Expensive Disaster

Authors Note: Many thanks to my beta for this fic, Robert. Please see my profile for the update schedule and join my yahoo group for updates and artwork. Also, I happened to write the smuttiest piev of smut I've ever written today, and I'm polishing it up to post as a new oneshot soon, so look for it if you're into that sort of thing, which I know you all are... lol

Chapter 16 Redeemer

Draco hadn’t been to the Veritas library during his entire school career. If he needed to check out a book or do some research on a subject, someone was always willing to run that errand for him. So it took him by surprise to find out how immense and beautiful the library actually was.

It shouldn’t have, as the Academy’s campus was phenomenally crafted at every corner, but the sheer towering glory of the library made him never want to leave. The room itself was three stories high, with two out of those three lined with rich dark wooden shelves, every last one containing both new and weathered volumes. The top level was a wall of arched windows, glistening marble columns, and statuettes.

He walked to the back of the expansive room, turned left at the row on tarot reading, right at the section on the history of Scotland, and found himself standing before the small seating area that he had been informed would be at that particular spot. There were no other tables or chairs in that area and it made the perfect place, as Theo said it would, to meet with Sirius when he arrived.

Theo was already there, lounging casually in a deep blue armchair and reading The Portrait of Dorian Gray. He looked up as Draco made his way over, sitting directly across from him. “You used to remind me of him, you know,” Theo mused, holding up the book.

Draco looked at him quizzically and shook his head. “I’m not nearly so debauched as all that.”

Theo chuckled and set the book aside. “No, you’re not, but when I first met you, you seemed to be completely carefree and without conscience. Nothing you did to anyone had any impact on you. You didn’t seem to care who you hurt as long as people still adored you and beauty surrounded you.”

“Was I really that terrible?” Draco asked, his eyes widening in disgust with himself.

Theo merely shrugged. “I might be exaggerating just a smidge, but you really were quite the arrogant arse.”

“I take it I’m not anymore?” Draco asked, suddenly curious about how his behavior looked from the outside.

“No, it all changed when you saw Potter. It was like he was your redemption, the one you had been waiting for, the only person who you could feel as strongly as you felt yourself,” Theo noted quietly.

“Well, if that’s the case then based on how I’m feeling at the moment, I must have stabbed the painting,” Draco muttered. He had been feeling optimistic about his meeting with Sirius, but still dreaded it just the same.

Theo nodded solemnly and shifted in his chair. “I’m really sorry for everything, Draco. I can’t tell you enough-“ he began but Draco cut him off with a sharp look.

“I don’t want to hear it, Theo. The only reason you and I are talking right now is because I need you to get Harry back. You and I are not friends, nor will we ever be. You raped me, Theo, and that’s unforgivable. Just so we’re clear, after this, we are done. Understand?” Draco asked. He knew he was being curt, but he didn’t want to waste time on pleasantries with Theo. He’d never forgive him for what he did, but he could be civil, for now, and worry about the rest later.

The dark haired boy’s eyes widened slightly and he nodded. “I never thought of it that way,” he whispered. “Oh God, Draco I’m so sorry.”

“It’s done, and I’m not wallowing over it anymore,” Draco replied distractedly. He heard someone approaching and didn’t want anyone overhearing that particular conversation.

A moment later, Draco could see the handsome face of Sirius Black coming around the corner, followed by the equally handsome yet sour face or Remus Lupin. “You didn’t tell me you’d be meeting with them,” Remus hissed in Sirius’s ear, though in the quiet of the library Draco heard it perfectly and winced.

“Well, maybe next time you won’t insinuate yourself in my plans,” Sirius chided, though his smile never faded and Draco suspected he took great joy from Remus’s discomfort.

“You said you had a meeting at the school about Harry,” Remus replied, no longer trying to keep his voice down.

“And so I do; Draco, I’m sure you remember Remus,” Sirius gestured, turning his attention toward the blonde and Draco nodded. “And you must be Theo,” he said, though the mirth dropped out of his tone at once and he nearly snarled the name.

Draco envisioned Sirius as a large and vicious black shaggy dog, trying to protect Harry from the damage Theo had caused him.

“Yes sir, good to meet you Mr. Black,” he said, standing to shake Sirius’s hand.

Harry’s godfather simply looked at the hand as if it were a foul piece of meet and then turned his attention back to Draco, leaving Theo to sit back down awkwardly and stare at his own shoes. “You sounded urgent on the phone, Malfoy. I trust you wouldn’t summon me here without good reason,” Sirius prodded.

“No sir, I want Harry back,” he blurted, ignoring Sirius and Remus’s looks of indignation and pressing forward. “Theo and Tristan set me up you see, but Harry wouldn’t believe me.”

“So you didn’t fuck Theo?” Sirius asked, waving off Remus’s abject horror at Sirius cursing in front of students. The fact that it was also a library probably won him no points either.

Draco paled and lost his train on thought at the question, but Theo reacted quickly. “It was my fault, all my fault. I pretended to be Harry, I studied him for weeks trying to perfect it, and I tricked Draco,” he admitted, seemingly unafraid of either man now seething and looking as though they might rip him apart.

The first to calm down was Remus, who went over and took a seat beside Draco, no doubt afraid of what he might do within close proximity of Theo. “He does bear a heavy resemblance to our Harry,” he reasoned at last.

“Show me,” Sirius demanded, and though Draco was confused by the question, Theo seemed to know exactly what he wanted and he settled into his chair and began mimicking Harry’s mannerisms. He ran his hand through his hair, chewed on his bottom lip, and even mirrored Harry’s usual posture to near perfection.

“I even stole some of his shampoo and soap, I wore contacts, I even smoked half a pack of cloves to smell like him,” Theo admitted, falling back into his own mannerisms again.

“Wait, Harry smokes?” Remus asked, but Sirius ignored him.

“I’ll have you expelled for his,” Sirius growled but unexpectedly, at least to Draco, Theo only nodded, looking utterly defeated.

“I deserve worse,” Theo amended and Draco felt a wave of pity before stamping it out in lieu of the truth of Theo’s actions and what they had done to him, to Harry. He did deserve worse.

“So why should we help you get Harry back?” Sirius asked, turning to Draco, and finally taking a seat next to Remus.

“I don’t think you can. I’ll have to do that on my own,” Draco said, feeling the truth of that statement like a weight on his chest. Though he would love for it to be as simple as garnering his godfather’s support, he knew Harry made his own decisions and that he wouldn’t be swayed by anyone but Draco himself.

“Then why are we here?” Sirius asked, confusion clouding his previously angry eyes.

“To protect Harry,” Draco told him. “You see, up until last night, Harry’s current boyfriend Tristan, the one who plotted with Theo to break us up, has been sleeping with Theo,” he told them.

“Well, that’s simple, just tell him so,” Remus pointed out, rolling his eyes.

“The trouble with that is number one, Tristan won’t let either of us anywhere near Harry, and number two, Harry wouldn’t believe either of us even if we got to talk to him,” Draco muttered, wishing it was as simple as Remus had assumed.

“But we have proof,” Theo interjected, pulling the letters from his back pocket and handing them to Sirius.

Harry’s godfather skimmed over them, his hands shaking more and more with anger at each new passage. “You can’t show him these,” he finally whispered, not even reading the worst of them before handing them over to Remus.

“It’ll devastate him,” Remus agreed.

“But he’s planning to sleep with Tristan, and as soon as he does… Well, we’re not even sure what’s going to happen but it couldn’t possibly be good,” Theo told them.

Draco had been so torn over the idea of showing Harry those letters, agreeing with his godparents and not wanting to do Harry any further damage, but at the same time wanting – no, needing – to keep Harry from sleeping with Tristan.

“It would be better for Harry to catch him cheating than to read about how thoroughly he was used,” Sirius told him.

Draco sighed and sat back in his chair, feeling defeated once more. Those letters were his ticket to prove to Harry that Tristan was no good, but at what cost? Sirius was right; it would hurt him far too deeply to know the extent that Tristan used him.

“I think that can be arranged,” Theo said, looking suddenly proud.

“What?” All three men asked in unison.

“I broke it off, but I feel confident I can get him back in time to let Harry find us together,” Theo offered.

“You don’t have to do that,” Draco protested. As much as he despised Theo, he didn’t want him to have to use his body as leverage to get them out of this mess.

“I caused it, it’s only fair that I fix it,” Theo replied firmly.

“Sounds good to me, Remus, Draco?” Sirius said at once, seemingly fine with Theo whoring himself out for the cause.

“Are you sure this is the better idea? Is there no other way?” Draco asked, not wanting to see Harry hurting.

“You’ll have to tell him, prepare him, not just let him stumble in on it like Tristan did to him,” Remus said. “But I think it’s much preferable to showing him these letters,” he added, looking as though he would incinerate the pile of them if he had magical powers with which to do so.

Draco sighed and nodded, hoping he could convince Harry to listen to him just this once. Even if he never won the boy’s affections again, at least he could save him from this.

“Now lets get back to this Harry smoking issue,” Remus demanded.

Draco laughed and shook his head. “Harry doesn’t smoke.”

Sirius joined in the laughter. “After everything we’ve just heard about our godson, I can’t believe you’re worried about whether or not he smokes,” he teased, causing Remus to look suitably chagrinned.

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

Tristan kissed Harry on the cheek and sent him off with Griffin toward his next class while he went in the opposite direction toward his own. He was nearly there when a pair of strong arms pulled him into an empty classroom and whirled him around.

“Theo?” he balked, stunned at the audacity of the boy.

“I’m sorry,” Theo blurted.

The words didn’t surprise him, he had been expecting Theo to come groveling back to him the moment he left his room the night before. “For?” he asked, feigning innocence and making Theo spell it out.

“I was an arse, and I’m sorry. Can I make it up to you tonight?” Theo purred.

Tristan shrugged. “What’s in it for me?” He had been debating whether or not to accept the boy’s apology when it came. He enjoyed fucking Theo, but hated how emotional and bitchy he sometimes was.

“You mean aside from the sex?” Theo asked seductively.

“Obviously. I mean you threw me out last night, you’ve been yammering on about our relationship for weeks now, I’m not sure if the sex alone is worth it,” he told him truthfully. “Plus, I’ll be getting that from Harry starting this weekend.”

“Then gag me,” Theo offered with a tempting grin, making Tristan’s heartbeat speed up.

“What?” Tristan asked, not certain Theo was being serious or not.

“Tonight, you can tie me up, gag me and have your wicked way with me,” Theo promised, rubbing his body against Tristan’s already growing erection.

“That is an appealing proposition,” Tristan mused, finding the idea of taking Theo in this manner, especially after the boy humiliated him the night before, to be very appealing indeed.

Theo latched onto Tristan’s earlobe and hummed against him. “So I’ll see you tonight?”

“Blowjob now and you have a deal,” Tristan whispered, and Theo dropped down to his knees in the very next instant, pulling Tristan free of his trousers and going to work on the boy he was about to ruin.

Now it was all up to Draco; Theo desperately hoped Malfoy’s method of persuasion would be as effective as his own.

Authors Note: Tristan, Tristan, Tristan, whatever will we do with you? Lynch mob maybe? Anyhow, as a special treat, I'll be offering copies of The Pictures of Dorian Gray with cover art of a very naked Draco. Any takers?