Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Meddling with Darkness	By : zoy_grey Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 32786 -:- Recommendations : 4 -:- Currently Reading : 11
Disclaimer: I do not own nor make profit off of JK Rowling's world of Harry Potter, the characters or the timeline. Though I do own the plot that I came up with in this story.

Chapter List
- 23
- 24
- 25
A/N: Finally the next chapter ;) I hope you won't mind me speeding up the action in this chapter a little bit, but we're getting to the part with more plotting, romance and twists in the plot. As usual, thank you a lot for the nice reviews, i really enjoy reading those :)
Chapter 24
The first day of the new year began oddly for Orion. He woke up in his bed with an unbelievable headache. For the first few minutes he was trying to go through everything he remembered from the last night, but he was having difficulties with that task. He vaguely remembered the way back home from the party and how much trouble he caused to his cousin.
At that moment, he forgot about the headache and an unpleasant chill ran through his body. Immediately the images of last night came back to his mind, but no matter how much he tried to focus, he couldn’t tell for sure if those were real memories or another weird dream about Draco. He jumped out of bed and inspected the room, looking for evidence of the blond teen spending the night in his bedroom, but he didn’t find anything that belonged to Draco.
“Maybe I just made it up…maybe he just brought me home and left,” Orion muttered to himself and tried to find some clothes and get to the bathroom.
“Young master is awake,” he heard Kreacher’s voice in the room. Seeing how bad the teen was feeling, the house elf quickly helped his master prepare for the day. To Orion’s biggest surprise, Kreacher was waiting for him, all this time, while he was showering. “Master Orion must hurry or he be late for the train…young mister Malfoy already ate and went home.”
“Wait,” interrupted him the teen and froze while buttoning his shirt. “Draco was here?”
“Of course. He and master Orion slept here tonight,” explained the elf as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
The teen didn’t ask any more questions. Instead, he scanned the room if he didn’t forget to pack anything important and practically ran down the stairs to the kitchen. The awful headache wasn’t helping to calm his nerves at all. After the news from Kreacher, he had a million questions in his head – did he dream about the kiss or maybe the kiss was real? But if it was real and Draco left without a word, then maybe the blond was mad at him.
“Sirius! Your son is up,” he was greeted by a very loud Remus, who was obviously trying to make Orion’s morning even worse than it already was.
“Indeed, the party boy is here…about time,” Sirius tried to hide his amusement, but he failed miserably. Both wizards were openly enjoying the opportunity to tease the teen about drinking a bit too much last night.
However, Orion wasn’t in the mood for jokes. The only thing he could think about right niow was what exactly happened last night and what Draco thought about it. The other thing that bothered him was that even thinking about the kiss being real didn’t feel wrong to him; on the contrary, the thought he might have kissed the blond didn’t repulse him at all; the only thing that did worry him, was that Draco would change his attitude towards him.
If the day wasn’t bad enough for Orion, it got even worse about an hour later, when he, Sirius and Remus arrived at Platform 9 ¾. The Weasleys were already there, getting their luggage into the compartments, but all that time, Mrs Weasley and Sirius were sending each other death glares. The silence between the two adults was unbearable, but Orion decided not to get involved in their problems and instead tried to focus his attention on Hermione and Ron.
He was slowly calming down hearing his friends’ stories of how they spend the holidays; even Ron seemed to have fun with his siblings, regardless of the fact that they couldn’t go to the New Year’s party with Orion. Young Black got particularly interested in Hermione’s story about her family and how they were preparing for the new addition to the family. Orion sighed inwardly thinking about siblings; he was beyond happy to finally have a real family of his own, but he couldn’t help himself and think about how it would be if he had siblings too.
Finally, the time has come to say goodbye to their parents and find some seats in the train. As usual, the three of them were travelling in the same compartment, but this time, Ginny joined them as well. Orion felt surprised about the young witch sitting with them, but he didn’t give it much thought. He realised, Ginny probably wanted to spend some time with Hermione and talk about girl-things; what he didn’t notice, were there dreamy looks that the youngest Weasley was sending his way every now and then.
“Draco, there is a seat for you in our compartment, in the front,” they heard a familiar voice of Pansy Parkinson.
Soon enough, the Slytherin girl, accompanied by three other girls from her house and Malfoy walked passed the door where Orion and his friends were sitting. Seeing his cousin, Black immediately tensed up. He was forced to face the result of last night’s events and he was starting to feel sick just by thinking about Draco ignoring him or hating him again, like at the beginning of Hogwarts. Not wanting to bring too much attention to his behaviour, Orion looked up and his eyes met with the blond teen’s. Draco’s face was emotionless as usual, but he couldn’t see even a hint of annoyance or disgust in his cousin’s eyes, which was a very good sign for him.
“Hello, Orion,” he was brought out of his thoughts by a bit too loud and slightly flirtatious voices of the Slytherin girls. He was surprised to get such a reaction from the Snakes, but he realised they didn’t have a problem with him anymore after they had a good time at the party yesterday.
“Hello girls,” answered courteously Orion before the Slytherins left.
“Blimey! Now you have fangirls even in Slytherin!?” shocked and somewhat offended Ron nearly shouted, deafening everyone in the compartment.
“Stop it, Ron,” reprimanded him Hermione and glanced quickly at Ginny, who seemed to be feeling a mix of jealousy and sadness at the same time. “It’s not like he should ignore them now…especially after going to a party with them. Besides, they are purebloods and Orion is the Black heir…didn’t it cross your mind that they might be trying to get his attention because he’s a good future husband candidate, especially by their standards?”
“You’re not going to marry a Snake and a pureblood, are you mate?” asked Ron worried about his friend’s future.
“My goal at the moment is to pass all the OWLs. Then I’m going to think about NEWTs, then I’ll try to find a job and maybe after all of that I’ll think about getting married,” after all the commotion, Black started to feel the growing headache again, but he didn’t want to tell his friends that he got drunk last night; Hermione would be especially disappointed in him, so he excused himself, got out of the compartment and headed to the loo.
Out on the corridor, he made sure no one was watching him. He needed some alone time to think and get some fresh air. He opened the window to clear his head and get the awful feeling of nausea go away. He closed his eyes and immediately saw images of Draco. Orion couldn’t help it; through the years, some kind of a special bond was created between him and the blond, and he didn’t want to lose it. Moreover, he desperately wanted to get that bond even stronger. He was now literally terrified when he thought about being the heir of the Blacks, because it meant he had to marry some witch and have children with her; but for some unknown reason that felt wrong. He had the feeling it would mean his bond with Draco would break, and that was the last thing he wanted to happen.
“How are you feeling?” Orion nearly jumped frightened by a sudden whisper close to his ear. He opened his eyes and saw Draco leaning close to him; his face only inches away from his ear. Black could feel the gentle, warm breathing of the other teen on his skin; and a hand touching his shoulder. Orion never noticed that before, but now every contact with the blond was almost burning. It wasn’t a bad feeling; on the contrary, it was the type of burning that made him feel excited and his heart beat faster, but realising all of that made Black feel guilty for having such feeling towards his cousin.
“I just have a headache,” admitted the teen a bit embarrassed. Draco only smiled and gave him a tiny bottle of some potion. Orion took it and drank immediately. “From now on, I’m going to trust you and drink every potion you give me.”
“Good answer,” Draco smirked satisfied.
“Draco…I’m sorry for yesterday,” he muttered barely audibly. “I know I must have been a nuisance to you.”
“You were talkative and…quite straightforward,” Malfoy smirked again seeing a blush creeping on Orion’s cheeks. “But I’d be lying if I said you were bothersome.”
“So…you don’t hate me?” Black smiled sheepishly and waited for the other boy’s answer.
“If there is anything I’m certain of…it’s that I could never hate you.”
About a week after Draco left Malfoy Manor for another school term, Lucius found himself being called to his father’s chambers. He had to admit he was rather busy the last months and didn’t have enough time to spend with his father, but now he was starting to worry about the man. As far as Lucius could remember, Abraxas allowed only his late wife and the house elves into his chambers, but now he seemed to have wanted to discuss something with his son in there. Now that Lucius was thinking about it, Narcissa did tell him that Abraxas hasn’t been coming out of his chambers since New Year.
Standing in front of the double door to his father’s quarters, Lucius stopped to knock and wait for permission to enter. He heard a faint voice coming from the other side of the door so he allowed himself in. He closed the door and searched the room to find Abraxas. To his biggest surprise, the wizard was coming out of the bathroom looking very sick.
“Father, what is wrong?” even though most people thought of Lucius as a heartless person, he couldn’t help but worry when he saw his parent in such a bad state. He rushed to the older wizard’s side and wanted to help him get to bed, but Abraxas stopped him before he could touch him. “Father, let me help you.”
“No. You shouldn’t get too close to me…you should also tell Narcissa not to come close this part of the manor,” said Abraxas wrapping a jacket tighter around his body and sitting in an armchair by the window.
“Now I’m even more worried,” said Lucius a bit annoyed at his father’s stubbornness. “I’m going to call mediwizards in the morning to check what is wrong.”
“No need for that. It’s dragon pox...early stage, but in my age it’s already a death sentence,” announced calmly older Malfoy and ignored Lucius’ attempts to protest. “More importantly, I want to die knowing that the family is secured and prepared for the future.”
“You mean Draco’s future,” said Lucius after giving up fighting and accepting his father’s decision.
“Precisely. He’ll be sixteen this year and he’s one of the best and most influential bachelors in his generation. There should be already some candidates for his future spouse.”
“I agree with you father. There is nothing I want more than to protect our family and only the best for its members, but don’t you think it’s a bit too early to make such decisions regarding Draco?”
“We’re living in mad times. There is a major upheaval ahead of us and as such, it is crucial to secure our future. Draco deserves the best candidate there is, that’s why I want you to start searching for a person like that. Other wizarding families have to know that the time for Draco Malfoy has come to get engaged,” Abraxas saw that his son wasn’t very excited about this idea, but the older wizard quickly added. “I don’t have to remind you how old you and Narcissa were when you got engaged?”
“No, father,” Lucius answered. He remembered correctly when his parents told him that he and Narcissa Black would get married – it was summer before his sixth year in Hogwarts. “I’ll make the necessary preparations for the search of a candidate.”
The days after winter break were going by uneventfully, which made it even more difficult for Orion to stop thinking about Draco. If he was having problems with indecent dreams about the blond before, now he simply couldn’t get the other teen out of his head. The fact that Gryffindor and Slytherin were sharing quite a few classes, didn’t help either. He still wasn’t sure if he really kissed Draco after the New Year’s party or not, but at least the blond didn’t have any hard feelings about whatever happened that night. However, that didn’t change the fact that nowadays, Orion was daydreaming very often and most of the times, the teachers did notice it.
That day, Gryffindors were having Potions together with the Snakes. At the beginning, Orion focused completely on his cauldron and the liquid inside. That strategy seemed to work for the first half of the lesson. The teen knew his father was watching him and he felt the need to impress the potions master. Problems started when young Black was finished with adding all the ingredients and had to wait about half an hour only stirring the potion every now and then.
Soon enough, his gaze landed on Draco, whose desk was just one row before him, to his left. From his spot, Orion had a perfect view on the blond. He could admire how tall the teen had grown through the years; his white blond hair was combed to the back and lightly touching his shoulders. Orion had to admit he liked the way his cousin kept his hair, mostly because it emphasized his sharp, handsome features. In mere seconds, his thoughts jumped to fragments of his memories of the night after the party; and at that moment he could swear he definitely kissed Draco. Moreover, it was him who initiated the kiss, and not the blond.
“Would you do us the honour of joining this class not only physically, but also mentally…Mr Black?” the teen was immediately brought out of his thoughts and terrified that his father caught him daydreaming. He didn’t want to disappoint the potions master, but at this moment he could clearly see disappointment in the man’s eyes. “Five points from Gryffindor for Mr Black’s absent-mindedness.”
For the reminder of the lesson, Severus inspected the results of their brewing. As usual, Slytherins got the best results. Hermione’s potion was also very good, but then the potions master stopped by Orion’s cauldron and didn’t say a word. Young Black knew his potion turned out rather decent, even though he wasn’t paying much attention to it, but he saw his father was angry not because of his brewing skills, but his behaviour.
“My apologies…professor,” said the black haired teen, when he couldn’t stand the silence anymore.
It was the first time since they started Hogwarts that anyone in their year heard Orion apologizing to Severus Snape. The situation was so unbelievable that practically everyone in the classroom was staring at Orion and the potions master. Gryffindors were expecting the worst right now, but Snape remained silent.
Severus stared at his son in disbelief. For the boy to apologize to him in front of everyone meant that he really regretted what he did, and for some reason, Severus felt bad right now that he caused his son to feel bad.
“Class dismissed,” he announced in an ice-cold voice and waited for everyone to leave the dungeon. Draco was the last one to leave the class, so he closed the door to give some privacy to Severus and Orion. “You’re a good student…and very good at brewing, but that’s why I don’t want you to get distracted and get average results.”
“I know,” said the black haired teen and packed his things to leave.
“But if you have any problems…if there is something bothering you,” said Severus and looked straight in the jet black eyes like his own. “I’m always here to listen and help.”
One morning, sometime after the winter holidays, Minerva was visiting Albus in his office to report to him about the Order’s matters. Because she was a teacher and the Head of House, she didn’t have enough time to engage in many activities for the Order of the Phoenix, but she tried to use her connections to gain more supporters in the fight with Voldemort. Unfortunately, just like many other members of the Order, she wasn’t very successful in her task. She heard practically the same answers Charlie and Bill Weasley were getting – no one has actually acknowledged Voldemort’s return; they see no threat from the Death Eaters and no reason to fight or oppose the Ministry.
Minerva thought that her news would be the worse information of the day for the Headmaster, but as soon as she entered his office she noticed, Dumbledore had far bigger problems at the moment. The old wizard was sitting by his desk, looking very tired and he barely noticed professor McGonagall entering the room. There was a big pile of ashes in the middle of the desk and on the side of it were red letters waiting to be opened.
“Come in Minerva…don’t mind this,” Albus gestured to the growing pile of ashes. He reached out for another howler and with a tired sigh opened it, not even interested to listen to it carefully.
“What is the matter with these howlers?” asked the witch genuinely worried. “Who is sending them?”
“By now, I’m starting to think I’ve received a letter like this from nearly all the parents of our students. I don’t understand where Alastor has gone wrong, but all of those letters are complaints about how dangerously he acts towards students.”
“Well, you have to admit that he does have very…unusual methods sometimes,” said Minerva feeling relieved that not only she disagreed with how Moody treated students. “I don’t want to disturb you, Albus. I just wanted to say that I’ve managed to get support from the Campbells and Fosters. That’s not much, but they are good people, Muggle-borns, so they will definitely fight against Lord Voldemort.”
“Thank you, Minerva. That’s finally some good news,” Dumbledore smiled and returned to dealing with his unwanted mail.
Not long after the witch has left, an owl landed on the window sill and waited for the headmaster to get his letter. Noticing that it wasn’t a howler, Albus rushed to the window to take the mail. Seeing that it was from Romania, he quickly opened it. He knew it was the reply from the dragon sanctuary that he was waiting for so long.
Dear Professor Dumbledore,
I was very surprised by your message regarding Mr Weasley. I believed that if anyone could explain to me the decision of young Mr Weasley it would be his family and friends, but I see I was mistaken.
Charles Weasley has been a very talented dragonologist here in the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary. Unfortunately, sometime around early November, Mr Weasley left the Sanctuary without any explanation of his resignation. The last thing I’ve heard about him was that he got involved with one of the prominent Romanian pureblood wizarding families.
Yours sincerely,
Byron Harwood (Head of the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary)
‘So Charlie is associating with the purebloods,’ Albus thought to himself and with one swift move of his wand, burned all of the unread howlers. ‘He made it clear that he won’t look for supporters among those families…then why is he getting involved with them and keeping it a secret from everyone?’
Not wasting a minute longer, Dumbledore wrote a short letter to one of his old friends who lived in Romania and asked him to find out more about the family Charlie Weasley got acquainted with, and what exactly the young wizard is doing there.
Hogwarts’ students were enjoying yet another Hogsmead weekend. Since it was still winter and snowing outside, it was very crowded in every shop and pub, but the most popular place were the Three Broomsticks. Orion, Hermione and the Weasleys joined the rest of their housemates at Madam Rosemerta’s inn. They could finally enjoy a relaxing weekend, catching up on everything that has happened during holidays. To Ron’s disappointment, Hermione had to bring up the topic of exams and what comes after them; but the worse part was that Orion seemed to be very interested in the topic and continued conversation with the witch.
“Can’t you two stop talking about exams and all that? It’s a day off, so change the topic to something more pleasant,” complained Ron and ordered butter beer for all of them.
“We really should stop talking about school on weekends,” laughed Orion and earned himself Ron’s approval, and a confused reaction from Hermione; the teen witch would never understand how school subjects could not be interesting to others.
For the next hour or so, the three of them forgot about Hogwarts, exams or even the dangerous situation in the wizarding world. They chatted and joked around with their housemates. All of them already lost count of how many rounds of butter beer did they drink, but no one really cared about that.
Orion had to admit to himself, that he missed such carefree moments with his friends. When he thought about it, he realised it’s been at least a year since their conversations didn’t involve Death Eaters, war and fighting against Voldemort. Realising all that, young Black felt angry at Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix for trying to manoeuvre him and other teens into a war that wasn’t really their fight; of course most of his schoolmates thought there was a serious threat coming from the Dark Lord, but honestly, now that he met the dark wizard in person, he was starting to think that Voldemort might be cruel at times, but he was rather honest in his actions – something Orion couldn’t say about Albus Dumbledore.
“Excuse me,” their conversation was suddenly interrupted by a brown haired wizard in his forties. “Mr Black? Mr Orion Black?”
“Yes, that’s me,” answered the black haired teen and smiled politely to the man and his three female companions standing behind him.
“I’m Emmett Colyer. I’ve sent you an owl regarding our meeting…I know we’re a bit early, but maybe we could sign up the documents and finish faster,” explained the wizard and gestured to the three blond witches close to him. “The four of us are business partners. Your uncle, or actually his spouse hired us to look after the documentation of your family newest enterprise. Let me introduce my colleagues…my wife, Euphrosyne Colyer, and her two sisters, Eunomia and Eirene Wright.”
“Yes, I was expecting your visit today. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” said politely Orion and shook hands with the four of them. “I’ve already read the documents from uncle Regulus and I don’t see any problems with this idea. As long as my dad also agreed to the terms and signed up the papers, then we can go through the formalities as well.”
“We already met with Mr Sirius Black,” informed the witch introduced as Eunomia Wright.
“In that case, we can go straight to signing up the rest of the documents,” said Orion in a very formal, but polite tone.
“We already booked a place here from Madam Rosemerta, so if you could give us about half an hour, then we won’t be taking any more of your Saturday, Mr Black,” said the older wizard.
Still keeping his official and reserved tone, Orion excused himself and accompanied the four notaries to the private room, in the back of the inn. Everyone by their table was shocked by what had just happened and how their friend behaved. Even Hermione had to admit that in mere seconds Orion changed from being an open and friendly teen to a polite, but cold and reserved young adult. Most of them didn’t want to say it out loud, but the scene they just witnessed, reminded them very much of how rich, pureblood wizards and witches would act.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he ditched us all right after we graduate Hogwarts,” commented Seamus.
“That’s complete tosh, Seamus,” protested Ron. “He’s never going to turn his back on us, we’re his friends. And in case you have forgotten, every single time others were badmouthing him, he always proved to be good and loyal to us and our housemates.”
“Yeah, but it seems he’s getting more and more loyal to his family as well,” retorted Seamus and some of the younger Gryffindors sitting close to them, agreed with him. “And the Blacks are shady; always have been. His father might have been proven innocent, but even the Ministry is still keeping it a secret from the public, who Orion’s mother is. Who knows, maybe she was a Death Eater like many of the Blacks were.”
“We don’t know the reason why Orion doesn’t tell anyone about his mom,” Neville interrupted Seamus’ monologue. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that she’s supporting the Dark Lord.”
“You’re right, Neville, but we all heard just now that Orion is rather…accepting of his uncle Regulus,” said Dean. “And from what I’ve heard about him, there is a lot of gossip about him being very supportive of the Dark Lord.”
“And you just love gossips. Especially the ones spread by the Daily Prophet,” interrupted a very pissed off Ginny. “For many years, Orion thought he was an orphan so it’s only natural that he wants to get very close to his actual family.”
“Yes, especially if that family is also Malfoy and his parents. Not to mention some of his relatives are either suspected of being Death Eaters and some of them are still actually in Azkaban for that,” said sarcastically Seamus. “He even got friendly with most of the Slytherins. Now it’s only a matter of time, when he breaks ties with every half-blood and Muggle-born he knows, and announces his future rich, pureblood wife.”
After Seamus’ speech, Ginny stood up immediately; her face becoming a brighter shade of red than her hair and slightly trembling out of anger and helplessness. “You’re such a dickhead!” she said with spite clearly audible in her voice and left the table heading outside of the inn.
“You just officially got yourself an enemy in our little sister,” commented Fred and George, who until now, preferred to stay silent.
“Don’t worry, I’ll go talk with her,” Hermione assured Ron and the twins. In truth, she just wanted to get away from their conversation, since she wanted to believe in Orion, but she as well worried that at some point, Draco’s influence might cause her friend to become as prejudiced as the rest of the Malfoy and Black families. “You wait for Orion and we’ll meet later at Honey Dukes.”
“You better stop saying rubbish about Orion,” Ron almost threatened his housemates who agreed with Seamus and Dean. “He’s always been a good friend and housemate to all of you.”
“You say that now, but you didn’t know about this big, secret family enterprise that the notary talked about, eh? If he was your close friend and this secret was nothing harmful, then he wouldn’t keep it a secret, now would he?” said Seamus and left the table with a few other Gryffindors.
Percy Weasley hurried from the Ministry to Diagon Alley. He had a meeting appointed there in one of the restaurants and he had serious plans regarding it. He was supposed to meet with one of the reporters from the Daily Prophet to discuss the Ministry’s future cooperation with the newspaper. So far, the reporters from the Daily Prophet favoured the authorities when writing their articles, however recently the situation in the wizarding world was changing and so was the public’s attitude towards Cornelius Fudge and his close co-workers.
Percy’s position and future in the Ministry relayed on how he was going to deal with the current situation. Up until now, he was following Fudge’s orders and the official Ministry’s policies, however right now, even he had to admit that the situation was getting out of hand and it was only a matter of months until Fudge was forced to resign from his position. The red haired wizard didn’t want to go down with Cornelius and his people, especially that he didn’t agree with every decision of the current minister. The annoying voice in his head kept telling him that his parents were right about not trusting and blindly supporting Fudge, but on the other hand, Percy refused to go back to the Burrow and join Dumbledore. There was something that told him that the headmaster shouldn’t be trusted completely. Moreover, Percy didn’t want to quit with the Ministry, because he liked the job very much and he had quite high aspirations.
When he finally reached the restaurant, he noticed it was rather crowded, but that didn’t bother him, since officially he was there on Minister’s orders and not to plot something. He quickly spotted the Daily Prophet reporter waiting by the table in the far end of the room.
“Ms Athena Reeder?” he asked politely, even though he knew very well that the young, slender, black haired witch was the person he was supposed to meet with. The witch was a replacement for Rita Skeeter, who mysteriously vanished almost a year ago and no one has hear from her ever since. Athena made the impression of a sweet and calm person, who wouldn’t hurt even a fly, but so far, she has already proven to be as inquisitive as Skeeter; only a bit less impertinent.
“Mr Weasley, I presume,” she answered with a question and started the conversation as soon as Percy took a seat. “If you don’t mind, Mr Weasley, I’d prefer to get straight to the point, since my schedule is a bit tight today.”
“I wonder what is filling that schedule up, especially now with not so many topics to write about,” commented Percy and saw the witch immediately became agitated by the insult; a reaction the redhead had expected and planned.
“With all due respect, Mr Weasley, I could easily find enough topics to write about…growing rumours of the return of You-Know-Who, lack of proper control over dementors, and of course the biggest mystery lately which is the unexplained attacks on werewolves and other magical beings who were actually trying to live peacefully and fit into the wizarding society. I believe the Ministry still hasn’t found the person responsible for those attacks in which, if I remember correctly, died about a dozen of people including children.”
“I’m sure you understand how much articles about those things might interfere with the Ministry’s investigation of those awful events,” said Percy and almost laughed inwardly seeing that his plan was going the way he wanted.
“Mr Weasley, I can of course omit certain topics in my articles, but regardless of what my superiors want me to write, it doesn’t change the fact that Cornelius Fudge’s carrier is coming to an end. Just when I was waiting here for you, I’ve heard many people talking about losing trust in him and the Ministry in general,” retorted Ms Reeder trying to keep calm. “So if you have nothing else to tell me, other than reminding me what I shouldn’t be writing about, then I guess we can part ways.”
“Ms Reeder, please don’t get me wrong. I don’t like the fact that I have to remind you not to try and have an investigation of your own on those subjects, but unfortunately I have to listen to my superiors just like you do. Personally, I’d do anything to solve the mystery of those attacks, so that in the future the Ministry could prevent such acts of violence,” after those words, Percy noticed the witch relaxed a bit. “Unfortunately, for the time being there is not much I can do about it. However, I wanted to help you find something to write about…something that I think might be interesting to the public and wouldn’t be an eyesore to the Ministry.”
“Do you already have something in mind or is this just a load of hot air?”
“As a matter of fact, something very interesting has come to my knowledge lately,” said Percy and for a moment felt bad about his own behaviour. He was plotting like a Slytherin; something his family would frown upon, but he really needed to secure his position in the Ministry as long as possible, and for that he needed Fudge to keep his position for at least a year longer.
“I’m all ears then,” said the reporter and took out some parchment to take notes.
“Recently, there have been certain documents going around the Ministry. As far as I know, those documents concern establishment of an unknown public institution, however none of the Ministry’s departments is the initiator of this enterprise. I can only say that it seems like a really big investment.”
“Which means that the initiative comes from some wealthy family,” said the witch and scribbled something in her notes. “I wonder which family could it be and what exactly is hiding under the term ‘public institution’.”
“Unfortunately I don’t have the answers to those questions …a group of very skilled notaries and solicitors is involved and keeping everything confidential,” informed her Percy. “But I’m sure, a talented reporter like you, Ms Reeder won’t have any problems revealing some details about it.”
“I’ll make sure the public knows more about this very interesting and mysterious enterprise,” the witch smirked, hid the notes and shook hands with Percy. “It was a pleasure to do business with you, Mr Weasley.”
Orion was once again out of the Gryffindor Tower after curfew. Usually, he tried to sneak out when Hermione and Ron’s rounds around the castle started and return before they came back; that way he didn’t have to worry about his friends complaining about him meeting up with Draco so often. However, lately he established a new meeting time with the blond, since Draco had to tend more to his prefect duties and the trainings with his housemates. That meant, Orion had to wait until most of his housemates were asleep and then sneak out of the tower and head to the secret passage to the cave, where he met with Sirius last year to learn how to dance. The cave was perfect for them since it wasn’t far from the Slytherin dormitories and Orion could always use his Invisibility Cloak.
The teen wrapped himself tighter with the cloak mostly because the late January air was really chilly and inside the tunnel leading to the cave, it was rather windy. He cast a Tempus charm and sped up, realising he was almost late, and he knew that Draco was always on time. He could already picture the blond’s dissatisfied look, when he shows up late again.
To his biggest surprise, when he entered the cave, he noticed a small campfire and someone sitting on the ground not far from it. He cautiously walked closer, wondering if it was Draco or someone else who found their secret place. Orion was about to take out his wand and point it at the supposedly unknown person, but then he noticed a white blond strand of hair falling from under a black cloak.
“Draco?” he kneeled next to his cousin and realised that the other teen was asleep. “He must have fallen asleep while waiting for me…he’s going to be really pissed off when he wakes up.”
Orion couldn’t stop a smile growing on his face when he saw the peaceful face of the other wizard – he looked so calm and beautiful, one would never expect Draco to be arrogant and sarcastic at all. Not wanting to wake him up, Black transfigured the blond’s cloak into a thick, warm blanket and wrapped it around Draco. He knew there was no reason to stay there, especially in such a cold weather, but somehow, even just sitting next to the other teen felt nice; he enjoyed the fact, that he was one of the very few people who knew the more open and affectionate side of the Malfoy heir.
Time was flowing and Orion sat there by the fire and observed Draco. He found it fascinating to analyse every single detail of the teen’s face. Recently he has been paying more attention to the blond’s body which made him have mixed feelings. Ever since the New Year’s party, he couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss; he wasn’t even sure if that kiss was real, although he had this gut feeling that it was. The fact that Draco treated him normally, didn’t help much, especially that Orion still had dreams about the other teen; dreams that were far from innocent. Watching Draco’s face closely, made him wonder how was it possible that in his dreams he was able to memorize so many details about the blond’s appearance. Especially mesmerizing were Malfoy’s lips, which looked very soft and kissable.
In that exact moment, Orion had the most ridiculous idea. The only way to find out if he truly kissed Draco before was to find out if he remembered the feeling of the other teen’s lips. Once more, he got to his knees and closer to the blond. He placed one hand on the stone wall, by which Draco was seated, and slowly leaned forward. With every inch his face was getting closer to the other wizard’s, Orion’s heart was beating faster and a wave of warmth spread through his entire body.
‘Please don’t wake up,’ was the only thought that ran through his mind. He licked his lips and kept leaning forward. His lips were less than an inch away from Draco’s and he could even feel his cousin’s steady breathing on his skin and just then he realised something ground-breaking – deep inside, he wanted Draco to wake up while he kissed him.
“Merlin’s bollocks! What am I doing?” in an instant he jumped away from the other teen and cursed to himself. He leaned by a stone wall at the opposite side of the campfire and kept hitting his fist against it. He was furious at himself for his idiotic idea just now; not to mention his desire to actually experience the dreams he was having about Draco. Black didn’t have a problem with gay wizards anymore, but he knew he shouldn’t be having such thoughts about his cousin.
“Orion? What are you doing?” a somewhat sleepy voice of Malfoy caught the teen’s attention. Black wasn’t sure how long he was taking his anger out on the wall, nor when did Draco wake up, but by now the blond approached him and grabbed his hand in his own. “have you gone barmy, Orion? You’re going to ruin your hand.”
The black haired teen didn’t protest when Draco forced him to sit by the fire, took out his wand and proceeded to heel his already bleeding fingers. Orion just tried to figure out why he was acting like this towards the blond – was it because he was afraid of all the girls who could take his cousin’s attention away from him; or maybe he was curious of his fathers’ relationship and tried to see what it was like to be with another wizard. Either way, it was no excuse to force Draco to deal with his emotional problems. With the blond’s looks, wits and social status, he was probably already deciding which witch would make a perfect wife for him and there was no place for Orion in Draco’s future; at least not for Black being more than just a cousin to him.
“Oi! Orion! You were daydreaming again,” said Draco when he finished tending to the teen’s injuries. “I was asking why didn’t you wake me up when you got here? I didn’t even notice when I fall asleep.”
“I don’t know…you seemed to have needed some rest,” muttered Orion trying to hide his embarrassment. “You’re honestly working too much. You shouldn’t push yourself so hard, Draco.”
“I’m going to be fine, although I wanted to talk with you about something,” said the blond very seriously, which caused Black to tense up immediately. Orion was certain that Draco noticed his odd behaviour and was going to be unpleasant about it. “I was thinking that maybe you’d like to join the training sessions with my housemates. You got to know each other and they seemed to act civil towards you, so I thought you’d be interested. I know you like duelling and to be honest, you’d be a great help since more students, even from other houses has joined and I almost can’t find enough time to practice with all of them.”
“So you’re not mad at me? You’re not going to yell at me?”
“What’s wrong with you, Orion? This is the second or third time you’re asking me this ridiculous question,” asked Draco a bit offended by the other teen’s suggestion. “And why would I even yell at you?”
“…because I was late?” he lied quickly, hoping that the blond truly didn’t know the reason of his weird behaviour.
“Seriously, Orion,” said Draco and left the matter without any further comment. “More importantly…what do you think about my offer? Would you be willing to join those sessions?”
“Sure. If I can really help you and you’ll get some more time to rest then of course I want to join the trainings.”
“Even if the spells we’re practicing there aren’t always very…nice?” asked Draco suspecting that his cousin might have a problem with that.
“I don’t mind. In fact, I could actually learn some of those…it’s not like I’m going to use the nasty spells on innocent people just because I feel like it. Besides, I willingly met with the Dark Lord and right now I’m starting to have more respect for him than I have for Dumbledore, so a few dark spells shouldn’t be a problem for me now,” he announced, leaving Draco flabbergasted. “I’m more concerned about those other students. Who are they? Won’t they inform Dumbledore, Moody or the Ministry about what you’re doing during those sessions?”
“No, there is no need to worry about them. Those are mostly purebloods and a few half-bloods from respected wizarding families. Seems like they got tired of hearing Moody’s constant insults and threats towards their relatives and how there is a hidden Death Eater in every old wizarding family. Although for now, I’d say it’s safer if you practice only with the Slytherins, since they already know from your father that you’re on OUR side rather than Dumbledore’s.”
“Then it’s settled. Write me a message where and when should I show up for the practice,” Orion summed up and stood up from his seat. “But now I think we should head back to our dormitories. You really need some sleep.”
Without a slightest protest, Draco agreed to Orion’s idea. They put out the fire and returned to the castle.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter :) Harry/Orion is slowly but finally noticing his feelings for Draco ;) Some major news about Albus coming out in the next chapter and Orion making big announcements in front of the entire school ;)
Now, that I (hopefully) got you interested and anticipating the next updates, I'm going back to writing next chapters, so that you don't have to wait so long for it :)
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Meddling with Darkness