The Heart of the Matter | By : Jad Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 7323 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1 |
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story. |
Chapter Five
Just when every thing's in order and good, things fall apart
Just when life should be resolving, you're back at the beginning
And it comes back to the heart
- Cyndi Lauper, Unhook the Stars
: : :
Potter was still gripping his wand and Tonks still had Draco by the elbows when Snape stepped out of Dumbledore's shadow. He was glaring murderously at Potter.
'Molly,' Dumbledore said lightly. 'Bill has been transferred to St Mungo's.'
'Are Ginny and Charlie still with him?' Mrs Weasley inquired.
Dumbledore nodded. 'Alastor, Arthur, and Miss Delacour as well. I imagine they'll be back as soon as Bill's been settled in.' His gaze floated over the table. 'I'm sorry to interrupt, but I require to speak to Mr Potter and Mr Malfoy alone. I must ask the rest of you to have an early night.'
Granger, Lupin, Tonks, Weasley and the twins all began moving immediately while Molly quickly began gathering extra food into bowls with her wand. Weasley and Granger both paused at the door, looking back at Potter, but eventually followed the others out. Draco and Potter both still had their wands out, but had lowered them at the appearance of the Headmaster, settling for glaring coldly at one another.
Mrs Weasley was bustling past when Draco suddenly had a thought, and reacted before he could think better of it.
'Mrs Weasley.'
She stopped, looking surprised. 'Yes, dear?'
'I,' Draco started, thrown off by the narrowed stare Potter had fixed him with. Draco looked away from him and at Mrs Weasley instead. 'I really had no idea. I'm—'
'It's all right, dear,' Mrs Weasley assured, interrupting him. 'I know. We don't blame you.'
Draco stared at her. He could not understand, for the life of him, why she wouldn't. If his situation had been reversed, his mother would have killed the one responsible. 'Why?'
Much to his chagrin, she smiled faintly at him. 'Because there's only one person to blame for all of this, dear. And it isn't you.'
She left, leaving Draco feeling extremely hollow.
Potter was still glaring at him, but more bewildered than murderous. Dumbledore bade her goodnight before addressing the boys. 'Molly is quite right,' said the Headmaster. 'But now that I have you both here, I need to—'
'I don't give a damn what you need,' Draco snarled, and both Snape and Dumbledore looked at him. Draco was gripping his wand so tightly his hand was trembling. 'I don't care what you want, or what you have to say.'
Dumbledore sighed. 'I am truly sorry about your mother, Draco. Be assured we did everything we could.'
'You're a liar,' he hissed through his teeth. His throat felt very tight all of a sudden.
'He isn't a liar!' Potter snapped.
'Harry, please,' Dumbledore said, before turning his attention back to Draco. 'No, Malfoy is quite right, I'm afraid. I should not have made a promise I was unable to keep. For that, I could only ask if you can forgive an old man's mistake.'
Draco's teeth were trembling against one another so hard it hurt. 'Never,' he hissed. 'I will never forgive you for that.'
Potter opened his mouth again but Dumbledore quieted him with a raised hand. 'I do not blame you,' Dumbledore said, sounding sincere. 'Your mother's loss was extremely unfortunate. And it is part of the reason I have come here tonight. But first...'
He paused, looking briefly sideways at Snape, who pressed his thin lips together until they were as white as the rest of him. Dumbledore must have interpreted this as permission to continue. 'There is something very serious both of you need to know, and I need your word that it will not leave this room.'
Immediately, Potter said, 'You have my word.'
In the silence that followed, Snape's eyes fixed on Draco. Dumbledore did not look at him, but said, 'It would be in both your best interests to know, but if you find yourself unable to keep the information in confidence, I must ask you to leave.'
Well, sod that, Draco thought bitterly. As a Malfoy he may have been bred with a large amount of pride, but as a Slytherin he was engineered with an even larger amount of curiosity. His pride really never had a chance. 'I'll keep it to myself,' was all he offered.
This seemed to satisfy the old wizard. 'I did reveal to you both, three nights ago, that I had been aware of your rather… reckless attempts all year to bring about my demise; yet, with your best interests in mind, I did nothing to interfere. And although I also knew you planned to grant access to Death Eaters into Hogwarts, I did not know how. And despite his best efforts, Professor Snape was unable to persuade you from sharing his plans.'
At those words, Draco felt an involuntary, vicious sort of smugness.
Dumbledore continued: 'When Professor Snape first informed me that Voldemort—' (Both Draco and Snape winced at the Dark Lord's name.) '—had summoned young Mr Malfoy, I took certain precautionary measures. Had Draco decided to delegate control of the situation to me a moment too late, I daresay I would probably not be here having this conversation with you.' He paused and Snape tensed, as if dreading the worst. Dumbledore looked directly at Draco and finished, 'Had that occurred, I must confess that Professor Snape had very specific orders from me to carry out the deed in your place.'
There was a moment's silence as this information sunk in, and then both Draco and Potter shouted 'What?' at the same time, but with vastly different degrees of disbelief and indignation. Potter looked quite like he wanted nothing better than to murder Snape on the spot. Draco just gaped at him.
'Harry, please,' Dumbledore said patiently, anticipating an outburst. 'I understand you find this hard to believe, but have my assurances that Professor Snape was acting on my orders—'
'Bollocks he was!' Potter shouted back. 'I heard him talking to Malfoy—over Christmas—his mother made Snape take an Unbreakable Vow—'
'I am well aware of that,' Dumbledore interrupted. Snape narrowed his eyes, clearly furious that Potter had snooped in on their talk at the Christmas party. 'One of the first things Severus assured me was that, without a shred of a doubt, Narcissa would seek out help in protecting her only child. With Lucius in prison, he suspected she would immediately come to him. He was, unsurprisingly, quite correct. I asked him to make whatever promises he felt he could keep, even if it included the worst, as long as it was in the best interests of her son.'
'Sure you did,' Draco spat, rolling his eyes. 'You expect me to believe that? You, offering your life in place of a possible Death Eater's? Please.'
Dumbledore turned his gaze to Draco, eyebrows raised. 'I think it's quite safe to say, Draco, that by your actions that night, you proved me quite right in believing your life one worthy of being spared.'
Draco did not know what to say to this, so he just clamped his jaw shut. His throat very tight again.
'Which brings me to the other reason I came here tonight,' Dumbledore continued. 'While the other students were promptly returned home after the incident, there is still much that needs to be righted at Hogwarts before it is fit to be safely occupied again. Most importantly, the Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement, which none of us are able to access except Mr Malfoy. Order members were sent to Borgin and Burkes to investigate its significant other but, unsurprisingly, it has vanished and Mr Borgin conveniently does not remember ever being in possession of such an artefact.'
Dumbledore paused again. He seemed to be waiting for a reaction, and Draco was too entirely frustrated at the world to keep his silence out of pure spite. 'So what? They probably took it to the Manor when I told them it was finished. You don't expect a bunch of wanted Death Eaters to walk out in public, even in Knockturn Alley.'
'I suspected as much, but if the matching Cabinet was indeed at your home, it has been since removed.' Dumbledore adjusted his glasses and focused entirely on Draco. 'And because of this, Hogwarts is still currently accessible to whoever holds the other Cabinet. Which is why I require your services, Draco, in opening the Room of Requirement so we may destroy the other link.'
Draco narrowed his eyes. 'Why are you telling me all of this?'
'As I said before, I regret my inability to keep all of my promises; I consider it only fair that you understand the full details of the situation of which you were so thoroughly involved with.'
'Sorry,' Draco sneered, 'all of your promises?'
'You are alive, are you not?' Snape demanded, stepping forward. 'The Headmaster promised you and your family sanctuary; he has, at least, kept part of the deal.'
Draco folded his arms and looked away. He wanted to do nothing for the old wizard, no matter what Snape said; truth be told, now he truly did want to kill him—if only he'd known that night, what was to come... 'And if I don't?'
Snape answered for Dumbledore again. 'Then I daresay you will leave me with no choice but to expel you from the institution, Mr Malfoy.'
'What?' he and Potter chorused again. Draco kept talking: 'What the hell do you mean, expel me?' Surely, he'd already been banned from Hogwarts forever?
'Just what I said, Mr Malfoy.' Snape's lips adopted a smirk. 'The Headmaster and myself hardly wish to deprive you of the rest of your education, much less safe sanctuary from the Dark Lord. However, if you refuse to cooperate—'
'You can't honestly be thinking of letting him back at school!' Potter demanded, pointing an accusing finger at Draco. 'He let Death Eaters into Hogwarts! He nearly got us all—and he's a bloody—he's got the Dark Mark!'
'So does Professor Snape, Harry,' Dumbledore said mildly. 'And think of him what you may, I trust the man with my life—as well as my death. It would be unfair not to offer Draco a similar accord.' His gaze turned back to Draco. 'Well, Mr Malfoy?'
Draco opened his mouth and closed it again. Snape was giving him a very hard stare, and Potter looked shocked and indignant and furious all at once; obviously, the idea that Draco had any chance at continuing to attend Hogwarts had not entered his mind. Despite it being obviously what Dumbledore wanted, Draco was trying to think of an alternative option, and could not—and just the simple knowledge that this infuriated Potter made it that much more appealing.
'Yeah, all right,' Draco said shrugging. 'I'll open it for you.'
'Excellent,' Dumbledore said, looking pleased and immediately making Draco regret his decision. 'But it is already late, so I shall call on you tomorrow afternoon and travel with you to Hogwarts. In the meantime, I suggest you get some rest. Professor Snape, if you'd escort Draco upstairs; I wish to speak with Harry for a moment.'
'Certainly, Headmaster,' Snape replied icily. 'Mr Malfoy.'
Scowling, Draco shot Potter one more nasty look before allowing himself to be led up the stairs. Once in the hall and alone, he turned to Snape. 'Is it true?'
'Is what true, Mr Malfoy?'
'Stop calling me that,' Draco hissed. 'You know what I mean. My father. Is it—did he—'
Snape looked extremely grave; it seemed he was able to sense the constricting of Draco's throat, and did not require him to finish. 'I'm afraid so, Draco.'
And Snape left him standing there in the hall, staring at the wall, exiting the house so quietly that Draco did not realise he'd opened the door until he'd closed it.
: : :
Draco was not crying again.
No, he'd promised himself he wouldn't. He wasn't this weak. These were tears of rage, pure frustration and hate—it wasn't the same thing as weeping. It wasn't.
He lay in his bed, curled in a foetal position atop the duvet, sweating and blanketed in cold fury. He may have failed to kill Dumbledore, but this time it would be different. This time, he wanted to kill. This time, he would not fail.
The door to his room creaked. Draco opened his eyes, and saw a dark figure standing in the doorway. After a moment, Potter came in and closed the door behind him, making his way into the room.
'What do you want, Potter?'
Potter halted mid-stride, tensing. 'I want to go to sleep,' he said stiffly. 'Is that a problem?'
'Why are you going to sleep in here?'
'Because this is my room,' Potter spat back. 'We went over this, remember?'
Draco sat up, holding himself up with his hands propped on the mattress behind him. 'Then where the hell am I supposed to sleep?'
'I really don't give a damn, Malfoy,' Potter said, sounding tired. 'There are two beds in this room.'
'What about the other rooms?'
'Ginny and Hermione are splitting a room on the first floor, the twins are downstairs with Ron and Charlie are across the hall, and Lupin and Tonks are sharing the master bedroom upstairs.' Potter paused, folding his arms. 'Would you prefer to share with one of the Weasleys? I'm sure Fred or George would be thrilled to split a room with you.'
Draco bared his teeth, preparing to hurl a nasty comment about Weasleys and their plebeian lives, before the details of the sleeping arrangements halted him. 'So where have you been sleeping the past three days?'
Potter glared coldly at him. 'On the couch,' he said shortly.
'... Oh,' said Draco.
'Anyway,' Potter said, turning away from him. 'I'm bloody knackered, so you can leave if you want. Don't feel the need to ask.'
Draco watched with hooded eyes as Potter pulled off his jumper and jeans in the darkness on the other side of the room, then proceed to pull on a pair of flannel pyjama bottoms and crawl into the other bed, collapsing in an unorganised heap.
He wondered where he would be right now if he hadn't failed, or if he hadn't lowered his wand in time. He wondered what Dumbledore talked to Potter about in private. He wondered how Potter found it so easy to just crawl in the same room as him and just pass out without a worry.
He wondered why he cared.
: : :
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