Thank you again for all the reviews! This is the last chapter of The Only True Lords. Thank you for reading along.

Chapter Sixty-Three—Disparate Voices

The house-elf brought a letter to Severus at breakfast, a look of profound disapproval on his face. "Master Snape is seeing this," he said, and walked away before Severus could question him.

Severus stared at the letter, and then grimaced as he saw the handwriting. He knew that, all right, from too many evenings of hunching over essays and trying to decipher cramped scribbles. He sighed in resignation as he opened the envelope.

Dear Professor Snape,

I know that you probably don't want to hear from me, but you're the only one who can help me. I know that you still look out for your Slytherins, and I'm one of those, whatever else I am, whatever mistakes I made.

I made a mistake when I rebelled against the Lordship bond and tried to kill Potter. But I didn't know what else to do at the time, because my mother had raised me in a way that made freedom the ultimate goal. Sitting here in the Ministry cells gave me a chance to rethink my position. I know now that you and Draco made the right choice, and I made the wrong one.

Will you please intercede for me with Potter? Tell him that I'll accept the Lordship bond back, at least temporarily, if it gets me out of the holding cells and put under house arrest. That would be a lot better than staring at the ceiling and the blank walls here all day. I probably couldn't have got the ink and parchment for this letter if there weren't a few people here sympathetic to abused children.

Please say that you'll try to help me. I don't require anything more than an affirmation for now. Take as long as you need to persuade Potter. I'll sit here, and suffer from nothing but an excess of hope.

Yours sincerely,

Blaise Zabini.

Severus sat there and bleakly admired it, that little masterpiece of the manipulator's craft. Blaise had launched himself as hard as he could at the remaining prejudices Severus would have left concerning him. He had mentioned his mother's treatment as abusive, where before he would have refused to use that word. He had made himself sound cringing and cowering instead of proud, and slipped in hints that he hoped would engage Severus's sympathy. The Lordship bond was made to sound like the ultimate good and something he would begrudge at the same time, probably because he wanted more than one way to make an appeal to Severus. It was a good thing that Harry had not received this letter, Severus decided. He was the one who would have to make the decision, but it would have been harder with Blaise's words in front of him.

That left Severus, as adult in the bond and as Shield, to decide whether he should show Blaise's letter to Harry at all.

Well. Did I not just think that Harry was the one who would have to make the decision?

Severus nodded and stood. His would be the manner of presenting and choice of words, but it was time to carry the news to Harry.

Harry sat still for a long time after Severus told him about Blaise's request. He thought he needed that time to stare at the walls and recover himself.

The first thing he had felt, with a flash of lightning over an empty space still in his heart, was that he had a chance to fix a mistake and put Blaise back in his place in his bond.

The second thing he had felt was weariness, as he thought of the ways that Blaise had fought and resisted him and spurned all kinds of second chances and tried to testify against Harry during the trials. It hadn't worked, but that didn't make the attempt less annoying. Even free of the bond, he hadn't been able to give up his resentment of Harry.

And the third thing he felt was anger.

Harry looked up at Severus, who stood quietly waiting for his decision in a way that Harry would never have thought he could do. Not the restless, nervous Severus, who had wanted to be free of the bond from the day it appeared. He had changed.

Well, so had Harry. He wasn't the naive fool that he thought Blaise was trying to appeal to. Not anymore.

"Tell him," he said, his voice calm and firm, "that I decline to take him back into the bond. He can do what he wants, as far as trying to mitigate his sentence. He can also go back to his mother, if he wants. I refuse to have anything to do with him anymore. He's on his own."

Severus nodded, and proved that he hadn't changed that much by the flash of his eyes. "He begged me to write the letter back to him, telling him what you had decided," he drawled. "I shall enjoy it."

Harry grinned. "I'll let you do that."

He thought about it a little more after Severus had left, turning the decision over in his head like a jewel on cloth and wondering if he should reconsider. But no matter how many times he flipped it, the memory that was strongest was always the one of Blaise's face, sneering at him in rejection no matter what Harry offered.

It made him think of Draco and the way he had raged against the bond, screamed at Harry, tried to get him to take back his punishments-but never tried to kill him, much less invited his parents to try and act against Harry.

You know there are reasons for that. Draco was encouraged to have a little more independence and try to make some of his own choices, while all Blaise's mother wanted to do was raise someone who was dependent on her every move.

But knowing that didn't mean it was easy to forgive Blaise for what he had done, and now that the bond that had connected him to Blaise was broken, Harry couldn't feel the tempting, tugging urge he had before, to forgive him and get it over with. He was a changed person, but he could see Blaise without the haze of the change overcoming his vision.

They were better off as they were.

Draco finally couldn't take it any longer, and stopped sorting the post that had come that day to swivel around in his chair and face Harry. "What's the problem?" he snapped.

Harry, who had been leaning his chin on his hand while he stared at Draco, shook his head and sat up. "What?"

"You've been acting as though I have some kind of rash for days." Draco brought his hand down in the middle of the desk they were using. "You've been staring at me and frowning at me and then looking away when I try to ask you what's wrong. And you keep blushing at the weirdest times. What is it?"

Harry frowned again, and Draco was tempted to reach out and shake him, to see if that produced a different kind of reaction. But Harry finally exhaled and looked away from him with a little nod, as though he had come to a private conclusion. Draco waited, with his heart leaping around like a hare inside his ribcage. Had the bond told Harry that something was wrong between them, and he would have to get rid of Draco as a vassal? Had Draco done something wrong without knowing what it was? Draco didn't think so, not with his knowledge of pure-blood etiquette that Harry was relying so heavily on, but he had to admit that he didn't know as much about Lordship bonds as he did about the rest of it.

"I was just thinking," Harry said quietly, "about how different you are from Blaise, and even some of the other members of the bond." He looked at Draco, and his face was shining with utter determination. "I was thinking how lucky I was to have you in my life."

He reached forwards.

Draco went with it, still half in a daze, still wondering if he would open his eyes and find Pansy pounding on the door and yelling at him to leave people alone so they could sleep. But instead, there was Harry in front of him, gazing at him with deep, clear eyes that had lost the troubled look Draco hated so much.

Then he had Harry leaning in towards him.

Then he had Harry kissing him.

Draco gasped, and he thought the moment of shock produced deeper contact than either one of them had reckoned on, with their tongues colliding and a sensation like a hot needle sliding down his spine. Harry's hands rose, hovered, hesitated, and finally lowered so they could lodge themselves in Draco's hair. It was weird and strange and thrilling.

And it was over, with Harry breaking back and gasping as though they'd just dueled each other for the Snitch instead of sharing a kiss. He eyed Draco cautiously, his tongue licking lips that Draco wanted to suck and taste.

Draco tried out a smile. It seemed it was possible to smile like a normal person after all, even when he had lips that had just received a kiss from Harry Potter. "I hope that you didn't kiss me because you were thinking about kissing Blaise and you wanted to see how we would compare."

And Harry laughed, vivid and unexpected and strange as the kiss, and leaned towards him, and whispered, "No. I was thinking that you resented me the way that Blaise did, and you had reason to resent me, but you still never tried to kill me." Draco opened his mouth to point out that that wasn't so high a standard to surpass, but Harry wasn't done. "And I realized how heartbroken I would be if you did turn against me. Why it was so much harder to deal with the way that you were yelling at me than it was to deal with Blaise's desire to be gone from the bond."

Draco shifted, a little uneasily. He wondered how to put this, then decided that blunt would do pretty well. "You should know that Lords and vassals don't usually sleep together. It was considered too degrading, on the Lord's side-"

"You could never degrade me."

Draco flushed warmly under the praise, but continued anyway. "And like the vassal would get too much favoritism over other vassals, on that side."

Harry paused thoughtfully. Then he said, "I don't think either Greg or Severus would mind. Pansy probably doesn't consider it any of her business. My main concern is whether the bond would make things too-unequal for you."

Draco thought about that, made himself think about it, instead of just diving forwards and kissing Harry again the way he wanted to. Then he shook his head decisively. "I think that I'm doing what I should, by doing this. I know you could command me to sleep with you or leave you alone or whatever, but I also know that you're never going to do it. I feel safe with you."

Harry bowed his head and closed his eyes. Draco held his breath for a second, wondering if Harry had hoped he wouldn't say that. Was he regretting the kiss? Had he made a mistake, and he knew it now?

But Harry shook his head and opened his eyes, and even before that, Draco could feel the tremble of warm resonances flowing from the bond. That prepared him for Harry's smile, for the shine in his eyes as he reached out and caught Draco's chin.

"The only thing I regret at the moment is that I didn't do this before," Harry said. "I really like the idea of it, too. Shall we do it again?"

And Draco could grin and comply, because in some things, where it really suited him to be, he was an obedient vassal.

"You know that not many people are sympathetic to Slytherins right now."

Pansy looked steadily into the eyes of the woman sitting across from her. "I know that," she said. "But surely, in that case, we have a duty to make them see what they're missing?"

It took a moment, but Rita Skeeter smiled. "You're right," she said, and took out her quill. "What story are you going to tell?" Her large, careful eyes considered Pansy for a minute. "What story are we going to tell?"

Pansy nodded, glad for the acknowledgment that they were going to do this together. That gave her more confidence than she might otherwise have had. "The story of the Slytherins who thought they could find shelter and protection in the same place that other people did," she said. "Because even if the Death Eaters, or the Dark Lord himself, told them they were different from other people, stronger and somehow more worthy of respect, they didn't think of themselves that way. They trusted in the promise of sanctuary that was held out in certain parts of Hogwarts, and were astonished to find they were wrong."

"Is vengeance on the specific people who denied them sanctuary important here?" Skeeter cocked her head to one side as if considering. She hadn't written anything yet. "Because some of those people are war heroes, and it might be difficult to convince my audience that they did anything wrong."

Pansy sat up straight in her chair, inspired. "Of course not," she said, and tried her best to look deeply shocked. "Of course not. Because what matters here is the larger, collective trend, and not the individual, isn't it? The Dark Lord took advantage of the belief that pure-bloods in general were superior to try and put them on his side during the war. And now a lot of people who won are trying to come up with a new, convenient enemy to put in the place of the Dark Lord. Slytherins would be a good name to put on it—for them. It's up to us to stop this dangerous trend and really put a face back on the people who nearly died during the war. To show that not all Slytherins are evil, and our society will tear itself apart if we try to focus on making them that way, the same way that we tore ourselves apart when we tried to say that all Muggleborns were evil."

No muscle moved in Skeeter's face for a second. Pansy held her breath, wondering now if she should have framed it differently. Perhaps Skeeter herself held prejudices that Pansy didn't know about, and Pansy had unwittingly stumbled into them.

But a second later, Skeeter smiled, and her quill began to move rapidly over the parchment. "I can see that I'll need to bring a Pensieve with me when I come over here," she said coyly, "or get access to one later. Because the memory of your words would probably suffice if I was to simply write it down, without adding any other touches."

Pansy relaxed. That was as good an assurance as she was going to get, she thought, that her message would get out there completely unchanged in essentials.

And if she could make Skeeter employed and Skeeter could make her famous…

There's really nothing in this partnership to dislike.

"Are you all right, my Lord?"

Greg thought he was justified in asking. Lord Potter had come out of his latest talk with Draco with a dazed grin on his face. It made Greg a little afraid that Draco had maybe tried to use another love potion. Greg knew the bond wouldn't allow that, but that was with him. He really only understood his part of the bond. Maybe it was different with Draco.

Lord Potter, who was standing at the foot of the stairs as if he had forgotten they were there to go up, started and focused on him. "Yes, Greg, I am. Did you need something?"

"Just to make sure you were all right," said Greg, and when his Lord still blinked and acted like he didn't know why, Greg decided he could be blunt. This wasn't a Lord who would punish him for that, the way that some of them he had heard about in the past would. "Because you came out smiling like someone had tried to use a love potion on you."

Lord Potter laughed aloud at that, and Greg relaxed. He had seen some people under love potions in the last year, and he knew that no one who was laughed like that.

"I can see why you would be worried, given what tends to happen around me," Lord Potter said, and shook his head with what Greg thought was relaxation. "But I promise, that's not the case here." He paused, and Greg waited. He knew that kind of waiting. It meant that someone wanted to say something to him, but they weren't sure how Greg would react. Draco had done that all the time when he wanted Greg and Vince to beat up someone for him but it was a lot of work.

Poor Vince. I wish he lived and found a Lord he could serve.

"How would you feel if Draco and I were to start dating?" Lord Potter asked. His eyes were fastened on Greg so suddenly that Greg thought he had missed the point when his Lord looked up. "You wouldn't think it was wrong, would you?"

Greg had to think about that, but mostly he was thinking about why Lord Potter would worry about what he thought. Lord Potter could date anyone he wanted, and Greg would approve. Unless that person tried to betray him or hurt him, of course, and then Greg would be right there to stop them. It was better than having Lord Potter sneak around all the time because he wanted to hide who he was dating from Greg.

"No," said Greg at last. He could think of only one reason that Lord Potter would ask him that. "Did Draco say that I would think it was?"

"No," said Lord Potter. "But I wonder—I'm Draco's Lord, you know, and his legal guardian. It's not really equal."

"You're not going to be equal with most people," said Greg. "So if you worry about that, you'll never find anyone to date."

He was proud of himself for phrasing it that way, and for coming up with an argument that he thought Lord Potter would understand when he didn't think about Lordship bonds and being pure-blood the way Greg did. Instead, though, that just made Lord Potter stare at him some more. "But I'm not most people's Lord."

"But you saved the world," said Greg. "And they didn't."

Lord Potter hesitated as if he hadn't considered that. Greg watched him, shaking his head. He had to admit, although he really liked Lord Potter and he would always serve him loyally, some things about him were just weird. If Greg had saved the world, it would be the first thing he would think about when he woke up in the morning.

"That's true," said Lord Potter at last. "But that's only one difference between me and most people. Draco and I have two."

"I don't understand," said Greg. He knew that Lord Potter wouldn't despise him for admitting that the way the Dark Lord had when Greg said he didn't understand spells. "Do you want me to dislike your relationship with Draco?"

"No," said Lord Potter. "I just think that it might be a mistake to enter into one while I'm his Lord and he's my ward."

Greg shrugged. "I don't think it is, but you can ask Pansy and Professor Snape. I think they would tell you if it was really a mistake."

For some reason, that made Lord Potter break out into a bright grin. "You're right," he said. "I think I'll ask Professor Snape, since Pansy is busy right now. Thanks again, Greg." He nodded to him and sprinted up the stairs.

Greg watched him go, then shrugged again. It seemed that Lord Potter really did want someone to yell at him for dating Draco. Greg thought that was strange, but Lord Potter fought for things and loved things and wanted things that were all strange to him. This probably wasn't any stranger.

"So. Can you tell me if you think it's right?"

"I notice," said Severus slowly, "that you don't ask if it's wise."

Harry snorted. "I want to know if it's right, the way that it was right to ignore Blaise's plea to become a part of the bond again. But there, I had some knowledge. I had this horrible feeling about what would happen if I let him become my vassal again. This time, I only have my own feelings, and they aren't always reliable." He fixed Severus with an intense stare. "So, what do you think?"

Severus looked off to the side. He didn't know how to express his discomfort with the idea of being asked for advice about dating one of his Slytherins—and the one he had been sworn to protect, no less—from a Gryffindor.

A Lord. And someone who Severus could not imagine seeking to abuse the position of power he had over Draco.

But even that did not necessarily make it right.

Severus turned to back to Harry. "Could you wait?" he asked. "Until Draco is no longer legally a child?"

"Would even that make it right?" Harry's eyes were steady. "What would happen if we waited, and then he didn't want to leave the bond, so he was still my vassal? Should I deny him for as long as we're in an unequal bond?"

Severus frowned. "What would be Draco's response?"

"He wouldn't like it."

Severus had to snort at the sheer understatement of that. "Neither would he like it if he found out that you had come to me for advice. He would expect you to know whether it was right or not. Or perhaps he would not even care," Severus had to add. Draco was still impulsive in some ways, although that was a bit restrained since his trial and punishment. The idea that he would have to wait for Harry for five years under house arrest, when for four of those years Harry would have a freedom to move about that he did not, would increase his resentment to the point that he might lash out again.

"I don't want to date him just to avoid trouble with him," Harry said, probably picking up on some of Severus's anxieties through the bond. "I want to date him because I like him. And I understand him. And he listened to some of the things that happened to me, and he didn't make fun of them. He—he had a hard time adjusting to the bond, at first. He's never going to be Pansy or Greg. I can't make him a good friend and political adviser from scratch, or the perfect vassal. But he's given me good advice now, and, well. I like him."

Severus was still, thinking. At last he said, "This is temporary advice only, you understand. Draco would not like it if you refrained from dating him, but that alone is not enough reason to do so."

Harry didn't point out that he had said that already, which Severus thought he might. He only nodded and sat there, with his eyes fastened on Severus's face.

Severus grimaced. For all the times that he had wished Harry would listen to his advice when he was still the Boy-Who-Lived and Severus still in charge of shepherding him through the war, the actual experience of being looked to for advice was oddly uncomfortable. "You must be careful. Much more careful than someone would be who is dating their equal. Conscious of the things that might disturb the bond between you and Draco. And I am not talking about the Lordship bond."

"I know." Harry swallowed. "But at least the Lordship bond is going to give me one advantage, to know if I'm distressing Draco too much by something I'm doing."

"And he can read your emotions as well, if he cares to make the effort," said Severus. "The matter of your legal guardianship of him is more difficult."

Harry waited. Severus yielded and sighed. "That does not make it impossible," he said. "It only means that you must be—" He struggled for a second. "So careful, so delicate, that it might be easier not to do it."

"My main fear is what that would do to Draco," Harry said softly. "For the next year or so, he's going to spend a lot of time around us. But then the rest of us will be free to spend more time outside the house, and he'll be here for another four. What kind of opportunity will he have to form a connection with anyone else? And even when he becomes a legal adult, there's no saying that he'll be able to move around through the ranks of wizarding society and choose anyone he wants."

"That would be true no matter what," said Severus, a little sharply. "They would also have to want him."

"The way I do."

Severus settled back in his chair. "There are things to be said against that," he said. "What they are, I have already told you. But it sounds as though you have made up your mind to do what you wish anyway, no matter what I might tell you."

"No, I do value it," Harry said, standing up and holding out one hand as if he thought Severus might bolt from the room in childish offense. Severus simply raised his eyebrows, and Harry blushed a little and sat back down. "I mean, I wanted to hear what you would say. If you'd said that you thought it was impossible and I would only hurt Draco, then I would have tried to find some way to let him down gently."

"In spite of the sense of rejection that would cause?" Severus had to ask.

"Even then." Harry nodded. "But I think you're right, and it can work if I'm careful. I know that I don't want to command him to do anything against his will, and he can sense my emotions, too, so at least we could avoid arguments where I was the only one who would know what he was feeling. And the legal guardianship part…" He shrugged a little. "So far, I've left all the parts about where he goes and what he does and what he's supposed to learn up to Auror Stone, and she's been pleased to take them on. I don't think that she'll mind if I give her everything but the name in the guardianship, and only retain the bond."

"If someone from the Wizengamot investigates…"

"How?" Harry grinned a little, with sharp teeth. "Not even Wizengamot members can visit without advance Auror notice. That was something Auror Stone was very careful to insist on. And I trust Stone to know the right way to answer impertinent questions."

"That much is true," Severus said. "But you came to me for my role of prudent adviser, and that is what I am being. I would be remiss if I did not let you know all the ways this could go wrong."

"I know," Harry said quietly. "But I think what we have to fear most is a bad breakup, where Draco and I are still related to each other as Lord and vassal." He took a deep breath. "In that case, we would probably have to ask Auror Stone to let Draco live with her, and I would release the bond if that was what he wanted."

Severus frowned. "But you do not know if he would want that, even if your relationship does end. Perhaps a modification of the bond, the way that you prepared with me…"

"Yeah, that would be a possibility, too." Harry rose to his feet, his face full of determination. "It's like you said. I just need to be really careful and cautious, and conscious of all the things that are going on all the time."

"It does not sound relaxing," Severus remarked, in spite of himself.

"And you think I would know what to do with a relaxing life if I had one?" Harry demanded.

Severus nodded in return and leaned back, letting Harry step out the door. He supposed that in some ways this was a natural outcome of Harry and Draco spending so much time together. He hoped that it would work out. He feared that it would not.

But as that was the nature of so many of his experiences since the war had begun, there was no reason to think that this one would prove the only negative one.

Severus snorted, and turned back to the process of composing a reply to Zabini's letter. So far, he had not found the right sort of language that would be scathing when someone read the letter with knowledge of him in mind, but innocent to a casual glance. He was enjoying the exercise, however.

Harry came to a stop outside Severus's room and tilted his head back, dragging in long gulps of sweet-tasting air. Of course, he knew this air was really no different than the rest of the house, but at least he had some kind of approval now, and advice, about how to go ahead with his relationship with Draco.

"Harry?"

He blinked and looked down the stairs. Draco stood at the bottom of them, biting his lip. Harry leaped down towards him, but Draco didn't look any less uncertain, just shaking his head as though he was stunned. Harry reached out and took his hands. "What is it?" he asked.

"It's just—you were in there with Professor Snape for a long time, and I could feel all these waves of emotion," said Draco softly, staring at him. "Uncertainty, and anger, and then this warmth that I don't understand. Did he tell you—I mean, did he think that a Lord shouldn't date a vassal?"

Harry dragged Draco closer. He supposed the bond wasn't a guarantee of anything. They could feel each other's emotions, but not the cause of them. They would still have to talk to each other about where those emotions came from and smooth out misunderstandings.

Harry was looking forward to it.

"No," he said softly, and leaned in to kiss Draco on the corner of his mouth. "I was talking to Severus about the ethics of it, but I still want to—to be close to you, Draco." Maybe it was a little odd to use the word "dating" when they were confined to the same house. "Just, I want to be comfortable that I don't influence you too much with the bond, and I think it would be best to hand over most of your legal guardianship to Auror Stone. That way, I'm not involved in things like punishing you."

Draco's smile was a long and soft and lovely thing. "I think she would agree to that," he said. "I know I would." His hands slowly uncurled and settled on Harry's shoulders. "And I want to be with you, too."

This was Draco the insecure, Draco the exasperating, Draco who Harry had struggled the most with of any vassal except Blaise. But he was also Draco the trusting, and the sharp challenge at the back of his eyes, only made worse by his uncertainty, was the sort that Harry had spent his life enjoying and resisting and coming back to.

Their kiss, this time, was soft enough not to bruise, but more than deep enough to make a promise.

The End.

This is the last chapter of The Only True Lords, although I may post one-shot sequels from time to time. If so, I'll also post them on this site.