Memoirs of a Serpent's Son

[AUTHOR’S NOTE: Just, once more, would like to remind you that I am following the road less traveled and please bear with me. :) ]

Memoirs of a Serpent’s Son

--Age 17—part 28

January 15 –continued

Abruptly and without any kind of warning I felt hard ground beneath me and my head knocked back against the asphalt with a sickening reverberating crack from within my own mind. My senses grew more acute somehow… well at least my touch… I became painfully aware of every tiny little pebble that was pressing into my skin or aggravating my wound. It was then that I realized, though with only vague acceptance, that my wound went straight through from front to back… or back to front.

I can’t really tell.

My eyes were clouded and blurry as I blinked and felt myself moaning and gasping in agony and fear. There was a rusty flavour in my mouth and I clutched my hands protectively to where I was bleeding.

Everything around me was swirling and I felt as though I’d been thrown into some kind of sickening vortex. I had the urge to vomit but only bits of blood came up and splattered my face.

“DRACO!!” a very familiar voice screamed out. Suddenly there were glowing flashes of colour soaring towards me and then faces flickered in and out of my sight while my vision was splotched with black dots.

Harry… yes Harry was kneeling over me, his face stricken with fear and urgency. His green eyes shone strange colours in the moonlight… the red moonlight.

There were blurs of vibrant red hair around me too; someone was angling my head with their knees around me. Harry was over me and tugging away at my shirt, holding his wand to my wound… and then, with a flash of magic I screamed and lurched forwards into a half-sitting position, my face twisted in pain as the magic tore through me and desperately tried to repair the damage.

“THAT WON’T WORK, HAVEN’T I TOLD YOU?!” I screamed through the agony that threatened to shatter my bones. And then it suddenly stopped and I gasped and fell back onto someone’s lap. Looking up, I realized it was George… or Fred. Damn.

“Draco, calm down!” Harry urged. “We need potions. Something. He needs bandages, he needs help!!”

I could hear the panic in his voice and felt tears flow down my cheeks as more and more blood flowed from me.

“Harry…” I whispered, unable to speak more loudly for some reason. My voice was hoarse and an unusual sensation of calm came over me. It would all be ok soon… the pain would melt away.

Harry looked back at me, his eyes pleading with me to stay with him, to be alright.

“Draco… you’ll be ok,” he whispered hurriedly to me, bringing his face close to mine and kissing my forehead. “Just stay with me, you’ll be ok… please… please, Draco…”

There were tears streaking his face and I felt the little droplets splatter onto my skin as he clutched me tightly and shook through his grip. He was muttering my name like a chant, some kind of prayer or incantation… and I felt my throat close up and I wanted so desperately to bring a hand up to hold him but I couldn’t. I couldn’t lift my arms.

It was then I realized…

I had come to terms, long ago, with the knowledge that I would be dead by the end of this war. I know that I will not survive to see my name cleared or even to know what the Manor looks like… never know what it’s like to wake up in the morning next to Harry without having to worry about the imminent threat of Voldemort at the door.

But I realized that right then, in that moment, I was not prepared to die.

I was not ready to give it all up, not just yet. I can’t leave him… I can’t say goodbye to him when he’s just given me his heart…

Not when I might finally be happy, if only for a little bit.

And then, right after this surge of determination came the torturous realization that I might not have a choice and that time was running low for me…

“Here, give him these!” Weasel’s voice echoed distantly beside me. He handed two vials to Harry who looked at him in confusion. “The purple one to drink and the other to cover the wound!”

Harry didn’t wait to ask but did as he was told and fed me the potion (that somehow tasted like mint and lavender) and then covered the gash in my stomach with the other. I immediately felt another searing wave of the healing magic wash over me and I began to sob harder.

“I won’t heal, don’t you listen?!” I tried to scream but I don’t know how loud my voice really was. “It’s no use…. It won’t work…”

“Shut up, Draco!” Harry’s voice snapped at me, only partially as angry as it should have been. He was desperate and holding me tightly. “It will work, it will help! Please, god, HELP!”

“Hermione brewed those,” Ron explained as him and his two brothers tended to my wound. I felt tightening around my waist and splint-like bandages appeared around me, tight to the point where I might not have been able to bend. “She gave me loads of little vials but said those were specifically for you, Malfoy.”

I couldn’t process the information quickly enough, but I felt little, very faint tingling sensations in my fingertips.

“What the hell?” I whispered, trying to take in every possible scent of Harry that I could before I lost it forever. The bandages were already drenched in blood and they quickly added new ones.

“She said that it would take some time to take effect but once it did,” he tried to remember quickly as he watched the bandages soak instantly almost as if they were already drenched before they hit my skin. “That your bleeding would stop for a few hours… long enough to get you somewhere safe.”

I babbled incoherently for a few moments, feeling surges of very unpleasant sensations wash through me. I could almost FEEL the flesh attempting to knit back together and adhere to the magic that demanded it. But it was forcing and I felt like there was a war raging inside of me worse than the one that was occurring around us.

Harry was holding me tightly with one arm now as he added his wand to his three friends to try and conjure bandages that wouldn’t soak. I coughed a few times and felt cold… very very cold…

There was ice pressing into my lungs and hopeless feelings were washing over me. I thought this was death until I realized…

There was a flock of Dementors soaring downwards to us.

I tried to scream but I couldn’t and Harry’s head immediately snapped up to where I was looking and he pulled his wand up and screamed the incantation, sending a massive and blinding silver stag charging at the dark creatures.

“Harry, behind you!!” Fred’s voice came crashing through my mind. Harry spun and I turned my head slightly to see that there was a horde of Inferi closing in as well, reaching out their dead arms and searching with their sightless eyes to try and assimilate more into their fold.

“Deleocorpus! Deleocorpus!” Harry bellowed, casting flames at the advancing dead. They hovered back for a few moments as their kin fell to ashes before continuing their advance.

“More Dementors are coming!!” one of the twins was saying. They all got to their feet except Harry.

“I can’t take them all!” he screamed, sending curse and charm one after the other. His stag would not last long enough to chase away all the Dementors. “You three take on the Inferi, I’ll take the Dementors! Close in around Draco, shield him from them until the potion takes proper effect!”

Harry squeezed my hand and whispered a few words of hope and love into my ear before getting to his feet and stepping in front of me to shield me from the Dementor attack. The Weasleys circled around the rest of me to fight off the dead and I was left there lying helpless and bleeding on the ground.

The tingling in my limbs grew stronger just as I heard a heart-stopping growl from the opening between Harry and Weasel. I turned my head and saw a werewolf standing there and sniffing in my direction.

It couldn’t see me… but it could smell my blood…

I gasped and tried not to cough, forcing myself to a sitting position. I pulled my wand and cast the first thing that came to mind –Stupefy –but the spell did little to the wolf other than enrage it more.

I doubled over in pain before hearing more (and much angrier growls) closing in. There was another wolf darting forwards towards me. It jumped right over the other wolf and skidded until it was no longer facing me but taking the other werewolf head on.

Remus.

I let out a gasp of relief and turned my attention back to getting to my feet. The pain was slowly ebbing, though I’m sure I only noticed the slight variance because of the intensity of the original feeling.

I could feel my weight again and gingerly tried to push myself to my feet, but it was hard… like all of me was full of lead. Every move generated a sting or searing flare from the still bleeding wound on my stomach. But at least it was bleeding less… that I could tell.

I took a few moments to breathe and reassert myself. The Weasleys behind me were fighting valiantly against the Inferi but every so often I would feel a cold and clammy hand on my arm or shoulder, drawing me back between them. Remus was fighting tooth and nail against the opposing werewolf… and Harry…

Harry was shaking violently from the effort it took him keep up the incantation. His stag would flicker every so often and his face was wrought with sweat and concentration.

“I… I need help!” Harry screamed, fighting hard against the creatures that threatened to suck out his and all of our souls… “There are too many of them…”

His voice was getting weak and I knew that he was only reacting this way because I was lying on the ground, potentially dead in his mind. And then the most horrifying sight hit me.

Harry’s knees buckled and he fell to the ground, the stag disappearing and the Dementors closing in. He tried with all his might to conjure his Patronus again but he couldn’t breathe enough to yell out the words. I felt my heart race and blood pump faster through my veins. Adrenaline rushed through me and likely caused the bleeding to increase but I forced myself to my feet and stepped up next to him.

He needs me by his side… NEXT TO HIM… to fight WITH HIM… Harry NEEDS me and I am not going to run away.

I stepped forward and pulled my wand, fighting against the daggers that felt as though they were tearing through my abdomen.

“Expecto patronum!” I bellowed forcing myself to think only of how much he needed me… how much things have changed. “EXPECTO PATRONUM!”

And, as though someone answering my pleas, a blinding silver creature emerged from my wand and bounded forward, chasing the Dementors away from Harry and I.

Now, I know this wasn’t the best time to feel self-conscious about something so absurdly stupid as this… but you would THINK that, being WHO I AM, my Patronus would have taken the form of something logical. Like, say, a giant serpent. Or maybe a Dragon.

HELL A FUCKING FERRET WOULD HAVE MADE MORE SENSE TO ME AT THE TIME.

BUT NO.

No no.

A bloody fucking LION jumps out of my wand and roars at the Dementors before chasing them off and turning to stare at me with this sadistic glint in it’s eye as though it KNOWS it’s taunting me.

A SLYTHERIN PRINCE WITH A LION.

I blatantly refuse to see the possible connotations behind this.

I flushed red, though it might not have been only embarrassment, as I hand took mine and Harry brought himself to his feet. He smirked at me before casting another Patronus of his own and soon the stag joined my lion to force the Dementors to retreat.

“You alright?” He asked hoarsely between spells. I smiled and nodded.

“Of course,” I sneered forcing my lion onward. “I knew I would be.”

“Right,” Harry replied sarcastically, still sweating and shaking from his exertions. His stag wasn’t quite as bright as before but it didn’t stop it from doing its job. “Remind me not to thank Hermione, then.”

“I’ll thank her for both of us,” I snickered quietly.

“Sorry to break up the reunion,” Fred cried out rather hurriedly. “But we’ve got to get back in the air.” I turned and he tossed me my Nimbus.

I felt another lurching in my stomach from the pain that would not leave, but I mounted and kicked off the ground, urging onwards to meet Harry in the sky.

I gazed back down and saw the shrinking image of Remus looking up at us and howling to the moon.

I turned to Harry and nodded.

We didn’t have much time left with the Invisihats and we flew at top speed, swerving and diving every so often to avoid obstacles in our way. I forced down the urge to faint and give in to the agony, but I could feel the bandages soaking through to my shirt and my jumper. The cold January wind whipped at me and froze me to the bone but I wouldn’t let it slow me down.

Finally, after who knows how long in the air, Harry pointed down to a small street and we each dropped into a dive to land in front of a house.

The street was motionless but there was a distant rumbling from the sounds of battle somewhere in a nearby neighbourhood. I glanced over at Harry and he pointed, with wide eyes and a blank expression, to the house just behind me.

It was exactly like the other little houses on the street except that this one was in ruins.

The walls were crumbling and the roof had caved in. The front door was blown off and the windows were broken. There was a soft and flickering light from one of the backrooms of the house. I swallowed hard and turned back to Harry. He had put on a determined face and nodded before stepping forward and up to the house.

I followed closely, taking slow and calculated breaths to keep myself from aggravating my already terrible injury. I held a hand to my stomach as I passed over the threshold into a dark hallway. There were shattered picture frames and broken stairs leading up to the collapsed portion of the house. I turned my attention to the wall. Next to my head there was a little rectangle patch with an unusual plastic lever poking out of it.

I held my wand out to it and flicked it up. Immediately a light flickered above my head before something shattered with a soft noise and the light faded with an odd sizzle. I jumped and stared wide-eyed at Harry who almost smiled and shook his head at me.

I’ve never been in a muggle house before.

I suppressed my embarrassment in light of the situation and kept moving forward. The kitchen was ahead and the pipes were broken, letting a fountain of light water spray out over the other ruins.

Hahrry stopped dead and I almost walked into him. When I realized he was looking down, mind you, my eyes followed his and there, lying at his feet, was the motionless body of a large man.

This was the body of who I assumed was Vernon Dursley.

Harry hesitated before bending down to feel at the man’s thick neck. He let his head drop for a moment before looking up at me with almost expressionless eyes.

“No pulse,” he said in hardly more than a whisper. I didn’t know how to react to that… how to comfort him or… simply what to say, but I didn’t have to. From the next room there came panicked scuttling sounds and whimpering. Harry’s eyes snapped to me before he got to his feet again and nodded us all forward, holding his wand out in defense.

He pushed open the broken door and we stepped into the sitting room. This was a mess as well but less so than the rest of the house. The simpering was coming from a lump of a boy in the corner of the room, trying to hide behind one of the armchairs but failing to do so due to his size.

My lip curled in a snarl before I could stop it.

So THIS was Dudley Dursley.

Pathetic oaf.

I felt a twinge momentarily from another stabbing pain but took it in stride.

Harry stepped forward to his cousin and I found myself wavering slightly. A strong shoulder came up behind me and helped me straighten up. I looked over and realized that it was Weasel. I nodded to him curtly before turning my attention back to the blubbering boy in the corner.

“Dudley, are you alright?” Harry asked as soothingly as possible. The boy squealed and curled up tighter behind the chair.

“Don’t come any closer!” he screeched, shaking more and more violently.

“Dudley, I won’t hurt you,” Harry protested, holding out a hand. But the boy wouldn’t listen.

“No! Don’t!” he screamed. “I don’t want any of your lot here! You’re the ones that killed him!! You!! Just like HER! Get away, get away!!”

Harry’s mouth opened slightly as he tried to process what he had been told. I was trying to do the same but it wasn’t working much.

“Dudley,” Harry tried again more soothingly. “They were evil wizards who killed Uncle Vernon… I will not hurt you. I’m here to protect you.”

The boy grew more frantic.

“That’s just what she said!!” he exclaimed. “SHE said it was protection but look at what happened to dad!! All your kind are bad! Get away from me, you! And take her with you!!”

Harry frowned and furrowed his brows.

“Who is ‘she’??” He asked a little more roughly than he likely meant. The boy shuddered a bit before sitting up more straight and pointing a thick finger to the left side of the room that none of us seemed to have noticed.

“HER!” he screamed, his face red and his eyes watery.

Harry turned his attention (as did we all) to the sofa that sat just by the wall.

On it, sitting rather calmly and comfortably, was Petunia Durlsey. She was leaning on her knees and her eyes were distant as she stared off through the carpet beneath her. She did not look up. In fact she hardly registered our presence at all.

“Aunt Petunia??” Harry asked in shock. He caught her attention with his voice and she slowly turned her head, her expression unchanging, to look at her nephew.

“Harry,” she replied simply. “I knew you would come.”

“What happened?” he asked, ignoring the strange comment. I groaned softly and flinched again. Weasel held tighter to prop me up.

“It was a mess,” she muttered absently. “Horrifying… old man warned me of terrors… told him I wouldn’t do it… he said I wouldn’t have a choice… it wouldn’t be up to me. It would just happen… suppose he was right.”

We each looked at one another.

“What do you mean?” Harry asked, his eyes betraying his confusion.

“I tried… tried to protect them,” she continued, the anguish in her tone rising. “Tried so hard but… they got Vernon…they got him… only managed to save Dudley… saved him but he hates me… my own son, frightened of me…”

Harry shook his head and looked at Dudley again, realizing he would not get straight answers out of them in this state.

“Aunt Petunia, it isn’t safe here,” he said hurriedly. “You and Dudley have to come with us. We’ll take you some place safe, alright? I promise we’ll protect you.”

She gave him a vacant nod and got to her feet.

“I knew you would come…” she whispered again. Her look was rather disconcerting. Her eyes were empty and distant much like the eyes of those that no longer had souls, though she clearly had hers.

“Yes,” Harry answered oddly. He nodded, keeping his eyes on her. Then he spoke to us. “I’ll take my aunt and one of you will have to take Dudley. We’ll Apparate right back to the sitting room in Gri…Nu-… Damn it, Order Headquarters.”

I stepped up and Weasel released me. I smirked and looked down at the lump in the corner.

“I’ll take Duddikins,” I sneered darkly, my eyes flashing malevolently in his direction. The lump shivered and whined, clutching the chair more tightly.

“No,” Harry refused simply. I turned to him with a pout. I wanted some one-on-one time with Harry’s other tormentor… just to put him in his place. “You are already injured badly and I refuse to see you hurt yourself more.”

“We’ll take him,” the twins both immediately offered in unison, their faces breaking into identical grins. They walked over to Dudley and tried to lift him but I snarled at him and my eyes flashed again.

“You’ll go with them,” I ordered coldly, much in the manner that my father did. “Or I will take you. Take your pick.”

The Dursley boy’s arms immediately sprang up to clutch Fred and George and I smirked before turning back to Harry who looked as though he was mid-way between a frown and a smile.

“Let’s go.”

And without another word we popped out of the ruined house and back into the sitting room of the Black House.

Fred and George immediately let go of the boy and he collapsed onto the sofa, curling up into a large ball once more, staring wildly around himself and whimpering. Harry let go of his aunt and she collapsed as well (likely from the intense feeling of the Apparition) but looked up to her son and hesitated as she held her hand out to comfort him. He cowered away from her touch and held himself tighter.

“I think we need some answers,” I said quickly, clutching my stomach tightly and swaying slightly on the spot, feeling it become harder and harder to breathe.

“Yes, but not right now,” Harry said, surveying me carefully. He placed a shoulder under my arm and hoisted me up to lean against him. “You need to be treated properly and we all need rest… we’ll talk tomorrow.”

Granger walked into the room at that moment, already holding a platter of salves and potions as though she had been expecting it all along. She smiled sadly at me and glanced cautiously at the two Dursleys.

“Ron, you take Draco to his room with Hermione and treat him,” Harry delegated. “I’ll be up in a minute, but I need to acquaint my aunt and my cousin with the house a bit. Fred, George, you two need to alert the other Order members.”

We nodded and Weasel (or perhaps Ron now…) walked over and took hold of me, allowing Harry to let go. I hate being supported in this manner but as I had little choice, I let him and nodded. As I was leaving the room, someone spoke.

“Draco…” Petunia Dursley’s came distant and wondering. We both stopped and half turned to her. “Are you a dragon?”

The question was so awkward, especially coming from someone like her… and I couldn’t really comprehend the meaning. I looked from Ron, to Harry and then back to her, a strange notion flickering in my mind.

“Not anymore…” I told her softly.

"Don't be so sure."

-------IIIIIII--------

A/N: Sooooooo that was rough. And I’ll be explaining things more in the next chapter. Hope you enjoyed it. Yep, Draco’s Patronus is a Lion. He won’t ever live that down. Nope.

I would also like to point out that there are things I write in this story that I know for a fact aren’t true. I won’t highlight what they are to you because that would ruin the whole thing, but if you do see them, I also ask that you not point them out either. Not that I imagine you would as you are all wonderful to me *huggles to everyone* ^^

Also lots of pain there. And randomness from Aunt Petunia? I think so. Let’s wait until next time to find out, shall we? Though I think I’ve lost a few reviewers. I apologize if I’ve offended anyone… I really do. I never intend to. Thanks to everyone who is still sticking with me, I love you all!

Also, a jumper is just another word for sweater… woolen sweater, or pullover… something like that :)

We might yet see some more of Fred and George’s products… as well as Ron’s nicer side to Draco. Ron is a very loyal character and I believe that, with a little bit of time and effort, he would accept Draco too… if Harry did and if Draco could prove to him his true colours… or something like that.

And ehcie-utada, I’m sooooo excited about this surprise you have for me!!! I can’t wait!

Anyway, yeah. I hope this pleased you! I have to get a move on and get more chapters up so that I can finish in time X_X gah deadlines are crazy!

Love and cookies to all!