Circles of Influence

Friday October 31st

Samhain

Before he could think better of it Harry had let go of Draco's hand and Snape sped off toward the trees with him, hunched over to make a smaller target.

Harry started to follow but glanced back towards his godfather and realised he wasn't following them, he had dived after the escaping form of Wormtail. Harry hesitated, his wand half raised to fight. When he saw someone aiming at him his hesitation evaporated and he shouted, "Expelliarmus!" Before they could curse him their wand flew up in the air and was lost in the dark undergrowth.

Of the five Death Eaters two had run past him in pursuit of Snape and Draco and one had leapt on Sirius and they were fighting hand to hand. The other two closed on Harry, he dived to the side as the one still brandishing a wand threw a curse he didn't recognise at him. He really wished he'd got the hang of that hex deflection they'd been learning in Defence Against the Dark Arts.

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Draco travelled back by focusing on Harry but when he arrived he found his body nowhere to be seen and Harry and Sirius in the middle of a pitched battle with three Death Eaters.

He cast around for his body and found it being carried by Professor Snape at high speed back towards Hogwarts. This was not going to be a nice easy awakening, he thought idly. It was hard to get worked up about anything when bodiless, being completely detached from the hormones and neurochemicals that cause such feelings as fear or excitement. He would have to go in fast, he supposed. For a moment he considered not bothering, it didn't look much fun down there. He could just stay here, float for a while, it was so easy... he grabbed hold of his thoughts with what focus he had and tried to remember what it was to be urgent and alive and to care about what was happening. He had to get back in his body now.

He felt for his body, trying to remember what it felt like to have heat and breath and blood pumping through your veins. Fingers and toes and eyes and ears. With a rush he thumped into the jerking mass of flesh that grasped at his spirit and sucked him into it's sticky hold.

His body spasmed at the shock his spirit felt and he tumbled to the ground as Snape lost his hold on him and then promptly tripped over him. Draco rolled onto his front and threw up with the sheer revulsion of being physical and having just been dropped onto the cold hard ground and then kicked quite hard as Snape fell over him. This was why you were supposed to re-enter your body slowly and calmly. Everything hurt.

Snape pulled himself to his knees and turned around. "Draco?" he gasped. "Are you all right?"

Draco groaned and attempted to lever himself up. "What's going on?" he managed.

"The circle fell," Snape told him. "And I think I just broke my ankle."

"What?" said Draco, pulling himself together and wiping his mouth on his sleeve.

"We brought Pettigrew into the circle with us unconscious..."

"He wasn't accepted in and when he woke up he disrupted the circle," Draco realised. "But I meant your ankle, are you sure it's broken?"

Snape hauled his leg into place and tried to put weight on it unsuccesfully. "Well, probably not broken," he admitted. "But it's not going to hold my weight."

"Dumbledore is on his way with help," Draco told him.

"Well that's just fine then," said Snape sarcastically, raising his wand as two Death Eaters broke out of the undergrowth. "Impedimenta!"

Draco felt for his wand but he didn't seem to have it with him, it must have been left behind in the circle.

"Get up and run, Draco," Snape said roughly. "Incendio!"

Draco saw the reflection of the flames light on the trees opposite him before he heard the scream behind him. He got his feet under him and spun around as the Death Eater who hadn't been hit by the Impedimenta curse put out the fire engulfing him. Draco fell back behind Snape, unable to protect himself without his wand.

"Go," said Snape. "Find Dumbledore!"

"But..."

"We need help!"

Draco ran back to find the approaching rescue party and show them exactly where they were.

-------------------

Harry dodged across the clearing, throwing wildly aimed curses behind him. In the corner of his eye he could see that Sirius had his fist clutched around a wriggling rat as he tried to pin the Death Eater he was fighting to the ground. They both seemed to have lost their wands. Harry managed to hit the disarmed wizard chasing him with the full body bind and then ran around behind the fire. That was one down unless one of the others released him, but he couldn't get a good aim on the other one as every time he tried he ended up having to dodge another curse.

There seemed to be even more commotion over where Sirius was but the fire was obstructing his view. Then a figure rose above the flames and Harry realised Wormtail had resumed his human form. He had got ahold of Draco's knife and with that and his silver hand he made a formidable enemy despite his physical weakness. He caught a flash of movement on his other side and realised his distraction just in time to dive out of the way of another curse. He pointed his own wand and shouted, "Serpensortia!"

A glittering, green snake appeared and moved towards the other wizard. "Attack," Harry urged it in Parseltongue, hoping it would divide the wizard's attention. Indeed the other man raised his wand toward the serpent rather than Harry and as he was trying to kill it Harry moved into range and used the full body bind again. He was glad you didn't get marks for originality in a real fight.

He spun around to see what Wormtail was doing just in time to be knocked off his feet by Sirius as the Killing Curse sped over both their heads and hit a tree behind them. Next spring it would put forth no new buds.

Sirius rolled them both right into the cover of the trees, swearing under his breath. "My wand is on the ground where I was fighting," he whispered to Harry. "Can you summon it?"

Harry poked his head quickly around the tree to try and locate it, Wormtail was freeing the Death Eaters he had bound and that gave him time to have a good look. "Accio wand," he muttered.

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Draco ran ahead of the teachers, leading them back to where he had left Snape, very conscious of the fact that he was most likely running toward a pair of armed Death Eaters without a wand or even a pair of shoes to his name. The cold was making every little twig underfoot feel like a shard of glass and he wished he had thought to put his shoes back on before he had gone wandering about without his body. He also wished he was wearing his underwear, running without it was less than comfortable.

Although it had felt like it had taken him forever to find the teachers he had in fact only been a few minutes since he and Snape had made it a good way back to the castle before they had fallen. When they got there, guided by the glow of burning undergrowth at the end, Snape was holding the two Death Eaters off with Hagrid and it was a matter of seconds before Dumbledore and Professor Sinistra had incapacitated them. Madame Pomfrey hurried forward to check on Snape.

"Why have to keep going," Draco panted. "We have to help Harry."

"We sent people ahead on brooms to find them," Dumbledore reassured them. "They should have found them easily enough if the bonfire you lit was still burning. I will go ahead and make sure, you stay here and let Madame Pomfrey attend to you before you collapse."

Draco started to protest but was stopped from following Dumbledore by Hagrid's very large hand on his arm, forcing him to sit down on the cold ground.

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Sitting in Dumbledore's office Harry found he couldn't really remember how they had won or who had captured Wormtail. It was all a blur. Just as it looked like they were going to lose him the clearing had erupted with people and when the smoke from a dozen curses and one slightly battered bonfire had cleared there were three unconscious Death Eaters tied up in the middle.

Their rescue party had consisted of Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, and Madame Hooch followed by Professor Dumbledore. As they had walked back they had met up with Hagrid, Professor Snape, Madame Pomfrey and Professor Sinistra guarding two other Death Eaters and a very pale faced Draco. Then the solemn parade had made it's way back to the school without speaking.

Harry had been, and was still, feeling more than a little sherll shocked, and not so much from the fight but from what had happened before it. With the danger gone he now had time to actually process what had occured inside the circle. Sirius had carried Draco back, his reaction to the danger ending and seeing Harry safe had been to pass out from the stress of his earlier astral projection and he had since slipped from unconsciousness into natural sleep. He was in the hospital wing now and Harry wished he were there with him as he half listened to the adults discussing what had happened. Sirius was getting the riot act read to him by Professor McGonagall for letting Harry and Draco out in the middle of the night but he looked far too pleased at the capture of Wormtail to really mind.

Wormtail and the other Death Eaters were under lock and key in the dungeons with Professor Snape, ankle all fixed, and Hagrid keeping a careful eye on them. Right now Harry didn't really care what happened to any of them. He was tired and bored of this meeting and he wanted to see Draco.

He wasn't really sure what he wanted to say to Draco though, or if he just wanted to crawl into bed with him and fall asleep. There was a part of him that wanted to say, in a loud and slightly indignant voice, "What the fuck was all that?" It wasn't a very big part of him though. There was a slowly growing embarassment at what Snape and Sirius might have seen when they burst into the clearing and at the fact that he hadn't even thought to put his robes back on when they had appeared. It was like he was only slowly coming back into himeslf, the person he had been in the circle had been someone else. Someone who really didn't care what other people thought, someone who wasn't shy or embarassed or uncomfortable with anything. Someone powerful, who could love unconditionally. He could still remember feeling like that but he could also sense it fading, the way a dream fades. He couldn't keep hold of it. He wondered if Draco's protests would hold true, that in the cold light of tomorrow morning he might regret what had happened. Right now he couldn't tell. He didn't know how much was still to fade and what would be left when it was gone.

He broke out of his thoughts when he heard his name.

"He's falling asleep in the chair," continued Sirius. "Let me take him to his bed and then we can argue all night about things if you want."

"Harry?" said Dumbledore. "Would you prefer to go to bed now?"

"Yes, if that's all right," Harry answered quickly.

"Very well, Sirius, show Harry back to his dormitory and I will see you shortly," Dumbledore dismissed them.

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Once they were out of the room Harry stopped them from heading towards his dormitory. "Can we go to the hospital wing instead?"

Sirius hesitated. "To see Draco? I suppose so. I thought you were tired."

"I am. I thought I might stay there tonight, if Draco is. Is it safe for him to stay in the hospital wing?"

"I'm sure he's safe there..." Sirius didn't sound too convincing. "Maybe I should stay there with the two of you, or maybe we should take Draco back to his room... if Madame Pomfrey will let us, that is."

The hospital wing wasn't far from the Headmaster's office and it didn't take long to get there. Madame Pomfrey was sitting, reading, not far from Draco's bed and she looked up as they entered. Sirius went over to speak to her and Harry went over to the only occupied bed in the room. Draco was still asleep although he looked a little restless. The sheets were getting tangled and as Harry approached him he shifted and murmured something.

Harry hovered uncertainly by the bed. As far as he knew Madame Pomfrey didn't know he and Draco were anything more than friends and he was coming back to himself enough to want it to stay that way. He looked back at the two adults to see what they were doing, they weren't paying him much attention so he leaned forward and brushed a light kiss over Draco's forehead before he went over to see if Sirius had talked Madame Pomfrey round.

It seemed he had, Madame Pomfrey seemed reasonably content to let them move Draco. "I was worried about having him here," she confided in them. "With all these Death Eaters around, the hospital wing just seems too public and I don't think it will matter too much if you wake him. He hasn't been sleeping well anyway, tossing and turning. I swear once I heard him call out for you." She fixed Harry with a puzzled look.

"Er," he said. "Probably doesn't realise the danger's past. Maybe he was dreaming about the fight." It might have been more plausible if he hadn't blushed quite so much. "Can I wake him up then?"

"Go ahead, but have him go straight to bed when he gets to his room. He needs to rest, that little trick of his took a lot out of him." This was directed at Sirius.

Harry shook Draco lightly by the shoulder. "Drac', wake up."

Draco opened his eyes quickly but looked confused and a little disorientated. "Harry?" he murmured. "Did we win yet?"

"We won. You're in the hospital wing," Harry told him. "It's time to go back to your room."

"Where's Snape?"

"Snape's fine, he's watching the prisoners. Can you stand up?"

"Of course I can," Draco insisted, swinging his legs out from under the blankets. "What am I wearing?"

At some point Madame Pomfrey had put him into a pair of hospital issue, over starched, blue cotton pyjamas. Harry felt a surge of irrational jealousy at the thought of anyone else undressing Draco, even if they were the school nurse. "You can change when you get back to your room," he told him, throwing what he hoped looked like a friendly and companionably steadying arm around him as he wobbled upright. "Okay?"

"I can't walk around the school in a pair of pyjamas," Draco protested. "What if someone sees me?"

Madame Pomfrey shook her head. "I sent your clothes off to be washed. They were very muddy."

"It's late," said Sirius. "Everyone is in their dormitories, no-one will see you. Now let's get going."

It wasn't until they were half way back to Draco's room that Harry realised Sirius was walking around the school in his human form. "Sirius!" he said, stopping suddenly. "We caught Wormtail!"

Sirius stopped too. "I was there, Harry. I remember."

"I mean you don't have to hide anymore. You'll be pardoned and I can go live with you in the summer like we were going to do." Harry couldn't hide his excitement.

Sirius smiled. "I can't make any promises tonight, but yes, perhaps we can."

Harry stood in the middle of the corridor with Draco leaning on his shoulder and beamed like an idiot. Draco could feel the smile radiating off him and wished for a moment that he could stand in front of it and feel the full heat but he was too tired to stand up on his own. In fact if Harry didn't get moving again soon he or Sirius were going to have to carry him back to his room. The new skin he had just grown over the cuts on his feet was aching from the cold stone floor and little sparkly stars were starting to float in front of his eyes again.

Harry felt Draco's weight against him increase just as Sirius noticed what colour he had drain out of his face. Before Sirius could move to help him Harry was lowering Draco to the floor as quickly as he could without dropping him, he wasn't strong enough to hold the taller boy's full weight.

"Is he okay?" Harry asked in a panic, pillowing Draco's head in his lap and bending over him.

"I'm sure he's fine, Pomfrey wouldn't have let him out of her sight if there was anything really wrong with him. He's just worn out." Sirius lifted Draco easily out of Harry's grasp and they walked briskly down the corridors to Draco's room.

Draco came to again just before they got there but let Sirius carry him into the room and lie him down on the bed before he started complaining. "I'm not sleeping in these awful pyjamas," he told Harry. "They itch."

"I'll take it from here," Harry told Sirius. "Thanks for carrying him."

"Not a problem... right, I'll just... leave then shall I."

"Goodnight, Sirius."

"Goodnight." Sirius shut the door behind him and stood there uncertainly. He still couldn't quite get his feelings straight about what was between Harry and Draco. The fact was he didn't like it. Not because Draco was a boy but because for eleven years he had thought of Harry as a baby and he couldn't quite shake that image of him. He felt he ought to be putting a stop to things of that nature but he knew it was really far too late for that. Harry was fifteen, nearly an adult now, not a child anymore. He had missed out on Harry the child and he thought maybe Harry had missed out on it too if what he knew of the Dursleys was anything to go by. And now he was in what had the air of quite a serious relationship when as far as Sirius knew he hadn't even dated before. He supposed it was hard to do anything casually when you were Harry Potter.

Sirius had never had a serious relationship, not even before he had been locked up in Azkaban. He had enjoyed flirtations, one night stands, affairs, friends with benefits... but never an actual relationship. One whiff of complications and he'd give his standard 'not ready to settle down' speech and head out to the pub with Remus to find someone new or just to get drunk and run around the streets laughing like madmen and commiting minor acts of petty vandalism. Not that he didn't have serious things in his life, but none that involved sex or romance.

Yet again he felt that he was in over his head with this godfather stuff. How was he supposed to bring up a teenage boy when he wasn't even sure he was a grown up himself? Mind you he could hardly do worse than the Muggles Harry had lived with for most of his life.

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Draco fell asleep again before Harry got back from the dresser with new pyjamas for him, so he dumped them on a chair instead and pulled the duvet over Draco before going to get ready for bed himself. Any discussion would have to wait until tomorrow. As he snuggled into Draco's warm body he found he felt pretty good about the evenings events. He had spent time with his parents and they had seemed happy about him and Draco, they had captured Wormtail and even if it hadn't been planned the sex had been really good. Really, really good.

Harry fell asleep with a smile on his face.

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Saturday November 1st

Harry woke up from a dream in which he had been eating breakfast in the Great Hall. It had seemed normal but then someone had tapped him on the shoulder and when he looked behind him there was Draco, completely naked. That was when he had realised that he was naked too and suddenly everyone in the Hall was staring at them and pointing and whispering. He had turned to Hermione for help and she had said, "Well really, Harry. You should have thought about this before you took your clothes off." That was when he had woken up.

He rolled away from Draco's sleeping body and lay there for a moment with the humiliation still burning through him as he got his bearings. "Not in the Great Hall," he thought. "Good." Then, "Oh, no. Snape and Sirius! And I just stood there! Naked! In front of the Death Eaters!" All new humiliation hammered it's way through him. Snape had seen him naked!

He sat up and pulled his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms tightly around them. He felt exposed. He didn't know if he could look Snape in the eye ever again. At least last time they'd just been sleeping and they'd had their pyjamas on and everything. Not lying in the dirt still naked and touching and sweaty.

Next to him Draco murmured in his sleep and rolled over towards Harry, burying his face against Harry's hip.

Harry looked down at him as he remembered Draco trying to talk him out of taking his clothes off, he remembered begging Draco to fuck him and Draco finally giving in to his demands. "So much for my rules," he muttered. "That wasn't supposed to happen." But at the same time his hand strayed down to play with Draco's hair and that warm, easy glow was still in there somewhere. It hadn't left completely. What they had done last night had felt right, it had felt... sacred, and that sounded really wierd and stupid but it had. But it had been private and he really wished they hadn't been interupted. What was between him and Draco was for them and no-one else. When it was just them it was okay, it was right even. Other people made it wrong and weird and twisted and complicated. They looked at them and made judgements they had no right to make, saw things that weren't there, believed things that weren't true. Because they couldn't see this like he could see it because they weren't inside it. So they had to not see it at all, they had to be more careful. No-one else could find out about them. "No-one else," he said firmly, out loud.

Beside him Draco stirred again and this time he opened his eyes and looked up at Harry. "Morning," he said, stretching like a cat in what was either unconscious grace or planned tease. Either way it was incredibly sexy.

Harry uncurled from his tight ball and ran a foot under the covers to touch Draco's thigh. "Did I wake you?"

"Don't know." Draco put his hand up the back of Harry's pyjamas and stroked the curve of his spine with one finger. "I don't mind. What time is it?"

"No idea." Harry ran the pad of his foot up the inside of Draco's thigh and watched his head drop back in reaction. He leaned over and licked the exposed throat.

"Does this mean that you're still all right about what happened last night?" Draco asked.

"Depends," answered Harry, pulling back to look at Draco while his hand traced a path from his shoulder to his hip. "If you mean the sex... yes, I guess so. It wasn't what I meant to happen but..."

"But what?"

"It was what I wanted to happen, I was just afraid of it."

"And now you're not?"

"Now... now I realise it's not this I'm afraid of, it's what's out there." He gestured at the door. "There's nothing wrong in here. I want you and you want me and I can deal with that. I was afraid that it was wrong but it's not, is it?"

"No, I don't think so anyway."

"Exactly, I don't and you don't and my parents didn't either and neither does Hermione or Ron or Sirius really, or even Snape." Harry made a face. "I can never speak to him again you realise."

"Did I miss something between you two?"

"He saw us naked, Draco! We were lying on the ground, naked and... you know..."

Draco smiled. "Yeah, I know," he said with a wicked look, pulling Harry down against him and wrapping a leg around his thighs. "I'm sure he's even more horrified at what he saw than you are, he'll probably avoid you for weeks." He tugged Harry's head down into a long kiss.

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Hermione and Ron sat at a corner table in The Three Broomsticks fairly quietly. Harry had decided not to join them in Hogsmeade after all despite the fact he had promised the three of them would spend time together this weekend. He'd told them that there had been a fight last night, explaining why so many teachers had suddenly gone running out of the Great Hall. He'd also told them about Wormtail finally being captured and said that he just wanted a quiet day alone with Draco after all the excitement. Ron had been upset at missing it all and had been all for going down to the dungeons to see if they wouldn't let him punch Wormtail in the face for old times sake but Hermione had pointed out that they weren't even supposed to know what had happened and they certainly weren't going to let any students see the prisoners. They had managed to extract a promise from Harry to eat dinner with them and then gone on to Hogsmeade without him.

Hermione graciously allowed Ron to put his arm around her waist and he was whispering something in her ear that was making her blush when they were interupted.

"Ah, young love," said a high pitched voice.

They looked up into the face of a woman of indeterminate late-middle-age dressed in overly floral robes and a strange knitted hat.

"Sorry to disturb, but aren't you just the sweetest couple. Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, am I right?"

"Um, yes," said Ron.

"Friend of your mother, dear," she said. "Haven't seen you since you were so high. Can't mistake that red hair though. You never miss a Weasley even if they are sitting in the corner."

"Oh... hi," Ron said uncertainly.

"I've heard all about your friends at school from your mother of course. She didn't tell me you two were sweethearts though. When did that happen?"

Ron looked at Hermione before answering, "Not long ago, really. Haven't told Mum about it yet."

"What was your name?" Hermione asked, there was a suspicious sharpness to her voice.

"You can call me Stella, dear. That'll be just fine. And where's little Harry Potter, then. I thought you three were inseperable. I heard all about what happened, must have been very upsetting."

Hermione narrowed her eyes. "I don't know what you mean," she answered.

"Why that terrible incident with Lucius Malfoy," the woman answered. "You must tell me all about it."

"I thought you said you'd already heard about it," replied Hermione.

"Well, of course dear. Nothing like hearing something direct from the source though, don't you think?"

Hermione suddenly shot to her feet. "I'm terribly sorry," she said, pulling Ron up next to her. "I just remembered some homework we forgot to do. Due in tomorrow morning. We really have to go."

She pulled Ron out of the room at high speed, passing Seamus and Dean who were on their way in.

"What was that all about?" Ron spluttered when he got her to slow down.

"That was no friend of your mother's," Hermione answered. "I wasn't sure at first, there was just something about her. Then her name sounded familiar too but it wasn't till she mentioned sources that I realised who it was."

"Who?"

"That was Stella Tellit, the Daily Prophet's new gossip columnist. There's a photo of her on the page she writes."

"What? You're kidding."

"Nope, I just wonder why they sent her. I would've thought Lucius Malfoy kidnapping us would be considered more than gossip. But then they've already covered that in the paper, she must be following up a different angle. Well, she won't get anything out of us."

"Damn straight," said Ron firmly.

Back in the pub Dean and Seamus had taken their drinks to the same corner table Ron and Hermione had just vacated.

"I just wish he wasn't with Malfoy, I mean I can deal with the gay thing," complained Seamus rather more loudly than necessary. "Mostly anyway, it is kind of wierd sleeping in the same room as him and stuff though. Don't you think?"

"I dunno," replied Dean. "It's just Harry, you know. I don't really think about it much. As to Malfoy... "

"It's gross," Seamus broke in. "That twitchy little ferret. I just don't see how Harry can go from hating him as much as the rest of us to shagging him."

"Keep it down, Seamus," Dean cautioned. "Hermione'll kill us if someone hears you. People do weird things when they fancy someone, maybe all that fighting they did was because they wanted to jump each other. Look at Ron and Hermione, they're always getting into arguments but we all knew they'd end up getting together."

"Malfoy's bad news," Seamus insisted. "He's a slimy little shit and he may be playing nice right now but it won't last. I'll bet you anything he'll be back to his old self before too long, acting like he's better than everyone else cause he's a pureblood and probably boasting about having bagged Harry. It's just the sort of thing he'd do, fuck someone just cause they're famous. Maybe he thinks it'll rub off on him."

"Give it a break," Dean complained. "There's nothing you can do about it anyway. It's Harry's choice, right or wrong."

At the table next to them an old woman with a gleam in her eye and a notebook in her hand stood up and hurried out of the pub.

----------------------

That evening they had what was beginning to feel a little like a family meal. Sirius, Harry, Draco, Ron and Hermione all round a little table in Draco's room. Sirius and Harry told the non-adult rated version of what had happened last night to Ron and Hermione with brief interjections from Draco. Then Sirius broke the really good news. Dumbledore had brought in official witnesses and they had confirmed that Peter Pettigrew was alive and all six prisoners had been taken into custody for questioning and eventual trial. Wormtail would be tried for the murder of the two Aurors who had died last night as well as the massacre that Sirius had been blamed for and the others for attempted kidnap, trespass and aggravated magical assault including the endangering of two minors.

Snape would testify against all of them, his undercover agent status was blown anyway, and so would Dumbledore and the other teachers involved. Sirius had been granted immunity by the Ministry until the trial was over as long as he stayed in Dumbledore's custody. The truth about Voldemort's return would surely be undeniable by the time Wormtail's trial was over and Sirius would be completely cleared. He would still have to be careful until then, they had wanted to throw him back in Azkaban until after the trials but Dumbledore had talked them into leaving him here, but it looked like everything was going to work out.

It was Draco who put a damper on the celebratory atmosphere. "Of course there'll be mass panic when people actually start believing Voldemort is back and once everyone knows he won't have to hide anymore... who knows what'll happen then."

Sirius lost his smile. "You're right. If he thinks he's strong enough he might attack openly, he'd have nothing to lose."

"He's strong," said Draco darkly. "It's like everyone was just waiting for him to come back to jump back in with him. He'll want to move before the Ministry does."

"He might not," said Hermione. "Maybe he'll wait, let people's fear of him do his work."

Harry scowled. "Why does he always have to spoil everything?" he complained petulantly. "Maybe he won't attack, maybe nothing will happen for years."

"And maybe he'll decide he loves muggles after all and he'll send you a 'sorry for trying to kill you' card and we'll all live happily ever after," Draco replied impatiently. "My bet is on all out war by sometime next year and more than a little bloodshed before Christmas."

"There's no need to be so negative," Hermione argued. "Muggles aren't completely helpless you know. I bet even if the whole wizarding world just stuck their heads in the sand we could still beat him." She looked very much like she was trying to convince herself as well as them.

Ron squeezed her hand. "It'll work out all right in the end, it always does. After all, Harry's beaten him before."

Harry's face turned stony and Sirius said quickly. "Not that he'll need to again, he's done plenty already. Better for you all just get on with worrying about your exams and things."

With effort he managed to get Hermione and Draco talking about school but Harry stayed fairly quiet for the rest of the meal. He thought about Voldemort. About the next time he would come face to face with him, because there always seemed to be a next time and every time they both walked away having both lost and won. Harry had defeated him but his parents had been killed, Voldemort had lost his body but kept his life. Harry had escaped but Cedric had died. Harry had escaped but Draco had sacrificed his family. Harry always won but everyone around him kept on losing. Who was next? He looked around the table. Who would be the next person to lose something just so that he could keep on winning? And when?

His scar ached faintly so that he wasn't sure if it were his imagination or not and he felt for his wand just to be sure it was there.

He didn't know what was going to happen next and when it came he didn't want to face it.

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tbc

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