Title: Echo Through The Hills
Author: 
el_em_en_oh_pee
Team: EWE
Prompt: 13. Magic is 1% inspiration and 99% incantation.
Wordcount: ~7,000
Rating: PG
Warnings: Real-world issues in a magical setting, extensive speculation at the magical world in Africa, past Harry/Dean, statistics.
Summary: Life gets boring after every remaining active Dark witch and wizard has a go at Harry Potter (and gets subsequently jailed) post-Voldemort victory, so he joins a taskforce combating the very recent spread of HIV amongst wizards. The only problem he has with this work is that one Draco Malfoy, professional statistician, has been assigned to Harry's group.
Author's Note: Thanks go out to K and E for the brainstorm sessions and read-throughs. You guys totally rock my world ♥. Any remaining mistakes are mine. Thanks also go to G, for making me both brave enough to be invested in this sort of thing and to be brave enough to write this. Title comes from the song "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing."
Enjoy!
Echo Through The Hills
Magic originated in Africa, of course, somewhere around the dawn of time. Of the first people on earth, there was a certain percentage of wizards, just as there continues to be a certain percentage of the world's population born with magic each generation. The very ground is steeped in power in a way that is found in very few places outside of the continent. Think the Forbidden Forest, Hogsmeade, Hogwarts – and then think of the magic that permeates the area as being twice as strong, twice as prevalent. There are, after all, reasons why even Muggles think of the land of Africa as a magical place. Not many witches or wizards migrate to Africa in order to capitalize on this power, however: African wizards are incredibly proud of their heritage, and many wizards of European descent are too deterred by the stories of the reaction these African wizards had to the onslaught of colonialism and the European wizards who tried to move in and harness that power for themselves. For, although the exact sequence of events has not been examined too closely, a few short months after these European wizards arrived, they all disappeared, completely and without a trace.This is not to put any blame on African wizards or to state that they are wilder or more barbaric. For one, Egyptian wizards are some of the most magically advanced in the entire world. Furthermore, there is no proof that it was the African wizards as opposed to some unknown quality of the land itself that made the European wizards disappear...
(from A History of Magic, volume one: the Lay of the Land by Josiah Turner)
After Voldemort dies, every witch and wizard that has ever considered themselves 'evil' decides to have a go at Harry. Life is hectic for awhile, but overall quite uneventful, minus one accidental death that Harry would give anything to reverse. The wizards blend into each other after awhile, and incapacitating them becomes routine after a remarkably short amount of time. And after they're all put away, things get boring.
There's no point in trying to be an Auror if there are no more active wizards bad enough to pose a threat so Harry, on a suggestion from Hermione, joins a task force to train and battle another form of evil. It's an interesting conglomeration of people: half made of volunteers, half of compelled witches and wizards doing civil service to make up for moderate civil disservice in their past. They're taught rudimentary healing charms and are exposed to the Muggle methods of disease prevention via pills and injections (one wizard, a fat balding man in his early forties, scoffs at the thought that Muggles might be more advanced in anything but most especially healthcare. The entire group is informed, quite patiently, that there are no warding spells for certain illnesses, especially tropical infections, and that the potions developed work for people who have been exposed to the illnesses their entire lives and are therefore more resilient, thus rendering the potions essentially ineffectual their purposes, and the man never shows up again). They're lectured on ways of interacting with other people (both magical and non) and split into groups to discuss area-specific customs that will be pertinent to their endeavors. They learn codephrases for magic ("Are you safe?" "Only every second Tuesday.") and spend hours complaining about the lack of universal translation capabilities of any sort of potion or spell after particularly intensive language-acquisition sessions.
While it's true that the problem is currently very small and contained, the fact that HIV infections have crossed over from a Muggle-only population to a number of witches and wizards is enough for every magical government (in the United Alliance of Magics, at least) in a first-world area to send a taskforce to third-world areas to work as a preventative measure against any more crossing-over or spreading. Because Harry has been so effective in other drastic situations (and also likely because his name is one of the few known by wizards worldwide), he has been told that he will be assigned to the group going to the very center of the thickest part of Muggle infection, which also happens to be the one country where HIV has already crossed over to wizards: Swaziland. He's schooled in basic Swati phrases, and finds that he has an aptitude for learning language – this doesn't make him any less grateful that Swaziland is an Anglophone country, though, because aptitude or no, he doesn't find this sort of learning very engaging.
Ambassadors to third-world countries from the Ministry help prepare the wizards on the taskforce for culture shock, and they're told the state of Muggle economies as well as wizard economies; as it turns out, the two are much more significantly connected in most places around the world than the Muggle-magical connection in Britain. Harry learns of a disproportionate level of subsistence farming in a land alternately besieged by drought and flooding, of the implications of a place where more than one in four Muggles is infected with HIV/AIDS and where, in the space of five months, the infection rate in wizards has gotten to a point where it isn't much better. And privately, even though the people instructing him and preparing him for this task are telling him that he is to help isolate the outbreak and keep it from spreading at all, and to absolutely under no circumstances get involved with the Muggle affairs, Harry can't help but think about whether there is anything he can do for them. He crosses his fingers and hopes for the others in his group to be similarly inclined.
Of course the 'others in his group' consist of Malfoy. Well. There's also Sarah Edgecombe (Marietta's younger sister, a very diplomatic and pretty young witch on the fast track to a job in international relations), Roger Davies (who, surprisingly, knows the area rather well and has a certain amount of star power there, too, on account of playing Quidditch for the South Africa team until he got a debilitating injury in a game against Germany), Lawrence Pratts (very logical and solid, an older man originally from the Department of Magical Education), and Susan Bones (a healer).
But there's Malfoy, too. He hasn't been to any of the taskforce meetings, and Harry is quite skeptical of his ability to do anything positive for the group. But when Harry asks the witch in charge, she simply says, "You need a statistician in your midst both to continually inform and to take down information for our purposes."
Harry is skeptical, and when they have meetings he does his best to ignore Malfoy. Unless, that is, he's saying something pertinent, which (Harry is reluctant to admit) occurs rather frequently. But he doesn't have to like it, and in the week leading up to his group's departure from Britain, Harry has a good time speculating with Ron about Malfoy's presence in the project. They wonder if this is civil service, they wonder at a Slytherin doing what is largely humanitarian work. Harry is careful to not spend too much time focused on the matter, though: he doesn't want people to think he's obsessed again, or anything.
The day before he leaves for Africa, Harry has dinner with Ginny. Even though they're not together anymore -- they haven't ever since Harry recognized a burgeoning (and startlingly mutual) attraction for Dean (she took this rather well, all things considered, and Harry was careful not to joke about her last two boyfriends ending up together )-- their friendship has reached a level comparable to those he has with Ron and Hermione. This may or may not have something to do with the fact that they've both loved Dean.
She makes rice and he makes chicken and together, they prepare a salad. They drink juice because Ginny isn't partial to wine and Harry doesn't want alcohol so soon before a new assignment, and make small talk for most of the evening, which is a relief after all of the serious conversations Harry's been having lately. When they're doing dishes after, though, Ginny lets their conversation trail off, then, hands still submerged in sudsy water, looks over at him. "Dean would be really pleased that you're doing this, I think," she tells him.
"Yeah, if he ever forgave me," Harry says, and continues running the drying cloth over his plate even though any trace of moisture is gone.
"It wasn't your fault," she says, softly, and even though Harry knows that logically he can't blame himself, doing so is the easiest way to deal, so. He does.
Ginny gives him a searching look and then silently withdraws her hands from the sink, wipes the excess of water off, and hugs him tight. "You're going to be great in Africa," she tells him, earnestly.
Harry forces a smile. "I'll do you proud," he tells her, solemnly, and then they both laugh because it's better than any alternative.
...the magical governments in Africa were just as severely impacted by colonialism as those of the Muggles, but the cessation of colonialism affected the Muggle constituency of the continent differently than that of wizards. For example, Northern and Southern Rhodesia have become the Muggle countries Zambia and Zimbabwe, respectively, but there is only one Rhodesian Minister of Magic. Still, the same interplay of corruption and valor, of strife and peace, occurs throughout both the magical and Muggle worlds. Though there are no 'evil wizards' on par with Voldemort or Grindelwald, there are certainly corrupt ones who have caused more harm than good.
(from A History of Magic, volume two: the Politics of Power by Josiah Turner)
Africa is hot and beautiful. Harry and his team Apparate the maximum safe distance from the British Ministry of Magic to the French Ministry, then take a train to the tip of Spain and Apparate from there to Morocco. Following that is a series of Apparations, spread over the course of a week, so that everyone can adjust to the changing climate and so that no-one is overtaxed, but also so that they can see the landscape, as well. Roger Davies points out specific magical landmarks they pass by that he is familiar with from touring with the South African quidditch team, and Susan Bones takes pictures cataloguing every step of the journey in between reminders to take malaria pills and surreptitious water-purification spells. Malfoy is generally quiet, Harry notes, but when he speaks, he always has an interesting fact about wherever they happen to be.
They pass through the Sahara slowly at first, marveling at the expanse, but more quickly the deeper into it that they venture. The jungles to the south are exciting, and Harry can feel the thrum of magic emanating from the soil itself. He feels more rejuvenated than he has in a long time, and sleeps better at night than he can ever remember doing before. The longer the group spends on the road, the more able they are to Apparate long distances quickly safely, and the slower they want to travel. They avoid inhabited areas, for the most part, though they do visit the DRC Ministry of Magic two magical settlements: one clustered around an unknown oasis in the middle of the Sahara, one in the center of what appears to first be an abandoned Muggle village in what, at night, seems to be a particularly impenetrable patch of forest.
As they get farther, though, they remember their mission, and the last third of the continent is traveled at a whirlwind pace, with maximum possible distances and maximum possible speed. Susan still finds time for pictures during their five- and ten-minute breaks, and once or twice, Roger holds back their progress for an hour or two to visit an old friend, but they still manage to make the last leg in twenty short hours.
When they reach their destination of the Swazi Ministry of Magic, a very kind-looking old witch involved in international relations greets them. She makes as if to brief them, but though they are all feeling more magically energetic, the last twenty hours were still physically exhausting, so she instead leads them to their provided lodgings.
There are three bedrooms. Susan and Sarah, of course, take one, and Lawrence speaks for Roger (citing less of an age difference) before either Harry or Malfoy have time to voice preference.
It takes Harry a few minutes to realize that this means he will be living with Malfoy for the majority of their time in Swaziland.
Whereas in Egypt and other Saharan nations, there are entire cities composed entirely of the magically inclined, in most areas of sub-Saharan Africa, the magical and Muggle worlds are inextricably intertwined. There is, in fact, only one known exception to this mingled lifestyle. In all other cases, wizards living in villages have disguised their wands as implements of everyday use, and wizards and Muggles interact daily and in many ways. For example, the Rhodesian Minister of Magic and the president of Muggle Zimbabwe are one and the same. Rebel factions and ordinary citizens alike throughout sub-Saharan Africa are composed of both the magical and the mundane. The Muggles in the continent are none the wiser.
(from A History of Magic, volume three: Magic in a Muggle Setting by Josiah Turner)
Malfoy is actually surprisingly... okay. He's quiet and doesn't pick (many) fights, and keeps his side of the room tidy (which, after living with Ron for seven years and Dean -- who was neater than Ron, but who liked his 'creative sprawl' -- is an experience all of its own). At first, they interact only professionally, and because Malfoy seems to want to avoid altercation, Harry is careful to try and not jump at what he sees as bait.
Of course, this doesn't always work, and less fighting for them ends up measuring out at one at least every other day. For the first month that they are there, the others tend to leave whenever Harry and Malfoy are in the same room together. The thing about these arguments, though, Harry realizes as time wears on, is that they are generally constructive and tend to actually result in some form of stalemate that proves surprisingly beneficial to the entire team. Once, Susan attempts to join in one of their constructive arguments, but that throws off their rhythm and their fight is resolved more poorly than usual. Harry suspects Lawrence of actually recording their arguments and distilling them for his own purposes, but doesn't end up proving this.
Once, after a fight, Harry notices he is half-hard. He avoids so much as speaking to Malfoy outside of professional concerns for a week.
The work is more difficult than Harry expected. There are more social traditions that obstruct their efforts than he initially thought there would be, and a few people have an inherent distrust of the people in their group. Still, it's entirely engaging, and Harry throws himself into work wholeheartedly. The group plans on eventually getting around to visiting every village with a registered witch or wizard, though their methods shift from trying to encourage the wizards the visit to go to area meetings with wizards from other cities and towns and villages in the area to addressing each municipality individually. Harry quickly learns that he's not quite as effective as Susan and Roger at getting and holding attention of the adults in their sessions, so he starts going off with the child witches and wizards (and sometimes with Sarah or Malfoy or both, depending on how involved they are with briefing the adults or gathering data for the Ministry respectively) to toss a Quaffle around, away from the presence of Muggles, and to simultaneously offhandly instruct them in how best to avoid contracting HIV. Sarah, he knows, often takes aside the teenagers who are just discovering sexuality to surreptitiously instruct them in protective spells despite the Ministry suggestions that they stress abstinence to underage wizards and let their parents do any additional teaching, but he does not bring this up outside of his own thoughts.
Sometimes, when there aren't that many people with magic in the area, Harry will play with Muggle children, too, sans Quaffle, if he feels as if the others have the talks well in hand. He finds that he really enjoys them -- they're surprisingly easy to be around, especially because they have next to no idea who he is. It's also harder to spend time with them, though, especially the hungry ones. Harry is never able to procure food for them, and it kills him to watch them for too long. He itches to help, and wonders, sometimes, if everything would get better if the drought ended.
One day is particularly frustrating: the locals are being evasive, and during their morning briefing Malfoy shared the news that the average life expectancy for Swazi Muggles has lowered to forty years and that a wizard whose HIV status was uncertain is now known to definitely have it, and they’re in an area where the drought has hit the worst and there are Muggle AIDS orphans everywhere, looking so distressing, and Harry wants nothing more than to be able to reach out and fix things.
During lunch, Malfoy mentions wanting to go for a walk and Harry silently follows him. They bring little food, but they have water bottles and even though those are almost empty, it doesn't really matter. It's so dry out, though, and Harry drinks what's left of his fast and then thinks about how lucky he is to never have to be thirsty, and wonders again how he can help.
When he gets thirsty again, he casts aguamenti into his empty water bottle and then looks sideways at Malfoy. "Do your numbers tell you anything about, you know, an equal distribution of magic?" he asks. "Does the presence of water here mean that it's been taken from somewhere else in the world?"
"There are no studies that would support this assumption," Malfoy says, warily. "I doubt it happens. Why?"
"Well," Harry says. "What's to say that we can't just use magic to end the drought, then?"
"You can't change everything, Potter," Malfoy tells him. "You can't fix everything," and Harry gets the feeling that Malfoy is not talking about just the situation in the country, but instead of asking about that specifically, he just asks him why he can't fix everything. Malfoy blinks at him when he asks this, then says something about an overreliance on magic leading to bigger problems than there are already, if the nature of the magic changes or especially if the source of magic is removed altogether. Harry opens his mouth to rebut this, but Malfoy somehow has a point, so he closes it again and listens to Malfoy shift into explaining about how there is a set way of doing things and, though Harry might expend all of his efforts trying to accomplish something, he wouldn't be able to just shove aside years of tradition in order to revolutionize a system, and...
Harry knows he should be paying attention, knows that Malfoy is making some surprisingly good points that he should remember so that he can more effectively debate them in the future, but his attention is caught by the corner of Malfoy's mouth and how it's shinier than usual and how it moves when he speaks. And, almost without realizing he's talking, Harry interrupts, mumbling. "Some things, though. They can definitely change."
Malfoy gives him an odd look, but Harry thinks he sees a blush somewhere in there. "Malfoy," he says, licking the corner of his own lip in an unconscious effort to make it similarly shiny, "I think--"
"It's like that saying, you know?" Malfoy interrupts, and Harry might be reading too much into the situation but he's almost certain that Malfoy sounds a little unsteady. "'Magic is 1% inspiration and 99% incantation.' Sometimes, true, it does take new things to keep a system going, but largely what the world is built on is tradition and if you take that away, you have nothing."
Harry is beginning to think that Malfoy is talking about his own life just as much as he is talking about the situation in Swaziland, when he realizes that this (both Malfoy's words and his own fixation with Malfoy's mouth) is a complete departure from what his initial intent was. "So," he says, trying to get them both back on track. "This is stopping me from trying to end a drought why?"
"Because," Malfoy tells him. "It's horrible that there is one, yes, but can you imagine what would happen if purified water suddenly shot out in streams at various points across the land?"
Malfoy may have a point, Harry thinks. He just doesn't quite grasp what it is. "No."
"Chaos."
Harry writes to Ginny that night. This letter takes a long time to write, and Harry catches himself staring out the window more than once, taking everything and nothing in. He mentions his renewed obsession with Malfoy in between chatty paragraphs about the weather and how the team's efforts are going. He shares stories about the reaction that some of the local wizards have to Roger Davies showing up in their villages, and the way that Susan Bones spells calluses off of her hands every night because she feels they make her seem less approachable and calming as a Healer, and about how wary some of the people here are about the fact that everyone on the task force is white. He mentions his desires to help more than just the wizards and his worries that no one back home will get behind that enough to do anything, and his desires to see what Malfoy's hair feels like. It isn't until after he folds the parchment and shoves it in his back pocket in order to go eat and meet with everyone else in the group and then go for a walk, isn't until the sun has set and the night is dusty-calm, isn't until he can hear the slow breaths of those in the building with him falling asleep, that he can write of Dean, and Malfoy, and Dean.
He doesn't go to sleep that night and, as the sun comes up, goes off to post the letter to her.
Ginny's reply comes a week later:
Harry,First off, thanks so much for the letter! It's brilliant to hear from you of course, and to know that you're doing well overall is always a relief. It sounds like Africa is suiting you -- I guess it might not seem like it to you but you sound happier than you have been for the past while or so.
I find it positively hilarious that Davies is so famous there considering he wasn't much of anything at Hogwarts but there you go, sometimes people have surprising hidden talent that shows when put in the right situation and it looks like he found it. I'm well pleased that he can help with your cause. Susan is a lovely girl, always has been, You can tell her that I trust her above all other healers at Mungo's if I somehow come across some dread traumatic illness in my teaching Charms here -- it might well happen, some of these first-years are dangerous with a wand! Luckily none of them have learned Bat-Bogey yet, eh?
Right so Harry, I've two really important things to say so here they are:
1. I've the greatest faith in your abilities to accomplish anything you set your mind to. You've been brilliant at that so far and you will continue doing so. You're rather a charismatic man, and your passion in your causes is infectious. Though Malfoy might have a point in that fixing everything totally is just impossible, I have no doubt that if you do your damndest to help, you will help as much as anyone is able to. I personally would leave using pure magic (especially to help Muggles) till after you try to help in other ways first but that's just me and I'm not there so I don't know as much as you do about how feasible that is, but it's something to think about, yeah? I mean, you are Harry Potter and of all the wizards in Britain and also all of Europe I bet you're the most likely to be able to get a bunch of people behind a Muggle-relief foundation or what have you.2. I don't think you might want to hear this but it has been three years since Dean passed, Harry, and it was not your fault at all. The wizard who did it admitted under Veritaserum that he did not mistake Dean for you or kill him just because the two of you were involved, remember? It was totally unavoidable and could well have been any wizard or witch out there. It's rotten that it was Dean, but at least the two of you had love, yeah? Dean's been gone for three years, Harry, and you've been dealing with it well and you loved him a great deal, I know, but it's understandable that you might be forming feelings for someone else. I personally myself do not understand about the object of these affections being Malfoy and can't say that I am a huge fan of the idea but he has been an all right chap ever since after the trials and better him than a straight man I guess. Don't beat yourself up about it, Harry. Just let things develop and if they get somewhere, then good and I hope it helps you come to terms with Dean's death (and no I'm not expecting you to ever entirely get over it or to ever stop loving Dean but perhaps your feelings are an indication that you're ready for something else now, so maybe you should just let these feelings happen). Just be careful, all right? It's okay, Harry. You're okay.
Right and my lout of a brother is here to have dinner with me. He and Hermione are having another tiff, as I'm sure you've heard, but the wedding hasn't been called off again so that's good. He's dead with nerves so I'll go try to talk some calm into him, maybe with the help of our good friend firewhiskey. Say hello to everyone for me, and good luck with everything!
Love,
Ginny xxP.S. Right, Ron's gone again and I've just had a thought that I'll scrawl out before I send this little note to you: maybe the Malfoy thing isn't so crazy. I mean, considering how much I hear you followed him in your sixth year despite Ron and Hermione being against it, and also how closely you followed his trial even though you weren't involved. I could be wrong, though. Also, I miss you! Can't wait to see you again.
Harry writes off Ginny's letter as moot, because for the next week, as Susan brews potions in a windowless room to try and determine whether the HIV affecting wizards is a different strain than that affecting the muggles, and as Malfoy and Lawrence and Sarah go off to gather information for the Ministry, Harry and Roger travel to Johannesburg in South Africa. Because they are both generally highly public figures, they are going to appear on a series of wireless talks and interviews about their efforts and how well they have been going thus far. Harry knows that Roger also has plans to visit old teammates; while he does this, Harry is going to meet with the American taskforce present in the country to compare methods and discuss how to improve their methods of reaching more remotely-located wizards.
But then, when he gets to South Africa, he finds that rooming with Roger pales in comparison to rooming with Malfoy, which sets him off on an obsessive spiral in which nine out of every ten of his thoughts is about Malfoy and how, apart from their semi-frequent animosity, he's just that much easier to be around than Roger.
It takes him almost the entirety of the week to realize that what is happening is that he misses the git.
The last night that he and Roger spend in Johannesburg, Harry takes the first real break he has had since he arrived in Swaziland, and goes to a quidditch match with Roger. South Africa is playing Kenya, a qualifier for the World Cup, and as Harry watches the two Seekers circling the pitch, he remembers his last game in Hogwarts, and how he watched for Malfoy almost more than he watched for the Snitch. He remembers how, after the game (it was very close, and Slytherin almost won even with Harry getting the Snitch), Dean approached him hesitantly, and then... and then...
Harry only distantly registers the shouts around him, and is surprised when Roger hauls him up for a hug -- the South African seeker has caught the Snitch already, making one of this the shortest games Harry has ever been to.
When Harry gets back to their place in Swaziland, Malfoy is still touring the recesses of the country, gathering data, and when he returns, Harry avoids him completely -- apart from consistently watching him out of the corner of his eye -- for over a week.
"Potter," Malfoy says, abruptly, one night about a month later, after they all finish a meeting (they've just received word of a first case of a witch with HIV outside of Swaziland, and they've just spent three hours essentially kicking themselves), and Harry looks up at him, startled, before shrugging, as if to ask, 'what?'
"Walk with me," Malfoy continues, cocking an eyebrow, and even though Harry thinks that this is probably a very not-good idea, he nods and, wiping his hands on his trousers, stands up to follow him.
They walk outside into the gathering dusk. The house that they are living in is at the very edge of the city of Mbabane, and Malfoy jerks his head in the direction away from the center. They walk, silently, until they are almost entirely surrounded by fields. It's still out at this time of night, and Harry almost doesn't want to break the silence. He does, however, to ask, "What is it?"
"Exactly," Malfoy says, looking almost pained.
"What do you mean?"
"You've been avoiding me," Malfoy elaborates. "Which isn't the best choice to make when you consider that we're supposed to be working together to combat this stuff."
Harry is silent for a moment, battling between contrition, indignation, and outright anger, but he forces himself to take a deep breath and look Malfoy straight in the eye. "Is this about the Botswana case?" he asks, and as he speaks he grows legitimately concerned. "Do you think that my failure to interact with you frequently has impacted that at all?"
"Potter, no," Malfoy says, and he looks even more pained. "It's just. Why?"
Harry is confused. "Well, there isn't really any need..."
"Don't give me that."
"What?"
"You used to," Malfoy says. "You stopped."
And Harry realizes that Malfoy might be insulted, or something. "Oh."
"Was it because of," Malfoy pauses. "I told you that you can't change anything?"
"I don't remember that being exactly what you told me," Harry blurts. "I mean. I just. No, Malfoy. That wasn't it."
Malfoy is looking at him expectantly and the last rays of the sun are painting his hair a brilliant shade of gold, so much more vibrant and yellow than its usual white-blond, and Harry swallows hard. He shakes his head again, but finds his feet moving him forward, as if of their own volition. He whispers, no, Malfoy, again, and remembers all of the Ministry's reinforced rules about always following the laws of the host country, always, and thinks about how Swazi law essentially forbids homosexuality, and thinks about all the rules he used to break at school, and almost turns and walks away but then Malfoy is licking that corner of his lip and it's shiny again and oh god, his feet are moving forward again and there are his hands, grasping Malfoy's arms, and there are Malfoy's eyes and they are almost daring, almost frightened, almost surprised but also almost unsurprised, and he's just standing there, and there is Malfoy's mouth and it is smirking and Harry can't help himself anymore. He pulls Malfoy closer, roughly, and after a pause where he stares at Malfoy and Malfoy stares right back, he kisses him.
And Malfoy doesn't push him away.
Somewhere inside him, Harry knows that he will feel guilt about this, and Dean, and Malfoy being someone he and his friends were so against for so long (with good reason), and how Malfoy is probably the worst possible followup to Dean in the history of forever. But for the time being, Malfoy is biting his lower lip and his hand is going in Harry's hair and Harry's own hand are on Malfoy's bum and his upper back and no one is around and the sunset is sending out its last colors, and the tops of the buildings of Mbabane are below them, so close and yet so far away, and Malfoy's hand is on his chest and they're kissing, and kissing, and kissing, and Harry doesn't care.
They don't kiss again.
It isn't so much a this was a mistake thing so much as a we will refrain out of deference to the laws of our host country thing, though Harry certainly does have a lot of second thoughts about the occasion (mostly when he remembers Dean). These second thoughts all but disappear at times, like when Harry was brushing his teeth and Malfoy passed behind him, pausing to press against Harry for a moment before continuing on, or the time when they're all eating dinner and Malfoy, staring at Harry all the while, licks every speck of food off of his mouth, fork, knife, and fingers when he is done.
Harry writes Ginny about it, sort of, and her response is encouraging, which works wonders towards convincing him that he's not on the wrong track.
They still fight as much as ever, but there's more of a charge to their arguments and sometimes they have to break them off lest they be tempted to do anything more.
And then, suddenly, everything turns around. The team is very careful about it, and continues going around to all of the wizards, then goes around a second time for reinforcement of the message, but five months pass and there are no more cases of wizards with HIV cropping up. It's not all good, of course; one has already fallen into full-blown AIDS and even though the specific AIDS-related complications are easier to treat magically than the retrovirus itself, the fact of the matter puts a damper on their tentative feelings of success.
The British Ministry sends them a message halfway through the fifth month, instructing them to return at the start of the sixth. Harry is surprised; it was beginning to feel as if they'd stay forever. He is similarly surprised to find that he wouldn't mind doing so. Despite the tribulations of the job, he still tends to wake up more rejuvenated than ever before. Ginny's response to his message about impending return is great, though, and he thinks he'll enjoy being back (the promise of sex with Malfoy on the horizon doesn't exactly hurt, either. Living with him and not touching him is starting to be unbearable).
He hates the thought of leaving mostly because he's afraid that it will lessen his chances of helping. He mentions this to Malfoy once, in the last few days, and then regrets doing so immediately because he doesn't doubt that Malfoy will have some sort of scathing remark (and then he thinks about Dean and how Dean was supportive and why is Harry spending time with Malfoy, who most definitely is not, and what if this is the worst idea he's ever had, and he doesn't even particularly like Malfoy as a person so why is he so dedicated to properly hooking up with him as soon as possible?), but Malfoy surprises him: "How do you plan on doing this?"
"I," Harry says, flopping back on his bed. "I don’t really know? I haven't been able to think much out apart from, 'I want to fix things.'"
"It's a good intention," Malfoy says, slowly, and makes as if to continue speaking.
"But impossible, right?" Harry asks, only slightly bitter, cutting Malfoy off from finishing whatever it is he was planning on saying.
"Not entirely," Malfoy says, very slowly. "Highly improbable that you'll be able to fix everything, or to inspire other people to do the same. But the weight of your name will work wonders towards gathering some degree of support."
Harry is about to say something biting about how he hates taking advantage of his fame when he realizes what Malfoy is really getting at. "What are you saying?"
"If anyone can do it," Malfoy says, looking entirely resigned. "You can, Potter. I mean. You're obviously dedicated and even though there are those years and years of tradition to circumvent, and the way that most people don't care -- I mean, it's statistically proven, but you know, magic is one percent inspiration, too, and you've always been an odd one out."
Harry stares at Malfoy, and his mouth works but no words come out so Malfoy continues on: "I'd get Granger on your side, though. She's really big with causes," and Harry suspects that he hasn't been this surprised since he found out he was a wizard.
He blurts the question "Will you be on my side?" before he can think about it, and chastises himself as soon as he speaks, because, seriously, Malfoy. He wasn't even one of the volunteers for this! Harry almost takes the question back, but Malfoy is looking thoughtful and there's more surprise, because really, and then Malfoy says that they'll see about that specifically when Harry starts working towards it, and then Harry is kissing him again, agreement to abstain be damned.
Their trip back to England is slow again, but for different reasons. They stop by and see the teams still working in other countries, and Malfoy gets information from their surveys and spends every night compiling it with what he already has. Harry talks to these others about how they feel a more-encompassing relief effort will work, about how effective and possible it will be, and gets some good ideas mixed in with the more prevalent pessimistic responses. He gives Malfoy back massages whenever the man seems particularly overwhelmed with the information he has to synthesize into his reports, and sometimes makes tea or rearranges pages and replaces candles whenever the ones Malfoy is using run out, and sits across the desk from him, drafting out plans for the future while Malfoy shares any information he comes across that he finds pertinent to Harry's efforts.
It's almost disturbingly domestic, and Harry is shocked to discover how comfortable he's becoming.
They make their way to Egypt, and the labyrinth at Herakleopolis – it's widely heralded as one of the most magical sites in the world, as well as one of the most exclusively separated from Muggle influences. They remain there for a week, preparing mentally for the return to England, before setting off.
It's so weird to leave Africa, especially after over a year and a half of living there. The farther away they get, the shorter the distances they are able to travel, and even though Harry doesn't fully regret the loss the extra power being in Africa gave him, he still misses it. But then he gets back to England and even though he can't really think of it as a place where he actively lives anymore, and even though he sort of misses Africa already, it's so good to be home.
There are several very long meetings with the Ministry, but then they're allowed to leave and to take proper time off for the first time in almost two years. Harry's plans are to take a bath and a long nap and to have sex with Malfoy one or ten times, and then he's going to get started on the world relief effort as soon as he has dinner with Ginny and asks Hermione to help him. He keeps getting the feeling that Dean would be really pleased with these developments, if Dean were around in some capacity to see them, and even though he knows he will probably encounter a lot of setbacks in regards to most of these plans, he can hardly wait to get started.
Postscript A/N: story partially inspired by a friend of mine, who is in northern Africa trying to eradicate guinea worm and partially inspired by a crazy desire to sort out how magic might work in non-British countries in the world of Harry Potter.
Some links, if there's any further interest: HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa statistics, with accompanying facts.