The Devil Runs Wild

********~Changes~

“What do you mean the bond isn’t the same?” Harry asked again, confusion drawing in his eyebrows.

“The bond has changed, Potter,” Draco said, crossing his arms and leaning back against the wall, his head hitting the wall with a little too much force to be accidental and Harry winced.

“See!” Draco said as he saw Harry wince. “You care,” Draco said with a look of disgust.

“So?” Harry asked. He knew he cared about Draco’s welfare. What was the big deal? He even cared about Snape..sort of.

Draco groaned at Potter’s apparent idiocy.

“Harry,” Hermione interrupted. “The bond has changed to make YOU the slave and Malfoy the master.”

“What?” Harry said, although he didn’t have as much anger behind it as he should have. In fact, he didn’t have any anger about it at all. It didn’t feel wrong to be Malfoy’s slave. The idea felt natural to him.

“How this could have happened is what I would like to know,” Hermione said and looked to Snape who was pacing back and forth in front of Dumbledore’s portrait, much like she had been doing before he had arrived and taken up her spot.

Snape glanced over at the silence that followed and realized Granger had been asking him.

“I have no idea,” Snape said and continued pacing.

“So can we fix it or not?” Draco asked gruffly.

“I have no idea,” Snape repeated.

“Gee, you’re a lot of help,” Draco grunted and Snape stopped to glare at him.

“This isn’t helping!” Hermione cried when the glaring contest between Malfoy and Snape was continuing a little too long.

“Right, then,” Draco said. “Potter, take off your clothes,” Draco ordered and Harry moved to unbutton his shirt.

“Stop that!” Hermione cried and Draco chuckled.

“Nothing like that to break the tension,” Draco said, laughing and watching Potter undress.

“Draco, stop it right now,” Snape said and Draco rolled his eyes but ordered Potter to stop as he reached the middle of his shirt.

Harry blinked but re-buttoned his shirt when Draco ordered him to.

“Oh, Harry!” Hermione cried and rushed over to him to pat his head, comfortingly.

“What?” Harry asked, confused by Hermione’s reaction. What was the big deal? He was just doing what Malfoy had ordered him to. What was wrong with that?

Severus watched the scene in silence, as did Draco. Severus had absolutely no idea how the bond had transformed. Based on everything that he had learned during his lifetime, this was entirely impossible.

Severus went back to pacing.

********

Harry was now sitting on the back porch at the Burrow. Mrs. Weasley had given him a cookie and brought him out here to have a talk with him alone, away from the arguing among Snape and Draco, with Hermione interrupting from time to time, magicing in books whenever necessary. They had been arguing about how to fix the new bond but their arguing hurt Harry’s head, especially when Draco’s anger was shown. Harry had taken up screaming and defending Malfoy with whatever he said, which wasn’t much help at all, and Draco had finally ordered Harry to go away.

Mrs. Weasley had offered him a cookie and taken him away. She had asked him about how he felt about all of this and after he had told Mrs. Weasley that it all felt okay and natural to him, Mrs. Weasley’s eyes had widened and she had walked straight back inside the house, probably to tell Snape and the others of it.

Harry wondered why everyone was so freaked out about this bond.

“Hey, mate, you alright?” Ron’s voice sounded out behind him and Harry turned to see his friend closing the door and moving to sit next to him on the porch.

“Yeah,” Harry said truthfully. “I’m a bit confused, though.”

“I am too,” Ron said. “Snape and Hermione say that they really have no idea how this could have happened. They say the bond isn’t even the same slave bond that Malfoy had. They haven’t been able to find out which type of bond it is. They’re arguing about which type of bonds it best resembles right now. I really don’t know what they’re talking about in there,” Ron said.

“Oh,” Harry said and looked out at the garden. He saw a gnome plucking a flower off in the distance.

“Yeah, and Malfoy just stormed out of the room,” Ron said.

Harry’s head snapped back to his friend. “What? Why? Is he okay?” Harry asked, worry sketched on his face.

Ron’s eyes widened with either shock and a bit of fear at Harry’s reaction. “He’s fine. He was just upset that Hermione’s smarter than him,” Ron said and was taken aback when Harry glared at him.

“Draco is smart,” Harry said simply and turned away from his friend.

“Er…right, mate, whatever you say,” Ron said, but Harry wasn’t paying attention to him at all. Ron sighed and stood up. “I’m gonna go get a cookie, you want one?” Ron asked but Harry didn’t respond. Ron sighed and walked back in the house.

Harry stared off into the distance, watching the gnomes attack each other.

*********

Lucius Malfoy found it a bit unsettling as he transformed into the form of his dead son. He knew it was a necessary part of the Dark Lord’s plan, but looking into a mirror only to see his dead son’s face staring back at him was not something he could get use to.

“Wonderful, Lucius,” the Dark Lord hissed out behind.

Lucius nodded. The polyjuice had worked sufficiently. He even acquired the faint scar on Draco’s left hand that he, himself, had caused when the boy was eight years old. Draco had always been a nuisance, even at that young age. He admitted to the Dark Lord that he had been relieved at the news of Draco’s death and the Dark Lord’s praise of him lessened his own awkward guilt of not feeling more loyalty to his own family. Lucius let out a ‘humph’ and straightened up. No matter, he thought, the Dark Lord was his only loyalty now.

“Remember, Lucius, you must imitate him in every way,” the Dark Lord hissed.

Lucius nodded and apparated away.