What Shakes The Elephant

What Shakes The Elephant

Chapter 50 – I Hope That My Sanity Covers The Cost

Any man, in their right mind, who has a knack for business or politics would jump at the chance for advancement. In fact, most –if not all –men who have a knack for politics or business strive endlessly towards that advancement that will make their career. It is an endless game of ‘he said, she said’, scandals and playing the cards right in order to end up at the top. It’s a series of perpetually making the right move at the right time and always ‘okaying’ the final decisions in order to finally be in a position where you can delegate those meticulous tasks to others. Yes, to any man in their right mind, the chance –and in fact the plain, silver-platter offer –of advancement would seem like a dream come true, if not too good to be.

But Draco Malfoy was not, for innumerable and very mysterious reasons, in his right mind.

He was pacing the room and dragging his fingers through the finely cropped locks of his blonde hair, aggravating the headache that bloomed behind his temples. He was grinding his teeth and muttered through them to himself while, every so often at precisely timed erratic moments, glancing back at the paper that seemed to present him his doom.

“Why is this happening? This can’t be right,” he continued to say. He was sure that those had been the only words to come out of his mouth in the last hour or so, but he needed to repeat them. Perhaps if he did, they would trigger something in the cosmos that would set things back to normal again once the powers that were realized their horrible mistake.

“Draco, please,” Harry’s voice interrupted his stream of consciousness once more. The same slightly concerned warm tone showered Draco’s being and he longed to give into it. But there were more pressing matters at hand. This was some kind of sick joke. Or a trap.

Yes, it had to be a trap. TRAP.

Why else would someone offer him this position? NOW.

“It just doesn’t make sense,” he rambled on under his breath. Harry was standing now, though he hadn’t the slightest idea as to how he came to stand right in front of Draco. The blond looked up and was almost startled by the realization that Harry was, in fact, physically present in the room.

“Draco,” Harry began again calmly, this time placing both hands on each of Draco’s shoulders to stop him from moving. His eyes drew the blond’s gaze and he could not ignore the other many any longer. “This is possibly the strangest reaction I’ve seen to news this good? You were just offered the chance to be Minister for Magic. If you aren’t going to take it, the least you should be aware of is the amazing compliment that Kingsley is making you.”

“Compliment? Ha!” Draco burst out without meaning to. He was trembling very slightly and shooting pains were darting through his body. Harry frowned and began to massage the pressure points around Draco’s neck very softly to calm him.

“Why does this seem so bad to you?” Harry asked more soothingly. He led Draco to the bed again but the blond would not sit. He was almost beginning to feel numb and he needed to keep himself walking.

“Why?!” he snapped more abruptly than intended. “This is horrible! This is a big mess. Do you know what kind of attention the post of Minister for Magic brings? Worse than that, do you know what kind of press the NOMINATION brings?”

Harry’s face was etched with confusion. He did not understand and the mild dizziness setting in around Draco was not pleasant. He sat himself down finally and Harry rubbed his back to reassure him.

“Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?” Harry asked with a little bit of a sneer. “To be in control of everything and everyone? For everyone to know who you are and obey you? I would have thought that this kind of power would be your dream come true!”

Draco smiled bitterly. He gave Harry a sharp look before melting at the sight of those fierce green eyes. He sighed and massaged at the fleshy bit between his forefinger and thumb.

“In simpler days,” Draco admitted. “Sure, that would have been my ultimate goal. But you wanted to be an Auror, not a Ministry worker inasmuch as your job is. Furthermore, you would never have wanted to be friends with me, let alone share a bed. Things change, Potter.”

“Then, what changed?” Harry asked, edging closer and forfeiting his wolfish grin in favour of a more understanding expression.

Draco sighed and looked up at the wall again. He shook his head and bit his lip. His mouth felt dry and his lips were raw for some reason. The pain throughout his body was getting sharper.

“I changed,” Draco replied simply. “The war changed. The Ministry changed. Everything did. I told you this.” He looked back at Harry. “Why do you think I refused the position of Head of Department twice?”

Harry opened his mouth but sat dumb as he looked at Draco. He frowned and the lines on his forehead deepened. He shrugged.

“You tell me.”

“I was working as a Healer for a few years,” Draco said softly, feeling like his tongue was fuzzy. “I never intended to be that either, you see, but once we got out of the Ministry I realized I had to.

“My father was still very ill from the way he was treated,” he went on. “Shacklebolt did what he could but there was only so much they could do in such a short time. Furthermore, few people were intent on treating my father well. The Healers at St Mungo’s were not unaware of what happened during the war. They held grudges, much like many still do.

“I worked there, dealing with verbal abuse and some physical attacks for months. I would play the part I needed to. I was kind and polite and did not complain. I learned everything I could and I took it home to my father in order to help him recuperate.

“Time passed and I improved. I moved up in the ranks of the hospital and every time I did, more people criticized me. They thought I was only in it to advance. They thought I only wanted power. But I didn’t care about power. I just wanted my family to be whole again.” Draco stopped and sighed heavily, trying to fight off the awareness of the pain he felt. “I was made Master Healer and eventually Director of the hospital. The more I moved up, the more information I got that could benefit my father… but the more I became aware that the Hospital’s facilities were lacking.

“Furthermore, the higher rank I achieved, the more attention was put on me. The press were still prodding around in my life, trying to get details on what I was doing in order to spin it and make it seem as though I were some kind of villain. The people in the Hospital were only too willing to help at first.

“Kingsley came to me, the first time, to offer me the position right after I had been appointed Director. I refused him because I did not want it to seem as though I was just using the hospital as a stepping stone. I wanted to help, Harry. I did.”

“Then I don’t see the problem…” Harry began but Draco shook his head.

“As soon as the news got out that I declined,” the blond continued, massaging his hand more roughly. “people wanted to know why. Those at the Ministry that did not believe in me started investigating everything I was doing. I started drafting changes for the way St Mungo’s was being run and they questioned it. I wanted to hire more Healers and they questioned it. Everything I did had some ulterior motive in their eyes.

“The second time Kingsley came to me was right after the scandal with Peaseblossom. That bloody thickhead couldn’t find water if he were drowning, let alone run a Department. He sank the whole thing into massive debt, sending the hospital into severe problems. I told him I would think about it and in the meantime I was investigated again. They though I was responsible for Peaseblossom’s downfall in order to make myself look better.” Draco sighed heavily.

“That’s absurd,” Harry proclaimed. Draco nearly laughed.

“Yes,” he answered. “But that didn’t stop them did it?” He swallowed hard. “I had to refuse because the investigation was overturning my entire life. My father was getting ill from the stress and my mother certainly could not deal with it alone.

“The final time he came to me was…I suppose good timing for Kingsley. My father had recovered some months before and my mother was now in the hospital. But the facilities at St Mungo’s were nowhere near good enough to provide the proper care for her. Most of the patients that shared her ward were ultimately there awaiting death. I couldn’t do anything from my position so I finally accepted.

“I had to…” Draco’s voice was hard now. “And I was under the most intense scrutiny for a long while after that. It wasn’t until I pulled the Department out of debt, set up the Archives and managed to improve the facilities at St Mungo’s and in Hogwarts’ Hospital Wing that they eased up.”

They were silent for a short while. Draco was biting his lip hard and there was mild pain streaking down his arm. He cracked his neck, supposing it would help.

“I still don’t see how becoming Minister is a bad thing,” Harry admitted rather sheepishly. Draco groaned softly.

“There are still many people who do not like me in the Ministry,” Draco explained, his teeth gritted against the pain. “Many people who would absolutely love to suffocate me in scandal and once again destroy the Malfoy name. If I accept this offer, the media will start digging. They will not only unearth the details of my past with the Ministry, everything relating to the war and the trials with Thicknesse, but they will also delve into my relationship with Hydra, use her against me and totally shatter the careful defenses I’ve set up to allow Scorpius to have a normal life.” Draco frowned. “I won’t put my family through that. People will practically call me out into the middle of Diagon Alley for a public lynching.”

Quite unexpectedly, Harry kissed his neck just under his ear. He slowly trailed the kisses along Draco’s jaw and sent shivers through his body, relaxing him into a comfortable state of numbness. Damn him.

“Draco,” he whispered far too enchantingly. “If you refuse, imagine the attention that will get. When Dumbledore refused the position he was put under a lot of scrutiny.” Harry’s hand slipped under Draco’s clothes to draw designs across his back. “Furthermore, you have me on your side. I’ll support you through this. And you’ll even be able to say you’ve discovered the cure to Pureblood curses. How about that for noble deeds?”

Draco looked up abruptly. His eyes were wide and his breath caught in his throat. Was Harry serious? He couldn’t be. He couldn’t know what he was saying. That wasn’t right…

“Harry,” Draco whispered. “I didn’t discover the cure on my own. You were vital in that research. If we even have the cure, I couldn’t have done that without you.”

He didn’t really know what was happening. Somewhere in an alternate universe, there was a sixteen year old Draco Malfoy who was watching this all unfold and cursing his very own name for not taking the chance when it was offered to him. Where had his Slytherin tactics gone? Something wasn’t right…

“Yes, I helped,” Harry agreed with a slow nod and a soft kiss. “But I still haven’t the foggiest how we came to this conclusion. You did most of the work, Draco. You are the primary responsible party. You don’t have to omit me, but you don’t have to give me more credit than I deserve.”

Before Draco could answer him, Harry pressed their lips together and sucked slowly on his tongue. The stress slipped away as they fell back onto the bed and Draco wrapped his arms around the other man. He couldn’t even begin to explain how he lived so many years without this… though he supposed that was what everyone said in this kind of situation.

Harry moved to straddle Draco and slowly slip off his shirt but something was amiss. The shooting pains in Draco’s arm were increasing. He gave a soft cry of pain and his vision began to blur.

“Draco?” Harry’s voice came from somewhere distant. It became hard to breathe. Very hard. Impossible. “Draco?!”

The shuddering pain in his chest was tearing through him suddenly. It completely rocked his body and things began to grow dark around him. The voice that was calling his name grew more distant and all he could hear was a very erratic and very strained beating in his ears.

“DRACO!”

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A/N: GASP! More revealed! More to come! INSANITY! *scary music*

I hope you enjoyed it! It’s a short chapter, I know, but I’m feeling a tad sick and I needed to cut it off here. More to come soon. I hope to have this finished before Halloween. We’ll see if I can do it!

Love to you all! Thanks for the reviews and comments!