Three-Edged Sword (a Harry Potter Story) - 4. Those Long Rows We Hoe

George again woke up to an intense stare.

“Is this going to be a habit of yours, Professor?” George asked tersely.

Snape growled in response. He gestured at George and George lifted the blanket, again showing that both boys were fully clothed.

“Is this going to be a habit of yours?” Professor Snape asked George.

Before George could reply, Draco responded snarkily, “No. Tomorrow we’ll be naked and sticky from our postcoital bliss, Uncle Severus.”

Both George and Snape turned to look at Draco with shocked expressions on their faces.

He gave them both a wicked look that was distinctly Draco.

After a very long and tense silence, Snape replied. “Professor Dumbledore wanted to discuss a schedule change with you Draco. You are being put into classes with the Gryffindors wherever you weren’t already.”

Draco’s face soured, drawing a look from George. Draco smiled slightly at his boyfriend and George returned the smile.

“I suppose that means that Harry Potter will be my new protector?” Draco asked with a resigned sigh.

“There is no better wizard,” George replied firmly before Snape could say something snotty.

“Mr. Potter certainly has his uses,” Professor Snape allowed very generously (for him anyway).

“Uncle Severus?” Draco asked as the man stood to leave.

“Yes Draco?”

“Can you please leave us to our privacy?”

Snape gave both boys a long-suffering look before nodding sharply once before turning and leaving with his billowing robe, drama queen exit.

As soon as the door closed behind his retreating form, Draco turned to George and said, “That went much better than I thought it would.”

“It has been unnerving to wake up to his sour face two days in a row,” George pouted.

“Try living with him for a summer,” Draco grouched in response.

“No thanks, I’d really rather avoid that much nausea if I can help it.”

“I tend to agree, but I couldn’t avoid it. Besides, as bad as he is, Lucius is thousands of times worse.”

“There is that. I need to get a shower and a new change of clothes.”

“Shower here. Please,” Draco said, taking his turn at pouting to his boyfriend.

George looked at him sternly.

Draco smirked knowingly and George slowly blushed red before looking away.

“I don’t want to shower and then put on my dirty clothes. It would defeat the purpose.”

“So, run back to your room and get some clothes. Then you can come back here and we can shower together.”

George rolled his eyes. Draco was having none of it though. He was used to getting his way. In fact, with the exception of Lucius, Draco always got his way. George looked at the determined expression on Draco’s face and knew he was fighting a losing battle. He resigned himself as being the claimed property of one Draco Malfoy.

George stood and made his way to the bathroom to relieve himself when he noticed clean robes sitting on the shelf. There were clean boxers as well. Not so unusual except that they were his. He stared closely at them and noticed a piece of paper tucked into a pocket of the robes.

Gred,

I noticed you didn’t return the last two nights and I figured you were staying in that new room of Draco’s. I’ve made arrangements with Dobby to keep you supplied in clothes up there. You might be interested to note that Dobby had already been told to provide you clothes by the Headmaster. Wonders shall never cease, brother mine.

Forge

George laughed out loud, which attracted the attention of Draco. Draco nonchalantly snatched the letter out of George’s hand and read through it. His eyes widened at the end when he saw that the Headmaster was giving at least his tacit approval to the sleeping arrangements.

“Just what sort of stuff do you do for the Headmaster that he waives most of the rules of the school for you?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about Draco.”

“The hell you don’t,” Draco pouted and poked George in the belly.

“We keep an eye on Harry,” George offered tentatively.

“You seem to have as many, if not more, special privileges than Potter! If you were just keeping an eye on him, then it wouldn’t justify all the perks you get. What else do you have your hands in?” Draco demanded, his chest puffing out.

George looked at him sternly and refused to answer.

Draco was the first to back down. His chest deflated and he mumbled, “Please tell me what’s going on.”

George reached over and pushed Draco’s chin up with his finger so they were looking eye-to-eye again. “Temper tantrums and fits are not going to get me to do things. The information I share with you, I’ll share because I want to, not because you demand it. Do I make myself clear, Draco?”

Draco nodded.

“Now, to answer your question. Headmaster Dumbledore requires information in order to lead the fight against You Know Who and to keep this school under control. For centuries it has been tradition here to have a handful of students head up a special services group. Fred and I are in charge of it and have been for the last few years. We control all of the black market and we trade goods and services for all sorts of things. That includes information. We report back to Dumbledore regularly through various means so that he can stay informed.”

Draco stared at him dumbfounded for a long time. “Most of the teachers don’t know about this, do they?”

“Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape know some, but not much. They know the most. No one else knows or can know.”

“But you told me.”

“I trust you Draco. Professor Dumbledore trusts you.”

Draco’s mouth opened and closed twice, but no sound came out.

George grinned mischievously and started to strip the younger boy. Draco regained his composure and smacked his hands away. George’s grin broke out into a full-blown smile as he stripped off his own clothes. “Time to shower then, hey Draco?”

Draco swallowed nervously and nodded slowly.

“Little nervous now? Let’s go,” George smiled hugely and herded the naked blond boy into the shower ahead of him.

*   *   *

George settled into his seat at the Gryffindor table and Draco sat down next to him. Harry was on Draco’s other side and greeted him amiably enough. Draco was still having trouble processing the fact that Harry had reconciled with him.

“Malfoy,” Ron said as he sat down.

“Weasley,” Draco replied.

Ron greeted everyone else and then went back to the conversation he was having with Seamus.

Hermione sat down and greeted everyone. The responses were warm, if a bit distracted.

“I guess I’m in all your classes now, Potter,” Draco said to the boy next to him when there was a lull in the conversation.

Harry turned to look at him and nodded. “Professor Dumbledore asked me to keep an eye on you and make sure that none of your house members sneak up on you. He even said I could blast them if they did.”

Draco stared nervously at the way Harry was grinning and rubbing his hands together.

“I think Harry is having a tug on your leg there Draco,” Fred piped up from the other side of Harry.

“Shhhhh… he doesn’t know that,” Harry replied in a stage whisper.

Draco snorted a bit in amusement before blushing red for snorting. It was so undignified. Hanging out with these Gryffindork buffoons was going to really bad for his image. Although he’d probably have fun doing it. He looked back at Harry and saw a rather mischievous smirk on his face. ‘Oh, this will definitely be interesting,’ he groaned silently.

“So Malfoy… Have you seen the glorious light and decided to join the cause, huh?” Ron asked, finally deciding to put his two knuts into this conversation.

Fred raised his right eyebrow at Ron and Harry raised his left. George’s mouth thinned. All conversation at the table stopped.

“The only light I see is shining out of your arse, Ronniekins.”

Ron blinked hard, turned bright red, paled to ghostly white, and then turned bright red again. Lavender, who took that moment to plaster Ron with a mighty kiss, cut off any response Ron would have made to that. Ron tried to protest but gave in rather quickly.

Hermione glared at the bimbo and Ron like she was just short of hexing them both.

“I guess we know who wears that pants in that relationship,” Fred remarked dryly.

Harry popped his boyfriend in the arm and Fred ducked his head.

Lavender turned and smirked at Fred, “Aye, and we know who wears the pants in yours, don’t we?”

Fred had the decency to pink up and George snorted at the retort.

“You Gryffindors are nutters.”

“You’re just noticing this now Draco? Here I was thinking all that time you spent watching me you’d have seen that. Well, you are dating a bloke, so perhaps your interest wasn’t purely adversarial?” Harry suggested while quirking his eyebrow up in a knowing smirk.

This time Draco blushed.

“I think that is quite enough of this. Please pass that bacon,” George interjected, changing the direction of conversation.

Harry pouted a bit, but was distracted quickly by Fred. Ron looked as if he was about to say something, but Lavender distracted him again. Hermione, who had stopped glaring, was silently laughing behind her book while slowly shaking her head at the twins’ antics.

Breakfast broke up shortly after that and everyone made their way to their first class. Hermione was in the lead with Dean Thomas. Harry and Draco walked in the middle and Ron and Seamus brought up the rear. Once they were well into the corridor and away from teacher supervision, they were ambushed by a group of Slytherins.

“Malfoy, you have betrayed us all!” Goyle yelled while pounding his fist. Crabbe didn’t say anything, but he was pounding his fist as well.

“Hiding amongst the Gryffindors and worse, Harry Fucking Potter?! How could you stoop so low? Wait, you’re fucking a Weasley, so we know how low you can go,” Millicent Bulstrode screeched at them.

Draco turned a violent shade of red, which looked rather ghastly on his normally pale face. He was about to say something when the Gryffindors closed ranks around him.

The Slytherins were immediately flustered with the unexpected protection being offered for Draco by the Gryffindors. Millicent started to draw her wand but suddenly found Harry Potter’s wand in her face.

“Do please give me a reason to hex you, Bulldog Bulstrode. It’s a shame Pansy’s gone, she actually made you look pretty.”

Draco gasped at the unexpected (and totally accurate) statement from Harry Potter.

The Slytherins all started reaching for their wands but found the Gryffindors, and Draco all holding theirs. Harry’s wand was letting off little wisps of red and gold smoke. Harry was fairly well vibrating with power and everyone started to feel it.

“This isn’t over,” Bulstrode said sharply before stomping off and taking the Slytherin goons with her.

“Thanks,” Draco said very softly.

“Of course,” Harry replied jovially. “If you keep dating George and seriously hook up with him, we’re going to end up as brothers.”

Draco looked at him, looked away and snapped his head back as he realized what Harry was implying.

Ron heard it too and looked ready to protest when Seamus shoved him forcefully forward. Seamus grinned as he guided his much taller friend past Harry and Draco.

Harry and Draco joined the flow as they headed off to Charms.

“Getting along finally are we boys?” Professor Flitwick asked when he saw Harry and Draco enter together.

Draco nodded and so did Harry.

“Excellent. I need some help demonstrating dueling technique and I’ve heard that you two are familiar with it. Since Professor Umbridge refuses to teach anything practical in her class, I’ll teach a little extra in mine,” the tiny professor huffed.

“If he summons a snake this time, I’m going to tell it to bite his arse,” Harry grumbled.

Flitwick looked surprised at Harry’s choice of words, as his eyebrows got lost somewhere in his hairline.

Draco looked over at Harry slyly and smirked at him.

As they readied to duel, Draco started the same way he did three years before, “Scared Potter?”

Harry smirked, “You wish.”

If the truth were to be told, Draco was actually feeling a little scared of Harry Potter. The boy had been nearly glowing with the amount of magical energy he was radiating only a few minutes ago. The little hero seemed to have a positively phenomenal instinctual grasp on magic theory. After watching him all these years, Draco wasn’t surprised. Nor was he surprised to notice that Harry himself hadn’t noticed what he was doing. Harry merely reached for power and used it when he needed to, not bothering with all the concentration and hard work that most wizards needed to grab extra power.

Flitwick did a countdown and when he reached the end, Harry fired off a hex at Draco, which he managed to deflect. Harry followed up with six hexes in rapid succession. Draco barely managed to deflect all of them and then fire off his own, which Harry easily deflected. They exchanged spell and counterspell for ten minutes before Harry managed to land a spell on Draco. Draco started to laugh uncontrollably and Harry hit him with the disarming spell and caught his wand as it flew out of his hand. Flitwick stepped forward and negated the spell effect on Draco.

“Excellent work, both of you! Twenty points to Gryffindor! Fifteen points to Slytherin!”

“Great job Draco,” Harry said afterwards, sticking out his hand.

Draco looked at it for a moment then shook it. Harry beamed back at him.

“Thanks boys, you can sit now,” Flitwick told them.

Flitwick then went into a detailed analysis of the duel with the whole class.

*   *   *

“I hear that our boyfriends are getting along,” Fred stated when he met up with George in the lab later that night.

“They had a duel in Charms today as a demonstration for Flitwick. Draco lasted quite a while against Harry, before Harry was able to disarm him. They shook hands afterwards too.”

“That’s what I heard. It is good to see them finally getting along. Have you heard anything about Slytherin plans?”

“No, but I’ve ordered our contacts to cut off everyone in Slytherin from getting any special items. They will also no longer be running interference for those selling more personal services.”

“Cutting off the school from pay-to-play sex, huh?”

“No. Anybody can still do that. However, the contacts we usually have keeping the teachers busy won’t be. I even talked to Peeves. He seemed quite delighted when I suggest that he hang out around Bulstrode’s friend.”

“You got Peeves to do something?”

“I promised to keep the Bloody Baron busy elsewhere so that Peeves could pull his own prank. I’ve already made the arrangements.”

Fred quirked his eyebrow at this twin, “I’m betting I don’t want to know, do I?”

George shook his head.

“I didn’t think so.”

“I finished up those new Vomit candies. Eat the first half and you’ll projectile vomit continuously. Eat the other half and it stops. If you could arrange to test it on some first or second years?”

Fred rubbed his hands together. “Definitely. They’re in that box on the other desk?”

“Yes.”

“Good. I’ll get going and get these tested before Harry and I meet.”

George smiled. “I’ll be meeting with Draco pretty soon. He’s supposed to come here. Apparently he was doing an arithmancy project with Hermione Granger. No doubt she is snooping out everything there is to know about Draco.”

“No doubt.”

“Good night Forge.”

“Good night Gred.”

George went back to stirring his potion, dropping different odds and ends into it, making notes on how they reacted.

*   *   *

Draco finally escaped from Hermione Granger. She had insisted that they complete their project now so that they wouldn’t have to rush later. They had been in there since after dinner and had stayed right up until Madam Pince had tossed them out of the library. Draco found her rather more Ravenclaw-like than Gryffindor, now that he spent a lot of time working with her. She was obsessed with getting the highest grade possible. Not that was necessarily a bad thing.

He made his way stealthily back to the secret hallway where his room was located. He stopped at George’s lab to see if he was still in there. George was in the room, but he had fallen asleep on the small couch that occupied a corner of the lab. Draco woke him up with a kiss to the forehead.

“Hi Draco. How did the project work go?”

“It’s done. Granger is a real slave driver when it comes to school work.”

“She is at that. She tries with Ron and Harry, but they both resist fairly well.”

“Potter is remarkably stubborn when the mood hits him.”

“Now that I’ve seen that you are okay, I’m off to bed.”

Draco got a detached look on his face. “Come stay with me again.”

George quirked his eyebrow at Draco before replying, “I suppose I could stay with you again. You don’t think your godfather Severus will be waiting for us in the morning though, do you?”

“He’d better not be, or I’ll hex his arse into next week!” Draco growled dangerously.

“Whoa there tiger. No reason to get all riled up with me,” George replied with a snicker.

“Are you making fun of me George?” Draco huffed.

“Would I do that?” George replied with his innocent angel look.

“You bet your arse you would!” Draco pouted.

“Someone’s touchy. If you get any more like a drama queen someone’s going to accuse you of being a Hufflepuff.”

Draco huffed in indignant rage. “You didn’t just suggest that I could possibly be a Hufflepuff! You couldn’t have even thought such a thing, let alone say it out loud!”

George cut him off by kissing him. Draco huffed for a very brief amount of time before he succumbed to George’s charm.

When Draco backed away a few minutes later he poked George in the belly, “You did that on purpose.”

“I like it when you’re all passionate and riled up. It makes things more interesting.”

“More interesting, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Let’s go back to my room now and go to bed.”

“If you insist. Do you think we should actually use the bed this time?”

“I do. I really really do.”

“Do what? Believe in fairies?”

Draco rolled his eyes. “I do believe in fairies. I do. I do. I’ve read Peter Pan too. Did you know that the story was accidentally leaked to Muggles?”

“I don’t care, actually.”

“Neither do I,” Draco replied, a glint in his eyes.

“Let’s go,” George replied, guiding Draco towards the door. He paused only long enough to put out the flame under his cauldron with a well-aimed shot from his wand.