Malfoy Flavor

-23-

The next evening, Draco and Harry made their way to the Whomping Willow and followed the tunnel to the Shrieking Shack. Harry had refused to tell Draco anything about the meeting, other than that he needed to speak to both him and his father about something important. Draco hadn't been able to get a thing out of him and was seriously frustrated by the time the four of them were gathered.

Harry quickly explained to Lucius and Draco everything that he had discussed with Severus the night before. By the time he was done, Lucius looked as if he was carved from stone and Draco looked downright terrified. Harry sat down against the wall and pulled Draco to sit between his legs. He wrapped his arms tight around Draco's waist and murmured nonsensical words in Draco's ear, hoping to ease some of his fear and soothe him.

Neither boy paid any attention when Severus drew Lucius aside to talk with him privately on the other side of the room. But the men did pay attention to the boys. Severus had seen them together plenty of times, but Lucius hadn't. He'd heard about them being together, of course, but had not seen them interact. As Lucius argued with Severus about the wisdom of Harry's plan, he watched as Harry soothed and relaxed Draco. They were so natural with each other.

Lucius paused in his argument and moved closer to the boys to listen in when they finally began talking.

"Draco, you know you don't have to do this," Harry said. He turned Draco a bit in his arms so he could look into Draco's eyes. "I love you. I really didn't want to have to ask you to do this at all. The idea of asking you to face Voldemort terrifies me." He shrugged uncomfortably, not sure what else to say.

"I know you wouldn't ask if you didn't feel it was necessary, but I just don't know if I can do this," Draco said helplessly.

Lucius observed as Harry gave Draco a gentle kiss. "I may not want you to have to do this, but if you choose to, I have complete faith that you could pull it off." Harry actually grinned at Draco as he said, "You are the Slytherin Ice Prince and a Malfoy. You can easily put on that cold, aristocratic mask of yours to fool Voldemort with no problem."

Draco smirked. "I do that well, don't I?" he said as he put the mask in place briefly.

Harry laughed lightly. "Yes, you do it well, love." He kissed Draco on the nose, which made Draco wrinkle his nose and the mask fell. Harry laughed again. "Obviously, I'll just have to keep my hands off of you around Voldemort, though."

Draco glared at him for that. "At least don't kiss my nose."

Harry kissed it again before turning serious. "I really do think that you can do this. It's scary as hell facing Voldemort, I know, but you just have to push the fear down deep inside. I think it's easier to pull up anger when you're around him and then let yourself feel the fear later, if that makes any sense. Although, indifference would probably be best in this case," he added.

Lucius looked at Harry in confusion. When had this boy ever been around Voldemort? Did he understand him correctly? He glanced over at Severus, who was also watching the boys. Severus didn't seem to think the conversation sounded odd at all. So what was he missing?

Draco had leaned his head back on Harry's shoulder when Harry turned thoughtful. After a few moments, Harry spoke again. "Honestly, Draco, although this would be hard for you, I think you can probably pull it off better than me. You'll have to deal with the shock of actually seeing him face to face for the first time, which will be hard, but at least you know what he actually looks like now. So that's got to help you be more prepared. Me, on the other hand . . ." Harry trailed off and sighed heavily.

Draco turned again and this time he was the one to kiss Harry lightly. "I know. You didn't exactly part on good terms the last couple of times you met, did you?"