I am now sure I have lost the stories I thought were on an old hard-drive. One of them is the long (for me-it was up to about 120 pages and unfinished) story on which events in Letter from Klaus, Allegiance, and Tanz and are based. I thought I would write out the storyline, with my opinions liberally sprinkled through, to give the background and make the last stories of the arc make a bit more sense. It's actually going to be an interesting exercise in writing, and memory, on its own.
As often with my hp stories, the stories are set in the middle of the book/movie series, somewhere around books 3 and 4, mostly because that is when I started to write them. I tend to write from the point when I fell enough in love with a universe to want to write within it, and even though the actual series goes on in other directions, my worldview is usually stuck in the point where I was first intrigued. This makes almost everything I do an AU of some sort.
The story opened on a street in London. In a black car outside a bar, Dorian, Lord Gloria, sits brooding. It has been ten years since the heist of his career, when he stole the comatose body of the love of his life from the Swiss institution where the elder von dem Eberbach had warehoused his son.
Dorian has converted part of his house into a care facility for Klaus. It has a long room with the bed on one end, an office type work area in the middle, and exercise equipment at the other end. Between the bed and the office is a door leading out onto a stone deck, where, when the day is nice, Klaus and his caretakers spend some time in the fresh air. Dorian has round the clock nursing staff, therapy to keep the patients muscles in shape, plays German television an hour a day and provides German music for Klaus to listen. He talks to him, in case Klaus is awake in there, or in case it helps somehow. He monitors the care so that Klaus is always treated respectfully.
He's even given up thieving because of the fear of what might happen to Klaus if he were caught or killed. He now has a business testing security for businesses and homes. He tries to break in to a client's facility, often does, and then provides a written report of recommendations for a security update. He also has part ownership in a business that provides the security updates. Many of his former entourage are employed there. Some stayed with him, like Bonham. He found a stunningly rich man to fall in love with James, and the two are very happy together. Somewhere else. I find James hard to write, as he annoys me.
Klaus is as if asleep. Several times in the last decade he had roused a bit, mumbled a word or two, but then fell silent again. He does not respond to pain unless it is intense, or words, or anything around him.
Dorian has had his own struggles through the years, but has been strong enough not to molest, or even touch Klaus if he is not caring for him. He's made sure no one else has, either!
But Dorian knows that Klaus would not want to spend his life in a coma being cared for by anyone, much less his nemesis, the fop. For years Dorian has brought in the finest doctors, tried all sorts of treatments, some of them a little far-out. He has come to the end of the rope and wondering if he can do what Klaus would undoubtedly want and give him a peaceful death. Dorian knows that if it comes to that, he must be the one to do it. He's taken to thinking about it too much. He knows that when Klaus dies, Dorian will have him cremated and the ashes put in a beautiful urn, which will be placed in the tank Dorian once stole form Klaus. The tank is tucked away in the garden. When he himself dies he want his own ashes poured in on top of Klaus. After that, he does not care.
The thing about the tank burial is an ongoing theme of German war songs I worked into the stories. Phrases from them were the chapter or story titles. Most come from the Panzerlied, since that is canon. Tanz, for example, comes from several of the songs – an example, some versions of Prinz Eugen, Der Elde Ritter) which refer to battle as a dance (Tanz). In the whole process of researching this I got entirely hooked on the songs, many of which are politically incorrect in that form but were based on traditional German folk songs. The Panzerlied is about facing whatever comes at you, hot sun or storm, about using your wits to face the enemy, and ultimately, about dying for the cause. I was trying to show that Klaus did die for the cause (his father's) and was afterward then free to be himself.
On YouTube, because of the association with the war, the songs about the war come and go like flickering fireflies. I was also exposed to Heino in the process. Is that a great voice or what? Although I was never quite sure about his politics.
Anyway, the last bit of the Panzerlied is about how, if luck goes against you in battle, a tank makes an honorable grave. Dorian is planning to give that to Klaus in the end.
But he's not going to get to that end without trying everything in his power to get Klaus awake. And he is grasping at straws. He has heard of a man who might be able to help him, tracked the rumor to this pub, and is sitting outside, casing the joint and getting up the courage, as it were, before heading inside. That's when he notices a teenage boy, following an older man who has just gone into the tavern. The kid is not doing a good job of sneaking and something about it triggers an impulse in Dorian, who steps out, snags the kid and pulls him into the car!
When everything calms down, he gets the story out of the boy, who is, of course, Harry Potter. Harry is in seventh year has a crush on his Potions professor. He's following him, thinking Professor Snape is heading for a brothel (he is) to try to offer himself instead. Snape, poor guy, is trying to sublimate his attraction to his student. He's got to get through just a few more months until Harry is out of school and Harry is making it darn hard. So to speak. They haven't actually talked to each other, but both have it bad.
In this story, Voldemort is still out there, but he doesn't play too much part of this story until the very end.
Dorian, romantic that is occasionally is, decides to help young love. Harry, hearing what Dorian is searching for, says Snape would be able to answer some of his questions. So Harry and Dorian go inside and sit where they can watch the entrance and wait for Snape.
Snape is less than happy to see Harry and brushes him off, but Dorian's problem intrigues him and he agrees to at least come and see Klaus and evaluate the situation for himself.
Imagine his surprise when he realizes that Dorian's castle has wards and was formerly a magic residence. One look at Klaus and he swears a bit and then leaves. He comes back with Dumbledore, Bill Weasley, and a potions kit. They determine that Klaus has been given the Draught of Living Death. It is reversible, of course, and Snape has the antidote.
Dorian is rather stunned by how quickly this is all going, but stands by as Snape administers the antidote (not by a kiss!). Klaus wakes up. He's disoriented, weak, confused. The only thing familiar is the thief, on whom he decides to focus. Dumbledore suggests that the fact that Klaus woke up be kept a secret for the time being, while he researches who might have done this to Klaus, so that the person doesn't come back to try again with a more deadly method of eliminating Klaus. Meanwhile, intrigued by the castle, he also asks permission to investigate it to determine the magical connection.
Several weeks pass, with visits from the magical community, and Bill is going through the castle room by room. Klaus is gradually getting better. Still does not talk much but he has progressed to walking around, and he tends to stay close to Dorian. Dorian does not mind, of course, and is explaining the changes through the years, everything that has happened.
To ease the care for Klaus, Dorian had to have the man's hair cut, so when he wakes up he does not recognize himself in the mirror. Snape provides hair growing potion so that at least he has his hair style back, but the black is liberally threaded with grey.
The wizards find two things. One, is every single stolen portrait in Dorian's private gallery is a wizarding painting which moves—not, however, where Dorian or other of the castle inhabitants can see them!
Bill, Dorian and Klaus also find a hidden room where Dorian's great uncle is still lying there on the bed, totally deceased but totally preserved by magic. His wand has fallen to the floor. Dorian picks it up and has it in one hand when the touches the body just a bit when trying to see the face of the man.
A colorful lightening bolt of magic comes from the dead wizard and strikes Dorian right in the chest. He falls back against Klaus, who attempts to catch him but they both end up on the floor, writhing. It stops. Bill hurries over to help them. He is totally shocked at what he finds.
When they stand, both of the men are now fully wizards. It turns out that the deceased uncle, knowing there was no magic adult in the family, had tied the wards to himself by blood so that they would continue even if he died. When he did die, the wards found another source of magic in the very young Dorian and had been sucking his magic out ever since. With the connection disrupted, the intense magic of the wards arrowing into Dorian might have killed him, but it also goes through him into Klaus.
When pregnant, Klaus's mother's body, trying to keep them alive, had used her small amount of magic and that of the child inside, emptying it beyond reasonable recall, so that Klaus has been essentially born a squib. The sudden infusion of magic reignites the connections inside and boom. Instant wizard.
In the process, Dorian gets a star-burst scar on his chest which he later gets a tattoo around. Klaus's hair turns color, from black threaded with silver to a uniform gun-metal gray. Just exactly the color of a tank, and making the name Iron Klaus totally applicable.
Dumbledore and the crew are back again sorting it all out. It turns out that Dorian had just enough magic to be compelled to retrieve wizarding art from muggle situations . I had always wondered why he was so determined to be a thief when he knew it was a barrier between himself and his own true love. Turns out he had just enough magic to be attracted to them and the portraits themselves wanted to be rescued and lured him. The art he took which was not magic he sold to keep the castle and the gang going, the rest he kept in his secret gallery. His magic residue was just enough to turn into a sort of luck, which made his thefts possible. Many of the magic paintings and statues had been stolen before Dorian stole them again. Dumbledore goes about returning the art (and using the gratitude of the original owners for his own purposes, but hey).
So Dumbledore sees these two new and rather powerful wizards as recruits for the light and arranges for Hogwarts professors and members of the Order to tutor them. Dorian is using his uncle's wand, Klaus a loaner. They both need to go to Ollivander's for their own wands.
So, a trip to Diagon Alley and Gringotts, where Dorian discovers he has inherited a goodly amount of galleons. Very frustrating to realize the money was there all along considering the lengths he had gone to keep everything afloat all those years! They go shopping with Harry and Snape, and get their wands. Harry and Snape go to get potion supplies while leaving the other two at the tailor's to get proper wizards robes. Dorian, a bit of a clothes horse anyway, is looking forward to it. In the tailor's shop, Dorian is enchanted to learn a spell which takes all one's clothing off—much easier to try on outfits. Klaus humphs about wasting magic that frivolous way! But they both get some wizard clothing and are dressed as wizards when they walk out. Dorian has on a deep red set of robes (even though he rather thought he was a Slytherin type, and Klaus the Gryffindor) because it does marvelous things for his hair, and Klaus is wearing black. We are not surprised, are we?
In the middle of the road there is the pop pop pop of apparition and there are four masked wizards there suddenly, wands out. One throws a hex which misses because it turns out that Klaus has natural deflective shields. Dorian holds out his wand and frantically casts the spell he most recently learned. The four wizards are now standing there completely nude, their clothes neatly folded at their feet. The masks are gone. The tall one has long blond hair, two are shorter and have the look of thugs and the third is short and rat like. They pop out again when they see Harry, Snape and others hurrying towards them.
Once home, Dumbledore is called and a spell is done which allows others to see exactly what Klaus and Dorian saw. The four wizards are Lucius Malfoy, Crabbe senior, some unnamed Nott and Peter Pettigrew!
So now they are talking about how the forces of evil found out about Dorian and Klaus and how much they know. Is there a spy in their midst? Dorian jokes about the blonde, saying that the man had discovered there was now a wizard with more fabulous blond hair and more style and that the attack was out of jealousy. Dumbledore says there may be more truth to that than they realize. Because compared to Dorian, Malfoy's blond becomes pale, his face not quite as aristocratic, and Dorian has kept both his figure and the muscles he needed for his life of crime. Side by side, he would outshine Lucius, he is taller and prettier than the dark wizard! Take that, forces of darkness!
Dumbledore tells them that he has tracked the wizard who put Klaus in the coma and he is a dark wizard, possibly in league with Voldemort. If he had a monitoring charm on the draught, he knows that Klaus is now awake. They will have to be very careful. Dumbledore says the wards of Dorian's castle are a bit odd and should be redone for their safety.
Bill comes to do the wards. He uses Dorian and Klaus's magic to anchor new wards, blood wards. Dorian is surprised when Klaus volunteers his own magic for the task. Klaus says that this is his home now, that he is cutting his ties with his heritage, and will stay with Dorian. If it is allowed. Dorian says yes of course! Klaus is giving up his name with the heritage and wants to call himself Klaus Eisen,
Klaus says he is not sure he can be everything Dorian wants. Dorian says anything Klaus wants to give is enough. Bill points out that if Klaus really wants to be more to Dorian, there are spells and potions. Klaus doesn't commit himself but is considering what Bill said. Dorian, who has long resigned himself to not having Klaus, has been happy enough that he is just awake and talking to him, is now mentally freaking out that what he originally wanted is actually possible. He bites his tongue to say nothing and does not meet Klaus's eyes.
That's as far as I got it written. I wasn't sure if it should go on from that point or start another related story about the final battle. I see it as Snape and Potter facing the dark lord and his minions, with Ron and Hermione on one side and Klaus and Dorian on the other. Lucius is opposite Dorian, Bella opposite Klaus. Snape is facing two at once.
The air is dark with magic, and Dorian's curls are flying out around his head in the wind, he looks intent and angry. Klaus is cold, totally Iron Klaus, still and solid and sure. They have worked out that Dorian, who was for so long a conduit for the ward magic, is able to channel both his own power and that of Klaus, together they are almost as powerful as say, Snape. Needless to say, the side of the light wins and Dorian and Klaus become, like Ron and Hermionie, heroes of the final battle. Harry and Snape finally get together after the battle.
I toyed with the idea of Klaus and Dorian getting the tank operational and changing it to a magic tank. I think Voldemort facing Klaus in a tank is a great mental image. The visuals in my head are stunning but I don't know enough about tanks to write it, despite having watched way too much Girls und Panzer, the anime about tankery as a girl's high school sport. It was research, I tell you.
The six become a social set, with Severus and Harry even living for awhile at Castle to avoid the hordes and publicity after the dark lord is offed. I must confess that later there is mpreg, and Klaus and Dorian's children play with those of other two pairs. Yes, I am that sappy. Dorian carries their two children, for Klaus's constitution, both physically after the coma and mentally (at any time!) was not suitable for child bearing. Dorian is a glorious mother but a terrible parent. He leaves most of the serious and hard stuff to Klaus.
P.S. I have in the back of my mind the picture of Klaus in any universe living long enough to come across Girls Und Panzer. The music is astounding, the premise cute and the tanks apparently are quite accurate. I think it would drive him insane, but he would force himself to watch it just to yell at the screen! I really want to know what he thinks about their Maus solution. I think he'd scoff.