Not in the Hands of Boys

Draco seemed reluctant, but he didn't say anything; he merely gave his father a quizzical look before he left the room.

"You asking for something in return wasn't part of the deal," Harry said immediately once Draco had closed the heavy wooden door behind him; he was determined to make it clear that Lucius wasn't the one in control here.

"There is no 'deal' as of yet, Mr Potter," Lucius reminded him coolly. "I suppose you are under the impression that I'll willingly do anything you ask of me to ingratiate myself with you, but I'm afraid I know better than to put any trust in your gratitude."

Harry couldn't help it that his hands clenched into fists. "Some would say that the fact that I didn't ask the Ministry for your head on a platter should be reason enough for you to be grateful."

Lucius shrugged; if the thinly veiled threat worried him, he was doing a good job of not showing it. "Since you most definitely didn't do it for my sake, I'd say the point is moot. As I see it, right now you want something that only I can provide, and you must want it desperately if you could bring yourself to ask me of all people. It would be foolish of me not to take advantage of that situation, since I doubt another opportunity like this is going to present itself in the near future."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then I'm going to leave, Mr Potter, and you can try to find someone else who knew the Dark Lord well enough to help you out. Are you going to dismiss my demand out of hand, or are you at least willing to hear it?"

Harry realised this was getting them nowhere. It irked him deeply that Lucius had a point; he was sorely tempted to get up and walk out, but there really was nobody else who would be able to give him the answers he needed. "All right, what do you want?"

"Severus informed me that you want me to swear an Unbreakable Vow never to disclose anything I learn from you tonight and never to act based upon this information either. Is that correct?"

Harry merely nodded, and Lucius continued, "Such a vow is no small matter, but I'm willing to swear it in return for your Unbreakable Vow to look out for my son."

Whatever Harry had expected, that definitely wasn't it. "To look out for him? What's that supposed to mean?"

For the first time since he'd entered, a flicker of emotion shone through Lucius' carefully feigned indifference. "Whatever is necessary - protect him, watch over him, stand by him if he has need of you. Believe me," he added with a smile that had no humour in it, "I know perfectly well that you loathe him. I'm not asking you to change your opinion of him, because I couldn't care less what you think of my son. All I'm asking is that you will do everything you can to keep him safe."

Harry still wasn't over his initial bafflement. "From what? He's not in danger!"

"Perhaps not right now," Lucius answered with a small frown. "At the moment, everyone seems hell-bent on putting the past behind them, and the Ministry is happy to let things lie without raising any more trouble. But I have no doubt that there will come a time when they're howling for blood again, and Draco's family name will always make him a possible target."

"And whose fault is that?" Harry's patience was wearing thin, and it gave him some satisfaction to see how Lucius' calm mask slipped a bit.

"I'm fully aware that it is because of choices I made in the past that my son might be in danger again one day. I can't change the past, though; I can only try to keep him safe from now on."

Harry had a sudden flashback to the scene in the graveyard - the Death Eaters returning to their master, frightened and reluctant, grovelling at his feet and begging for his forgiveness. "You never really thought Voldemort would return, did you?"

Lucius hesitated briefly, but then he shook his head. "I didn't. I would have prepared my son better for it if I'd considered it possible."

It wasn't lost on Harry that Lucius didn't elaborate on how he would have "prepared" Draco for Voldemort's return, but he decided to let it lie. "So are you going to help me make sure he doesn't come back again?"

"You heard me before, Mr Potter. Promise me that Draco will always have you to speak for him if the need should arise, and I will help you."

Harry wasn't thrilled by the idea, but he couldn't quite bring himself to blame a father for using all means to protect his son - not even if the father in question was Lucius Malfoy. The memory of Dumbledore's offer to Draco flashed through his mind, and how Draco had refused to let go of Goyle in the burning Room of Requirement. He still heartily disliked the little git, but there was no denying the fact that he'd already considered him worth saving once.

"Interesting that you're not asking me to do the same for you."

Lucius smiled thinly. "It is never wise to demand the impossible in any kind of negotiation."

Harry fell silent for a moment, thinking furiously. It would have been easy to laugh into Lucius' face if he'd tried to curry favour with Harry for himself; by asking for something that was not completely out of the question, however, he had made it much harder to refuse his request.

Besides, it wasn't as if Harry had much of a choice. "All right, I'll swear the damned vow."

He was sure it wasn't just his imagination that Lucius' shoulders sagged a bit as if in relief. "Then we are agreed - in return for my help and my silence, you will do everything in your power to protect my son against any threat he might face because of who he is, for as long as you both live."

Sighing inwardly at the prospect of a future that now might never be completely Malfoy-free, Harry nodded. "I will."

* * *

Lucius' skin was cool and dry, but Harry still felt a flash of revulsion as if he were forced to hold on to something slimy and poisonous. The tip of Draco's wand was placed on their linked hands, and he seemed to avoid looking either at his father or at Harry.

Harry barely spared him a glance; he kept his eyes firmly on Lucius' face. He'd spent hours on the exact wording of the vow he was going to ask of Lucius, so he couldn't afford getting distracted now. "Will you, Lucius Malfoy, do your best to help me find the truth about what's going on with me, keep silent about anything you will learn by doing so, and never act upon that knowledge for as long as you live?"

"I will," Lucius replied without hesitation. A thin tongue of flame shot out from Draco's wand and wound itself around their linked hands, glowing like a chain of molten metal. Harry expected it to feel hot, or at least warm, against his skin, but there was nothing but a faint prickling sensation.

Lucius' eyes flickered in Draco's direction for a second when he asked, "Will you, Harry Potter, do everything you promised me before, to the best of your ability and for as long as you live?"

Draco frowned; it was obvious that he hadn't expected his father to keep his part of the deal a secret from him. Harry took a deep breath, steeling himself. "I will."

Another thread of flame joined the first one, the two of them intertwining around Lucius and Harry's clasped hands. Draco withdrew his wand, and the flames dissolved into thin air; only the prickling sensation remained behind. "It is done."

Harry immediately let go of Lucius' hand and resisted the urge to wipe his palm on his robes.

Lucius gave Draco a brief nod, as if acknowledging a job well done. "Thank you, Draco; you may leave now. I don't need to remind you not to mention this to anyone, do I?"

"Of course not, Father." Draco gave Harry a strange look before he marched out, closing the door with a little more force than was strictly necessary.

"About time," Snape growled from his picture frame. "Can we now get this over with?"

* * *

It cost Harry all of his willpower not to flinch when Lucius pointed his wand at him. Pull yourself together, for God's sake. You were able to face Voldemort hitting you with the Killing Curse less than a year ago!

"To make one thing clear before we begin," Lucius stated in a businesslike manner, "my Occlumency is second to none, but I'm not that much of a Legilimens. If you want me to look for the Dark Lord's presence in your mind, you will have to let me in; I'll accomplish nothing if I waste my time breaking down barriers in your head."

Harry gritted his teeth. Best not to think about the fact that he was allowing Lucius Malfoy a look into his most personal thoughts and memories - well, most of them, at least - and focus on what had to be done. "Fine, I'm ready."

Lucius raised his wand until the tip was almost touching the scar on Harry's forehead. "Legilimens!"

Images flooded Harry's mind, and he was dimly aware of Lucius' presence among them, taking them all in with almost greedy interest, looking, probing, digging deeper - he was at the Department of Mysteries, and Voldemort was trying to get at the prophecy, but it had been smashed, and yet there it was, etched into his memory, and he could feel Lucius stopping short and listening to something that might have changed history if he'd heard it three years ago...

He was back at the Chamber of Secrets, and the black-haired boy from his dream was smiling at him with eyes like chips of ice, and Harry no longer knew how he could not have recognised him. Ginny was lying on the floor, but now she was standing in front of him, angry tears in her eyes and her face cold and shuttered... it was Draco on the floor instead, in a puddle of his own blood, and Snape was next to him - no, it was Snape on the floor now, his memories oozing from his brain as his eyes glazed over...

And he was listening to Dumbledore, telling Snape that Harry must die, telling Harry about the secret of his mother's sacrifice in his blood, about the Deathly Hallows and the legacy that came with them - for a moment he felt as if Lucius were chuckling inside his head, laughing at a joke Harry had missed - and why all his suffering had been necessary to make Voldemort destroy himself in the end.

He felt the power of the Killing Curse rush through him, felt Fenrir's life seep through his fingers, felt Luna arching up underneath him as the burning desire for something he had no name for raged inside him - and without conscious thought, Harry threw everything he could into Lucius' path, stopping him from prying further because he would not, could not let him see this -

Then Luna was beside him, holding his hand while he watched himself march into the dark forest, alone with no ghosts leading the way. Dumbledore was watching him too, that strange look of triumph on his face, his hand blackened and shrivelled and yet holding on to the Elder Wand as if it were a natural part of his body.

And still there was more, images and sounds and smells all coming together into one great rush of memories, and he could feel Lucius slowly making his way through them, searching, probing, stopping here and there to take a closer look, then moving on again. Harry tried to stop thinking at all, to forget about the violating presence in his head and just let his memories flow freely. Lucius wasn't Voldemort; he had no control over him, but was merely a means to an end. It didn't make the whole procedure any less revolting, but Harry knew well enough that there was no other way, so he clenched his teeth, held on to the armrests of the chair until his knuckles turned white, and willed his conscious thoughts far away while Lucius kept sifting through his mind.

* * *

Harry had lost all sense of time; he couldn't have said if ten minutes or three hours had passed when Lucius finally lowered his wand. He slowly leaned back in his chair, eyes narrowed, and fixed Harry with a look that was a mixture of amusement and disdain.

"Dumbledore made you believe that you were a Horcrux?"

Something in his tone made Harry bristle, but he managed to remain calm. "So you know what a Horcrux is?"

Now Lucius' expression turned condescending. "I've been studying Dark Magic since my childhood, Mr Potter. Of course I know what a Horcrux is."

"I bet you didn't know that Voldemort used them, though," Harry shot back, desperate to wipe the superior expression off Lucius' face. "You'd hardly have slipped Ginny his diary otherwise, eh?"

Lucius' lips thinned. "I didn't know, no. I do know, however, that the notion that you might have been one is perfectly ridiculous."

"Well, I -" Harry hesitated, trying to find the right words. He had done quite a bit of thinking about that topic lately, but some of the conclusions he'd been forced to draw still didn't make sense. "Probably not in the, um... technical sense, because I suppose that would have made me pretty much invulnerable to all magic. But Dumbledore explained to me that Voldemort didn't mean to put a piece of his soul in me, it just happened when his curse backfired because -"

"Because of your mother's great and noble sacrifice, yes, I'm aware of that," Lucius interrupted him with a hint of impatience, and Harry was once more forcefully reminded of the events in the graveyard on the night of Voldemort's return. "This may come as a shock to you, but the fact that a foolish old man believed something doesn't necessarily make it true. Something either is a Horcrux or it isn't, there really is no middle ground. Splitting your soul and binding part of it to an object is Dark Magic at its most difficult; you can't do it by accident."

Lucius turned his head to give Snape's portrait an almost pitying look. "You fell for this, Severus? I always knew that Dumbledore didn't understand the nature of Dark Magic, but it's sad to see that you too never managed to grasp it fully."

Snape grimaced in a way that made him look as if he wanted to bite. "You mean, how could a poor half-blood fraud like me ever have aspired to rise to your exalted level? Need I remind you, you inbred pureblood snob, that the Dark Lord was a half-blood too?"

"Indeed he was," Lucius replied softly, his voice dripping venom, "and look what became of him in the end."

When he turned back to Harry, who had watched the exchange with a growing feeling of impatience, his tone was businesslike again. "There's always a price to pay when you use Dark Magic, and with Horcruxes, most practitioners of the Art would consider the price too high; that's why they're so rare. You can't unintentionally create a Horcrux, and I've never heard of a sentient creature being used as one. Animals, yes, but a self-aware mind has a way of fighting back. You can possess it if you're strong enough, but your own awareness needs to be present all the time to keep your host from pushing you out. You can't just put a bit of your soul into another sentient being and be done with it."

"Voldemort couldn't possess me when he tried," Harry interrupted him. "Dumbledore said -"

Lucius held up a hand, silencing him. "Spare me. I just saw it for myself, remember? Since the Dark Lord found himself unable to possess you even for a matter of minutes, how could you ever have believed that a piece of his soul might have survived inside you all those years?"

Harry stared at him, completely at a loss. "What are you saying? There were times when I could feel him constantly, in my mind, my dreams -"

"It's quite intriguing, really," Lucius cut him off with a hint of the drawl that reminded Harry so much of Draco at his most insufferable that it made his fists itch. "I would never have thought I'd say this, but after this little tour through your brain I'm beginning to understand what the Dark Lord saw in you when he decided to 'mark you as his equal', as your half-demented Divination teacher put it. There's a surprising amount of darkness inside you, Mr Potter; certainly more than anyone would expect from Dumbledore's champion. What I did not find in your mind, however, is any trace of the Dark Lord's presence."

Deep down, Harry had been so convinced he was going to hear his worst fears confirmed that it took a moment for this statement to sink in. He opened his mouth, closed it again, and then slowly released a breath he'd been holding without realising it.

"You mean his soul is completely gone from mine?"

Lucius shook his head. "No, I mean it was never there in the first place." He reached out as if to touch Harry's scar, but withdrew his hand immediately when Harry flinched back. "You shared a connection with the Dark Lord, Mr Potter, and you'll bear the mark of it until your dying day, but I sincerely doubt there ever was a part of him living inside you."