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The Guile and Devotion of a Black Heir	By : StarLightMassacre Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male Views: 104291 -:- Recommendations : 9 -:- Currently Reading : 26
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Harry Potter; all rights go to J. K. Rowling. I make no money for this piece of fictional writing and never will.

Chapter List
- 20
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- 22
Last Time

He would need to find a safer, more secure place for the sword soon though, just in case, until the time came for him to use it as the bargaining chip that it was taken to be. He truly hoped that Voldemort liked it and that, as Dumbledore believed, he would want it very, very much. His entire bargaining ploy was riding on just how much Voldemort wanted this sword, and how much he would want to know that Dumbledore knew about his Horcruxes and was hunting them down.

Chapter Twenty-One – Horcrux Hunting

Harry really wasn’t feeling this last Quidditch match of the season as he oversaw his team’s preparations. It was just a little over a week away before the exams started in earnest and he was overly stressed as it was, without this final match to play, and he just wanted to get back to his revision. He did not need this impromptu break right about now.

“Are you okay, Captain?” Demelza asked him with a worried frown.

Harry gave her a reassuring smile. “I’m a little distracted because of the approaching exams, nothing more, but you know that I’ll perk up during the match, once the adrenaline starts flowing.”

“I never did understand why they played the last match of the year just a week before the exams start.” Katie sighed, looking as tired and as weary as Harry felt, then she was in her seventh and final year, these were her final exams and they were so important to her future that Harry had half expected her to come to him and ask if she could sit out of this match and could he please substitute her on the pitch. He would have done so without complaint, if only she’d asked. He understood now that there were so many more important things than an inter-house Quidditch match, even if it was a match for the Cup.

“It would have been better to play it in the last week of term. I know everyone is lazy and such in that last week, but to actually hold the match a week before the NEWT exams start?” Harry shook his head, trying to ignore the voice in his head that was automatically running through his revision schedule. It was going to throw him off and put him a few hours behind to play this match.

“We’re aiming for a quick match, yeah?” Pauley asked him, looking around at his tired team curiously.

Then he was only a second year, his exams were not that taxing and the biggest thing to him right now was choosing his electives for next year. He didn’t understand why Katie and Harry were killing themselves with revision, or why they were so worried about these exams because he had nothing to personally compare them to. He would learn, he would almost certainly go through exactly the same when he reached his OWL years and then again when he reached NEWT level.
The team were all very young, the only other person on the team who could maybe understand was Demelza, who was a fifth year and taking her OWLs this year. Harry wondered if the startling increase in workload had shocked her as much as it had him coming from his fourth year into his fifth. That workload would increase substantially again, and the topics would become harder and more complicated as she entered her sixth year, her first year of NEWT level. Harry was expecting, and preparing, for his own workload to all but bury him next year, as he would no longer have an illness to pander to and thus he’d be on the same workload as the rest of his year mates, which would come as a bit of a shock to him after his light workload this year to compensate for his illness and the severe side effects of the potions he was taking to heal himself.

“As quick as humanly possible.” Harry agreed with a nod. “I have a revision schedule to keep to.”

“What is our play then?” Katie asked him seriously.

Harry considered that carefully. He wanted the game over with quickly, but that didn’t mean that he wanted to throw the game away either. He wanted to win, because Gryffindor would take the Quidditch Cup for the second year in a row if they did, though technically third year in a row, as no one had won the Cup in his fourth year, because Quidditch had been cancelled due to the Tri-wizard tournament, and Gryffindor had won the Cup the year before too, thanks in part to Harry’s Firebolt. He touched his broom now, just stroking his hands over it and remembering Sirius.

“I think the best way we can play this is to concede as few goals as we can. Pauley, this will put pressure on you, but I know that you can do it.” Harry said, his eyes seeking out his second year Keeper, whose young face was set and determined. He was an old hat at this now, he had been on the team all year and he’d put up with all sorts thrown at him because of how young he was, but he’d proved everyone wrong, even in their last match against Hufflepuff, where the sun had been in his eyes, all but blinding him, and still he hadn’t given up and Gryffindor had won.

“Girls, I need you to do all you can to support Pauley, to keep Gryffindor in front on points. Keep your passes smooth, your shots on target and we’ll be fine. Ritchie, Jimmy, I want you boys…”

“To take out the Beaters?” Jimmy guessed.

Harry smiled. “No. Not in this match. We want a quick win, but no matter what, winning is better. Take out the Seeker and Keeper. In that order of preference, but don’t foul either. Only aim for the Keeper when the Quaffle is in scoring distance. Girls, if you can assist with this please.”

His team all nodded and he nodded to them as well, one sharp dip of his head. He took a deep breath and let it out slow.

“I will, of course, hunt that snitch down and I will catch it as soon as I can, with or without the rival Seeker on my tail. The Firebolt is unmatched.”

“And so is the man atop it.” Katie teased him.

Harry laughed and shook his head.

“Ravenclaw are going to give us a good game, a hard game. They aren’t going to meekly roll over and just let us win.” He said with a sigh. “Even though they aren’t playing for the Cup, they’re playing for dignity, they will try to stop us from winning the Cup, just on principle. Though none of us want to see Slytherin as Cup winners. They are going to be the only ones truly rooting for a Ravenclaw win, outside of the Ravenclaws, of course.”

“We’ve got this Cup in the bag, three years in a row!” Demelza grinned.

“Let’s get out there and win it for Gryffindor.” Harry said, looking at his watch and seeing that it was nearly time anyway. It wouldn’t hurt to scope out the conditions beforehand. It was light, bright and hot being May, but there was some decent cloud cover today, the nice, fluffy white kind as summer fast approached.

They were cheered heavily as they came out of their changing rooms, their robes almost blinding red in the bright sunlight.

“Pauley, watch the sun and remember our last match.”

“Don’t damage my eyes looking directly into the sun, anticipate where they’re going to throw the Quaffle, cover my blind side.” Pauley said seriously.

Harry smiled. “Good lad. If you carry on like this then I wouldn’t be surprised if England called you up to the national team, Merlin knows they need a new Keeper and as they still won’t take on the phenomenal Oliver Wood, well…they need to do something and I have no idea what they’re waiting for. At this rate we won’t even qualify for the Quidditch World Cup in two years.”

“I didn’t know that you followed the national team.” Katie said.

“The national team, yes, club teams, not so much. Though as Draco supports the Falmouth Falcons, then I hear about them almost every week and what the scores were because Draco tells me.”

They had a short wait for the bright blue team of Ravenclaw to wander onto the pitch with them. The Slytherins cheered for them, as expected. Blaise had actually told him that he was going to be jeering for him to lose today that morning after breakfast, as Harry had sat at the Gryffindor table with his team that morning, running through game plays and tactics, and not at the Slytherin table as he usually did. He smiled as he thought of it.
The fourteen of them got into position, Madam Hooch holding out a Galleon coin. Once again, as the leaders on points, Gryffindor got to choose and Harry chose heads. Heads came up and he happily chose his preferred half of the pitch, putting Pauley in the shaded half of the pitch. It wouldn’t last and soon both sides of the pitch would be in the sun, but hopefully Harry could catch the snitch before that happened.
He shook hands with Davis, graciously wishing him and his team well and that they all had a good game, under the very approving eye of Madam Hooch as he displayed good sportsmanship. The Snitch and the Bludgers were released into the air and Madam Hooch picked up the Quaffle, watching them all as they stood still, in position, waiting for her signal.
She threw the Quaffle high into the air and Harry shot off like a cork from a shaken bottle. He immediately started looking for the Snitch. He needed to catch it quick and end this game. He wanted to get back to his revision and preparation for the exams, which were only a week away now. This game truly had come at the worst time, but next year would be even worse for him, as he prepared for his last year of NEWTs. He made a mental note to spend some more time training Dillan, his reserve Seeker, just in case he needed to substitute himself.
He ended up hovering near the Slytherin bleachers, his eyes scanning everywhere. He ignored the barbs being shouted at him from the sea of green and silver spectators as he flicked his gaze around, trying to spot the glint of gold in the sky. He watched as Pauley made a spectacular save and he smiled softly. That young boy had come on so very well in just a year and his budding confidence had sky rocketed, as well as his popularity, as the star Keeper of the Gryffindor team. Harry remembered what that felt like, his first year on the team, after every spectacular win their team faced and every time he caught the Snitch. It was an addictive feeling.
The Ravenclaw Beaters had been told to take him out, Harry deduced, as they were in fact not even focusing on anyone else and it was a frustrating annoyance as he dodged one Bludger and then had to quickly duck the other one. He zoomed off and tried to put some distance between himself and the Beaters, as a Bludger was less likely to make contact with him if it was hit from further away. Unfortunately the Beaters followed him…they truly had been told to take him out, by any means necessary.
He ducked another Bludger aimed at his head and he could feel his temper rising, but he refused to revoke his own orders…Ritchie and Jimmy were to focus on the Seeker and Keeper of the other team, not the Beaters. Unfortunately his wish of a quick game was rapidly dwindling as the Beaters didn’t give him a single moment to search for the Snitch, as soon as he started looking another Bludger came out of nowhere to interrupt him.
Zooming off higher this time, going up twenty feet above the game play, Harry took a moment to reassess the game from high above everyone else, almost getting a bird’s-eye view of the gameplay and then he started searching for the snitch once more, almost letting his gaze pass lazily over everything, without seeing anything, as the little glint of gold was usually spotted by the peripheral vision. Typically, a Bludger almost took off his face. He was getting pissed off now. He just wanted to go back to the library, or to his private rooms, and revise for the upcoming exams. This game was never going to end if those Beaters didn’t leave off of him and he could see the Ravenclaw Seeker taking advantage, searching desperately for the snitch as he was held up and distracted by the Beaters.
He dived suddenly, going below the game play this time, trying to keep a Ravenclaw Chaser between him and the Beaters at all times, but as there were two of them, Beaters that was, then they could come at him from both sides and pin him between them.
He’d had enough of this, he would have to rescind his orders and have Jimmy and Ritchie take out the Beaters, and he signalled to Madam Hooch that he wanted a time out. Her whistle blew and Harry went to the other half of the pitch, where the Gryffindor bleachers were located. It was a prickling sensation in his skin as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up, the gasp of outrage from the crowd, the look on Demelza’s face, who had already landed for the time out, as she looked behind him at whatever was happening. He heard the shrill, piercing blast of Madam Hooch’s whistle, being blow furiously and urgently, but before the noise had finished, he felt it…the Bludger strike to his back that pitched him forward three feet, into open air off of his broom. He fell several feet to the soft, lush grass below, landing on his front, only just managing to put his arms out to protect his head, to stop it from hitting the ground as Blaise’s had during the match last weekend.
He was dazed, but still conscious. He took a moment to evaluate himself and he was very surprised to find that he was alright, that he didn’t seem to have broken anything, or indeed hurt anything at all. He was winded though, very winded as he struggled to draw breath into his shrivelled, burning lungs.
His team crowded him then, having come running, but it was Katie, as the oldest and most reasonable, who pushed all the others away from him and then knelt to help him take a breath, rubbing his back until he could draw in a deep, painful, but much needed breath of air.
The first one broke the ice and he was able to draw in more and more oxygen, breathing quickly and desperately until his panic died down and he could draw in deeper, slower breaths. After he started taking in deeper breaths, and his panic receded, his head stopped spinning and he could relax a little.

“Are you okay to get up?” Katie asked him.

“That was a fucking foul!” Was the first thing he said.

“Blatant and in full view of everyone!” Pauley agreed angrily. “They really are desperate if they can sink that low.”

“He’s trying to claim that he never heard the whistle.” Jimmy said, coming back over to his team. “Madam Hooch doesn’t believe it for a second. As soon as the match starts up we have a penalty shot.”

Harry nodded carefully, and miraculously nothing twinged, nothing gave off any sense of pain and he carefully eased himself upright. Both legs and both arms still worked, he rubbed at his neck and there was no pain.

“You know, I really do think I’m alright.” He said, surprise colouring his voice. “It only hurts when I twist to my right, it hit my shoulder blade on that side. I’ll be able to carry on.”

“I think you should go to the hospital wing, you haven’t been well this year, Harry.” Katie told him.

“I’ll go for a check-up after the match.” He said. “But I really do feel fine, I said before that I wouldn’t kill myself over a game anymore, and I meant it. If I didn’t feel completely fine, then I wouldn’t go back on, but I do feel fine.”

He stood up and he tested his body for breaks or bumps, but as he’d said, the only point of pain was the impact site of the Bludger. It would undoubtedly be bruised, but he could live with a few bruises.

“I called the time out mostly to change my orders, take out those effing Beaters, now even more so, the little fouling gits.” Harry said, stretching his right arm. It pulled on the patch of soreness in his shoulder, which was spreading. He really needed a quick catch now.

“We already took out their Keeper, they’re going to bring their reserve on for the next part of the match.” Ritchie said. “But their reserve isn’t any good, so the girls should do fine.”

Harry nodded. “Good work, boys.”

Madam Hooch, finished now with chewing out the little snot who had fouled him, came over to them.

“Potter, hospital wing, now.” She ordered.

“I’m fine, Madam Hooch, honestly.” He said. “I’m not in any pain and I haven’t broken anything. I’m fine to carry on.”

“I won’t risk it.”

“I’m fine.” Harry stressed. “If I wasn’t I would be the first to take myself to Madam Pomfrey, my Father would have my hide otherwise, but I really am okay.”

He was scrutinised by those hawk like yellow eyes and then she nodded curtly. “If you feel unwell at all during play, stop immediately before you kill yourself.” She ordered.

Harry nodded his understanding. “We are ready to resume play.” Harry insisted.

Madam Hooch nodded and indicated both teams, they resumed their positions on the field, awaiting her whistle to resume the game.

“It looks like Gryffindor Captain and Seeker, Harry Potter, is going to restart after that disgusting bit of cheating by one of the Ravenclaw Beaters. It is good to see him on his feet and unharmed from such a low and desperate foul.”

The crowd cheered for him, no one liked to see fouling or cheating, and once Katie had taken the penalty shot against the Keeper, scoring of course, Madam Hooch’s whistle blew and play resumed.
Harry started out slow, testing himself, but he seemed completely fine and unhurt and he started scouting for the Snitch.
The crowd booed when the Beaters immediately started aiming for him again, it made Harry chuckle. Make one foul and suddenly any attempt on him was condemned. It didn’t deter the Beaters, well, not much, they were disheartened by the booing, jeering and catcalling, but they still took aim at him and tried to knock him off…at least they were doing it legally this time, not trying to foul him after the whistle had blown.
A small while later and Harry was avoiding Bludgers like usual, and he was desperately hoping that the game would end soon, and that was when he saw the flash of gold out of the corner of his eye. He was gone, chasing after it and he tried to dodge or beat the Bludgers that were suddenly sent his way. He grinned as he realised that he had dodged the both of them and his way to the Snitch was clear. His Firebolt unmatched, he caught up to the snitch in a heartbeat and his hand closed over the cold ball and he held it aloft happily.
The whistle went as the commentator shouted out that Gryffindor had won the match, that they had won the Quidditch Cup for the official second year in a row, even though everyone knew that it was really the third year in a row, because of the interrupted year where no one had won.
Harry was surrounded by his team, just in case anyone decided to hurl a Bludger at him after the whistle had blown, but it was all over now, there was no changing that Gryffindor had won or that they had the Cup.
They paraded around the pitch for a while, as Harry accepted the Cup as the Captain, then let all the members of his team have a hold and a lap of victory with it. Not wanting to waste too much time celebrating when he had revision to get back to, Harry landed and called his team down with him, but immediately after they had landed Harry was hauled off by his teammates, not to an after party, but to the hospital wing. They never even took the time to shower or change. It took just eight minutes after that before Draco, Theo, Astoria and Blaise found them there. Harry had been stripped topless and he was just being examined, his arm outstretched as Madam Pomfrey waved her wand over his shoulder, checking it. The Quidditch Cup was in his lap.

“Are you alright?” Draco demanded, ignoring everyone else.

“Yeah.” Harry said with an easy smile. “There’s nothing wrong with me. I told you before, I’m very difficult to kill.”

“You should have come straight to me.” Madam Pomfrey chastised him yet again, for maybe the ninth time in fifteen minutes. “Imagine if you’d been seriously injured?”

“I wouldn’t have gotten back up if I was seriously injured.” He quipped.

“Is he hurt?” Draco asked Madam Pomfrey.

“Surprisingly, he isn’t.” She replied heavily. “There is a bit of bruising here, on the back of his shoulder, but there is no serious damage or anything of notable concern.”

“In other words I’m completely fine and I can go and celebrate!”

“For all of an hour before we’re back to revising.” Katie laughed.

“Exactly, so let’s go get to it quickly, because I want a bit of relaxation, a bit of fun, and then its straight back to the hard grind before the exams hit us.” Harry insisted.

His team cheered and Harry smiled. He hugged a tearful Astoria, who had been very worried about him, clapped Blaise and Theo on the shoulder and he gave Draco a quick, brotherly hug, before allowing his team to haul him off to Gryffindor Tower…he hadn’t been inside it since the last Quidditch party that had been thrown for their win against Hufflepuff. He was much more used to his own rooms now, but he was happy to show his face for an hour, eat some snacks, have a laugh, and then leave again, back to his own, private rooms. He couldn’t afford to lose sight of his objective, he would pass all of his exams this year, but for that to happen, he needed to be ready when those exams hit. He needed to be prepared and confident, and he would be. He would pass all of his exams.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

The exams hit with a flurry of activity and last minute revision panic. Harry himself was rather calm and collected. He was nervous for his Ancient Runes exam, purely because Marcus had said that if he got anything other than an ‘O’ then Marcus would personally beat him into a hospital bed in St Mungos for the humiliation of failing the exam while under his personal tutelage.
Harry was just excited to get the exams over and done with, because it would be June now in just a week and then it would be a mere three weeks and he would be back home, with Rabastan.
His History of Magic exam went better than any of the previous years, purely because he was reading so many ancient books on History for the Wizengamot. He actually had expectations for something other than a ‘Dreadful’ on this exam. He’d even settle for a ‘P’ as long as it wasn’t anything lower, but he was hoping for an ‘A’ at the very least, even if he did think that he deserved and ‘EE’ just for the sheer length of some of his more knowledgeable answers.

“Stop daydreaming and test me!” Draco demanded, prodding him with a book.

Harry rolled his eyes but dutifully took the book and opened it to a random page. The Muggle Studies exam was in progress currently, that meant that they had at least another hour to study for their theory Charms exam which was to take place shortly afterwards. Draco was definitely highly strung over the whole exams and doing well and such.

“How can you be so calm?!” Theo demanded of him a short while later, looking very frazzled and stressed where Harry was quiet, composed and decidedly very calm seeming.

“There’s no pressure on me.” Harry said easily. “If I fail then I have a readymade excuse. I can resit my exams, or even repeat a year if needed because of my illness. So I actually feel rather relaxed and prepared.”

“I hate you.” Blaise declared.

Harry laughed. “Well you sure changed your tune!”

“No, I still want to fuck you, but I hate you too.”

“Real classy, Blaise.” Harry snorted. “Just know that it’ll never happen.”

“More’s the pity. I’m a good fuck.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“Oh, please, just let me at you once, you’d be perfect! I need to blow off some steam.”

“Shut up!” Draco snapped, very evil tempered and looking more and more like he was going to aim a curse at Blaise.

Blaise scoffed but went back to his revision. Harry did the same, testing Draco on Charms, Theo sometimes cutting in to embellish an answer or to correct Draco, Harry revealing who was right or not, to much sullenness from both young men.
Things carried on in this same vein for four more days, the exams took over everything that they did, over their very thoughts. Draco’s temper got worse, Blaise started ranting in French if the ambient noise went above a mere whisper, (Harry now able to understand a little more of what he was saying too, because of his French lessons with Blaise and Draco,) Theo withdrew from everyone and Harry was just trying to get through his exams while dealing with the side effects of his potions, which was just as difficult as it had been when he was debating in the Wizengamot, but it was doable. The potions affected his alertness, his focus, kept him in constant pain so that he could barely think, but he was determined to get through what he needed to.
It was the last day of the exams today, he could survive one more day. Just one more day. After the very last exam that afternoon he would be completely free to do as he liked. He planned to spend most of the remaining time now reading outside on the grass, by the clear lake, in the bright, warm sunshine. Very soon it would all be over and he couldn’t wait. He had done well in his exams so far, or at least he judged himself to have done alright, and he only had one more exam left, his Ancient Runes theory. They didn’t have a practical exam in Ancient Runes, it was all theory until next year, when he would have to at least display some aptitude with them. He hoped that another year of tutoring from Marcus and he would be able to complete this adequately and pass his NEWT exam in Ancient Runes, both theory and practical. Though he felt very sorry for Blaise, who was last alphabetically in their whole year, and thus he would be the very last person called up for all of his practical exams. Going last would be hell, waiting for that long with all the nerves and just wanting the exam to be over with, Harry wouldn’t have wanted to do it, but Blaise insisted that he was very used to it now after six years.
But he digressed, the exams finished today and Hogwarts closed for the summer in just three weeks and in just two days he would be going back to St Mungos for another assessment to see if he could reduce how many potions he was taking. It could not come soon enough in his opinion, even if it had come a week too late to help him through his exams, it would just be amazing to come off of them at last.
He’d barely had the time to write to Rabastan in the last week or two, but thankfully his Fiancé understood and didn’t hold it against him. Harry had sent him a letter detailing Slytherin’s narrow win against Hufflepuff and Gryffindor’s storming defeat of Ravenclaw, he did mention the shit who had fouled him, purely because Draco would tell everyone and he didn’t want to look like he was hiding anything. He did make sure to stress that he was just bruised, and not injured at all and there were definitely no broken bones, so at least they knew now that those bone strengthening potions were actually working.
Rabastan had replied just before the exams had started and he was furious on Harry’s behalf, of which Harry could tell because his handwriting, usually so carefully controlled because of the nerve damage that Rabastan had suffered, was sharp, jerky, and all over the place. Some words dipped down suddenly, some were elongated and much bigger, while others were smaller than usual, as if Rabastan had curled his hand and kept the quill focused in one place. Harry could barely read it, but he did his best.
He sent another owl at breakfast, on the morning that the exams started, reaffirming that yes, he truly was completely fine, that Madam Pomfrey had said so, yes he was sure that he hadn’t broken anything and no, he really did not want Rabastan and Rodolphus to kill a fourteen year old boy over an inter-school Quidditch foul.
He changed the subject to his exams, he whined some more about the family portfolios, he complained about Marcus being a git with all the last minute Ancient Runes tutoring he’d sprung on him the day before and he ended his last letter with declarations of love and that he couldn’t wait to see Rabastan again next month.
He hadn’t had a reply yet, whether because it was taking a while for Rabastan to answer, or because he was being considerate of his exams and didn’t want to be a distraction, but Harry truly was very distracted as he struggled through the morning exams with a crushing headache and through the afternoon exams being drowsy and sleepy. He was thankful that they only lasted for a week, he doubted that he could have kept up with the pressure heaped on his shoulders if it had gone on for longer.
His theory exams all went rather well considering his ‘condition’ and naturally, Defence Against the Dark Arts was his forte and he performed everything perfectly during the exam, even a Patronus charm for extra points during his practical exam. He remembered doing as such last year, for a different examiner, for his OWLs. It made him smile to watch his bright white stag prance around the hall before shimmering out of existence.
He was so glad when the exams ended and the moment he was told to put his quill down, that the exam was now over, he all but slumped in his seat with relief. All that revision cramming, all of the stress, the testing and tempers, it was all over with now. There was nothing that any of them could do to change what they’d already done. He felt like he could breathe for the first time in months. Now it was time to just kick back and catch up on the massive amount of reading he had to do…his ‘to read’ pile really was getting rather ridiculous now and something had to be done. He fully planned to start immediately. If he played off on a headache, no one would stop him from going up to his rooms alone and he could read, uninterrupted, for several hours. He had an unending supply of tea, pumpkin juice and biscuits, he’d have to come down for dinner, but he could go straight back up to his rooms once he’d eaten. It sounded like utter bliss to him.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Harry was once again sat in just his black boxer-briefs on an examination table as the senior Healer got to work. Even the Healer had noticed how much he had filled out since his initial examination.
Harry looked at himself critically then, as that was mentioned aloud, trying to notice any differences, but he had changed so slowly over the last several months that he couldn’t see the changes to himself like the Healer, and even Lucius who was sat beside him, could.

“You’ve come on so well, Harry.” The Healer told him.

“Can I come off the potions?” He asked immediately, getting right down to the reason that he was here. “Or at least cut down on them?”

The Healer smiled at him. “Yes, significantly too.”

Harry perked right up. “How significantly?” He asked happily.

“Well, you can say goodbye to your bone strengthening potions and those headaches that they cause.” The Healer said with a smile and Harry actually whooped in joy. The Healer laughed. “You’ll have to keep taking the lower dosages of the calcium potions for another month now, the nutrient potions too, alternating them on differing days, then we’ll assess you again, but you might be kicking all of these potions goodbye by the end of this month, maybe in early July at the latest, ready just in time for the summer holidays.”

“It’s going to be so amazing to stop taking them. I’ve forgotten what it feels like to be normal.” He said. “I’ve been struggling through with those headaches, the night sweats and fevers and the drowsiness that to suddenly be without them is going to be strange, but it’s going to be fantastic too!”

“I’ll bet.” The Healer told him. “You’ve put on a good amount of weight and there’s more flesh to you than when we last met. None of your bones are poking out so sharply anymore, you’ve actually achieved the minimum weight for your height and age group. Keep going, Harry, you’ve done so well, but there is still a lot more room for growth, you can still do better, but you’re on the right track, Harry. Well done.”

Harry couldn’t stop grinning and he looked to Lucius for praise automatically, and that was truly the best thing about all of this, that he felt that he had a true set of parents in Lucius and Narcissa and he could turn to them for readily given praise at times like this, like a real family.

“You’ve done very well.” Lucius told him. “I can’t wait until we get home and we can tell your Mother this wonderful news. But this doesn’t mean that you can start filling up on sweets and treats, you’ll be sticking with your healthy meals first, and then any snacks or desserts can come afterwards.” He added sternly.

Harry nodded his understanding. He hadn’t really noticed that his bones had vanished. He looked at his own chest, noting that he could barely see his ribs now, which had once stuck out prominently. His elbow joints were less stark than they once used to be, his hands looked less skeletal. He just looked so much better and he could hardly keep the grin from his face.
He got dressed in record time, knowing that Rabastan was waiting for him back at home for news on his health. He knew that the hypocalcaemia had worried and shocked all of those around him. It had shocked him! But now it was almost over. He was healthier, fitter, stronger. He could stop taking the bone strengthening potions, so he would no longer have to suffer with the skull crushing headaches, he was on a lowered dose of the calcium and nutrient potions and he could take them both every other day, the calcium potion first and then the next day just the nutrient potion. He was finally seeing the results of his heavy potion regime. He was finally being allowed to cut down on the terribly strong potions. He would be off of them completely in just another month or so. It felt amazing. He felt amazing.
He was escorted back to Malfoy Manor, to tell everyone the good news before he had to go back to Hogwarts, and tell Draco the good news too.
As soon as they landed in the receiving room, Harry ran off, Lucius chastising him from behind for such undignified behaviour, but Harry didn’t listen as he ran into the front parlour and he didn’t even stop then as he carried on running and he leapt onto the settee beside Rabastan and he flumped straight onto his Fiancé’s chest, holding him tight.

“I take it that it’s good news from the wide grin on your face?” Xerxes asked in amusement as Rabastan laughed at Harry’s antics, holding him back just as tightly.

“Amazing news!” Harry said happily. “I made the minimum weight for my height and age group and I can stop taking the bone strengthening potions! No more headaches!”

“That’s wonderful, Harry.” Rabastan told him happily. “Is there any news on the other potions?”

Harry nodded. “I’m on a lower dosage for both and I can take them every other day now, and not every single day.” He said happily. “I’ll be off them all completely in another month.”

Rabastan all but grappled him into a hug and Harry got a big kiss to the lips too, which made his grin widen impossibly further.

“I’m so happy for you.” Rabastan told him.

Harry nodded. “It feels wonderful to know that it was all worth it in the end, several months of daily headaches, drowsiness and nights full of fevers and sweating, but it’s actually coming to an end now, I can see the end to it and it makes it so worthwhile to know that my health is back on track and I’m exactly where I should be…or almost where I should be. And look! My ribs have gone too!” He said, pulling up his shirt and showing off his flat, toned belly as much as the barely visible ribs. He did not miss that Rabastan’s eyes stayed lower than his ribs for a very long while, staring at the toned abdomen on display, before actually looking at his flesh covered ribs.

“I’m so proud of you.” Rabastan told him. “For putting yourself and your health first, for taking all those potions without once missing a dose, despite the rather awful, and severe, side effects that they caused. You just got on with what you needed to do regardless, you still had your lessons, you still attended and took part in your Wizengamot debates and you have gone through all of your exams while on those potions and you did so admirably.”

Harry grinned so happily, so widely, that his face started hurting as he tucked his shirt back down and cuddled back up to Rabastan. “Now we just need to get you and Rodolphus healthy too.”

“We might take some more time yet.” Rodolphus said from beside him and Rabastan. “But seeing how you have overcome your illnesses, going through your course of needed potions, it helps us to realise that they do work, that we can get better if we stick to them. It has given me a kick to keep going, I’ve remembered that it will all be worth it in the end.”

Harry sat up, straddling Rabastan’s lap and he reached over to hug Rodolphus too, much to the older man’s discomfort. Harry was still a soft little fluff head, but Rodolphus sighed and scratched at Harry’s scalp with his fingernails regardless. The boy just didn’t care, especially not about social boundaries, and he would have done as he had whether Rodolphus acknowledge it or not. At least this way it kept Harry happy, and these days if Harry was happy, then Rabastan was happy.

“Harry.” Narcissa said sternly. “Rearrange your lower body, please.”

Harry sighed and he pulled back from Rodolphus and he moved his one leg to be with his other leg on the one side of Rabastan’s body.

“If only we were alone.” Rabastan whispered into his ear. Harry grinned up at him, a naughty gleam in his eyes.

“If only.” He added in a soft, sultry whisper.

Harry settled himself on Rabastan’s chest and then Xerxes inquired about his exams and Harry went off on one again, regaling them all with how every exam had gone in his own opinion, what questions he had struggled with and which ones he had answered with several long paragraphs.

“My theory Potions could have been better and Arithmancy definitely could have been better, I’m hoping to get an ‘A’ in it, but I might have slid down into a ‘P’. If that’s the case then I will definitely resit the exam.”

“I’m sure that you’ve done fine.” Rabastan assured him. “It’s the nature of these sorts of serious exams that make you over analyse everything and expect the worst when you’ve done more than enough and have passed them all.”

“Merlin, I hope so!” Harry said, snuggling in tighter.

“Do you have time for some tea before you go back?” Narcissa asked him.

“Well, I don’t have any exams or any lessons, I’m literally just waiting for the official end of term now, so I don’t see why I can’t stay for dinner too.” He said with a grin, looking hopefully to Lucius.

His Father sighed, but he smiled too. “As you wish, Harry. You can stay for dinner, as long as you are back before curfew.”

“Yes!” Harry cheered. “Everything’s going my way today.” He grinned.

Lucius sighed again at his son’s antics, but he couldn’t be mad with Harry, not today. They had received some very good news earlier, and Harry was entitled to celebrate it a little. He was correct too, he had finished all of his exams and his school year was technically over, even if they officially let the students leave in the third week of June. He could allow Harry to remain here for another couple of hours, at least. As a reward of sorts for keeping to his potions and finally reaching his goals of getting healthy again. It was a very large relief after the shock and the fear of finding out that Harry had been so very ill that there was a possibility of his untimely death. A great weight had been removed from his mind now that Harry was truly on the mend and almost off of the potions course that he’d been forced to take to improve his ailing health. His youngest son was now no longer in danger of dying as a result of the poor treatment he had received from those Muggle beasts. He would one day find out where they lived, for he was a very patient man, but he never forgot such transgressions and he now held a grudge for them. He would one day find them and exact revenge upon them for the appalling treatment they had administered to his youngest son. One day.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Harry had been enjoying his endless free time and he had read a dozen books in just a few weeks, even as Draco, Blaise and Theo dragged him outside for a bit of fresh air. They were treating him a little rougher than before, now safe in the knowledge that Harry was almost completely healed and that a mere push or fall wouldn’t break any of his bones like a dry twig. Harry hadn’t realised exactly how careful and gentle they had been with him until they started treating him like he was normal, as if he was just like them.
Today was one such day. Harry, who had almost finished the current book that he was reading, had brought a second book outside with him as well, so that he could pick it up as soon as he finished the final ten pages of the first book, even as he occasionally watched Blaise and Theo enchant objects to throw at one another. They were practising defence and offense at the same time, as Harry looked up from turning the page to see Blaise shield himself from having his head taken off by a rock.
Draco was sat near him, Astoria very nearly in his lap as she rested back against him, chattering on about the few weeks of summer work that she had been accepted for at Twilfitt and Tattings. She was going to watch the seamstresses and learn from them. She was going to take another step closer to her dream job of designing and making robes. Her excitement to start was almost palpable.
It was Wednesday the eighteenth of June and Harry just could not wait to get back home now. Friday they would be catching the train back to London, just two days from now, on the twentieth. Rabastan was already at Malfoy Manor waiting for him. Harry had tried to use his illness to get sent home early, the day after Draco’s seventeenth birthday, which had been a few weeks before, on the fifth of June, but Dumbledore had refused and had told him that he wanted to speak to him once more before he left. Seeing as it was now the first of the last two full days of term, Harry was beginning to think that he’d been fobbed off with an excuse to keep him here and away from his family for a few extra weeks to limit the exposure he had to them. If he found out that that was the case then he was going to go ballistic.
It was just after dinner, however, when a seventh year Hufflepuff student approached him with a letter from Dumbledore. It instructed him to go to the Headmaster’s Office, and that he truly enjoyed Cockroach Clusters.
Harry sighed and resolved to get this little meeting over and done with. He wanted to go to bed. Well, no, he wanted to read another several books and then go to bed, after taking that damnable nutrient potion that would give him those awful night sweats, but still, he would rather be doing anything other than this.
He trudged his way up to the seventh floor and to the Headmaster’s office, giving the password to the stone gargoyle before heading up to the office. He barely knocked before letting himself in and he didn’t wait to be told to enter. He was annoyed enough as it was.

“Ah, Harry. Come sit, I have something important to tell you.”

Harry did as suggested and he sat himself down, wondering what this meeting was even about.

“I promised you on our last talk that you could come with me when I next found a Horcrux, if you still wish to that is.”

Harry blinked. “You’ve found another one? Where?!” Harry asked, trying to keep the eagerness from his voice. He would have double the bargaining chips if he had the sword and a Horcrux in his possession.

“I believe it to be hidden in a cave on the coast. A cave that I have been trying to locate for a very long time. You remember, of course, the time that Tom Riddle terrorised two children from his orphanage on their annual trip?”

“Yes.” Harry answered, easily recalling the memory shown to him.

“Harry, I promised that you could come with me…”

Harry wondered then, immediately, if the missing sword was going to cost him missing out on this trip. He controlled himself firmly and he refused to look at the empty plinth above Dumbledore’s head where the sword should have been.

“…and I stand by my word, but it would be very wrong of me not to warn you that this will be exceedingly dangerous.”

Harry almost breathed a sigh of relief, but he refused to show anything of the sort through his expressions or body language.

“I want to go.” He said after a short pause. “I have earned the right to be a part of this fight and I deserve the right to go after these Horcruxes and finish him for good.”

“Very well, then.” Dumbledore looked at him closely, almost studying him.

Harry almost glared back, his back straight, maintaining eye contact but steadfastly thinking of exams, his family, how cute Draco and Astoria were together, Draco’s seventeenth birthday, of which they’d had a small party for him in Harry’s personal rooms, a party that had gotten very much out of hand in a very short amount of time, and his last meeting with Remus, walking around the sunshine yellow hallways of Grimmauld Place.

“I will take you on one condition.” Dumbledore said.

“I didn’t realise that my right to destroy the man who killed my parents, and would have killed me too, would come with conditions.” Harry said fiercely.

“Listen to me, Harry.” Dumbledore told him firmly. “You are to obey any command that I might give you at once, without question. If I tell you to run, you run. If I tell you to hide, you are to hide and if I tell you to leave me and save yourself, you will do as told. Am I clear?”

Harry considered what was being asked of him. He chewed the condition over in his mind, thinking that perhaps this was part of some sort of test to his loyalty, or perhaps his willingness to listen to any order given to him by Dumbledore. In the end he decided that it was worth it with a Horcrux at the end of the road and he decided to take the chance that he was being given. The risk was worth it. “You have my word.” He said calmly and clearly, meaning what he said.

“Very good. I want you to fetch your Invisibility Cloak and then meet me in the Entrance Hall, Harry. Quickly now.”

Harry stood and he left the office, leaving Dumbledore to stare out of the window at the sunset. Harry went back to his rooms and he collected several things that he wanted to take with him, including a small pendant in the shape of the Malfoy crest that Lucius had given him almost a year ago. He rarely wore it, but he’d been told that it was a very specific, very powerful Portkey that would take him back to Malfoy Manor if it was activated. It would be very useful to him if he got into any danger.
He took the cloak from where he kept it and he took the time to write a small letter, just in case anything happened to him or any spells were placed on him. He left it where he knew Draco would find it.
He left his rooms at an unhurried pace, making it seem like he was just merely strolling around the castle instead of his plans to leave it on a very dangerous adventure. If Lucius, Narcissa or Rabastan found out, he’d be dead. Hopefully the fact that it was about Voldemort, and technically saving him from destruction, would put him in good stead if anyone ever found out about this. After all, he was, technically, aligned with Voldemort himself now. He would not be a follower of his, NEVER, but he knew about Lucius, the Lestranges, Greyback, he knew that all of them were Death Eaters and he was doing nothing about it. He would not stop his Fiancé from doing what he wanted, though he would not allow their children to be involved in anything of the sort. Rabastan would have to do that over his cold, dead body first.
Harry met up with Dumbledore at near enough eight O’clock at night, right where he’d said he’d be, beside the oaken front doors to Hogwarts.

“Wear your cloak now, Harry.” Dumbledore told him. “So that no one sees you leaving the castle.”

Harry nodded and he took the cloak from his pocket and wrapped it around himself. Dumbledore nodded and then set off, Harry trotting along beside him. His mind was already full of things they might encounter, the dangers they might meet and he had a moment of doubt…was this even real or was he just being lured out of Hogwarts to be kept a prisoner until he agreed to fight in the war? He consoled himself, he had the pendant, it would take him home and his family would look after him. If anything ever happened to him, Lucius would immediately take charge and get him back, even if Harry said he didn’t want to go back, because he would know then that he was being controlled with potions, or a curse, because Harry would never, willingly, give up on a family now that he had one and Lucius knew it.

“Are we Apparating?” He asked then.

“Yes.” Dumbledore said. “You can Apparate now, I believe?”

“No.” Harry said immediately. “The potions I’m taking interrupt focus and concentration, it was too dangerous for me to learn this year. I’m going to be learning and taking the test for my licence this summer.”

“Oh, well, no matter, I can assist you.” Dumbledore told him.

Alarm bells rang and Harry frowned. He once again reminded himself that he’d left a letter for Draco and he had the Malfoy pendant. All he had to do was touch it and think of home and he would be there in the blink of an eye.
Harry startled as he heard a ruckus up ahead and he squinted in the darkness to see what was happening.

“…and stay out!” Madam Rosmerta shouted loudly at a grubby-looking wizard whom she was forcibly throwing out of the Three Broomsticks. She looked up and noticed Dumbledore as the wizard grumbled and stumbled off into the darkness…Harry didn’t like that either and he kept an eye on him while keeping half an ear on Dumbledore. “Oh, hello, Albus…you’re out late.”

“Good evening, Rosmerta, good evening.” Dumbledore said politely. “Forgive me, but I’m off to the Hog’s Head…no offence, but I feel like a quieter atmosphere tonight.” He smiled then and looked off in the direction that the troublesome wizard had headed.

Dumbledore said his goodbyes and then carried on, Harry trotting after him once more as they turned a corner into a side street. Harry saw the sign for the Hog’s Head pub and grimaced as he remembered the disastrous meeting to set up the DA…they should have just held it on the bloody Quidditch pitch, they would have been less likely to be found out that way.

“We should be fine here.” Dumbledore said, breaking him from his thoughts. “Place your hand on my arm, Harry.”

Harry took a breath and did just that, calling on his Gryffindor bravery, and the overwhelming sense of curiosity that he had. Dumbledore turned and pulled Harry with him, there was the horrible sensation of being squeezed through a thick, tight rubber tube, the sensation of being compressed, of his eyeballs being pushed back into his skull, of not being able to breathe. Then as quickly as it came, just when he thought he would suffocate from the sensation, the tube ended and he came out the other side and he could gasp in lungfuls of air…Apparation was definitely not his favourite way to travel, he’d even take the floo over Apparation and he hated travelling by floo as well.
When he came back to himself, he could smell salt, and hear rushing waves. A light, refreshing breeze played with his hair and he looked around him, out at a moonlit sea and bright, starry sky. It was beautiful here. He pulled his cloak from his body and stuffed it into his pocket and then he turned to observe every inch of the place where they’d landed.
They were standing on an outcrop of rock, the water ferocious and dangerous looking as it churned and crashed below him. Behind him was a towering cliff, a sheer drop, black in the night, smooth like a mirror, and very foreboding.

“What do you think?” Dumbledore asked him.

“That I would not bring children here.” Harry said simply. “It’s not exactly the most pleasant of places to bring them for a daytrip.”

“They weren’t brought here precisely, there is a small village halfway along the cliffs behind us. I believe the orphans were taken there for some sea air and a view of the waves. No, I think it was only Tom Riddle and his young victims who visited this spot. No Muggle could reach this rock and no boats can approach the cliffs. I imagine that Tom climbed down using magic, and he brought two small children with him, likely for the pleasure of terrorising them.”

Harry was done with talking. “Why are we here? Where do we need to go?”

Dumbledore beckoned him over to the very edge of the rock, Harry was amazed to find little niches in the rock, like handholds. Harry resigned himself to climbing down it, to a lower rock that was in the ocean.
It was a treacherous climb, very slow going and Harry couldn’t even imagine a young Riddle and two smaller children doing this. It was a miracle that none of them had fallen into the dangerous waters and drowned.

“Lumos.” Dumbledore said quietly, his wand tip exploding into blinding light and Harry could suddenly see much clearer. He didn’t appreciate the view of the dark water below, nor the sheer cliff in front.

“Do you see?” Dumbledore asked him, holding his wand higher and pointing it forward. There was a small fissure in the rock face of the cliff that Harry assumed they needed to get to. “You do not object to getting a little wet?”

“No.” Harry replied automatically, still staring at the fissure, wondering what lay beyond it, deeper into the cliff. His heart was hammering and a strange sensation of excitement, curiosity and apprehension was building up in him.

Dumbledore slid from the rock with no more preamble and Harry watched him, as he swam towards the fissure in the base of the cliff, his lit wand held between his teeth.
Harry marvelled that the man had asked if he minded getting a little wet, but hadn’t actually asked him if he could swim. He couldn’t and as he followed Dumbledore before he lost him, he realised that he was in danger the moment his waterlogged clothes started weighing him down in the icy water. He followed the shimmering light as best he could as it shrunk and headed deeper into the cliff, thinking that it had been much, much easier to do this when he’d had webbed hands and feet.
He sort of doggy paddled, struggling in the dark, dangerous waters, his fingers numb, his body cold and now aching…this had been a mistake with his illness, he was likely going to get the flu again from this, or hypothermia. His family were going to kill him…if this little adventure didn’t do so first that was.
He made it through the fissure and he had to swim…sort of swim, down the cramped tunnel that was slimy and pitch dark. A small way into the tunnel and it curved off left and Harry followed it, seeing through his sodden hair that the tunnel extended far into the cliff. It was stunning, in a dangerous, natural sort of way.
He doggy paddled after Dumbledore, following the light from the wand tip, his legs striking out against the walls of the tunnel every now and then, as they were barely three feet wide and then finally, he saw Dumbledore rising out of the water and he was relieved when he found the stone steps, clambering numbly up them, water streaming from his sodden clothes and hair. He was shivering uncontrollably, almost spasming in the freezing air. He was almost certainly going to get sick from this, he could only hope that it didn’t interfere with his healing.

“Yes, this is the place.” Dumbledore said suddenly, while Harry was trying to wring out his clothes so that they weren’t so heavy, there was nothing that he could do about the spine-deep chill that was making his very bones ache.

“How can you tell?” Harry asked, looking up at the little cave they were in, at the rock walls and ceiling.

“It has known magic.” Dumbledore said simply. “This is merely an ante-chamber.” He carried on, turning slowly, looking at all the walls, concentrating on things that Harry couldn’t see or feel. “It is Voldemort’s obstacles that now stand in our way, rather than those that are made by nature.”

Harry watched, in slight bemusement, as Dumbledore caressed the walls, wandering around and speaking in languages he had not heard before. It was all very odd as he touched as much of the rock as possible, stopping occasionally, running his fingers back and forth over one patch of rock, until finally he stopped, his hand flat against a particular patch of stone wall.

“Here.” He said “We go on through here. The entrance is concealed.”

Harry didn’t ask how he knew it was this patch of rock over any other. Of course the man knew, given his level of understanding magic. Dumbledore drew his wand and for a moment, the outline of an archway appeared there, illuminated by a bright white light. Then the outline was gone and Harry frowned at it.

“What does it need?” He asked through his chattering teeth.

“Oh, Harry, I’m so sorry, I forgot.” Harry immediately found himself on the end of Dumbledore’s wand and all of his frozen muscles tensed, but at once all of Harry’s clothes were dry and warm and he sunk into them, like he would a hot bath. It felt amazing.

“Thank you.” He said gratefully. Maybe with this he might not actually get sick at all. He should have demanded that Dumbledore dry him off as soon as he got out of the water, but he’d been too awed and shocked to find himself here, in this place.

Dumbledore went back to studying just that one patch of rock and Harry tried not to sigh or break his concentration. He was warm and dry now, at least he wasn’t quite so miserable as before.

“Oh, surely not.” Dumbledore spoke up suddenly, making Harry jump in his skin. “So crude.”

“What is it?”

“We are required to make payment before we pass.” Dumbledore told him, taking out a short, silver knife from his robes.

Harry clicked as he put those puzzle pieces together and he grimaced in distaste. “A payment of blood?” He asked.

“Yes, blood. I did say that it was very crude.” He said, sounding disdainful and disappointed. “The idea, as I’m sure you’ve gathered, is that your enemy must weaken themselves in order to enter. Once again Lord Voldemort fails to grasp that there are much more terrible things than physical injury.”

Harry watched as Dumbledore raised his hand, and the knife. He thought about offering to do it himself, but he didn’t really want to. He didn’t want to be injured and it would make him feel better, even slightly, to watch Dumbledore bleed. It wouldn’t make up for all the old man had done to him, but it would help.
There was a spurt of scarlet as the blood splattered the rock wall, dark drops glittering in the low light from the wand tip, which Dumbledore then ran over his own arm, healing the wound instantly.
The silver outline of the archway had appeared in the wall once more, and this time it did not fade away. The blood splattered wall that had hidden the archway had just disappeared, leaving an opening into total darkness.

“After me, I think.” Dumbledore told him as he headed into the darkness. Harry could not have agreed more as he followed on the man’s heels.

He pulled out his own wand and whispered a soft ‘lumos’. He wanted to be able to see on his own, without relying on Dumbledore.
The inside of the cave was eerie…they were standing on the edge of a great, black lake, it was so vast that Harry couldn’t see the other side and the cavern was so high that the ceiling too, was out of sight.
A misty green light shone far away in what looked to be the middle of the lake. Harry guessed that that was their destination, that that was where the Horcrux was being kept.

“Let us walk, stay close to me and be careful not to slip into the water.”

Harry almost scoffed at that. He was no errant toddler who was unsteady on his feet and would slip or misstep so easily, but he held his tongue and said nothing.
They walked around the edge of the lake, Harry following Dumbledore, watching where he stepped and looking out for anything suspicious. It was the silence that was getting to him though, and the still, close air was making it hard for him to breathe, it was all very, very unnerving.

“Oh.” Dumbledore said suddenly, almost startling Harry into leaping backwards. Harry sneered at his back, so much for not misstepping into the water, he was going to fucking jump into it if Dumbledore kept doing that.

Dumbledore had detected something in the air and he started running his hands over thin air. A moment later he seemed to grab something. Keeping his hand clenched in mid-air, he raised his wand in the other and tapped his fist with the tip.
Immediately a thick, coppery green chain appeared in his fist. Another tap of the wand and the chain started to slide through Dumbledore’s hand, coiling like a snake with a clinking sound that echoed horribly, loudly, off of the rocky walls. It put Harry’s back up as he looked around cautiously.
Harry sucked in a breath of surprise as a tiny, ghostly boat broke the smooth surface of the lake, glowing as green as the chain.

“Magic always leaves traces behind.” Dumbledore said conversationally as the boat hit the rock with a small bump.

Harry let Dumbledore get into the boat first, and he followed carefully, refusing to go into the flimsy looking thing first, despite Dumbledore’s firm insistence.
Harry couldn’t sit in the boat properly, instead he crouched sideways with his knees jutting over the edge of it, even as he tried to curl up as much as he could so that no part of him was outside of the tiny vessel, which began to move forward via magic, as neither of them were rowing.
There was absolutely no sound as the ghostly green boat moved forward and that was eerie too. He looked down, seeing no ripples in the smooth, glass like water as the boat moved through it, he could no longer see the cavern walls and Harry reminded himself firmly that he had the pendant around his neck and he could use it at any point to get himself out safely, that he could be back home in as little as a moment if he needed to.
Then he saw it. A ghostly pale hand floating just below the surface of the water. He sucked in a shocked gasp.

“Professor, there’s a human hand in the water.” He said, bile rising in his throat as the hand floated away like some macabre version of a fish. He shivered as a roll ran down his spine, he could feel his heart hammering in his chest and hear his rather quick, ragged breathing in the deathly silent cavern.

“Yes.” Dumbledore replied, as if he’d known that there would be. Harry wanted to demand why he hadn’t been told about it, to prepare him for it, but then his mind wandered back to this being some elaborate test of Dumbledore’s, to see how he reacted to such things with an immediate, natural response. If he ever found out that that was the case…

Harry’s thoughts cut off, he stopped breathing, his heart lodged in his throat as his wand illuminated another patch of water and he saw a dead man lying face up, staring at him through dead, misty eyes, his hair and robes swirling around him as he floated just below the surface of the lake.

“What are they?” He asked, his voice much higher than usual, even to his own ears.

“We don’t need to worry about them for the moment.” Dumbledore said calmly.

“That wasn’t what I asked.” Harry said, decidedly not calm.

“There is nothing to be feared from a body, Harry, any more than there is anything to be feared from the darkness. Lord Voldemort, who secretly fears both, disagrees. But once again he reveals his own lack of wisdom. It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more.”

Harry said nothing, but he found the very thought of dead bodies, and body parts, floating around in the water below him very unnerving and disturbing. He didn’t like it at all.

“It is alright, Harry.” Dumbledore told him, mistaking his unwillingness to argue as fear. “Such creatures that dwell in the dark and cold fear the light and warmth, which we will call forth if the need arises.”

“Fire.” Harry sighed, a little more settled now that he knew how to deal with the dead bodies. He did hope that they stayed where they were, in the water, but he was not so naïve as to think that they would, especially not when they took the Horcrux, as they were obviously here to protect it.

The boat bumped gently into something, Harry could only see Dumbledore’s back, so he didn’t know what it was, though he did hope it wasn’t a body, but it was much more likely that they had reached the middle of the lake, that they had reached the place where the Horcrux was hidden.
Dumbledore climbed out of the boat, and then turned to help Harry.

“Be sure not to touch the water.” He warned again.

Harry climbed carefully out of the boat onto the little island of dark rock. He looked around, but he couldn’t see any of the walls, there was only the island with a basin, which was on a pedestal, on top of the small chunk of rock they were stood on.
Dumbledore approached the basin and Harry followed. He looked into the basin to find it filled with an emerald green potion, the source of the misty green light that was illuminating the cave with an eerie green glow that could be seen from the entrance to the cave…which couldn’t be seen now.
Dumbledore pushed back the sleeve of his robe and he reached out his hand to touch the potion.

“Don’t touch it! You don’t know what it is or what it does.” Harry said angrily.

“I cannot touch.” Dumbledore said, looking at him. “See? I cannot approach any nearer than this. You try.”

Curious, but also very cautious, Harry did so slowly and carefully and he encountered an invisible barrier that stopped his fingers from getting any closer to the basin. No matter how hard he pushed his hand against the barrier, his fingers encountered only solid and inflexible air.

“Out of the way, Harry.” Dumbledore told him.

Harry bristled at the rudeness of the dismissal, but he stood back and just watched instead, letting Dumbledore take all the risks and reminding himself that he had his pendant if he needed it.

“This potion cannot be reached by hand, it can’t be vanished, parted, scooped up or siphoned away, nor can it be transfigured, charmed or otherwise made to change its nature.”

“Then there must be something that you’re missing.” Harry pointed out simply.

“Oh, no, I believe I know the answer.” He said, twirling his wand and then catching the crystal goblet that appeared out of thin air. “It must be drunk.”

“Ah.” Harry replied, understanding all at once. “Are we back to weakening our enemies before they get the Horcrux that’s hidden here?”

“We are, Harry, yes.”

“What do I do if it kills you?” Harry inquired seriously.

“Oh, I doubt that it’ll kill me. Lord Voldemort would not want to kill the person who reached this island.”

Harry severely doubted that, but then he didn’t really know Voldemort like Dumbledore did, so he didn’t argue.

“Voldemort would not want anyone who reached through his defences this far to be immediately killed. He’d want to know how they got here, and why they were here first, Harry and then I would imagine that he would kill them himself. Do not forget that Voldemort believes that he alone knows of his Horcruxes and he would want to know how someone else had come to know of them.”

Harry nodded then, conceding the point. That did sound like Voldemort, but moreover, it sounded logical.

“It is going to be your job here tonight, Harry, to ensure that I drink this potion, regardless of what it might do. It might paralyse me, make me forget why I’m here, create so much pain that I am distracted or render me incapable in some other way, but you must ensure that I keep drinking it.”

If Harry hadn’t known any better, he would have believed that this was why he had been brought on this hunt, because it took two people, but Dumbledore had not had any clue what he would encounter tonight, so it was impossible for him to have known that it would have needed two people to take this Horcrux. Unless this was an elaborate test of his loyalty or something that had been set up by Dumbledore in the first place, or else Dumbledore had come here beforehand to scope it out, realised that it took two people, and then come back to include him. Harry didn’t know what to think about any of this anymore.
He nodded his head in agreement to hide his cautiousness and he watched, in almost morbid curiosity, as Dumbledore lowered the goblet into the potion and it sunk as if the barrier had never existed. When the goblet was full, Dumbledore raised it to his mouth.

“Your good health, Harry.”

Harry’s face contorted at that, taking the words as a jibe to his poor health and the potions he had to take and for a moment, he hoped that the green potion would cause unbearable pain. Shocked by the turn of his own thoughts, Harry pushed them away sharply. He’d been spending too much time with Rodolphus it seemed.
Dumbledore had drained the goblet and, almost apprehensively, Harry watched and waited for something to happen. Nothing did except Dumbledore had closed his blue eyes and plunged the goblet back into the potion, refilling it, and then drank it once more.
This carried on in silence, with no visible or discernible effects, for three more gobletfuls of the potion. Halfway through the fourth, Dumbledore staggered and fell forward. His eyes were still closed and he was breathing heavily. His face was twitching, his grip on the goblet was slackening.
Harry reached for the unsteady goblet before it could fall, holding it steady.
Dumbledore panted and then he spoke in a terrified voice that Harry had never heard from him before.

“I don’t want…don’t make me…don’t like…want to stop.”

“You can’t.” Harry said sternly. “You’ve got to keep drinking.”

Harry forced the goblet back to Dumbledore’s mouth and he tipped the potion into his mouth, which was open on another plea not to continue. Harry felt sick and repulsed, but he steeled himself.
Over and over he forced himself to refill the goblet and he kept tipping it down Dumbledore’s throat, forcing him to drink the green, glowing potion, not knowing what it was doing or what the final result of it would be.

“Don’t hurt them, don’t hurt them.” Dumbledore moaned. “Please, please, it’s my fault, hurt me instead…”

Harry was putting his money on the potion being some sort of psychotic concoction that forced the drinker to see things that weren’t there, perhaps even feeling the pain of whatever they were seeing too.
He refilled the goblet and forced the green potion down Dumbledore’s throat, again and again he did this, doing so quickly, to maybe empty the potion before the effects got too bad or too much for Dumbledore to handle, or maybe just to get out of this creepy, eerie cave quicker, because he really didn’t want to stay here for much longer, he wanted to leave, but they needed the Horcrux first, and the only way to get it was to tip whatever this potion was down Dumbledore’s throat at all costs.

“Please, please, please.” Dumbledore moaned, as if in actual pain. “Not that, not that, I’ll do anything…” He promised.

Dumbledore started yelling then, as if he were in acute pain. Harry scooped up the tenth gobletful of glowing, green potion and he felt it as the goblet scraped the bottom of the basin. He looked and he saw how much the potion had gone down. He could see a dark, blurry outline of an object in the bottom, clearly the hidden Horcrux. They were almost there.

“I want to die!” Dumbledore screamed in anguish. “Make it stop, make it stop, I want to die!”

Harry forced the potion down the man’s throat, then another gobletful, and no sooner had it been drunk than Dumbledore was yelling for Harry to kill him at the top of his lungs. Harry felt wretched and he rather thought that this was going to traumatise him…he should not be exposed to this sort of horror. He was only sixteen after all.
Dumbledore suddenly fell backwards and Harry’s heart about stopped, it had been beating so fast that Harry thought he was having a heart attack.

He dropped to his knees and prodded Dumbledore with his wand. “Rennervate.” He murmured. Nothing happened. “Rennervate.” He said louder, stronger, his voice echoing repeatedly in the cavern. He didn’t like that, he didn’t want to cause any noise in this place, he didn’t want to disturb the bodies in the lake.

Dumbledore’s eyelids flickered under the askew half-moon glasses. Harry’s heart leapt.

“Water.” Dumbledore croaked.

Harry blinked at the request, but he nodded, understanding that drinking that much potion would leave a terrible taste in the mouth.
He stood and went to get the goblet from where he’d left it in the basin. He saw the golden locket lying underneath it, the potion low enough now for it to be grabbed and he took it, slipping it into his pocket. This is what he’d come for, this was an actual Horcrux hunt, not some sort of elaborate test, though perhaps it was still that after all, he’d need to tread carefully from here on out.

He pointed his wand at the goblet in his other hand. “Aguamenti.” He said clearly, watching as the goblet filled with fresh water. He hunched down beside Dumbledore and held it out to him, helping him to drink…only the goblet was empty.

Harry closed his eyes as he realised what was happening. Voldemort had planned this meticulously, his last attempt to protect his precious Horcrux. He hauled Dumbledore to the boat, the man still moaning for water. There was only one way for someone to get water in this cave, he realised, as he looked to the mirror black surface of the lake…he was not feeding anyone water that was swimming with dead bodies. He was not even going to touch that water. He moved to get into the boat himself, but the water started churning, everywhere marble white heads and hands were reaching out of the lake and too late, Harry realised that Dumbledore himself had dipped a hand into the lake to bring the water to his parched mouth.
He was frozen to the spot, almost sick with fear as a sightless, milky pale man emerged onto the rock in front of him, reaching for him. Harry’s heart almost burst with fear.
Men, women and even children crawled out of the lake, looking with sightless, cloudy eyes, grabbing at him, trying to drag him into the lake to drown him, to make him like them. Their hands were ice cold, and strong in a way he’d never known before, pulling, dragging and he all but froze in terror before his mind kicked back in as he was pulled uselessly over the rock, as something else grabbed his leg and pulled, knocking him from his feet as he was dragged down onto his back as he was easily pulled into the water of the lake to be drowned.

“Incendio!” Harry yelled, throwing as much power into the spell as he could, keeping the fire around him as he scrambled back from the water, panic almost making him completely stupid as he just wanted to get away from the horrors around him, before he calmed himself slightly and kicked the boat off of the rock and clambered in, trying to keep the bodies away with his barrier of fire.

“The Horcrux, Harry.” Dumbledore moaned, his face as pale as the bodies, his forehead dripping with sweat.

“Don’t speak.” Harry said sternly, though his voice wavered like a child’s. “Save your strength or you’re going to die, who knows what that potion was, what it did, or what it is still doing.”

Harry watched, his throat burning with the urge to vomit the fear induced bile that was building up, as the bodies shrank away from the fire, away from the light and warmth, but they were still all around the boat, surrounding them just outside the impassable fire. Harry wondered if he’d have to keep this spell up until they were free of the cave entirely…he would not be able to swim if he had to keep his wand in his hand.
They reached the bank with a gentle bump and Harry clambered over Dumbledore, his wand held aloft, and he got his feet back on the rock. He hauled Dumbledore out after him.

“The Horcrux, Harry, or it was all for nothing.” Dumbledore tried again, but his voice was so faint that Harry was worried that he’d drop dead on him at any moment. Harry didn’t bother answering him.

The little boat sank once more, as soon as Dumbledore was out of it, and as it did the bodies too sunk back under the water, which was calm and peaceful once more, mirror smooth and with not a ripple to show for what had just happened, ready for the next unfortunate fucker to come this way and try their luck.
Harry took Dumbledore’s arm, keeping himself and the man well away from the edge of the lake and he kept his ring of fire around them both, just in case, because those bodies had really creeped him out and he was scared, almost terrified out of his mind and he kept having visions of a hand reaching out of the lake to grab at his ankle to yank him into the water, as had happened back on the rock with the basin, and his leg throbbed with the reminder of it and he knew that he would have a bruise there…he’d be having nightmares later, of those icy cold, dead arms wrapping around him and dragging him to his death in this horrific lake that no one would ever find.

“I am weak.” Dumbledore muttered, almost to himself.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get us back.” He said, before murmuring to himself. “Somehow.”

“The protection was…after all…well designed.” Dumbledore carried on faintly. “One alone could not have done it…you did well, Harry, very well.”

“Don’t talk.” Harry said more firmly, worried about how slurred Dumbledore’s speech was, how much his feet dragged, how heavy he was becoming.

“The archway will have sealed itself again…my knife.”

“There’s no need. I injured my arm when I fell on the rock.” Harry said, giving up telling the man to stop talking, he clearly wasn’t listening to him.

“Here.” Dumbledore said, pointing to a particular spot. Harry wiped his blooded arm on the wall and the archway opened once more after the payment of blood, letting them out free and back into the water filled crevice.

It was a million times more difficult to doggy paddle with the dead weight of Dumbledore too, and Harry swallowed a lot of sea water, choking on it, burping slightly as he heaved into his throat, to remove the water from his lungs and stomach. He wanted to stop and take a break, he was so tired, but he knew that he would sink the moment he stopped, so he forced himself to carry on…this was definitely going to adversely affect his healing body. He wasn’t well enough to be doing this. His family were going to kill him.
Once they were safe on a rock, the nearest one that Harry had seen, he took a moment to rest and recover, shivering and soaked to the bone, he was utterly miserable as he tried to figure out how to get the deathly ill Dumbledore back to Hogwarts when he couldn’t Apparate and certainly couldn’t use his Malfoy pendant Portkey. It came to him suddenly and he sighed.

“Dobby!” He called out.

The exuberant house elf landed on the small rock, happy for all of two moments, then he looked around and saw where they were, his face falling and his ears drooping, all before he could even greet them.

“There’s no time, Dobby.” Harry said, panting with panic and exhaustion. “We need to get back to Hogwarts, now. Take Dumbledore, I can get myself back safe, but not him. Get him to the Medical Wing.”

“No!” Dumbledore moaned weakly. “Severus. I need Severus.”

Harry looked at the pale, weakened old man and thought that a medi-witch was going to be much more use to him than Snape, but he didn’t have time to argue. He didn’t really care at this moment in time.

“Take him to Snape.” Harry told Dobby. “Quickly.”

The house elf nodded and Harry watched them go, then he grabbed his pendant in a tight fist and he thought of home, of Lucius and Narcissa, of Rabastan, and a moment later he slammed into the ground of the receiving room, soaking wet, icy cold, deathly pale and struggling to breathe through fear, horror, cold and a delayed reaction of panic.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Lucius was alerted to something wrong at half past nine that night when the charms he had put on two matching pendants, worn by both of his sons, started tugging on his consciousness. He flicked out his wand, cutting off Xerxes in mid-sentence and alerting Narcissa to something being wrong.
A simple spell alerted him that it was Harry’s charms that were going haywire. Harry who only wore his pendant occasionally, despite Lucius trying to insist that he wore it permanently. He hadn’t told Harry that it contained a monitoring charm, only that it was a powerful Portkey, so Harry only wore it when he believed that he would need an escape route. It was very telling in itself that he was wearing it currently, and he obviously needed it too, as the charms on it were going berserk. His son was not only in danger, but he was scared too. He stood immediately, his robes snapping behind him.

“What is it, Lucius?” Narcissa demanded.

“Harry’s charms are going off.” He said tightly, moving to the receiving room down the hall, to the floo connected fireplace.

“Harry rarely wears his pendant.” Narcissa said, understanding immediately as her face hardened as she heard that her son was in danger and she followed her husband silently.

“I know, let us see what the problem is.” Lucius said as he went through the floo to Hogwarts. The Headmaster’s office was empty, which was unusual for this time of night.

Lucius didn’t bother calling out or waiting, he set straight on the path to Harry’s private rooms and once he reached the portrait door, he opened it with his wand, not bothering to knock. He would waste no pleasantries when Harry’s charms were informing him that he was scared and in danger.

“Harry?!” He called out loudly, worriedly.

“Harry, dear?” Narcissa called out as she headed to his bedroom and bathroom, both of which were dark and empty of her younger son. “He’s not here, Lucius!”

“This might explain things.” Lucius said tightly, an unfurled letter in his hands.

“What does it say?”

“It is for Draco. Harry has gone off with Dumbledore for the night. He asks that if he comes back acting differently, then he is to be checked for potions or spells, but otherwise gives no indication of where he has gone, what he might be doing, or when he might be back.”

“Has the charm stopped alerting?”

“No.” Lucius sighed. “It is getting stronger. Wherever he is, he is in danger and he’s scared. His charm has never gone off like this before.”

“We must find him.” Narcissa said fiercely.

“We do not know where to start looking, dear. At least he has his pendant on him, he can get home if he needs to.”

“Then we need to be there for him.” Narcissa insisted, striding back off to the Headmaster’s office. If she found out that he had needlessly harmed her young son or put him in danger, she would curse him, repeatedly, and she wouldn’t stop.

She flooed back to her home and was nearly accosted by Rabastan as soon as she landed. Xerxes must have called him immediately after she and Lucius had left.

“Where is Harry? Is he okay? Is he safe?”

“We didn’t find him. He left a letter. He’s left the castle with Dumbledore to do only Merlin knows what!” She fretted. “I will have his hide when I next see him! How dare he worry us in such a way?”

“He…he’s gone?” Rabastan asked faintly. “With Dumbledore?!”

“Yes, we have no idea where he might be, he never said.” Narcissa said, sitting in the nearest seat, all but collapsing into it as Lucius came through the floo.

“Where would he have gone with that man?” Xerxes asked.

“I couldn’t say.” Lucius sighed.

“We need to do something.” Rabastan said, very distressed at the idea of his young Fiancé being scared and in danger.

“There is nothing that we can do.”

“Isn’t there a tracker in the pendant that you gave to the boys? I had a similar one for Rodolphus and Rabastan when they were boys and I had a tracker in those.” Xerxes said.

“There is, but it isn’t picking up Harry’s location, which usually indicates that he’s at Hogwarts, only he isn’t. Wherever he is, it is highly influxed with magic that is blocking the tracker from working, likely by design. ”

“So Dumbledore has taken him to place where a tracker won’t find him?” Rodolphus asked. “Is this on purpose, do you believe? Or a coincidence?”

“We cannot say for certain, but nothing with that man is a coincidence.” Narcissa said furiously. “Harry’s letter said only to check him for potions or spells if he came back acting differently. I take that to mean that Harry himself is worried about what this little jaunt of Dumbledore’s is for.”

“Dumbledore wouldn’t risk brainwashing him personally.” Rodolphus said. “If it ever came to light that he was brainwashing students, he wouldn’t have a leg to stand on. There must be others there willing to get their hands dirty.”

“Moody.” Rabastan growled. “He’s Dumbledore’s friend, and he wouldn’t hesitate over forcing Harry to do Dumbledore’s bidding. He’s a very powerful wizard too, he could do it.”

“We should have taken him out fifteen years ago.” Rodolphus growled darkly.

“This waiting is unbearable!” Narcissa interrupted worriedly. “He has his pendant on him, why doesn’t he use it?”

“He needs to be able to touch it, dear.” Lucius reminded her. “If they have his hands tied…”

“If they have dared tie him up to curse him, or to force a potion on him, I will not stop until they are all dead.” Rabastan declared, a cruel gleam in his dark blue eyes and a sneer curling his mouth.

“I will not wait as my son is scared and in danger, Lucius! I want him here, now.”

“There is nothing that I can do, Cissa, we don’t know where he is.” Lucius tried to calm her. “He has his pendant on him, he is a smart, powerful boy, he can look after himself. Look what he did to Rowle in our own bathroom, none of us expected that of him. He will be underestimated by others also.”

“He is only sixteen, Lucius. He shouldn’t have to look after himself.”

“No, he shouldn’t, but he can if he needs to, dear. He’s not some useless little boy who needs to be shielded and protected at all times and he’s not stupid either. He rarely wears that pendant, despite my steadfast insistence that he wears it at all times, but he took it with him tonight for a reason.”

Narcissa took a deep breath and she nodded her understanding. Harry had taken that pendant as a means of escape, if he needed to he would use it, unknowing as he was of the monitoring charms on it also.
It was agonising though, watching as ten O’clock came creeping ever closer, and with Lucius saying that the tugging of the charms was only getting stronger. Harry was being put in more danger than ever and his fear was only increasing.

“What could they possibly be doing to him?” She fretted as Lucius told them that Harry’s charms were registering off the scale fear and danger…his very life was currently being threatened and he was so scared that he would be almost on a level of blind panic, which could be dangerous in itself.

“I dread to think on it, Cissa.” Lucius said, very worried himself.

Harry’s fear suddenly ebbed a little, and the charm measuring the danger to his body and life decreased too. Only slightly, but it was enough.

“I believe whatever it was to be over now.” Lucius said. “The pull of the charms has lessened.”

“Have they taken it off of him?” Narcissa asked quickly.

“No, it is still registering, just not as high as before. The danger and fear has passed slightly, but he is still feeling some lingering effects.”

“You don’t think Dumbledore would have taken him back to Hogwarts?”

“We will wait and see if his pendant places him back in Hogwarts or not. He is still in the area of high magic and cannot be located at the moment.”

They waited in silence, all of them worried and fretting, all of them trying not to imagine what was happening to Harry.
Then, all of a sudden, everything changed. Lucius stood up straighter, inhaling a little deeper, just a moment before a soaking wet, incredibly pale Harry landed on the receiving room floor, coughing and shivering so violently that he looked to be almost convulsing. He was struggling to breathe.
Narcissa leapt up, but Rabastan reached him first and he used brute force to rip the soaked clothes from Harry’s body, using a strength that he hadn’t had since before Azkaban. The clothes were so wet that they were dripping and they were ice cold, as was Harry’s pale, bloodless skin underneath. He smelt of salt too, he’d been in the ocean, so late at night too, he was going to be freezing…it was then that they noticed the blood splattered over him, he had been injured too.
Lucius pointed his wand at the fire and ignited it, watching as the flames roared into existence, before he aimed his wand at Harry and dried him off. Rodolphus helped Rabastan to strip off his robes and shirt to share body heat and the younger brother flinched as he came into contact with Harry’s frozen skin, pulling him from a puddle that had already formed on the floor, but Rabastan got over the shock of the cold quickly, holding Harry tight to his body and shuffling over to the fire, sitting directly in front of it.

“Pimsey!” Narcissa called.

“Mistress calls for Pim…”

“Hot chocolate, now.” She ordered, before turning back to Rabastan. “Is he conscious?”

Rabastan used his hand to pull Harry’s head up to face him and he found himself looking down into wide open, terror filled eyes and his heart seized in his chest, if Harry was not breathing so hard, so rapidly and noisily, then he might have believed his Fiancé to be dead in his arms.

“He’s conscious, but unresponsive. He’s just staring outwards without blinking.”

“Let me see.” Xerxes commanded, and as their expert on all curses, he bent down and checked Harry over, murmuring in languages as old as time itself, while his wand passed over the young, frozen boy curled in Rabastan’s lap, shaking so violently that he was jerking uncontrollably. “He hasn’t been cursed and he’s not under any effects of potions. He’s just frozen with cold and fear. He needs to be warmed up and comforted.”

Narcissa knelt carefully by Rabastan’s shoulder and she touched the icy face of her younger son, running her thumb gently over his cheek and chin, brushing her fingertips over his neck and jaw. Over and over she touched, stroking him rhythmically, her heart breaking as she listened to him hyperventilate, his eyes wide and staring at things that they could only guess at. She watched as Rabastan stroked Harry’s back, ran his fingers through his hair, murmured to him gently to try and soothe him, to bring him back into this room, with them, and take him from where he had been before, stuck in whatever nightmarish things that had driven him to this state in the first place.
Harry’s breathing eased down, his shivering lessened, and then eventually he blinked for the first time, then again, and then he seemed to come back to himself and he realised where he was and who was around him. He slipped his arms immediately around Rabastan and he held on tightly, turning his head slightly to press it against Rabastan’s naked chest.

“Did…did you know that you can animate dead bodies?” He asked into the silence, his wavering voice very high and frightened. If they had not watched his lips move, they would never have guessed that the words were Harry’s own, his voice was unrecognisable.

Narcissa’s stomach dropped at the horror that those simple words implied.

“You were expose to an inferius?” Rodolphus asked sharply.

Harry said nothing more, he just clung on tight to Rabastan, his breathing laboured and his skin still icy to the touch.
Lucius moved to find the source of the blood and found Harry’s elbow and forearm bloody. It looked to be grazed, as if he had fallen on it, and it would scab over once healed. He cleaned it with his wand and conjured a dressing for it. It was as he was directing the bandage to wrap around Harry’s arm that he spotted the first signs of bruising coming out.
He stopped the bandage from winding around the small grazes and looked more closely at the deep red marks that were beginning to go dark…it was in the shape of fingers.

“Were you attacked by this inferius?” He asked in horror.

Harry nodded jerkily and he curled up tighter into Rabastan. “They were everywhere!” Harry said, breathless with fear and his voice still too high and abnormal.

“There was more than one?” Rabastan asked him seriously.

“More, more…” Harry trailed off and his body convulsed.

“Why were you exposed to this sort of thing? What possible reason could Dumbledore have that would warrant this sort of danger?”

“Dumbledore…he’s weak.” Harry said. “Attacked us both. He’s going to die. I barely managed…I only just got us out alive. We almost died.” Harry sobbed then and Rabastan held him tighter.

The four of them looked at one another over Harry’s head. Nothing was making any sense. Harry and Dumbledore had been attacked by inferi and Dumbledore might actually die from the attack.

“Harry, listen to me. Why were you taken from the school? What happened? Where did Dumbledore take you?”

Harry just shivered and curled up tighter.

“I think he needs to rest first.” Rabastan said, stroking Harry’s head and back.

“See if he’ll drink this, it’ll help.” Narcissa said, handing over the hot chocolate.

Rabastan held it carefully up to Harry’s mouth, thankful that he had recovered enough, that he was now stable enough to do this without injuring Harry further, or spilling the warm drink on him.
Harry sipped at the drink tipped against his lips, then as the warm drink soothed and warmed him, he gulped it, his hands coming up to cradle Rabastan’s hand that was holding the cup steady for him, drinking all of it down in one go.
Rabastan gently wiped Harry’s top lip and was grateful to see some colour returned to him.

“They tried to drown me.” Harry said, quivering like a leaf. “There were hundreds of them, even children. One grabbed my arm and was pulling me to the water, another grabbed my ankle and pulled my off my feet. If I hadn’t remembered that they were afraid of fire, I would have died.”

“Where were you?”

“I don’t know.” Harry replied.

“Why did you go there?”

“I was taken there, Apparation, I didn’t know where it was or why.”

“You were in the ocean?”

Harry nodded jerkily.

“I think you need to go up to bed and rest.”

“Hogwarts. I need to get back right away.” Harry said.

“You are not going anywhere except to bed!” Lucius told him firmly.

Harry stubbornly shook his head.

“Harry, you are deathly pale and ill, you need to go to bed.” Narcissa told him more gently.

Harry shook his head again. “I need to get back to the school, quickly.”

“For what purpose?” Lucius demanded.

“I can’t tell you yet.” Harry said, gaining more colour and more of himself as time passed in front of the blazing fire, wrapped in Rabastan’ arms.

“This is unacceptable, Harry!” Lucius burst out angrily. “You do not get to put your life in danger, going off with Dumbledore and then telling us that you were attacked by inferi and then not offer any sort of explanation! You are already very unwell, just because you have been able to cut down on your potions does not mean that you can suddenly become negligent with your health! You are staying here and that is final, I will hear no more on the matter. Now, you are to go up to bed, you will go to sleep and you will stay there until a Healer has come to see you tomorrow and we see how much damage you have done to yourself during this dangerous venture.”

Harry looked at him strangely. As if he hadn’t thought that he would be ordered around. If that was the case then Lucius would remove such an impression from his younger son. Adopted or not, Harry was his son now, and he would not have allowed Draco to do the same, and he would not let Harry get away with it either. He was their Father, he would be listened to, he would be respected and obeyed.

“Do not give me that look.” He said. “You are my son and you will not come here, looking to be at death’s door, telling me such things, and then just swan off back to school as if nothing has happened. You are staying here, where we can keep a close eye on you, and where we can have you assessed by a medical professional. Now, go to bed.”

Harry looked like he might actually refuse and Lucius was starting to lose his temper.

“Do not disobey me, Harry. You will not like the consequences after what you’ve told me tonight.”

Harry bit his lip and furrowed his brow. He suddenly looked several years younger…pale and vulnerable, and Lucius regretted his rather harsh words. He hunched down smoothly and brushed the hair from Harry’s face. He was reminded sharply that Harry was just sixteen, that he’d only been with a real family for less than a year. He had not had the greatest start in life and he was still getting used to people caring about him, just because he was family and for no other reason.

“Everything will be fine.” He assured the young boy, whose green eyes were even more shadowed and haunted than they’d been before tonight. He was never going to forgive Dumbledore for this, for exposing Harry to such dangers, to the inferi that had clearly traumatised Harry. “Just go to bed, go to sleep. If you need a dreamless sleep potion, you may have one.”

Harry nodded immediately at that suggestion, and Lucius understood Harry’s reluctance to go to bed all at once. Whatever had happened tonight, it was much worse than just meeting up with the inferi, something else had happened, or something more than Harry was saying had happened, if he was too afraid to go up to bed on his own and go to sleep. He had been traumatised and he’d need support through this, all because Dumbledore had thought it a good idea to expose a young boy to such things. The man needed to be mentally assessed.
Pimsey was called again and sent away just as quick to get the potion and Rabastan helped Harry to take it.
Harry moved by himself then, reaching out for his robe.

“Leave that, Harry. It will be sorted for you.” Lucius told him gently.

Harry shook his head and dragged the soaked mass towards him. He searched it and pulled out a small vial…his nutrient potion.

“Ah, I see. Take that one too and then we’ll get you up to bed, okay?”

Harry nodded, holding the vial out to Rabastan, who opened it and helped Harry to drink the potion inside it, grateful that he now had the motor skills to actually be of any assistance to Harry. Despite the situation, he was very pleased, deep down, to be needed in such a way, to be able to help his young Fiancé who had turned to him in his moment of fear and need, relying on him, as he had relied heavily on Harry back at the beginning of their betrothal. It felt amazing to now return the favour to Harry, who had not hesitated to lean on him in this moment of terror and shock, trusting him, trusting that he would help him through this, to comfort him and do what needed to be done to ease, even slightly, the fear and panic that he was feeling still.
Harry reached back to the robe and started pulling some things from the pockets…his wand, his invisibility cloak and something gold that glinted that Lucius thought might have been a Galleon or some such. It was the cloak that angered him the most, as Dumbledore had obviously asked Harry to take it with him to prevent anyone seeing him leaving the school with Harry, an underaged school boy.

“Take him up.” Lucius said to Rabastan. “Make sure that he is warm before leaving him. I have a visit to make tonight.”

“To Severus?” Narcissa asked.

Lucius nodded and watched as Rodolphus helped Rabastan to stand from the floor under Harry’s weight and he watched as Harry was carried to bed, still paler than usual, but at least he was no longer staring dead ahead with those too wide eyes that wouldn’t blink.
He wanted answers, and he wasn’t willing to demand them from Harry tonight with him in the state that he was. That left him only one option…Dumbledore. Dumbledore who, according to Harry, was near death. So he was going to go and see Severus to see what he made of everything, and see if he might have been told about what was happening. Either way he would get to the bottom of this, and he would not have Harry dragged into anything of this sort ever again, he was a boy still, a sixteen year old boy, but more than that, he was his son and he would not have anyone putting his son in such dangers.

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A/N: Today is our third year anniversary, which is the only reason I’m posting this chapter up, as I swore that I would stay on my Dracken universe fics for the remainder of 2017. I will carry on posting for this fic in 2018 now, lovelies, so don’t be alarmed just because I’m not posting, this fic is not being abandoned, I have not hit a wall or writer’s block with it, rather the opposite, I am just focusing on my Dracken fics for a few months, that’s all.
Those on my facebook also know that real life is kicking me at the moment. My beloved cat, Jethro, has been diagnosed with severe hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or in layman’s terms heart disease. It is severe, he’s been declared terminal, and the vets don’t know how he’s still alive. He has days, maybe a week or two left, and I have to have some difficult talks about euthanasia in the coming days now. So I think the best way to describe myself at the moment is emotionally unstable, which will only get worse when he does inevitably pass, so everything is up in the air at the moment, so I might need some time to myself when that happens, but for the moment he’s okay, he’s stable and I’m keeping him comfortable.
But outside of that, I do hope that you’ve enjoyed this chapter, now that I’m moving the plot along quickly, and the next chapter we’ll be in the summer months, but that won’t be until 2018 now, as I have too much of the Drackens to deal with at the moment, but this is our third year, it’s special, and I wanted to celebrate with you readers by giving you a new chapter.
Anyway, thank you all for listening and understanding, for reading and reviewing, and I will see you all with more of this story in 2018 now, until then, lovelies,
StarLight Massacre. X
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The Guile and Devotion of a Black Heir