Content Harry Potter Miscellaneous
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Author Notes:

Anti-angst even stronger in this chapter. Fluff lovers, rejoice.

Harry eyed Draco suspiciously. "What did you do?"

"It was an accident, I swear."  

"What was an accident?"

"My playing the world’s worst prank on you."

"How do you accidentally play a prank on somebody?"

Draco rubbed his closed eyelids with his fingertips. "How about I just tell it to you from the beginning?"

"What a good idea. Maybe then I’ll understand it, which right now I don’t."

"Fine." Draco scooted back to share the wall with Ron, and the rest of Pack and Pride disposed themselves comfortably for listening. "So after you’d knocked Neenie’s cage down—that was you, wasn’t it?"

"Yes, that was me." Harry glanced down at Ginny, who had emitted a soft noise, and raised his eyebrows, asking silently, Something for you?  

You’ll like this, Ginny signed, tapping her index and middle fingers above the corners of her mouth. Now, hush!

"So you saw what happened next." Draco twined fingers briefly with Hermione. "I caught her, got my hand inside there, we touched and I had magic again, but before I could do anything she was shouting at me, reminding me we were being watched and there would probably be Death Eaters in any second. So I hacked into the scry."

Harry blinked. "You what?"

"I broke into it. Fuzzed it out." Draco wiggled the fingers of his left hand. "Blood doing me some good for once. You do realize where we are?"

"Well, now I do." The large amount of space in the manor house, the ease with which the Death Eaters had moved into it and set up their various grotesque amusements, the role of Lucius Malfoy in setting up the scrying spells, were all making sense to Harry now that he thought about it. "I remember your scry did go fuzzy, right before—"

"Before Lucius walked in," Draco took over. "I don’t know what he was expecting, but he didn’t even have his wand out yet. I took him down without a fight."

"You took him down?" Harry repeated. "But I saw—"

He broke off again as the implications of Draco’s "hacking" became clear to him. "I saw what you wanted the Death Eaters to see, didn’t I?" he said.

"Yeah." Draco’s cheeks were turning pink. "I had to work fast or they’d come to see what was messing up their scry, and I had to make sure they wouldn’t think we’d be any more trouble, so I fed them what I thought they’d like. It wasn’t until we were both ‘dead’ and I’d blanked ours out that Hermione asked me to trace the spells and I realized you were watching the same ones Voldemort was. Except he had one on you as well."

Harry nodded slowly. "And everyone else?" he asked, glancing around the circle.

"We were next up," said Ginny, leaning against Harry’s shoulder. "Neville and I. Hermione could see he was reaching into his pocket, and knew he probably had something there..."

"Just holly," Neville said, displaying a withered red berry. "But I’d been working on them, making them more potent, so no one could stop us."

"And once Draco could get into the scrying spells, he could also speak to me," Luna added. "So we had our own plan for how to help Ron and me."

"I heard about that," Harry said. The full implications of the story were working their way forward in his mind, but he was being careful not to look at them just yet. "But if you could change what the spells were showing..."

Draco looked away. "I could only do one at a time," he said quietly. "It’s complicated, and if I’d made even one mistake, they’d have known something was wrong, and then—"

"I’m not blaming you," Harry interrupted. "I just wanted to know. So you changed Neville and Ginny’s scry..."

"Not all of it," Meghan piped up. "Ginny really broke his Imperius."

Neville nodded. "And I was about to use the berries when Luna’s Patronus popped up and told us not to panic, to sit down and wait. So we did, and pretty soon she was there to let us out."

"In Hermione’s body," Ginny added. "Which was incredibly bizarre to see."

"Yes, how did that work again?" Harry shook his head, baffled. "How do you just swap souls with somebody?"

"It wasn’t easy," Draco admitted. "But since Neenie and I are blood-sibs, and Luna and I are handfasted..." He shrugged. "It was basically Find the Lady with souls. I’ll draw you a diagram sometime. What matters is, it worked."

"It left me in Hermione’s body, in the room with Draco," Luna took up the story. "We were all right, but Draco couldn’t leave there because he had to stay touching the house to keep control of the scrys, so I had to be the mobile partner." She smiled reminiscently. "I took Mr. Malfoy’s wand for myself, and stole a few more from the Death Eaters who were watching the scrys. They never noticed me at all."

"From there, it was just timing." Draco massaged his temples. "I was scared to death someone was going to notice how neatly sequenced everything was, how none of it was happening at the same time as anything else, or how over the top some of those little speeches were..."

"How did you stop them from really doing anything to themselves?" Harry asked.

"Patronus messenger, with the scry faked just long enough to disguise it showing up," said Padfoot. "At least, that’s what I got."

"Me too." Meghan giggled. "Mine told me to make a great big fuss, then pretend I took the potion when I didn’t—and it was so dark in there, no one could see me!"

"I wish we could have sent you one, Harry," Letha said quietly. "But Voldemort was watching you harder than he was watching any of us. If you’d shown even an instant of relief, if you hadn’t been completely believable..."

"I was believable because I believed it!" Harry snapped. "Because I honestly thought you were all dead!"

"And we’re not." Letha indicated the circle of people. "But we might have been, if you had known any different."

"Yes, well..." Harry growled under his breath. "None of this explains me. That was the Killing Curse he used on me."

"It was," said Moony. "But I’m afraid I told you a fib when I spoke to you through Draco’s link with the scrys. The effect of your being a Horcrux was not to kill Voldemort when he killed you, but to make him effectively also a Horcrux for you. Thus you survived his Killing Curse."

"What died was the bit of his soul in you," Danger put in. "So the moment that curse hit you, he became as mortal as anyone else."

"We were here for it." Padfoot stretched his arms. "As soon as you two went down, we took out the Death Eaters from behind, tied them up and hauled them off, set up den here, and waited for you to come out of it."

"And didn’t bother to tell me we were all alive," Harry muttered.

"Because we were hoping you’d do what you did," Moony returned. "Scare Tom Marvolo Riddle quite literally to death. The prophecy is fulfilled, and you never had to become a murderer after all."

"Wonderful." Harry punched a pillow moodily. "So what do we do now?"

"Live?" Neville suggested.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious."

"You’re not too angry?" Draco said tentatively. "I just didn’t think..."

Harry started to smile as the last of his anger bled off, impossible to sustain in the face of the knowledge of his family’s survival. "Of course I’m not angry," he said. "How could I be? You saved our lives. I’m even going to give you a reward!"

"A reward?" Draco looked half interested, half apprehensive. "What kind?"

"One that lasts and lasts." Harry spread his arms expansively, nearly hitting Ginny. "When you have kids, they’ll never need to spend a Knut on pranking supplies!"

Draco groaned aloud as the rest of the Pack and Pride burst into laughter. "I’m doomed," he said, dropping his face into his hands.

Luna patted his back. "Don’t worry," she said sweetly. "I’ll protect you." A glance around the group and a small smile that left Harry wondering if a little of Hermione hadn’t stayed behind. "Maybe."

Harry laughed again with everyone else. He didn’t know what tomorrow would bring, but as long as the Pack and Pride stuck together, he was sure it would be all right.

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Author Notes:

You can’t say I didn’t warn you. And yes, this is what I was planning all the time. Hope you’ve enjoyed it, and BC will be updated as soon as I can manage it, and FD shortly after that. Thank you for coming on yet another of my mad mental journeys!