'If Thine Enemy...'

{ If Thine Enemy... }

Chapter Two: Sown the Wind

'They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.'
- Bible, Hosea 8:7

Lucius Malfoy was not a man often surprised. His life was planned as precisely as a game of Wizard's Chess; counter-plan and counter-counter-plan to guard against every possibility of attack. For that was what life was--a battle--for knowledge, for power, for pleasure. For survival. To pit oneself against it, this tidal wave of changing possibilities, was a battle that he never tired of.

And in this battle, as in any other, Lucius Malfoy was not content to be a foot-soldier.

Yet the Slytherin had been, for the first time in his memory, at a loss for words. The shock of discovering Harry Potter--Harry Potter!--on his own land was something no Death Eater would even have dreamed of, so ludicrous a thought was it. Long moments of stunned silence followed Lucius' discovery, his fingers still disbelievingly tracing the scar on the boy's forehead. Yet slowly, inevitably, the world came to him again. The cool night air lifted to him the scent of crushed grass beneath his feet; his fingers recalling again the liquid silk of the boy's hair. The strange wand was still nestled in his other palm, warming it with a light buzz of energy.

Lucius' Slytherin mind awoke at this faint summoning of magic. He smiled faintly as his customary composure returned, along with the old anticipation of a fight. If life was a battle, then Lucius Malfoy had received the greatest challenge of his considerable experience. The possibilities stemming from this boy's appearance on a Death Eater's territory--his territory--were almost terrifyingly beautiful in their scope and variety. Each called for a different move, a different form of play.

Gathering both his cloak and his anticipation around him, Lucius stood. He cast a simple Mobilicorpus to lift the boy into the mansion, as well as his own sleeping spell to keep the prisoner... cooperative.

First things first. To test the body to see if it really was Harry Potter. Many things were possible, after all--anything from a simple polyjuice potion to the darkest of Dark morph-magics. Lucius cast his net of spells over the sleeping form. True, it was unlikely that any but the most suicidal of wizards would attempt entering a Death Eater's territory in the form of Harry Potter, of all people. Hardly a spy's work or that of an information gatherer. Still, a rational possibility was a rational possibility. It was not to be discounted.

Lucius waited silently, his blood racing. His test-spells began to return to him one by one, each carrying the same glowing message:

Yes.

* * *

Harry twisted in a sleep that was unnaturally deep. His body was reacting to the spells being cast upon and through it--silver tendrils of magic wrapping around his every muscle, following the electric flow of his nerves to every inch of his body. Testing both organic and magical tissue and structure.

Smothered in the darkness, as if under deep water, Harry was aware of the spells flickering above. But no word would leave his mouth; even thoughts dispersed like ripples before they could strive to form. Little did he know that one of the most powerful sleeping spells in existence was keeping his mind from fully waking up, even as his body trembled under the bonds of a thousand magic strands.

At last the trembling stopped, and Harry felt the dark water settle around him undisturbed. A black curtain of sleep began to descend. Although his mind had gone as blind as an infant's, Harry turned his head... towards the warm hand he felt on his brow. Smoothing the hair away.

* * *

Lucius stood back from the bed. Only centuries of Malfoy composure, strengthened like wine in his blood, kept him from descending into shock again. Every single spell he had tried on the body now resting there had returned with the same answer. The bumbling victim of his constrictus spell had indeed been Harry Potter.

Harry Potter. The Boy Who Lived. The Last Heir of Gryffindor. Ally of Dumbledore. Enemy of Voldemort.

Schoolboy.

Lucius took comfort in that last word as he lowered himself into a chair away from the bed. His sleeping spell had been very effective indeed--safe because it allowed the body its instinctual reactions, not interfering with heartbeat, blood pressure or other vital functions. Other sleeping spells tended to slow down the metabolism, sometimes dangerously. He disliked these crude sedation charms, and had long ago designed a more polished version of his own. The gemynd-silencio was, as Lucius privately defined it, the psychological version of the Silencio spell. While the Silencio only stopped the body's speech, the gemynd-silencio effectively silenced all thoughts in the victim's mind, destroying them before they could form. The most appropriate spell for utterly disabling an opponent, while still leaving the body safe to experiment with, and the mind too unaware to grasp anything.

Lucius sighed and leaned back in his chair. He was painfully aware of the critical nature of any decision he made this night. In his mind's eye, he could already trace down several paths that different decisions would force him to walk on. This is, Lucius grimaced at the cliché, a crossroads.

What to do with Harry Potter? What to do with the Boy Who Lived, who had arrived on his doorstep as neatly and inexplicably delivered as Wizard Mail?

Lucius took a breath. There are, his Slytherin mind answered calmly, three main possibilities.

One. Kill the boy. Pros: eliminate any potential danger caused by the presence of this wizard, here in his own territory, before said wizard regained control of himself. Such an opportunity for defeating a long-held enemy was not likely to come again. Cons: Voldemort would be displeased. Ever since the Philosopher's Stone fiasco three years ago, Voldemort had shifted focus from trying to achieve immortality to gathering intelligence on the Boy Who Lived. He hadn't shown interest in eliminating the boy, merely observing him as if looking for something crucial. If Lucius killed the boy, he risked possible displeasure on the Dark Lord's part (perhaps for stealing his pleasure, perhaps for interrupting his research). Not only that, but he would not have the opportunity to discover what is was that Voldemort was so hard-pressed to find out about Potter. Voldemort was a Slytherin, and Slytherins were never afraid. They were cautious. That Voldemort had reason to be cautious around the young Gryffindor was itself a warning to Lucius. He needed to know more about Potter before thinking of eliminating him. A dangerous thing, Lucius thought, can be as useful as it can be deadly. If Potter was the knife, he'd rather be the one with his hand on the hilt.

Two. Keep the boy unconscious, and take him to Voldemort immediately. Voldemort could then do as he wished with the Boy Who Lived; observe him as a private guinea pig, for all Lucius cared, or kill him if that was what he truly wanted. Take revenge, perhaps, casting a Cruciatus on the young body. Lucius grimaced at the thought. Not that it was his concern if this boy were to be tortured. At any rate, this was his instinctive choice. Pros: Winning even more favour with Voldemort than he had already. Further solidifying his position among the Death Eaters, and silencing those that questioned his position as the right hand man of the Dark Lord. Cons: Once again, not finding out what Voldemort wanted with observing the boy. Lucius was sure the Dark Lord would immediately claim the boy for whatever purpose he had in mind, shutting off the Death Eaters as he did from all other things that too closely affected him. Lucius would be left in the undesirable position of not knowing exactly what he had in his possession, before losing it to the Dark Lord. Not to mention the slight prickle to the Malfoy's pride, at seeing himself running like a new puppy to its master--Potter dangling like prey from his proud jaws. No. Think rationally, Lucius. Pride comes not before a rise in power, but always before a fall.

Three. Revive the boy, and extract information from him. Either by gaining his trust, or by experimenting on him, or torturing him. Whatever was most likely to grant him results. Pros: Lucius would discover what it was that kept Voldemort so assiduously searching for information on the boy. If he managed to extract this information and put it to his own use, it might increase his own power to a point where Voldemort would be more of a rival than an ally. After all, Voldemort's secrecy about this matter indicated that it was either a weakness of the Dark Lord's, or it promised the Dark Lord great strength. Either way, Potter's secret would give Lucius an advantage--by knowing Voldemort's weakness, or by taking possession of his strength. In a Slytherin's books, no advantage is unfair. Cons: Voldemort would most definitely be very displeased by Lucius' delay in delivering Harry Potter. (Although, Lucius countered himself, wouldn't I already have the information to give me advantage over him?) Of course, Lucius would be exposing himself to the threat that was Harry Potter--a significant problem, unless he had some way of securing Potter's obedience.

These, Lucius confirmed to himself, are the three most likely courses of action. Others are ludicrous. Even out of these three, the first has more cons than pros. By simple rule of favouring the decision with the most positive outcomes, this option is not advisable.

Very well then. Cancel option One.

Option Two seemed the most favourable until one considered it still left Lucius in the dark about Voldemort's true intentions towards Potter. And, for a Malfoy, being in the dark is one of the most undesirable situations imaginable. Not only this, but his Slytherin ambition demanded he seek out any possible advantages, even against his current ally. Option Two may increase his support among Death Eaters, but it would lose any possible advantage against Voldemort. It would keep him irrevocably tethered to his current position as (Lucius frowned) a mere minion. He would not be able to rise above being a trusted confidante of Voldemort's, and a well-respected Death Eater.

Option Three risked Voldemort's rage, usually enough to keep Lucius from choosing it as a course of action. However, his ambitious feet had started itching after years of... 'loyal service' to that crimson-eyed ghoul. Potter could grant him the information he needed to either exploit Voldemort's weakness, or to enhance his own strength.

And, after all, no one but Lucius knew that Potter was in his territory. If they had, Potter quite simply wouldn't be here. If someone from Voldemort's side knew, they would have either captured the boy themselves or summoned their Lord. Dumbledore's side would immediately have leapt to the rescue. As it stood, Lucius was free to keep the boy with him and learn more about Voldemort's weaknesses, at least until the next Death Eater meeting.

An intriguing possibility. Keep Potter and milk him for every bit of knowledge about Voldemort, before either casting a forgetfulness charm on him and packing him off to the Dark Lord (with no recollection to betray Lucius with), or simply killing him and using the information to gain leverage over the Voldemort. From the point of view of ambition, this was the best choice. It carried great risk, and was not by any means a move any mediocre Death Eater would dare to make.

But, as Lucius Malfoy very well knew, he would never be content to play foot-soldier in life. He commanded his own future, and Potter just might make that future much brighter.

* * *

As the first rays of dawn filtered through the window to settle on the bed, Lucius Malfoy finally came to a decision. He had spent hours on that bedside chair, unmoving, tracing consequences and weighing risks against benefits in his mind. All the while his grey eyes had remained fixed on the slender form on the bed, unnaturally still except for the steady rhythm of breath. Potter's face was silent and deceptively peaceful, a shock of dark hair still concealing the scar. The boy's charmingly uneven features gave an elfin quality to him, balanced precariously between innocence and solemnity. Having been divested of the robes before, his frail form lay in nothing but a poor Muggle T-Shirt and jeans. How nondescript, Lucius thought wryly. The Boy Who Lived looked like any adolescent to roam a Muggle shopping mall. But the thoughtful depth of that face, and the testing spells cast upon it, told Lucius a very different story--that of a young and very powerful wizard. Before me, Lucius marvelled, is perhaps the greatest potential advantage I will ever have in my career. He is also the greatest risk.

Tomorrow would begin the first of his experiments--to gain information by trust. He knew this would most likely fail, in which case he would have to take the regrettably barbaric steps of forced experimentation or torture. Lucius' mouth tightened in distaste. That would be the last resort. Those sorts of methods only the most boorish and unimaginative of Mudbloods would use to extract information, when it was so much more elegant to do it through the complex games of guile and the beautiful tricks of conversation. A carefully placed phrase, Lucius reflected, could reveal so much more than the lash of a whip.

Finally Lucius rose from his chair; disciplined body not feeling the need to stretch. He walked to the bed again to study the face that was so different, in youth, from his own son's. Dark where Draco was light, ruddy where Draco was pale. Dark lashes smoothed the cheek, still soft around the maturing jaw. None of Draco's angular, stubborn proportions. A slight line between the boy's dark brows, as if the young mind behind this face was given more to thought than it should be. Unlike Draco's pure, unblemished brow, that had never needed to frown in anything but petulance.

He lifted his hand to smooth that frown, and smirked when Potter blindly turned his face into the caress. Such an instinctive, infantile reaction. So trusting. So foolish. So very Gryffindor-like. Lucius himself would probably be jerked awake, magic already crackling at his fingertips, even through the most deadly of sleep-spells. Well, his own sleeping spell would soon fade from the boy.

Lucius inhaled deeply as he left the room, striding to the central atrium. There were preparations to be made; house-elves to be arranged to service his new guest.

Fate had challenged him, in the form of Harry Potter. And he would answer, as only a true Malfoy could. With a relentless search for more. More knowledge. More power. More challenge.

Lucius' keen eyes flashed. The game had begun, and he would win. Lucius Malfoy had made his move.

***To Be Continued***

Notes: `Gemynd´ is Old English for 'mind'. Thus when Lucius casts the 'gemynd-silencio' spell on Harry, he is silencing Harry's mind. A very creepy kind of Slytherin spell indeed! *shivers*

Please review if you want more! I should be done with the next chapter soon, but still...

~THANKS TO ALL THE GREAT REVIEWERS WHO URGED THIS CHAPTER ONTO THE NET! MAY ALL YOUR APPARATIONS LAND YOU IN HAPPY PLACES!!~