Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Survival of the fittest	By : Sasunarufan13 Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 18502 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 9
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter nor profit from it. Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling

Chapter List
- 11
- 12
- 13
Author's note: Oh wow, I had almost forgotten that I had a chapter ready to update. *smacks head*
ATTENTION: School has officially started for me again and I have a heavy workload now. Seeing as I don't want to fail, I'll need to spend a lot of hours studying. What this means for this story is that the updates won't be that regularly anymore. I'm going to try to keep updating every two weeks, but because I always want to give you all a fairly long and good chapter, it takes time to write those chapters. If I'm not able to update every two weeks, I'll try to update at least once a month. Either way, you'll find on my profile on which chapter I'm working.

So again, I'll try to keep my updating schedule as regular as possible, but if I'm not able to, you'll know why that is. So this story will still be updated, only maybe a bit more irregularly ^^;
Thanks to the following reviewer: littlepanther (Sirius is happy to hear he doesn't get punched LOL)
Warnings: hm, some drama, but nothing else that really requires a warning I think
Enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 12: Quidditch
26th of November
Nearly two weeks after Harry's talk with Sirius, it was Saturday and the first Quidditch match was about to start in just two hours, officially opening the season.
"Stand still, Harry. I need to concentrate on the Glamour and I can't mess it up," Daphne murmured almost absentmindedly.
She was already dressed in Harry's Quidditch robes and Harry's Firebolt was resting against the wall.
Harry tried to stop his fidgeting, but that was difficult with Daphne staring at him. He had never dealt well with people staring at him and he definitely didn't feel comfortable underneath such a concentrated gaze like Daphne was giving him now. Her eyes were fixed on his face, while her wand tapped her nose, forehead, lips, cheeks, her eyelids … She muttered the last syllable of the Glamour spell underneath her breath and her face started to softly glow. A mask appeared in front of her face and it slowly morphed into Harry's face. Once the mask was constructed, it shifted backwards until it sank down on Daphne's skin, attaching itself to her face. Harry's own face stared back at him and Harry stared at it, disturbingly fascinated with it.
Next Daphne changed her hair into his own messy, black coloured one and three other spells made a Glamour wrap around her entire body, making it look like Harry's.
"Flitwick was right; you do have a talent for Charms," Sirius commented from his post next to the door.
Obviously still feeling guilty about his initial reaction to the news, Sirius was eager to offer Harry any help he needed. If Harry had found him prone to worrying before, it was nothing compared to now. Only three days after their conciliation, Sirius had breached the topic of the Quidditch match, already demanding of Harry that he promised not to play in it to avoid harming the baby, before Harry could explain their plan. After he finally got gotten enough time to inform his godfather about the plan, Sirius had insisted on being there when Daphne applied the Glamours, stating that he could provide an objective opinion on how well the Glamours had been made.
Having found no real reason to object, Harry had given in with a sigh.
Draco, who was also clad in his Quidditch robes, stepped forwards and nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were the real Harry."
"Oh my, a compliment from Draco Malfoy – who would have thought I'd ever see the day when that would happen?" Daphne smirked and Harry blinked, not sure whether that particular emotion suited his face or not.
Draco rolled his eyes. "Don't get used to it."
"Do you have your Cloak, Harry?" Sirius asked and glanced out of the window.
"Yeah," Harry murmured and patted his pocket.
"Good." Sirius nodded. "You best put it on as soon as we leave this room. Normally everyone is already outside, but there are always a few stragglers."
"Good luck, Daphne," Harry murmured and she smiled.
"Thanks," she muttered and grabbed the Firebolt, studying it with a keen eye before she followed Sirius out of the room.
"Good luck to you too," Harry smiled faintly and turned towards Draco.
Draco snorted and reached out to put his arms around Harry. "It's Ravenclaw – we can win that match with our eyes closed," he replied haughtily.
Harry snorted. "Don't make the mistake of underestimating them. You never know – they could have gotten better since last year."
"As if," Draco smirked. "Do I get a good luck kiss?"
"I thought you didn't need good luck?" Harry raised an eyebrow, looking at the blond amused.
"Good luck kiss, regular kiss; I don't particularly care what kiss. I just want a kiss," Draco stated and his grey eyes glittered.
"Because you asked for it so nicely," Harry murmured and one of his hands slipped over Draco's neck through his hair while their lips met in a soft kiss.
Draco muttered something too low for his ears to pick up and took a step closer, pushing his leg between Harry's legs. A tongue licked his lower lip briefly and he parted his lips, meeting the other tongue with his own.
Their breathing started to sound loud in the otherwise silent room and Harry vaguely registered a hand sliding down over his back and coming to rest on the swell of his arse. The heat of Draco's hand broke through the barrier of his trousers, heating his own skin and he jumped a bit when his arse was squeezed firmly.
Harry broke the heated kiss with a gasp and they both blinked. "I," he licked his lips, cleared his throat and tried again, "I think it's time for you to go to the pitch."
"Yeah, guess so," Draco breathed out. He pressed a quick kiss on Harry's bruised lips. "I'll see you after the match."
Harry nodded and he gave Draco a quick squeeze in his hand, before he threw his father's Invisibility Cloak over him and followed his boyfriend out of the room.
While Draco went to the dressing room to give his team a last pep talk, Harry chose another pathway that led him to the teachers' stand on the Quidditch pitch. To avoid raising questions when someone felt a presence that couldn't be seen, Remus had suggested that Harry sat next to him during the match, so he could still watch it without alerting anyone of the students to his presence.
His pets had also been forced to stay in his room – same went for Mara, who had chosen to wait in Harry's quarters as well – because even though they could turn invisible, Ruby and Mara were both too big and their presence would be felt if they had joined Harry. The animals hadn't liked the plan at all, but had given in when Harry pointed out that he would always have someone near him who could protect him if necessary – never mind that he was perfectly capable of defending himself if he needed to.
He took the stairs that led up to the teachers' stand and had to press himself against the wooden wall momentarily when Sinistra passed him in a rush.
When Harry arrived at the top, he spotted Remus and Sirius sitting in the back at the left side – a space left open between their two bodies.
"I'm here," he murmured and tapped Remus on his shoulder.
Remus' hand twitched a bit and his eyes flicked upwards to where he thought Harry was standing – he wasn't that much off either.
"Good, you can sit between us," he murmured, barely moving his lips and he shifted a bit, widening the space between him and Sirius so that Harry could sit comfortably.
"Thanks," Harry muttered and sat down between the two men, being mindful of the cloak. He shuffled his feet underneath the bench and plucked a bit on the cloak until he was certain that his whole body was covered.
Because it was nearing December, everybody was wearing scarfs, thick coats and woollen hats to protect themselves against the biting cold and the harsh wind. Even with the extra layer of clothes, Harry shivered when a cold wind swept against him. For once he was glad that he wasn't participating in the game – as a Seeker he would have to fly the highest of them all in order to seek for the Snitch and with the cold wind getting worse at every new height, that never was a pleasant task. He hoped Daphne had remembered to cast a Warming charm before she went up in the air.
Loud cheering rose up from all the stands when both Quidditch teams stepped out on the field – the Slytherin team clad in silver and dark green and the Ravenclaw team dressed in blue and black.
Draco shook hands with the Ravenclaw's Captain – a sixth year boy named Eric Hulldric – and Madam Hooch released the various balls with a sharp whistle. The Snitch hovered between Draco and Daphne for a moment before it shot upwards and disappeared from sight – for the moment.
Another sharp whistle and both teams kicked themselves off the ground and flew up in the air. The game had started.
"This year's season opens with a match between Slytherin and Ravenclaw," a Ravenclaw girl of the fifth year named Selena Goodwill started the commentary. "Last year Ravenclaw nearly missed the Cup – will they do it better this year?"
Loud cheering from the Ravenclaw stand made it clear that the students there were certain they had a chance.
"Oh, there goes Malfoy! He has the Quaffle in possession – will he manage to score the first point? Lemstreng tries to intercept him, but misses! It's up to the Keeper Alden to stop Malfoy. Ah! Malfoy aims, throws and scores! Ten points for Slytherin!"
Immediately the Ravenclaw (joined by the Gryffindors) students started to boo, but they were practically drown out by the cheering of the Slytherins.
Ravenclaw was the next to score. Both teams were surprisingly evenly matched and Harry smirked, knowing he could tease Draco about this later. That would teach him to underestimate his opponent.
Daphne was doing well so far. Both she and the Ravenclaw's keeper – Cho Chang – were circling high above the others, keeping an eye out for the Snitch. At one point, Daphne had suddenly taken a dive and everybody had hold their breath in, so certain that the Snitch had been located. As it turned out, Daphne had apparently gotten bored of hovering in one place and had seemingly decided to trick Cho into believing that she had spotted the Snitch. At least Harry thought she wanted to trick Cho, because he could imagine no other reason as to why she would suddenly make such a dive when Cho hadn't indicated she had seen the Snitch. He had to admit though that Draco had been right when he had assured him that Daphne was one of the best flyers in the school. While she didn't have Harry's natural talent or Draco's skill, she was still very good and Harry doubted anyone would notice that the Harry Potter flying on his broom wasn't the real one.
The game had been going on for nearly two hours and Slytherin was leading the match with 160 points to 130 when Daphne suddenly dived down, sweeping past two surprised Ravenclaw Chasers with Cho in pursuit.
Harry squinted and gasped softly when he saw the golden glint hovering above the grass. The Snitch had been spotted and Daphne was the first one to have seen it.
Of course in Quidditch that didn't mean much. If Daphne wasn't careful, Cho could still catch the Snitch and it would be game over for them. But Daphne proved that she had skill and when Cho came flying next to her, stretching out her arm, Daphne blocked her roughly by smacking her arm away.
Cho pulled up again, not wanting to crash into the ground, but Daphne only pulled up at the last second and she shot back up at full speed.
At first Harry thought the Snitch had managed to escape, but then Daphne lowered her speed to hover in the centre of the pitch and with a big grin she held up her hand, showing clearly the Snitch fluttering futile in her fist.
The response was instantly – while Slytherin cheered and roared, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor shouted their displeasure while the Hufflepuffs were torn between cheering and expressing their displeasure.
"And Harry Potter caught the Snitch! Slytherin has won with a staggering 310 points! Slytherin has won the match!"
Harry jumped up and clapped his hands while cheering loudly – in the ruckus that was going on, nobody would notice his voice. Even Remus and Sirius were cheering.
That was when it went wrong.
While the crowd was still cheering or shouting, the teams had started their descent to the ground where they would go on to the showers.
Most of the team members had made it to the ground and were congratulating each other with Daphne being the last one to descend. She was still very high up when the broom suddenly jerked, throwing her weight to the left.
"What the hell is she doing?" Sirius muttered bewildered.
Another jerk and the broom threw her weight to the right. Without any warning the broom suddenly flew up again vertically, forcing Daphne to cling on to the broom in order not to fall off and crash into the ground.
"Something's wrong!" Harry said alarmed and jumped up, his heart starting to beat wildly.
He could hear Daphne shout in alarm and by then most of the crowd had realized that something had gone wrong. They all jumped up and started to shout, pointing at Daphne who was now trying to stay on a broom that was desperate to throw her off.
Draco, who had already arrived on the grass, had kicked off again and was speeding upwards, trying to reach Daphne before the broom succeeded in throwing her off.
Draco had only breached half of the space between them when Daphne suddenly cried out in anguish and even from this distance Harry could see smoke coming off from her gloves – which resulted in her taking her hands off the broom. The broom did one last jerk and finally succeeded in what it was trying to do; Daphne fell and started to plummet to the ground, screaming in fear and pain.
Harry's breath halted in paralyzing fear and his hand shot to his wand – and halted, because he didn't know any spell that could delay her fall.
Luckily Draco had finally caught up to her and he managed to catch her, pulling her up on his broom.
"Oh thank Merlin," Remus muttered, but he still looked worried.
Harry heaved a relieved sigh, grateful that Draco had managed to catch her on time.
However he had been too quick with his relief. A sharp wind suddenly rose up and smacked against Draco's broom, throwing him off course. Harry could see Draco grabbing the broom handle while trying to keep both of them balanced, but a next wind gust came down on them and Draco lost control of his broom; the wind seemingly not wanting him to get control over it.
"Draco!" Harry shouted in panic, but his scream was drown out in the panicked screaming of the other students.
McGonagall pointed her wand and snapped a spell that Harry had heard Dumbledore uttering in his third year, when he had been the one to crash down. The spell enveloped Draco and Daphne and brought them to an abrupt halt while the wind was screaming in anger around them.
Both of them were safely lowered to the ground and the ruckus started all over again.
McGonagall was making her way down to the pitch and Harry started to follow her, wanting to get to Draco as soon as he could, but was halted by Remus, who took his wrist and pulled him back.
"Remus? Let me go; I need to go to Draco," he snapped, tugging in the hopes that Remus would let go.
Remus shook his head. "No, Harry, you'll need to wait."
"What? Why? I need to …"
"How do you think people will react when they see two Harry Potters on the field? As far as the students can see, you're already there on the pitch, being tended to by the Mediwitch," Remus replied calmly, though his eyes looked warningly at Harry. "Just wait a bit; McGonagall knows of your situation, so we can go see Draco later when there aren't as many people around as now."
Harry gritted his teeth, but had to admit that the man was right. He couldn't go to Draco now, because to the students' knowledge, he was already there, recovering from his near fall.
"Fine," he muttered petulantly. "But as soon as the coast is clear, I'm going to Draco."
"Understood." Remus nodded and then shared a glance with Sirius, whose forehead was marred with a frown. "Let's wait in McGonagall's office. She has managed to get your broom down, so maybe we'll be able to discover what went wrong."
With his heart still beating wildly in his chest and a bunch of questions floating through his head, Harry numbly followed Sirius and Remus to McGonagall's office.

"Thank you, Melinda, that will be all," McGonagall interrupted the new nurse's fussing briskly and Draco looked up.
Both he and Daphne had been brought to the Infirmary immediately so that the nurse could take a look at them. Draco didn't have any physical or internal wounds – McGonagall's spell had managed to stop them on time before they smacked against the ground.
Daphne however had second degree burns on her hands, which were now covered by a dark purple gel like substance that was meant to cool the burns and heal them. She was still wearing the Glamours, though Draco had seen them flickering twice already. The exhaustion and the nearly fatal fall were catching up to Daphne and he knew they would have to leave soon if they wanted to prevent the nurse from discovering the truth.
"I think they need to stay for the night for observation," Melinda replied and frowned, putting bandage around Daphne's hands. "Who knows what side effects that near fall could have caused."
McGonagall raised her eyebrow and glanced at the two students. "Mister Malfoy, Mister Potter, do you feel well enough to leave the Infirmary?"
"Yes, I wasn't even harmed," Draco replied instantly, wanting to get out of the Infirmary and to Harry as soon as possible.
"The potion is working, so I'm feeling better," Daphne answered softly, studying her bandaged hands with critical eyes.
"Good, then follow me, please. We need to discuss this recent event." McGonagall beckoned them and both of them slid off the hospital beds and – ignoring the nurse's dark muttering – followed the Headmistress to her office.
"Is Harry …" Draco started, but McGonagall broke him off.
"Mister Potter is waiting in my office, joined by Professor Lupin and Professor Black," she replied brusquely. She glanced at the Firebolt floating next to her. "We need to figure out what happened, so we'll be meeting them there."
As soon as the door opened to let them through, Draco had his arms full with a babbling Harry, who was touching him with frantic hands.
"Hey, I'm okay, really," Draco said hastily. "Not even a bruise."
"Do you know how worried I was? I thought you were going to crash!" Harry snapped and he sounded a bit hysterical.
Draco embraced him and pressed a kiss on Harry's cheek. "I know you were worried, but I assure you, I'm not harmed in either way. Daphne has second degree burns, though."
Harry turned around in his embrace and gasped when he caught sight of Daphne's bandaged hands. "Merlin, how are you feeling?"
"My hands still sting a bit, but most of the pain has been reduced, thanks to the potion," Daphne smiled weakly and shrugged. "The nurse was quick to put the potion on my hands, so I'm not going to have any scars."
Harry opened his mouth – most likely to do something as stupid as apologizing, if Draco recognized the look on his face correctly – but McGonagall spoke up, forcing them to turn their attention to her.
She was standing behind her desk with the Firebolt hovering above her desk. Lupin and Black were standing next to the desk, casting a suspicious glance at the broom.
"Miss Greengrass, you may drop the Glamours now," she murmured.
Severus had told McGonagall about the baby a few weeks ago and they had come to the decision to keep it a secret from the rest of the teachers for as long as possible. Not because they didn't trust the others not to spill the secret to the students or worse, the press, but because they both knew that most of the teachers would have acted irrationally, because it was Harry who had gotten pregnant and not some anonymous girl.
None of the teachers had ever shown contempt towards Draco or had showed their disapproval of his relationship with Harry, but Draco was no fool – when it came to the Saviour, a lot of people turned irrational and he wouldn't have put it past some of the teachers to voice their protest loud and clearly.
Daphne nodded and tapped her wand against her face, hair, collarbone and legs and the Glamours were dispelled, melted away until she had her own appearance back.
"Good. Now we're here to determine what went wrong during the match." Her dark eyes peered at them, her lips pursed together. "Miss Greengrass, did the broom give any warning that it would start to act strange?"
"No, it flew normally until the first time when it tried to shake me off," Daphne replied, her eyebrows furrowed. "One moment I'm bringing it down to the ground and the next, I'm trying to hold on while the broom was trying to throw me off."
"Mister Potter, have you experienced your broom acting oddly in the last couple of months?"
Harry blinked and shook his head. "No; my Firebolt has never acted weirdly before. This is the first time it acted like this."
"Hm." McGonagall narrowed her eyes and studied the sleek handle of the Firebolt. "Is it possible that the charms on this broom are malfunctioning?"
Black shook his head. "No; maybe the charms would stop working if the Firebolt was fifteen to twenty years old or so, but Harry has had him for only four years. That's not nearly long enough for the charms to weaken. Besides, even if for some reason the charms started to weaken quicker, the broom wouldn't have acted this dangerously immediately."
"What do you mean?" Daphne asked bewildered.
"I mean that the charms wouldn't have disappeared this quickly. One moment you were flying without problems and the next, you nearly had an accident – charms don't disappear that suddenly."
"So, what are you saying? That somebody messed with the broom?" Draco said slowly, trying to wrap his mind around the exact events of this morning.
Black grimaced. "That's a possibility, yeah," he admitted grudgingly. "It can't be a fabrication mistake, because then an accident like this would have happened way sooner. Heavy protection charms like the ones casted on this broom don't disappear that sudden either. So that only leaves the option of sabotage."
"But who would want to sabotage my …" Harry started and then halted abruptly; a look of realization crossing his face and Draco felt him tense up in his arms.
Lupin looked resigned. "There is a high possibility that Dumbledore is behind this," he murmured and casted a dark look on the broom.
Fawkes let out a sad, high chirp.
"But the wards didn't warn us," McGonagall pointed out with a frown. "And even with Albus being stronger than us, these wards have been put in place with the help of Hogwarts herself – there is no feasible way in which he could have passed the wards without raising alarm. He wouldn't even be able to disband them, thanks to the old magic that Hogwarts used."
"He wouldn't need to pass the wards," Draco spoke up when realization hit him. "If he has someone helping him in Hogwarts, he could have passed on the necessary spells and let this person do his dirty job."
"But the brooms are locked up in the shed and unauthorized people, people who don't know the necessary spells to unlock the shed, can't enter it since a Ravenclaw student tried to sabotage a Gryffindor's broom in an attempt to win the match in 1985," Daphne retorted and crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"They wouldn't have needed to enter the shed," Harry murmured and his eyes gained a distant sheen, as if he was looking at a memory. "In my first year, during a Quidditch match, Quirrel cursed my broom when I was already up in the air. It's only thanks to Snape that I didn't fall off my broom back then."
"I remember that," Draco muttered and grimaced. "For weeks people kept speculating what could have happened to have you suddenly losing control over your broom while you were flying perfectly before."
"But none of the teachers were casting spells now," Lupin remarked. "I would have known if they did, thanks to my sharp hearing."
"Who said it has to be a teacher?" Black replied with a dark look in his eyes. "It's clear none of the teachers caused the accident, because you didn't hear anyone of them cursing the broom. So it has to be a student."
"But would a student have the power necessary to accomplish such difficult spells?" McGonagall asked. "I don't know a lot about brooms, but I do know that it isn't easy to curse a broom, because of all those protection charms."
Black shrugged, looking contemplatively at the hovering broom. "Most students in this school probably wouldn't be able to produce enough power to use those curses," he admitted. "But not every student has mediocre power – look at Harry and Malfoy. Or even Lovegood and Zabini."
"This person doesn't have to have a large magical reserve," Remus added. "It's all about the power and intention when it comes to curses powerful enough to mess with a broom and if this person was determined to succeed, then that would have been enough to grant them enough power to curse the broom."
McGonagall sighed and closed her eyes, sinking down in her chair. She rubbed her temples and opened her eyes again, staring at them sharply. "If there is indeed a student in contact with Albus, then it's safe to assume that Albus would have ordered the student to cast other spells after these curses to avoid detection through Priori Incantatem. That rules out testing the students' wands." Her fingers rapped sharply against the surface of her desk. "And Priori Incantatem would have been the best way to uncover the culprit."
"In other words, we're stuck," Black said dryly and grunted when Lupin stepped on his foot, scowling at him.
"Well, whoever is responsible for this, this person won't be happy after having failed his or her attempt to kill Harry," Daphne replied and threw a worried look at Harry. "I mean, obviously they believed I was Harry, because otherwise they wouldn't have cursed the broom, right?"
Lupin nodded, his lips tightly pressed together.
"So what are we going to do now?" Draco asked and tightened his embrace. Harry leant back against his chest and he could feel warm hands covering his own.
"We can't risk another attack like this," McGonagall replied and she regarded Harry with troubled eyes, making him move his feet restlessly. "The next time someone could get seriously hurt or even get killed. I see no other option than to cancel Quidditch this year. At least that way there won't be any accidents involving brooms being cursed and people being thrown off the brooms."
"The students aren't going to like this," Black muttered with a grimace.
She threw him an annoyed look. "Probably not, but I'd rather hear them protesting a bit because of the lack of Quidditch, than having to tell parents that their child had an accident, or even worse died."
"Is there any way to discover who cursed my broom?" Harry asked, throwing a quick look at the broom in question.
"I'd suggest using Veritaserum, but it's illegal to use without explicit permission of the Ministry and questioning all the students would take too much time. And there is the possibility that the person in question manages to shield that particular memory," she added with a sigh.
"Do you really think this student is capable enough to use such specific Occlumency?" Lupin asked and he sounded sceptically.
She scowled. "Weren't you the one who suggested that enough power used behind a spell could make even a wizard or witch of mediocre strength succeed in using the spell?" she retorted and raised an eyebrow.
Lupin coughed uncomfortably and grimaced. "Yes, but …"
"Then for now our hands are tied," she cut him off. "I'll send a letter to the Minister, requesting him to put the search for Albus in a higher drive. He needs to be apprehended before something else happens." She stepped away from her desk and approached the painting of an old man, whose brown eyes were regarding her calmly. One of the former Headmasters. "Leonard, I need you to inform every painting in the castle to put more of their strength in the defence wards. Especially the ones that are closest to the wards."
The man bobbed his head. "Certainly, Headmistress McGonagall. I'll inform them immediately." He rose up from his chair, making the pages of the book he had been reading flutter and then disappeared out of the frame.
"Potter, I need you to be more careful now," she ordered and turned around to look at him with a hard glint in her eyes. "As long as we don't know which student is aiding Albus, you'll need to be on your guard. Do not wander off alone. Make sure that someone else is always with you and keep your pets near you. In case of an attack, they can help you."
"All right," Harry answered, but the look on his face clearly stated his displeasure of the new order.
"I've also been recently made aware of a useful map that certain pranksters," she ignored the amused smiles on Black's and Lupin's faces, "created of Hogwarts. Keep that at all times with you – you never know when it may come in handy. Same goes for your father's Invisibility Cloak."
She nodded to Daphne. "Miss Greengrass, thank you for being willing to help Potter, despite everything that happened; please make sure that the wounds on your hands don't worsen."
"Yes, professor," Daphne replied and carefully flexed her hands, hissing almost inaudibly.
McGonagall gave them a sharp nod. "You may leave now. Go directly to your dormitories. I'll speak to the students during lunch."
They said their goodbyes and left the three adults behind.
"Well, this was an interesting morning," Daphne broke the silence after a short while.
Draco snorted. "That's one way to put it."
"Do you really think a student is capable of cursing a broom?" Harry asked softly and he frowned.
They arrived at the bottom of the staircase and the gargoyle slid aside to let them pass through.
"You heard Lupin – he never heard any of the teachers using a curse, so that leaves only the students," Daphne answered and shivered when the cold November wind made the windows rattle.
"I can't believe anyone would willingly help Dumbledore, even after the Ministry gave warning about him in the paper," Harry muttered and they made their way down to the dungeons.
Draco and Daphne shared a look; both knowing that the other one was having the same thought.
"Harry, normally I would have agreed with you, but you remember how the students reacted – and are still reacting – with your new place in Slytherin. If the old coot gave this person a convincing speech, then it's not that far-fetched to consider the possibility of a student helping him," Draco pointed out and reached for Harry's hand.
"I know that," Harry snapped annoyed and then shook his head. "I know, but it's just so hard to believe that someone would even go as far as trying to kill me, you know? I mean, I was used to murder attempts from Voldemort or his Death Eaters – I'm not used to having my life being threatened by a student."
"There you are! I was wondering where you two went to – you weren't in the Infirmary and I … Daphne?" Blaise approached them once they appeared in the dark dungeon hallway leading to the Slytherin common room and he looked perplexed. "What happened to your hands?"
They came to an abrupt halt and Draco cursed inwardly. He had forgotten about the small fact that Daphne was Blaise's girlfriend and of course he would notice that her hands were bandaged – they hadn't informed the Italian boy about the pregnancy yet, so he hadn't known about the plan to have Daphne using Glamours.
"Maybe it's time you two told him about it?" Daphne broke the awkward silence and she bit in her lower lip, before releasing it quickly.
"Tell me about what? What's going on?" Blaise asked suspiciously. "Daphne, why are your hands bandaged?"
Harry sighed and looked at Draco. "I guess it's time we inform him about it. What do you think?" he asked, glancing at Blaise, who was growing more and more confused with every second that passed without explanation.
Draco clucked his tongue and nodded. "I guess we have no choice. At least he can keep his mouth shut," he murmured darkly.
"For the love of Merlin, will someone please tell me what is happening?" Blaise exclaimed frustrated and scowled at them.
"I think it's best if we go to my room," Harry muttered. "I don't want anyone else to overheard this." He turned around and choose the path that would lead them to his quarters. "Besides, our pets are probably worried," he added.
Draco beckoned Blaise and Daphne to follow them (both had been informed earlier why Harry had gotten his own private quarters, though they didn't know where it was nor the password that was required to enter the rooms). It seemed that it had become time to inform his best friend about his impending fatherhood.
Well, he thought faintly amused. At least this time it won't be as nerve racking as the other times.
One had to count the small blessings in life after all.

"So you discovered no disturbances in the wards?" Remus asked and Salazar shook his head.
"No, I apologize, but ever since the wards have been erected, I have sensed no interruption in them. They are still working like they should be."
Remus and Sirius had left Minerva's office after they had discussed the Quidditch match in more detail. They had had the intent to go to their own rooms, but had been stopped by the doe Patronus of Snape, who had urged them to come to his quarters immediately.
Bewildered and quite curious, they had turned around and had instead of going up, gone down, into the dark, cold dungeons.
When they had arrived in Snape's quarters, Lucius had already been there, seated on a comfortable armchair with a glass of Old Berton's Cognac in his hand.
It turned out that Salazar had wanted to speak to them after he had been informed by the other portraits of the happenings on the Quidditch field.
"Well, damn," Sirius muttered and frowned. "It seems that a student is really working together with that bastard. How the hell are we going to discover who that student is?"
"That I can't help you with," Salazar replied and shook his head, crossing his leg over the other one.
Snape looked at him sharply. "Is there something you can help us with?"
"As a matter of fact, yes, I think I can help you with something."
That got everyone's attention.
"With what exactly can you provide us help?" Lucius raised an eyebrow and took a sip of his cognac.
"Ever since young Mister Potter found me and brought me here, I've wondered what had become of my comrades," Salazar started and he frowned. "You see, each one of us has one portrait to avoid Hogwarts becoming confused should one of us use magic. The plan was to have our portraits in a private chamber next to the library where people could come talk to us if they needed help."
"There is no chamber next to the library," Remus interrupted and he furrowed his eyebrows. As someone who had spent the majority of his school time in the library, he was well acquainted with the hallway and its different rooms wherein the library was located and he had never seen a room right next to the library.
"That's because that chamber operates on the same system as the Room of Requirements does," Salazar replied faintly amused.
"Room of Requirements?" Lucius repeated, placing his glass down at the table.
"It's a room on the seventh floor that's hidden unless you know exactly where it is located," Sirius explained. "You need to walk three times in front of the hidden door and think of the room you need or the thing you need and after three times a door will appear. Basically that room can provide anything as long as it isn't a human being or animal. Harry had the meetings for the defence club there."
"I never heard of that room before," Lucius muttered.
"That's because very few know of it," Sirius smirked.
"Indeed, but with this particular room you had to tap seven times on the wall and then the door would appear," Salazar said and tapped his fingers on the arm of his chair.
"I assume that the students were made aware of this chamber?" Snape inquired and stared intently at the Founder.
Salazar inclined his head. "Yes, each year the information was giving at the beginning of the Feast."
"How come we never heard of it?" Sirius asked bewildered.
"Ah," Salazar breathed out and he acquired a glowering look. "That's because our dear ex Headmaster decided that we were being too smart and too independent for him to handle and he managed to remove us from our wall when Hogwarts was distracted by Giants of the North attacking. By the time she discovered our absence, it was already too late for her to help us."
"So you were separated and put into different places all over Hogwarts?" Lucius asked, a pensive look on his face.
"Not exactly." Salazar shook his head. "This is what I was investigating last year. While I was indeed put in a hallway that nobody used – and therefore the chance of someone discovering my presence was almost non existant – it seems that the other three have been removed completely from Hogwarts."
"What?" Remus stared at him stupefied. "What do you mean, removed completely? As in they aren't in the castle anymore?"
"No, I can't feel their presence anywhere; none of the portraits have seen them or spoken to them after that one night and Hogwarts hasn't any knowledge about their whereabouts either," Salazar answered and he sounded faintly annoyed. "So it seems that Albus brought my three comrades somewhere else; a place where they can't come into contact with either Hogwarts or someone else."
"All right, so this proves that Dumbledore is even more of a bastard than we already thought," Sirius said and he narrowed his eyes. "But why do you suddenly come up with this story?"
"Black, would it kill you to just shut up and be patient?" Snape bit out annoyed.
Salazar gazed at them serenely before his mouth curled up in a small smile. "I couldn't help but overhearing Mister Potter's conversation with Potion's Master Snape a couple of weeks ago."
"What conversation?" Lucius raised an eyebrow.
Snape hissed and he scowled. "You mean the conversation in which they told me Potter is pregnant."
Salazar nodded. "That one indeed. Now after what happened last year, I can imagine that Mister Potter has brought himself into more danger by deciding to keep the child."
"We warned them of the danger, but they have assured us they know what they are getting into," Lucius murmured.
"Of course; I am in no way accusing them of being airheaded Hufflepuffs. From what I have seen, Mister Potter and Mister Malfoy are responsible adults," Salazar replied and huffed amused. "But that doesn't eliminate the fact that with this baby, Mister Potter has become more vulnerable in case of an attack."
"Where are you going with this?" Remus asked calmly, but narrowed his eyes.
"You need a way to defeat Dumbledore for good."
"Yes, we know." Snape rolled his eyes. "But as I'm certain you remember, Albus isn't exactly a weak, old man who will let us bind him without putting up a fight. The four of us are probably not strong enough to keep him contained during the Binding," he continued bitterly.
"That is why you need a strong Binding ritual," Salazar answered calmly.
"Well, yes, I can understand that," Lucius said. "But as Severus has told you, the four of us are not strong enough to keep him contained during the Binding."
"Do you know which beings can create the strongest Binding ritual?"
The four men stared at him; all of them getting the feeling they knew where Salazar was leading this conversation to.
"A Nemean; an Akeyra; an Izo leopard; a Aer eagle and four Masters of the Elements," Salazar summed up and tapped each name off on one of his fingers. He then smirked at them. "The four Masters of the Elements don't have to be alive; their ghosts or magical residue leaked into portraits will suffice for this type of ritual."
"You mean …" Sirius started slowly, a look of incredulity passing over his face.
"Currently you're looking at one Master of the Elements – and your godson and his partner possess the four Elemental Creatures," Salazar answered and his smirk grew more pronounced. "You have five beings at your disposal already – only three left to go. Are you ready to start the hunt for the three other beings?"
The four men glanced at each other and all knew they didn't need to speak out loud to confirm what they all knew.
Well, this certainly is an interesting day, Remus thought bewildered.
It wasn't every day you got challenged by a Master of the Elements to complete a hunt. And who were they to say no to it?

AN2: The plan of defeating Dumbledore has been slowly set in motion. What do you think of this chapter? Please leave your thoughts behind in a review!
Next chapter will be called Godric Gryffindor and will be about - you'll never guess it - the search for Gryffindor! (How many of you managed to guess it before you reached the answer? XD LOL)
So yeah, until next time, dear readers! Don't forget to vote on the poll!
Cuddles
Melissa
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Survival of the fittest