping you up nights or something?"
"No," Draco replied. "Not like that. It's nothing."
"I offered to pick you up a coffee because you've been falling asleep all morning. It's not like you."
Draco looked up. Manny's expression was one of genuine concern, despite the lightness of his tone. Draco pursed his lips. "I dunno. I'm having trouble sleeping."
"Stress?"
"No, it's…" Draco looked away and exhaled. "Nothing. Forget it."
"You should try a sleeping potion. My Tia Emilia has an amazing recipe that'll--"
"You think I haven't tried sleeping potions?" Draco snapped.
Manny's eyes narrowed. "Are you trying to quit smoking again?"
Draco snorted and looked away. "How'd you guess? Two fucking days without one."
"You really must be in love," Manny said, rolling his chair back over to his own desk.
"Or a world-class idiot," Draco mumbled.
After ten minutes of staring at a decoded report Hermione had epistulared to him that morning, Draco could feel himself slipping out of consciousness. He was so tired he could do nothing about it.
"Draco?" Manny was standing over him.
Draco blinked. He'd fallen asleep. He cringed.
"Maybe you should take the day off," Manny said. He looked worried.
"I can't," Draco replied. "There's so much to do."
"And you're not getting anything done. You need to get some sleep. Go home."
Draco sighed. The last thing he needed was to go to sleep, where he might find himself back in the nightmare again. He had a strange feeling that it was connected to everything – to Harry's memory loss, to Death Eaters who had infiltrated the American and British governments, to the truth about Voldemort's fate. But he didn't know how, and he hated being reminded of that nightly.
"I can't," Draco whispered. He leaned forward and pressed his forehead against the desk. "God, I'm… I can't do this. I can't work in this office. I can't keep hiding."
"What are you talking about?" Manny sat on the edge of Draco's desk.
"I know fuck all about office operations. This isn't what I'm good at, Manny. I'm a field operative. I blend in; I go undercover; I root people out. I'm not accomplishing anything here." Draco sat up and ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back out of his face. The red lowlights were starting to grow out, which annoyed him to no end. It was a Muggle coloring job, so he couldn't do a thing with it.
"Draco, you're doing fine. You--"
"No, I'm not. I need to get out there."
"You've got a price on your head. Your father is only one of the people who'd love to get their hands on you, and he's probably the only one who wouldn't kill you on sight."
"I know it's dangerous. But I came here to help. In fact, I risked my life to come here and help."
"No," Manny said. "You came here because Harry asked you to. You came here because this was where he was."
Draco stared at his own hands. If Harry knew the truth -- the whole truth -- Draco doubted he'd understand. And that was the crux of his problem. He had to solve this mystery before Harry learned his secrets -- because then it wouldn't matter anymore. It was his only chance.
"Go home," Manny said.
Draco frowned.
Manny sighed. "Want to go for a walk, then?"
+++++
"Mama says it's been raining like crazy in San Antonio," Manny said, glancing at the grey sky. "I told her it's the same here."
"When did you talk to your mother?"
"She emailed me."
Draco shook his head. "It's amazing that your parents use email. I don't know any wizards over the age of forty who do."
"Do you know how much a trans-Atlantic goose costs?" Manny snorted. "Besides, she's had to use email for years. Even though the College of Magic is hidden from Mundanes, it's still part of the University."
"Is that where you studied?"
"No," Manny replied. "I would have had my own mother for western magical theory, which would have been a disaster waiting to happen. I went to the University of Michigan. It has a great College of Magic, one of the top ones in the country."
"Going to university isn't something many wizards here do," Draco said. "But I wanted to train to be an Auror, so it wasn't necessary for me."
"That's a bachelor's degree program in the US," Manny noted. "But still -- you must have been pretty angry at your father to take that career path."
Draco shrugged and said nothing.
"I rebelled against my parents by getting married young and not going to graduate school," Manny said. "That's how to piss off academics, in case you were curious."
"Hermione is going to love your family," Draco grinned.
Manny blushed and was quiet for a moment. "It's happened so fast. I don't… can you really fall in love with someone in two weeks?"
Draco blew out a breath. "Yeah -- I think you can."
They walked in silence until Leicester Square opened before them, bustling with tourists even in this dreary month. They made their way to the center of the square and sat on a bench. Draco's glamour was designed to be as uninteresting as possible; no one had spared him a glance. Manny received a few curious looks, but Draco might as well have been invisible.
"So how's it going with Harry?" Manny's tone was casual, but Draco knew the question was not.
"Fine," he replied.
"Ben said y'all saw him with his ex-wife the other day."
Draco sighed. "Yes, well… it was nothing."
Manny opened his mouth to respond, but closed it again. He turned towards Draco. "I know you care about him -- and he seems to be a very nice guy -- but is there any possibility this is just a rebound fling for him?"
"Of course there's a possibility," Draco replied. He watched a bit of rubbish flutter in the breeze on the ground before him.
"I just don't want to see you get hurt."
"Like you hurt me, you mean?" Draco asked, raising his eyes to meet Manny's.
Manny's expression didn't change. "You know how much I regret that." He was silent for a moment, and then looked away. "I was angry at her, at the world, at women in general. And you were there, and you were willing, and… I was curious. I never meant for it to get so complicated." Manny clasped his hands together in his lap, almost as if he were doing so to keep himself from reaching out to Draco. "But I care about you. I always will."
Draco smiled. "I know. And I trust Harry. I can't explain why. I have no reason to do, but being with him feels very… comfortable. Even though he's still sorting it all out, somehow I know it will work. If I don't screw it up." Draco frowned. He hadn't meant to say that last bit aloud.
"Then don't screw it up." Manny smiled at him. "But if he hurts you, I'll have to kill him."
Draco smiled back. "I wonder if he's had this same conversation with Hermione?"
"Probably. Do you think those two ever…?"
"No," Draco replied. "I don't." He grinned at Manny -- and then a dark shape caught his attention just behind Manny's shoulder. Draco felt his stomach drop.
"What?" Manny said, whirling around to look in the direction Draco was staring.
Draco blinked, and the shadow was gone.
"Are you all right?" Manny asked.
Draco nodded. "I… thought I saw something for a moment."
"Saw what? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Draco tried not to flinch at the irony of the comment. "It was nothing. Let's head back, shall we?"
Manny glanced at his watch. "I've got a meeting with Hermione, actually."
"A meeting?" Draco repeated. "I'll bet."
Manny rolled his eyes. "Is that all you think about?"
"Of course," Draco grinned.
Draco looked back once as they walked away, but nothing was there. He shivered.
+++++
The envelope was sitting on Draco's desk when he returned, along with an annoyed-looking owl. And a few pellets.
"Ugh," Draco muttered, casting a dirty glance at the bird.
"It's been here for a while," Ben said, peeking through the doorway. "It refused to give the package to anyone but you." He disappeared from view again.
Draco glanced at the envelope: Derek Malone was written on it in Harry's handwriting. He reached for it, and the owl nipped his hand.
"What the--? Oh, right. Finite incantatum." The owl blinked at him once as the glamour dissipated, then stepped away from the package. It scowled at Draco until he gave it a treat from the packet he kept in a drawer. It extended its wings as if stretching, then swept through the corridor and out of sight.
Draco banished the owl pellets to the rubbish bin with a wave of his hand and picked up the envelope. It was thick and lumpy, and looked a bit worse for wear. Draco wondered if Harry had distressed it on purpose to make it look unimportant. He opened it and emptied the contents on his desk. There were several bundles of parchment, each clipped together with a different colored Muggle paperclip, a few dark-colored feathers, a Muggle still photo of a smiling man holding what looked to be a dead owl in one hand and a shotgun in the other, and several stones.
Draco blinked. Stones?
He picked up a lone piece of parchment. Like the others, it was blank, and had a paper clip on it despite not being clipped to anything else. Draco pulled off the blue paperclip and a jumble of letters and numbers appeared on the page.
"Granger," Draco muttered. One of the first things she'd done when the FBI office was set up was to meet with each person individually and explain how their own personal cryptokeys worked, how to encode and decode messages, etc. Draco's eyes had nearly glazed over, but he'd left with a new admiration for her.
He retrieved his wand from a pocket and tapped it against the parchment, whispering the key spell. The characters on the page moved and reformed.
Draco,
I had to pull a few strings to get this information to you. It's highly confidential, so I have to insist you only reveal information to Manny on a need-to-know basis. The feathers and stones are from the site of a "magical incident" (that's how they refer to it in the reports) that occurred near Durham last week. They've been examined thoroughly in our own lab, but no one has been able to determine the source of the magical signature left on them.
Draco paused to cast a suspicious glance at the stones. They were ordinary bits of rock, as far as he could tell.
The feathers are from the owl that was killed. I don't know if those will be helpful or not, but I nicked them from the lab along with the rocks. There are also a few classified reports from Unspeakables and Aurors who were sent to clean up the area after the "incident". You'll notice parts of them are blacked out -- that was the best Bass could give me without overtly breaking the law.
Let me know if you need anything further.
Harry
Draco decoded the other sets of parchment and set to reading the reports. Aurors had followed standard procedure after what appeared to be a terrorist-style Death Eater attack in a village outside of Durham. A house was destroyed, but there were only light injuries, and relatively few Muggles had been affected. One of the Aurors had complained bitterly that she had been prevented from conducting a complete investigation. Draco scanned to the end of the report, and started at the name: N. Tonks. His cousin.
Time for a little family reunion, perhaps. He didn't know her very well, but his father always said blood was the most important thing. He pulled a blank sheet of parchment and a quill from a tray on his desk.
Ms. Tonks,
I am investigating the incident that occurred in Durham a week ago and have read your report. I would like to meet with you in person to discuss your concerns. Please reply with a date and time convenient to your schedule.
Sincerely,
Derek Malone
US Federal Bureau of Investigation, London Division
He rolled the parchment and tied it, then headed to the front office. The receptionist -- a young witch named Grizabella -- looked up from her computer monitor when he walked through the door. She tapped the screen a few times before casting a guilty glance in his direction.
Draco resisted the urge to tease her. She'd only finished at Hogwarts the previous year and had never seen a computer until they'd hired her. She'd quickly discovered internet porn, though, and there'd been no turning back. She'd become so adept at navigating the web for information that Manny was considering sending her to a Muggle computer course.
Draco thought she'd probably leave the FBI for a job designing pornographic web sites if that happened.
"Owl this," he said, "to Nymphadora Tonks."
"Yes, sir," she replied, tucking a strand of mousy-colored hair behind her ear. Draco found it amusing to be called 'sir' by someone only a few years his junior. She'd once said she remembered him from school, but he'd not recognized her, even though she'd been in Slytherin. Of course, he'd been a bit preoccupied those last years.
She summoned an owl, then shifted in her chair, staring at her hands. Draco knew he intimidated her, but he had no plans to change the situation. There was no reason to get to know her any better.
The owl's arrival broke the tension. Draco handed her the parchment and went back to his office.
Fifteen minutes later, Grizabella appeared next to his desk. "It's a reply from Ms. Tonks, sir," she said. She held out the envelope and jerked her hand away as soon as Draco took it.
The handwriting on the envelope didn't look familiar, but then, he hadn't ever known his cousin very well. Grizabella shifted her weight from one foot to the other beside his desk, hands clasped in front of her.
"Thank you," Draco said, not looking up.
"Sir?"
Draco caught a sidelong glimpse of her wringing hands. "Yes?"
"Might I… well, it's Friday, and it's a bit quiet…"
"You want to take the afternoon off, I suppose."
"Yes, sir."
He looked up to see her blushing. "It's not up to me. You should ask Mr. Padilla when he gets back."
Her face fell, and Draco had to struggle not to grin. Manny would never give her the afternoon off, and she knew it. "Yes, sir." She returned to her desk in the front office.
Draco opened the envelope and pulled out a slip of parchment. Meet me at the Dog and Duck at half past noon. She hadn't even signed her name. Draco glanced at the wall clock; it was nearly noon already.
Tonks didn't even know who he was, but she seemed very interested in talking to him.
+++++
Draco had never been to a Muggle pub in Britain. He'd spent a good deal of time in gay clubs when he was younger, but that was the extent of his experience. He'd had to ask Grizabella to help him find the place, and she'd produced a set of directions for him in a matter of seconds from the internet. He'd been shocked to realize the pub was just around the corner from his flat.
The Dog and Duck reminded him of a clean, freak-free Leaky Cauldron. It was small and packed with Muggles in various forms of professional attire. He scanned the room for a familiar face and saw a woman with long black hair and dark glasses sitting in the corner reading a newspaper. She couldn't have looked any more like someone who was trying to be inconspicuous. He rolled his eyes and crossed to the table.
"Ms. Tonks, I presume?"
She looked up at him and her jaw dropped. He'd cast a glamour charm, but he'd expected her to see right through it.
"Oh my god," she said, pulling the dark glasses off. Her eyes were wide and violet. He envied her ability to change her appearance without having to resort to illusory charms. "Sit," she said, pushing the newspaper aside with a sweeping gesture. It fell to the floor and scattered.
He removed his coat and hung it on a nearby hook. Tonks cast a screening spell around their table as he sat.
"Draco Malfoy," she said, grinning. "I don't believe it. Well, I'd heard rumors that you were back, but--"
"Rumors, really?" Draco asked. They'd been careful, but he knew how quickly gossip spread in the Ministry.
A man stopped to ask if they wanted to order drinks, and Tonks ordered two pints of ale, not giving Draco a choice of beverage.
"You must tell Harry I said hello," Tonks said, lips quirking in a knowing smile. "I've not seen him in ages."
"I will," Draco replied. So everyone knew about that too, then?
"I'm so glad to see he's moving on. I never liked his wife very much."
Draco smiled. Tonks was quite a lovely person. He must make an effort to get to know her better.
"Unfortunately, I don't have much time to sit and chat," she continued. "I'm expected back for a meeting." She paused while their pints were set on the table, then took a rather large gulp from her own glass. "I'm actually glad it's you I'm going to tell. There are very few people I trust in the Ministry these days."
Draco tried not to let his surprise show. She trusted him? She hardly knew him.
"I was sent there after it happened. It came out of the blue; there weren't even any rumors that something was going to happen. It's been so quiet these last few years, you know." She paused to drink a third of her ale, as if bolstering her courage. "A house was destroyed in a small village, and some Muggles had been tortured -- there was no permanent harm done, and we wiped their memories that day after questioning them.
"They reported seeing an unusual number of owls in the area during the days prior to the attack. Strange, dark owls, not your common barn owls. One farmer even shot one -- it'd killed one of his cats. My immediate thought was that they were shadows -- and I later discovered that there were no records of any official Ministry business there."
"Did you see any of them?" Draco took a sip from his glass.
"Just the dead one," she replied. "Its head had been blown off and it was a bit mangled -- apparently the farmer's dog had got hold of it. But it looked like a shadow. You know how they spell their feathers so dark to make them resistant to illumination charms and such?"
"Your report noted that you'd wanted to investigate further," Draco prompted.
"Yes," she said, pounding her fist on the table. Draco's ale sloshed a bit. "Death Eaters haven't attacked randomly for years. There must have been a target. And the owls -- why so many, and why shadows in particular? It has to involve the Ministry somehow. I'm certain there were Unspeakables on the scene before it ever happened, though no one will admit it."
"So perhaps Death Eaters knew they were there and wanted to disrupt whatever they were doing," Draco said. "But who was meeting there, and why would Death Eaters know about it and not your division?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," Tonks sighed. "Each of my attempts to investigate was thwarted. I was told to stop asking silly questions; that the incident was random terrorism and there was nothing more to do other than to capture the Death Eaters involved."
"Has anyone been captured?"
"No," Tonks snorted. "There wasn't much evidence to go on, and no one seems interested in digging around for more. The investigation has effectively stalled." She drained her ale and leaned back in her chair.
"There were some stones collected from the site," Draco said.
Tonks nodded. "Fragments from the house that was destroyed. Our lab did nothing with them, though. They hardly tried, and no one would let me take a look."
Draco sipped his ale. It was probably best not to mention that those stones were sitting on his desk at this very moment.
"I've got to go," Tonks said, slipping her dark glasses on once again. She dug in her bag for a few Muggle coins and placed them on the table. "If you want to meet again, let me know. But I have to be careful."
"I'll be in touch," Draco said.
She stood, bumping the table as she did and nearly toppling Draco's glass. "Oops, sorry! And tell Harry to owl me, eh?" With that, she slinked out of the pub, looking for all the world like a character from an old Muggle detective film. It was a good thing most wizards didn't watch such films, Draco thought. Her behavior was far more conspicuous than it ought to be for someone sneaking about.
The coins Tonks had left wouldn't come close to covering the price of the ale, so Draco left a five pound note on the table. The pub was full of people now and getting a bit smoky. He'd left his cigarettes at home -- he was, after all, trying to quit -- but the scent of smoke was far too appealing. He took a deep breath, hoping for some residual nicotine, then gathered his coat and left.
+++++
The stones were scattered on his desk. Now that he knew how important they were, Draco felt a bit guilty about having left them in plain view.
He picked one up and turned it over in his hand. He could see where it had been recently fractured. Marks that he'd previously assumed were natural coloration were clearly scorch marks.
Draco pursed his lips. There were many spells with the power to shatter stone, but the best were, of course, dark in origin. And dark magic left a particular sort of residue. He couldn't imagine that the lab hadn't looked for it. He set the stone on his desk and pointed his wand at it. He concentrated for several seconds before whispering, "resero". The stone shimmered before his eyes and he concentrated, watching and feeling and listening.
He'd had a hard time in Auror training learning to sense magical residue. It was an advanced and complex skill, and he'd had little aptitude for it, unfortunately. However, he'd improved over the years -- and had found he was particularly sensitive to dark magic.
It was a useful skill, if not a surprising one.
He stared at the stone, focusing on the faint glow he could now see around it. It was especially difficult to see, almost as if… He stopped the thought and focused even harder. He only had a few more seconds before the spell would fade, and he wasn't sure if he could do it again.
He gritted his teeth and picked the stone up. He wrapped his fingers around it, closing his eyes. If he couldn't see it, maybe he could feel it. The edges of the stone were rough, and the residue was cold against his skin. The chill spread, making his fingers tingle uncomfortably.
And then it was warm -- and familiar. Draco's eyes widened and the stone fell to the floor.
His father had been there when the house was destroyed, he was sure of it. Draco collapsed into his chair, drained. Whatever had happened in Durham, Lucius was involved. As were unidentified people in the Ministry, perhaps -- people who had possibly even censured Tonks for trying to investigate.
And someone had tried to remove the residue -- of that he was certain.
There was no way to know how his father had been involved, however. The presence of magical residue could mean anything; it was considered circumstantial evidence in courts because it only implied a spell had been cast in the vicinity of the object.
Draco had been running from his father for a year, even in his dreams, and his first break in the investigation led straight to the man. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He would go and investigate, but he wouldn't tell anyone he knew his father was involved -- not yet.
+++++
"No," Harry said, leaning back in his chair. "Absolutely not."
Draco swore under his breath and looked away. "Why does everyone seem to think they can tell me what to do?"
"Because some of us actually can," Manny said. His voice was smooth and calm. "I know why you want to go, but we can't risk it." Manny didn't know, of course; he probably thought this was related to Draco's morning outburst.
"I worked five years undercover," Draco replied, "in some fairly dangerous situations. I dealt with Muggle gangsters and Death Eaters on a daily basis."
"And that was before they knew you weren't really a double agent," Harry said. "Things are different now. We need you to stay safe. Someone else can go and investigate."
"Who?" Draco asked, leveling a glare at Harry. "Who understands the situation like I do?"
"No one," Harry replied. "But that doesn't change anything."
Draco pushed away from the conference table and stood, running his hands through his hair in frustration. When he called this meeting, he'd expected everyone to praise him for his brilliant investigative work and speed him on his way. He'd never expected this.
"Draco--" Manny began.
"Oh, do shut the fuck up," Draco said, whirling around. "I don't particularly enjoy being treated like a child."
"Then perhaps you should stop acting like one," Manny retorted. Draco glared at him.
Harry sighed. "Manny, could you give us a minute?"
"Sure," Manny replied, standing. He sighed and opened his mouth as if to say more, but didn't. Instead, he shrugged and left the room, pulling the door closed behind him.
Harry leaned against the table. "I know you know what you're doing. No one disputes that."
"Oh, really?" Draco replied, turning to face him.
"Yes, really. It's not that we don't think you can handle it; it's just that you're… a secret weapon of sorts. They don't know for certain where you are, but if anyone were to find you there--"
"They wouldn't," Draco said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Everyone seems to be dismissing the fact that I'm an undercover expert."
Harry pressed a hand to his forehead, revealing his own frustration for the first time. "Then don't go because I am asking you not to. It's a terrible risk, and I don't think it's worth it right now." He looked away. "I don't want to lose you over something like this."
Draco blew out a breath, considering. Was Harry being sincere, or was he playing on Draco's emotions? "That isn't fair," he replied at last.
Harry shrugged and looked up again. "None of this is fair, you know. It isn't fair that I'm missing an important piece of my past. It isn't fair that I've watched good friends die. It isn't fair that the destiny I was supposed to fulfill fell on the shoulders of someone else." He sighed and dropped his arms, as if in defeat. "And it isn't fair that I only just found you again. I'm too selfish to let you go so quickly."
Draco couldn't help but smile. "Again?"
Harry sighed. "Oh… you know what I mean, don't you?" He cast a hopeful smile at Draco.
Draco's resolve melted, against his will. He crossed the room to stand before Harry. "There's nothing wrong with being selfish, you know."
Harry pulled Draco into his arms and pressed a kiss against his forehead. "That's what I'm counting on."
Draco let himself be held for a long moment, surprised at how good it felt. Harry's arms were tight around him, comforting and familiar, warm and secure. How had he gone so long without this in his life?
"Please don't go to Durham," Harry whispered. "I'll send someone, and you can even brief them."
Draco nodded into Harry's shoulder.
"Thank you," Harry whispered. Draco pressed his face into Harry's neck and tried to convince himself he'd made the right choice.
+++++
Go to part 6
Title: Surrender the Grey
Author: Emma Grant
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Draco Malfoy returns to London after five years of self-imposed exile to start a new life with Harry. But will the secrets of the past destroy everything they've worked for?
Sequel to: Left My Heart. This will make much more sense if you have read that first!
Disclaimer: Not my characters, no copyright violation intended.
Length: 150,000 words
Status: COMPLETED November 2, 2005 (Posted March 2 - November 2, 2005)
Notes:
1. Please don't archive this story yet! This is the first draft, and in the next few months, it will be revised and edited. I'll post the final version on my website and a few other select archives, but in the meantime, feel free to link to this post.
2. There aren't enough words to say THANK YOU to
jedirita, hazelhawthorne, and charlotteschaos for beta-ing this story! These are some of the hardest-working betas out there, and they deserve lots of snaps for putting up with me for eight months.3. Even though the backstory of this fic only assumes canon up through Order of the Phoenix, I stole a few cool ideas from Half Blood Prince. Cause they were cooler than mine...
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
(5)
27 February, 2004: Friday
"Are you okay?" Manny asked.
Draco looked up from his monitor and rubbed his eyes. "Just tired."
"Hope you don't mind that I got you a mocha instead of a latte." Manny held out the paper Pret cup and grinned at Draco's expression of horror. "Kidding, geesh. I know better."
"Thanks," Draco sighed. He pinched the bridge of his nose.
"No witty retort? Something is wrong." Manny waved his hand and the chair from his desk obediently rolled across the floor. Manny sat and studied Draco for a moment. "Is Harry keeping you up nights or something?"
"No," Draco replied. "Not like that. It's nothing."
"I offered to pick you up a coffee because you've been falling asleep all morning. It's not like you."
Draco looked up. Manny's expression was one of genuine concern, despite the lightness of his tone. Draco pursed his lips. "I dunno. I'm having trouble sleeping."
"Stress?"
"No, it's…" Draco looked away and exhaled. "Nothing. Forget it."
"You should try a sleeping potion. My Tia Emilia has an amazing recipe that'll--"
"You think I haven't tried sleeping potions?" Draco snapped.
Manny's eyes narrowed. "Are you trying to quit smoking again?"
Draco snorted and looked away. "How'd you guess? Two fucking days without one."
"You really must be in love," Manny said, rolling his chair back over to his own desk.
"Or a world-class idiot," Draco mumbled.
After ten minutes of staring at a decoded report Hermione had epistulared to him that morning, Draco could feel himself slipping out of consciousness. He was so tired he could do nothing about it.
"Draco?" Manny was standing over him.
Draco blinked. He'd fallen asleep. He cringed.
"Maybe you should take the day off," Manny said. He looked worried.
"I can't," Draco replied. "There's so much to do."
"And you're not getting anything done. You need to get some sleep. Go home."
Draco sighed. The last thing he needed was to go to sleep, where he might find himself back in the nightmare again. He had a strange feeling that it was connected to everything – to Harry's memory loss, to Death Eaters who had infiltrated the American and British governments, to the truth about Voldemort's fate. But he didn't know how, and he hated being reminded of that nightly.
"I can't," Draco whispered. He leaned forward and pressed his forehead against the desk. "God, I'm… I can't do this. I can't work in this office. I can't keep hiding."
"What are you talking about?" Manny sat on the edge of Draco's desk.
"I know fuck all about office operations. This isn't what I'm good at, Manny. I'm a field operative. I blend in; I go undercover; I root people out. I'm not accomplishing anything here." Draco sat up and ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back out of his face. The red lowlights were starting to grow out, which annoyed him to no end. It was a Muggle coloring job, so he couldn't do a thing with it.
"Draco, you're doing fine. You--"
"No, I'm not. I need to get out there."
"You've got a price on your head. Your father is only one of the people who'd love to get their hands on you, and he's probably the only one who wouldn't kill you on sight."
"I know it's dangerous. But I came here to help. In fact, I risked my life to come here and help."
"No," Manny said. "You came here because Harry asked you to. You came here because this was where he was."
Draco stared at his own hands. If Harry knew the truth -- the whole truth -- Draco doubted he'd understand. And that was the crux of his problem. He had to solve this mystery before Harry learned his secrets -- because then it wouldn't matter anymore. It was his only chance.
"Go home," Manny said.
Draco frowned.
Manny sighed. "Want to go for a walk, then?"
+++++
"Mama says it's been raining like crazy in San Antonio," Manny said, glancing at the grey sky. "I told her it's the same here."
"When did you talk to your mother?"
"She emailed me."
Draco shook his head. "It's amazing that your parents use email. I don't know any wizards over the age of forty who do."
"Do you know how much a trans-Atlantic goose costs?" Manny snorted. "Besides, she's had to use email for years. Even though the College of Magic is hidden from Mundanes, it's still part of the University."
"Is that where you studied?"
"No," Manny replied. "I would have had my own mother for western magical theory, which would have been a disaster waiting to happen. I went to the University of Michigan. It has a great College of Magic, one of the top ones in the country."
"Going to university isn't something many wizards here do," Draco said. "But I wanted to train to be an Auror, so it wasn't necessary for me."
"That's a bachelor's degree program in the US," Manny noted. "But still -- you must have been pretty angry at your father to take that career path."
Draco shrugged and said nothing.
"I rebelled against my parents by getting married young and not going to graduate school," Manny said. "That's how to piss off academics, in case you were curious."
"Hermione is going to love your family," Draco grinned.
Manny blushed and was quiet for a moment. "It's happened so fast. I don't… can you really fall in love with someone in two weeks?"
Draco blew out a breath. "Yeah -- I think you can."
They walked in silence until Leicester Square opened before them, bustling with tourists even in this dreary month. They made their way to the center of the square and sat on a bench. Draco's glamour was designed to be as uninteresting as possible; no one had spared him a glance. Manny received a few curious looks, but Draco might as well have been invisible.
"So how's it going with Harry?" Manny's tone was casual, but Draco knew the question was not.
"Fine," he replied.
"Ben said y'all saw him with his ex-wife the other day."
Draco sighed. "Yes, well… it was nothing."
Manny opened his mouth to respond, but closed it again. He turned towards Draco. "I know you care about him -- and he seems to be a very nice guy -- but is there any possibility this is just a rebound fling for him?"
"Of course there's a possibility," Draco replied. He watched a bit of rubbish flutter in the breeze on the ground before him.
"I just don't want to see you get hurt."
"Like you hurt me, you mean?" Draco asked, raising his eyes to meet Manny's.
Manny's expression didn't change. "You know how much I regret that." He was silent for a moment, and then looked away. "I was angry at her, at the world, at women in general. And you were there, and you were willing, and… I was curious. I never meant for it to get so complicated." Manny clasped his hands together in his lap, almost as if he were doing so to keep himself from reaching out to Draco. "But I care about you. I always will."
Draco smiled. "I know. And I trust Harry. I can't explain why. I have no reason to do, but being with him feels very… comfortable. Even though he's still sorting it all out, somehow I know it will work. If I don't screw it up." Draco frowned. He hadn't meant to say that last bit aloud.
"Then don't screw it up." Manny smiled at him. "But if he hurts you, I'll have to kill him."
Draco smiled back. "I wonder if he's had this same conversation with Hermione?"
"Probably. Do you think those two ever…?"
"No," Draco replied. "I don't." He grinned at Manny -- and then a dark shape caught his attention just behind Manny's shoulder. Draco felt his stomach drop.
"What?" Manny said, whirling around to look in the direction Draco was staring.
Draco blinked, and the shadow was gone.
"Are you all right?" Manny asked.
Draco nodded. "I… thought I saw something for a moment."
"Saw what? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Draco tried not to flinch at the irony of the comment. "It was nothing. Let's head back, shall we?"
Manny glanced at his watch. "I've got a meeting with Hermione, actually."
"A meeting?" Draco repeated. "I'll bet."
Manny rolled his eyes. "Is that all you think about?"
"Of course," Draco grinned.
Draco looked back once as they walked away, but nothing was there. He shivered.
+++++
The envelope was sitting on Draco's desk when he returned, along with an annoyed-looking owl. And a few pellets.
"Ugh," Draco muttered, casting a dirty glance at the bird.
"It's been here for a while," Ben said, peeking through the doorway. "It refused to give the package to anyone but you." He disappeared from view again.
Draco glanced at the envelope: Derek Malone was written on it in Harry's handwriting. He reached for it, and the owl nipped his hand.
"What the--? Oh, right. Finite incantatum." The owl blinked at him once as the glamour dissipated, then stepped away from the package. It scowled at Draco until he gave it a treat from the packet he kept in a drawer. It extended its wings as if stretching, then swept through the corridor and out of sight.
Draco banished the owl pellets to the rubbish bin with a wave of his hand and picked up the envelope. It was thick and lumpy, and looked a bit worse for wear. Draco wondered if Harry had distressed it on purpose to make it look unimportant. He opened it and emptied the contents on his desk. There were several bundles of parchment, each clipped together with a different colored Muggle paperclip, a few dark-colored feathers, a Muggle still photo of a smiling man holding what looked to be a dead owl in one hand and a shotgun in the other, and several stones.
Draco blinked. Stones?
He picked up a lone piece of parchment. Like the others, it was blank, and had a paper clip on it despite not being clipped to anything else. Draco pulled off the blue paperclip and a jumble of letters and numbers appeared on the page.
"Granger," Draco muttered. One of the first things she'd done when the FBI office was set up was to meet with each person individually and explain how their own personal cryptokeys worked, how to encode and decode messages, etc. Draco's eyes had nearly glazed over, but he'd left with a new admiration for her.
He retrieved his wand from a pocket and tapped it against the parchment, whispering the key spell. The characters on the page moved and reformed.
Draco,
I had to pull a few strings to get this information to you. It's highly confidential, so I have to insist you only reveal information to Manny on a need-to-know basis. The feathers and stones are from the site of a "magical incident" (that's how they refer to it in the reports) that occurred near Durham last week. They've been examined thoroughly in our own lab, but no one has been able to determine the source of the magical signature left on them.
Draco paused to cast a suspicious glance at the stones. They were ordinary bits of rock, as far as he could tell.
The feathers are from the owl that was killed. I don't know if those will be helpful or not, but I nicked them from the lab along with the rocks. There are also a few classified reports from Unspeakables and Aurors who were sent to clean up the area after the "incident". You'll notice parts of them are blacked out -- that was the best Bass could give me without overtly breaking the law.
Let me know if you need anything further.
Harry
Draco decoded the other sets of parchment and set to reading the reports. Aurors had followed standard procedure after what appeared to be a terrorist-style Death Eater attack in a village outside of Durham. A house was destroyed, but there were only light injuries, and relatively few Muggles had been affected. One of the Aurors had complained bitterly that she had been prevented from conducting a complete investigation. Draco scanned to the end of the report, and started at the name: N. Tonks. His cousin.
Time for a little family reunion, perhaps. He didn't know her very well, but his father always said blood was the most important thing. He pulled a blank sheet of parchment and a quill from a tray on his desk.
Ms. Tonks,
I am investigating the incident that occurred in Durham a week ago and have read your report. I would like to meet with you in person to discuss your concerns. Please reply with a date and time convenient to your schedule.
Sincerely,
Derek Malone
US Federal Bureau of Investigation, London Division
He rolled the parchment and tied it, then headed to the front office. The receptionist -- a young witch named Grizabella -- looked up from her computer monitor when he walked through the door. She tapped the screen a few times before casting a guilty glance in his direction.
Draco resisted the urge to tease her. She'd only finished at Hogwarts the previous year and had never seen a computer until they'd hired her. She'd quickly discovered internet porn, though, and there'd been no turning back. She'd become so adept at navigating the web for information that Manny was considering sending her to a Muggle computer course.
Draco thought she'd probably leave the FBI for a job designing pornographic web sites if that happened.
"Owl this," he said, "to Nymphadora Tonks."
"Yes, sir," she replied, tucking a strand of mousy-colored hair behind her ear. Draco found it amusing to be called 'sir' by someone only a few years his junior. She'd once said she remembered him from school, but he'd not recognized her, even though she'd been in Slytherin. Of course, he'd been a bit preoccupied those last years.
She summoned an owl, then shifted in her chair, staring at her hands. Draco knew he intimidated her, but he had no plans to change the situation. There was no reason to get to know her any better.
The owl's arrival broke the tension. Draco handed her the parchment and went back to his office.
Fifteen minutes later, Grizabella appeared next to his desk. "It's a reply from Ms. Tonks, sir," she said. She held out the envelope and jerked her hand away as soon as Draco took it.
The handwriting on the envelope didn't look familiar, but then, he hadn't ever known his cousin very well. Grizabella shifted her weight from one foot to the other beside his desk, hands clasped in front of her.
"Thank you," Draco said, not looking up.
"Sir?"
Draco caught a sidelong glimpse of her wringing hands. "Yes?"
"Might I… well, it's Friday, and it's a bit quiet…"
"You want to take the afternoon off, I suppose."
"Yes, sir."
He looked up to see her blushing. "It's not up to me. You should ask Mr. Padilla when he gets back."
Her face fell, and Draco had to struggle not to grin. Manny would never give her the afternoon off, and she knew it. "Yes, sir." She returned to her desk in the front office.
Draco opened the envelope and pulled out a slip of parchment. Meet me at the Dog and Duck at half past noon. She hadn't even signed her name. Draco glanced at the wall clock; it was nearly noon already.
Tonks didn't even know who he was, but she seemed very interested in talking to him.
+++++
Draco had never been to a Muggle pub in Britain. He'd spent a good deal of time in gay clubs when he was younger, but that was the extent of his experience. He'd had to ask Grizabella to help him find the place, and she'd produced a set of directions for him in a matter of seconds from the internet. He'd been shocked to realize the pub was just around the corner from his flat.
The Dog and Duck reminded him of a clean, freak-free Leaky Cauldron. It was small and packed with Muggles in various forms of professional attire. He scanned the room for a familiar face and saw a woman with long black hair and dark glasses sitting in the corner reading a newspaper. She couldn't have looked any more like someone who was trying to be inconspicuous. He rolled his eyes and crossed to the table.
"Ms. Tonks, I presume?"
She looked up at him and her jaw dropped. He'd cast a glamour charm, but he'd expected her to see right through it.
"Oh my god," she said, pulling the dark glasses off. Her eyes were wide and violet. He envied her ability to change her appearance without having to resort to illusory charms. "Sit," she said, pushing the newspaper aside with a sweeping gesture. It fell to the floor and scattered.
He removed his coat and hung it on a nearby hook. Tonks cast a screening spell around their table as he sat.
"Draco Malfoy," she said, grinning. "I don't believe it. Well, I'd heard rumors that you were back, but--"
"Rumors, really?" Draco asked. They'd been careful, but he knew how quickly gossip spread in the Ministry.
A man stopped to ask if they wanted to order drinks, and Tonks ordered two pints of ale, not giving Draco a choice of beverage.
"You must tell Harry I said hello," Tonks said, lips quirking in a knowing smile. "I've not seen him in ages."
"I will," Draco replied. So everyone knew about that too, then?
"I'm so glad to see he's moving on. I never liked his wife very much."
Draco smiled. Tonks was quite a lovely person. He must make an effort to get to know her better.
"Unfortunately, I don't have much time to sit and chat," she continued. "I'm expected back for a meeting." She paused while their pints were set on the table, then took a rather large gulp from her own glass. "I'm actually glad it's you I'm going to tell. There are very few people I trust in the Ministry these days."
Draco tried not to let his surprise show. She trusted him? She hardly knew him.
"I was sent there after it happened. It came out of the blue; there weren't even any rumors that something was going to happen. It's been so quiet these last few years, you know." She paused to drink a third of her ale, as if bolstering her courage. "A house was destroyed in a small village, and some Muggles had been tortured -- there was no permanent harm done, and we wiped their memories that day after questioning them.
"They reported seeing an unusual number of owls in the area during the days prior to the attack. Strange, dark owls, not your common barn owls. One farmer even shot one -- it'd killed one of his cats. My immediate thought was that they were shadows -- and I later discovered that there were no records of any official Ministry business there."
"Did you see any of them?" Draco took a sip from his glass.
"Just the dead one," she replied. "Its head had been blown off and it was a bit mangled -- apparently the farmer's dog had got hold of it. But it looked like a shadow. You know how they spell their feathers so dark to make them resistant to illumination charms and such?"
"Your report noted that you'd wanted to investigate further," Draco prompted.
"Yes," she said, pounding her fist on the table. Draco's ale sloshed a bit. "Death Eaters haven't attacked randomly for years. There must have been a target. And the owls -- why so many, and why shadows in particular? It has to involve the Ministry somehow. I'm certain there were Unspeakables on the scene before it ever happened, though no one will admit it."
"So perhaps Death Eaters knew they were there and wanted to disrupt whatever they were doing," Draco said. "But who was meeting there, and why would Death Eaters know about it and not your division?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," Tonks sighed. "Each of my attempts to investigate was thwarted. I was told to stop asking silly questions; that the incident was random terrorism and there was nothing more to do other than to capture the Death Eaters involved."
"Has anyone been captured?"
"No," Tonks snorted. "There wasn't much evidence to go on, and no one seems interested in digging around for more. The investigation has effectively stalled." She drained her ale and leaned back in her chair.
"There were some stones collected from the site," Draco said.
Tonks nodded. "Fragments from the house that was destroyed. Our lab did nothing with them, though. They hardly tried, and no one would let me take a look."
Draco sipped his ale. It was probably best not to mention that those stones were sitting on his desk at this very moment.
"I've got to go," Tonks said, slipping her dark glasses on once again. She dug in her bag for a few Muggle coins and placed them on the table. "If you want to meet again, let me know. But I have to be careful."
"I'll be in touch," Draco said.
She stood, bumping the table as she did and nearly toppling Draco's glass. "Oops, sorry! And tell Harry to owl me, eh?" With that, she slinked out of the pub, looking for all the world like a character from an old Muggle detective film. It was a good thing most wizards didn't watch such films, Draco thought. Her behavior was far more conspicuous than it ought to be for someone sneaking about.
The coins Tonks had left wouldn't come close to covering the price of the ale, so Draco left a five pound note on the table. The pub was full of people now and getting a bit smoky. He'd left his cigarettes at home -- he was, after all, trying to quit -- but the scent of smoke was far too appealing. He took a deep breath, hoping for some residual nicotine, then gathered his coat and left.
+++++
The stones were scattered on his desk. Now that he knew how important they were, Draco felt a bit guilty about having left them in plain view.
He picked one up and turned it over in his hand. He could see where it had been recently fractured. Marks that he'd previously assumed were natural coloration were clearly scorch marks.
Draco pursed his lips. There were many spells with the power to shatter stone, but the best were, of course, dark in origin. And dark magic left a particular sort of residue. He couldn't imagine that the lab hadn't looked for it. He set the stone on his desk and pointed his wand at it. He concentrated for several seconds before whispering, "resero". The stone shimmered before his eyes and he concentrated, watching and feeling and listening.
He'd had a hard time in Auror training learning to sense magical residue. It was an advanced and complex skill, and he'd had little aptitude for it, unfortunately. However, he'd improved over the years -- and had found he was particularly sensitive to dark magic.
It was a useful skill, if not a surprising one.
He stared at the stone, focusing on the faint glow he could now see around it. It was especially difficult to see, almost as if… He stopped the thought and focused even harder. He only had a few more seconds before the spell would fade, and he wasn't sure if he could do it again.
He gritted his teeth and picked the stone up. He wrapped his fingers around it, closing his eyes. If he couldn't see it, maybe he could feel it. The edges of the stone were rough, and the residue was cold against his skin. The chill spread, making his fingers tingle uncomfortably.
And then it was warm -- and familiar. Draco's eyes widened and the stone fell to the floor.
His father had been there when the house was destroyed, he was sure of it. Draco collapsed into his chair, drained. Whatever had happened in Durham, Lucius was involved. As were unidentified people in the Ministry, perhaps -- people who had possibly even censured Tonks for trying to investigate.
And someone had tried to remove the residue -- of that he was certain.
There was no way to know how his father had been involved, however. The presence of magical residue could mean anything; it was considered circumstantial evidence in courts because it only implied a spell had been cast in the vicinity of the object.
Draco had been running from his father for a year, even in his dreams, and his first break in the investigation led straight to the man. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He would go and investigate, but he wouldn't tell anyone he knew his father was involved -- not yet.
+++++
"No," Harry said, leaning back in his chair. "Absolutely not."
Draco swore under his breath and looked away. "Why does everyone seem to think they can tell me what to do?"
"Because some of us actually can," Manny said. His voice was smooth and calm. "I know why you want to go, but we can't risk it." Manny didn't know, of course; he probably thought this was related to Draco's morning outburst.
"I worked five years undercover," Draco replied, "in some fairly dangerous situations. I dealt with Muggle gangsters and Death Eaters on a daily basis."
"And that was before they knew you weren't really a double agent," Harry said. "Things are different now. We need you to stay safe. Someone else can go and investigate."
"Who?" Draco asked, leveling a glare at Harry. "Who understands the situation like I do?"
"No one," Harry replied. "But that doesn't change anything."
Draco pushed away from the conference table and stood, running his hands through his hair in frustration. When he called this meeting, he'd expected everyone to praise him for his brilliant investigative work and speed him on his way. He'd never expected this.
"Draco--" Manny began.
"Oh, do shut the fuck up," Draco said, whirling around. "I don't particularly enjoy being treated like a child."
"Then perhaps you should stop acting like one," Manny retorted. Draco glared at him.
Harry sighed. "Manny, could you give us a minute?"
"Sure," Manny replied, standing. He sighed and opened his mouth as if to say more, but didn't. Instead, he shrugged and left the room, pulling the door closed behind him.
Harry leaned against the table. "I know you know what you're doing. No one disputes that."
"Oh, really?" Draco replied, turning to face him.
"Yes, really. It's not that we don't think you can handle it; it's just that you're… a secret weapon of sorts. They don't know for certain where you are, but if anyone were to find you there--"
"They wouldn't," Draco said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Everyone seems to be dismissing the fact that I'm an undercover expert."
Harry pressed a hand to his forehead, revealing his own frustration for the first time. "Then don't go because I am asking you not to. It's a terrible risk, and I don't think it's worth it right now." He looked away. "I don't want to lose you over something like this."
Draco blew out a breath, considering. Was Harry being sincere, or was he playing on Draco's emotions? "That isn't fair," he replied at last.
Harry shrugged and looked up again. "None of this is fair, you know. It isn't fair that I'm missing an important piece of my past. It isn't fair that I've watched good friends die. It isn't fair that the destiny I was supposed to fulfill fell on the shoulders of someone else." He sighed and dropped his arms, as if in defeat. "And it isn't fair that I only just found you again. I'm too selfish to let you go so quickly."
Draco couldn't help but smile. "Again?"
Harry sighed. "Oh… you know what I mean, don't you?" He cast a hopeful smile at Draco.
Draco's resolve melted, against his will. He crossed the room to stand before Harry. "There's nothing wrong with being selfish, you know."
Harry pulled Draco into his arms and pressed a kiss against his forehead. "That's what I'm counting on."
Draco let himself be held for a long moment, surprised at how good it felt. Harry's arms were tight around him, comforting and familiar, warm and secure. How had he gone so long without this in his life?
"Please don't go to Durham," Harry whispered. "I'll send someone, and you can even brief them."
Draco nodded into Harry's shoulder.
"Thank you," Harry whispered. Draco pressed his face into Harry's neck and tried to convince himself he'd made the right choice.
+++++
Go to part 6
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 02:13 pm (UTC)Crystal
no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 02:19 pm (UTC)Crystal
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 02:14 pm (UTC)Am I first to comment? Wow. :D Really enjoying it, of course I wish the future chapters were out already every time I get to the end of the newest chapter. But then I get cheered up every Wednesday too, so it's good.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 02:15 pm (UTC)I knew as soon as I wrote that that another comment would be posted before mine. Sod's law.
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 02:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 05:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 02:26 pm (UTC)I feel for Draco trying to stop smoking. That was the hardest thing I've ever done. Well second hardest.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 05:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 02:34 pm (UTC)The mystery deepens...
Excellent chapter as ever. Roll on next Wednesday.
Brit-pick time: Pubs
Table service is non-existent in traditional pubs. If this pub is like the Leaky Cauldron but Muggle, you would never get table service. The only pubs where you would regularly (i.e. where it could be used without specific explanation in the text) would be those that served food and were more towards the wine bar end of the market (the All Bar One chain for example), and then usually you would only get table service when the waitress/waiter was coming with your plates or to clear them - initial drinks and food orders would be given at the bar. As as aside, some pubs, especially those in the big chains (Chef and Brewer, Harvester etc) known for their family food, have proper restaurants where you have to wait to be seated etc. and they operate as a restaurant would with full table service.
You would also never leave payment for drinks on the table at a pub. Even at those bars that offer table service, you have to pay for the drinks when they are brought over as it is illegal to have a tab at a bar unless you have also ordered food (my kid sister is a licensee and have lectured on about this at some length).
Ale: any beer that isn't lager, stout or porter. That still leaves a lot of types of beer: bitter, mild, IPA (Indian Pale Ale), winter brews, spring ales, summer ales. You wouldn't order a pint of ale as such unless it was on the only non-larger/stout/porter option on tap which is rarely the case. You would however order a pint of bitter, for example, in which case you would be served the 'house' bitter (which could still be a well-known brand but usually the cheapest, or if there were several bitters at the same price, whichever took the barman/barmaid's fancy). We would tend to use beer as an generic more often than we would use ale.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 05:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 02:42 pm (UTC)You've also really got me wondering what Lucius is up to. It's obviously something big. and we haven't heard from Voldemort at all yet...
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Date: 2005-04-02 05:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 02:44 pm (UTC)Absolutely gorgeous, as always ;)
no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 05:15 am (UTC)it's Wednesday already?
Date: 2005-03-30 02:46 pm (UTC)Re: it's Wednesday already?
Date: 2005-04-02 05:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 02:55 pm (UTC)Beautifully done. I love Manny.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 05:15 am (UTC)"Again"
Date: 2005-03-30 02:55 pm (UTC)Interesting. >:)
Re: "Again"
Date: 2005-04-02 05:16 am (UTC)Re: "Again"
From:no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 03:04 pm (UTC)I am the biggest fan of LMH! It is the best H/D-fic I have read and has been my favourite for ages! Truthfully I have probably read it about 30 times. So thank you for being such an amazing writer.
LMH will always have a special place in my heart but so far Surrender the Grey has met my expectations very well! I love the fact it’s Draco’s POV . It has been very interesting to get to know him! When I started reading the first part I wasn’t thrilled because I preferred Draco being secretive like he was in LMH but when I kept reading on I quickly changed my mind. It is good that Surrender the Grey is somewhat different. Love it so far! Sex scenes-omg. Perfect.
And fuck, fuck, fuck for the time-difference!! Being in Finland means waiting for extra 8 hours every Wednesday…
Cheer up, you're not alone!
Date: 2005-03-30 04:29 pm (UTC).. Nice Icon btw. :)
Re: Cheer up, you're not alone!
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 03:17 pm (UTC)Great chapter. Very plotty with that mysterious business in Durham, the ghostly shadow sneaking up on Draco and the fact that the ministry seems to be all in the know about Harry and Draco's relationship. And nice job with Tonks who I normally am not crazy about.
I have a feeling Draco is going to do something foolish and Harry's going to have to be stupidly heroic and save him.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 05:18 am (UTC)Tonks is hard to write! I guess I don't know very much about her...
Thanks!
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Date: 2005-03-30 03:18 pm (UTC)"And it isn't fair that I only just found you again. I'm too selfish to let you go so quickly."
*swoons*
SOOO can't wait til the next part
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Date: 2005-04-02 05:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 03:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 05:21 am (UTC)Thanks for your comments, especially about Manny!
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Date: 2005-03-30 03:27 pm (UTC)And ah, someone beat me to the punch about table service not really happening in pubs here ;)
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Date: 2005-04-02 07:11 pm (UTC)And I do hope Harry was indeed being sincere
Do you have enough of a sense of him from LMH to know either way? Do you think Draco's perspective is warping things a bit? I'm fascinated by everyone's reactions to all of this!
Thanks for commenting, as always.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 03:36 pm (UTC)I love Tonks!! She has always been one of my favs in Harry Potter. So happy that you decided to bring her into the fold ;p
And Cho? That woman really developed quite a "good" reputation for herself among the wizarding community, it seems (>.<) I'm seriously not surprised....but I am surprised at Harry's blindness! He must have been short-circuited to date her & get her pregnant (heeheee).....Any chance of watching the sparks fly between her & Draco?? She doesn't seem the type to easily give up.....
More soon please??
no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 07:14 pm (UTC)I am surprised at Harry's blindness!
Harry's been blind about a lot of things. There are all sorts of reasons for that, as we'll see...
Thanks for commenting!
technicalities
Date: 2005-03-30 04:06 pm (UTC)Nice chapter - I see, we finally arrive at the start of some point to figure out what Ron made Harry forget, what happened to Voldemort, and so on ..
So back to reviewing – do you remember, I'm the one with the technicality issues? ;)
Dark glasses in a brit pub? Hmm .. well, I personally would leave the dark glasses off - as you (and JKR for that matter) said yourself: she has the "ability to change her appearance without having to resort to illusory charms". So why the dark glasses? They are absolutely not necessary and I don't think, Tonks would use them anyway like that. But your story, your choice to dress the characters of course. But consider: Tonks is a top auror and has been for quite some years by then, she also has experience in the Muggle world; I don't think, she would behave so unprofessionaly at disguise - neither in the wizard nor in the Muggle world, wouldn't she? (I remember JKR mentioned her to get top marks – I know, it was in the wizard world, but anyway – as an auror of her capability she operates in the Muggle world too, so she would know.)
Otherwise have to agree with ias' brit-picking for the pubs .. true for most busy pubs in the bigger european cities. Whenever I'm going out in London I have to pay the drinks upon getting them. Don't know about the ale/beer thing, I usually order cider. Being from a "beer country" doesn't make me like it more ... although I tried it in the US which turned out to be a big mistake - at least with Budweiser - I was used to the REAL original Budweiser "imported" from Czech! Okay, this doesn’t belong here …
Like the chapter, and the educational link to the slash writing a few days ago was interesting indeed. :) Although some of my male gay friends didn't quite agree with the different lubrication choices. At least, they won't try most of it.
Like the idea with the shadow owls too. Haven’t read something similar yet. How did you come up with it?
Also the Manny/Hermione thing made me smile. Nice to see Manny being completely smitten over Hermione – and the action in a previous chapter (hadn’t time to review) was very funny and sweet of you to write :)
Re: technicalities
Date: 2005-04-03 03:41 pm (UTC)Oooh, why do you think it was Ron who did it?
But consider: Tonks is a top auror and has been for quite some years by then, she also has experience in the Muggle world; I don't think, she would behave so unprofessionaly at disguise - neither in the wizard nor in the Muggle world, wouldn't she?
It's interesting that you commented on this, because I had a few discussions about this very issue with one of my betas. Another version of that scene had Draco commenting directly that Tonks looked like a character from a Muggle detective film, with Tonks replying that she'd been watching a lot of them lately. The idea was that she doesn't spend so much time in the Muggle world, and sneaking around in it would be something of a mystery to her. I'm also pulling from JKR's description of the wizards trying to dress as Muggles at the World Cup in GOF.
I pulled that bit back because it distracted from the purpose of the scene, but left her disguise in mostly because I wanted her to be somewhat recognizeable as the character we were introduced to in OOTP. There's always a bit of a dilemma in doing that sort of thing -- how do you make her familiar enough to the readers while also acknowledging the amount of time that's passed?
Needless to say, she'll pop up again later, and we'll get to know her better. I decided to let her come across as comic here and then reveal more about her later. She's been under the same smothering spell as everyone else, so I feel like I can take a bit of latitude with precisely how good an auror she is.
The shadow owls -- I'm still working out the details! We'll see how it all turns out. Thanks for commenting!
Re: technicalities
From:no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 04:37 pm (UTC)Love this fic...
Keep up the good work and all that...
no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 09:21 pm (UTC)~Sam
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-03 03:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 04:56 pm (UTC)Well done. Am quite interested in watching their relationship develop and Harry hopefully become able to show Draco the kind of attention he needs.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-03 03:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-03 03:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 05:09 pm (UTC)Oh, the Internet Porn. *dies laughing*
no subject
Date: 2005-04-03 03:44 pm (UTC)Praise the Wednesday Draco Deity!
Date: 2005-03-30 05:31 pm (UTC)The "is it paranoia?" tangent is interesting as well: the shadow owls, and the corner lurkers Draco's beginning to see play really well against his worries about Harry finding about his past (dark secrets are so fun)... but Harry wouldn't leave *wibbles,* he's too selfish already.
Speaking of which, the selfish tangent was intriguing. We already know how possessive Draco can be, but it was interesting to see it reciprocated in some manner on Harry's part, even if it wasn't in public. I get the feeling that, aside from the impending Lucius fiasco, what really worries Draco is Harry's implied unease with their relationship being entirely public. You can almost hear the "does he just not want another death on his conscience, or does he really care?" litany bouncing about in his skull.
And nicotine withdrawl... very similar to the twitchy feeling I'm left with, counting the hours till next Wednesday.
Re: Praise the Wednesday Draco Deity!
Date: 2005-04-03 03:48 pm (UTC)Thanks so much!
no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 06:17 pm (UTC)Here I am going about my day, relaxed and happy......then it hits me that it's Wednesday and that means
EMMA DAY!
I read it and it was intense....what is the secret Draco has?....why does he have to fix it before Harry knows.......can we trust Tonks...(you see I am becoming a Mad Eye Moody)...so many questions ........there should be at least 2 or 3 wednesday in a week....I am just saying..
no subject
Date: 2005-03-31 02:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 06:49 pm (UTC)Can't wait for next Wednesday.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-03 03:49 pm (UTC)