Harry Potter and the Eyes of the Dragon

Chapter VI: The Price To Pay

Harry didn’t want to get up from bed the morning after Christmas, but he knew he had to face the consequences of his actions. He got dressed and went down to the Great Hall for breakfast. His friends greeted him like he was some sort of hero for breaking Malfoy’s face, except for Hermione who looked at him reprehending, which was just what Harry expected to get from her.

‘Harry, it’s such a shame you missed Malfoy’s arrival. He was bloody limping!’, Ron laughed.

Harry looked over to the Slytherin table, where Draco Malfoy was being pampered by Pansy Parkinson. He had a big bruise on the cheek and a black eye, and he was constantly rubbing his arm, where Harry remembered having kicked him.

‘Mr. Potter’, McGonagall’s voice reached Harry’s ears. ‘The Headmaster would like to see you in his office after breakfast to discuss your punishment. The password is Sugar Spiders. I suggest you not to make him wait long.’

‘I only hope it was worth it’, Hermione said when McGonagall walked away to give the same indications to Malfoy.

‘It was. And if I had the chance, I’d do it again’, Harry replied darkly.

‘Harry, you should be careful. You know what sort of contacts he has.’

‘Yeah, so? They’re after me, anyway, so why should I bother.’

‘Hermione, leave it, will you?’, said Ron. ‘He’s already going to hear Dumbledore’s speech, don’t give him another one, it’s pointless.’

‘That, I’m sure about’, she said. ‘He’s one of the most stubborn people I know so, even if I gave him the most reasonable advise, he wouldn’t take it.’

‘You’re damn right, I wouldn’t’, Harry chuckled.

He got up from the table and went up to Dumbledore’s office. He looked over at his rival again, who seemed to be getting up as well. He doesn’t want to look bad in front of Dumbledore, doesn’t he?, Harry said to himself. Let’s make sure he does. With that, he started running up the same staircases he had climbed so many times before. He stopped in front of the gargoyle, spoke the password and knocked on the Headmaster’s door, panting and sweating from the rush.

‘Come in’, said the old wizard.

Harry opened the door and his mouth dropped when he found Draco Malfoy already there, sitting calmly as though he had been there for hours. He saw him mouth the word “shortcut” and grin evilly.

‘Have a seat, Harry’, Dumbledore said, and waited for him to park his persona on the chair. ‘Now that we’re all here, I would like you to explain to me exactly what happened last night. Draco, since you got here first, I think it’s only fair for you to begin.’

Draco grinned, his arms folded confidently, and said, ‘I was having a great time at the party when, all of the sudden, he intentionally bumped into me. I told him to watch where he was going, not actually thinking about getting into a fight, but he, on the other side, had other plans in mind. He provoked me until I said I few truths he didn’t want to hear and punched me.’

‘It’s that true, Harry?’, Dumbledore asked calmly, resting his chin on his entwined fingers.

‘If by truth you mean that my mother was a dirty little bitch, then yes’, Harry replied hotly and folded his arms too, making him look like an enraged little kid.

‘So, you admit your intentions were to get into a fight with him?’

Harry opened his mouth but closed it again in the loss for words. ‘I didn’t want to get into that kind of fight, sir. It just went out of hands.’

‘OK, I think I’ve heard enough…’, he sighed. ‘You will both serve detention tonight and points will be taken from both houses.’

‘But, sir!’, Malfoy started to protest.

‘Draco, I know you don’t think you deserve the same punishment since it wasn’t you the one who started the whole thing, but if I’m not wrong, you did nothing to stop it either.’

‘That was pure self-defence. I couldn’t just stay there whilst he was beating the heck out of me.’

‘I meant the insulting. But still, there are better ways to defend yourself than hitting back. I will take more points from Gryffindor, none the less.’

‘How many?’, they both asked together.

‘Well, I was thinking 25. So that would be, 75 points from Slytherin and 100 from Gryffindor.’
Harry and Draco looked as though a bucket of cold water had been dropped on their heads, but they considered it would be wiser to keep their mouth shut.

‘And about detention… I thought it would be a good idea for you to help Hagrid feeding the thestrals at the Forbidden Forest.’

Harry couldn’t help but smile when he saw the blonde’s reaction to those last words. He remembered perfectly how scared Malfoy had been when they were sent there in first year. Oh, the good times.

***

Ron put his hand on Harry’s shoulders and gave them a little squeeze before his best friend left the warm common room to enter the cold night for his detention.

‘You’ve got your wand?’, Ron asked and Harry nodded. ‘OK, but in case anything happens, don’t be afraid to give him a nice kick on the groin.’

‘I will’, Harry laughed. ‘Gosh, Ron! You sound like I’m going to war or something!’

‘You are going to war, Harry’, the redhead said in a serious voice. ‘And I’m counting on you to tie him up to a tree and let him freeze to death. Will you do that for me, Harry? Will you?’
Ron shook him roughly leaving Harry a bit dizzy and stumbling.

‘I promise to tie you up if you ever do that again’, he said taking a hand to his head. ‘Well, mate, I think this is it. I’m going to go and face my destiny.’

‘Would you both quit being so dramatic?’, Hermione pleaded from the armchair by the fire, after putting down her copy of Ancient Magic and Myths. ‘He’ll be back in less than two hours, for Merlin’s sake! And since when do you care so much about being alone with Malfoy?’

‘Hermione, I don’t know if you’ve noticed how tense it’s been getting lately between them. Their encounters have been increasing a lot both in violence and moral damage this last few years, and I’m pretty sure tonight won’t be an exception’, Ron told her.
Harry and Hermione blinked in disbelief.

‘OK, you need to stay away from Hermione for a few days. Your personalities are beginning to fuse.’
Harry went down to the Great Hall, where he was supposed to meet Malfoy and Hagrid. The half-giant greeted him a lot less friendly-like than usual and the other boy only gave him a cold glare.

‘Let’s go, shall we?’, asked Hagrid and leaded them out of the castle. They walked across the snow-covered grounds and stopped in front of his cabin. ‘This is what I want yeh ter do: take ‘is half o’ cow ter the same place I took yeh in 5th year, where the thestrals live. Do yeh remember ‘ow ter get there?’. Harry nodded.

‘Wait, does that mean you’re not coming with us?’, Malfoy asked trying to hide the fear in his voice.

‘Yeah! Dumbledore clearly specified he didn’t want me goin’ with yeh.’

Malfoy shook his head and growled. Hagrid shot him a nasty look and continued.

‘So, when you get to there, jus’ leave the meat on the floor and wait fer them all ter go an’ eat. There are 12 of ‘em. Wait ‘ere.’

He went inside and returned with the half of dead cow on his shoulder. He saw Malfoy’s face of disgust and said, ‘Yeh can carry it with yer wands if yeh like.’

Harry and Draco took out their wands and walked to the Forbidden Forest, followed by the flying dead cow.

‘I just realized, Potter, I never really thanked you for getting us into this’, Draco said sarcastically as they walked deeper into the Forest. ‘I mean, how often do you get the chance to go to one of the most dangerous places around in the middle of the night?’

‘About once a year’, Harry replied chuckling. ‘And you’re welcome. Watch the root.’

‘What? Ah!’, Malfoy screamed when he felt something curl around his ankle.

‘Incendio!’, Harry spoke as he pointed his wand to the bottom of the tree, making it let go of Malfoy. ‘I told you to watch the root.’

‘What kind of warning was that? You said it so calmly I didn’t even realize what you were talking about!’

‘It was just a simple root, Malfoy! Calm down!’

‘That’s easy for you to say. It wasn’t you the one who was attacked by a freaking tree.’
Harry started laughing at his nervous companion. ‘You are such a little coward, Malfoy!’

‘I’m not a coward!’, he yelled back at him, but Harry shushed him. ‘What?’

‘I think we should keep it down… we’re too far inside.’

They kept on walking silently until they reached an area so full of trees that the smooth moonlight couldn’t penetrate it and there was no more snow in the ground.

‘I think it’s here’, Harry informed quietly.

They put down the raw meat and took a seat on a broken log, which, Harry supposed, Hagrid had intentionally put there. They waited there without saying a word for the thestrals to smell the meat and go eat it. Harry saw a pair of blank, white, shining eyes growing larger through the gloom and a moment later the dragonish face, neck and then skeletal body of a great, black, winged horse emerged from the darkness, followed by another one.

‘Here they come’, Draco whispered.

Harry looked at him curiously. ‘I thought you couldn’t see them.’ He could remember perfectly the Care of the Magic Creatures class where they had studied thestrals, and when Hagrid had asked who were able to see them, Draco hadn’t raised his hand.

‘Well, it looks like I can, doesn’t it? What’s wrong, Potter? Do you miss being special?’, he said harshly.

‘You saw someone die, didn’t you?’, Harry asked without thinking.

‘That’s none of your business.’

They both fell quiet again and didn’t even move until the 12 creatures had fed and left.
Harry noticed Draco was getting more nervous since the wind had started blowing harder, making the leaves sound a lot like little menacing creatures.

‘What’s that?’, Draco whispered raising his left arm in the air and pointing somewhere around the higher branches of the trees.

‘There’s nothing there, Malf…’, Harry started saying, right before smashing him against a tree.

‘What the fuck has gotten into you?!’

‘This!’, Harry yelled, grabbing the Slytherin’s left arm, sliding the sleeve up to reveal the Dark Mark burnt into his pale skin. ‘So you’re finally a Death Eater, aren’t you? I knew you were up to something. I saw you talking to your father last night.’ Harry wished he hadn’t revealed too much information but waited for Malfoy to react with his wand pointing to his chest.

‘Congratulations! You got me. Why don’t you go tell your precious Dumbledore about it? If I’m lucky enough, he’ll expel me, and that would be the best thing that could happen to me right now.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Come on, Potter! Do you really think I want to be a Death Eater? I had no choice! And now I have to play the spy around the school, and believe me, I would gladly take a step right out of this school as soon as possible.’

‘I don’t believe you’, Harry said, pressing his wand deeper onto his chest.

‘Fuck, Potter! Wake up! They’ll come for you. He wants you dead!’

‘Why are you telling me all this?’, Harry enquired suspiciously.

‘Because you’re pointing your bloody wand at me, because I’m sick of fighting you and I’m sick of being such a fucking coward!’, Draco cried out.

Harry let go of him and took a step backwards in shock.

‘Why do you think it hits me so hard every time you call me that?’, Draco said. ‘Because I’ve been telling that to myself for ages and your voice was just the eco of the one I’m constantly trying to shut up!’

‘What’s happened to you, Malfoy? What made you change all of the sudden?’

‘I… met someone… that tore my charade down. Because that’s all I’ve ever been. A big lie.’

‘Was she… was that someone the one who died?’, Harry asked shyly.

‘Yes, OK? She died right in front of my very eyes! Are you happy now, or are you going to keep torturing me some more?’

Harry noticed his voice was faltering and his eyes were watering. He suddenly felt the need to comfort him.

‘Sorry’, Harry said in a small voice. ‘I just don’t know how to act with you now that you’re so…’

‘Weak?’

‘I was going to say vulnerable.’

‘Same shit, different smell’, Draco laughed slightly. ‘And you don’t have to act any differently, I’m just in a bad mood and in the last place I’d rather be.’

‘And with the last person too?’, Harry chuckled.

‘Potter, as much as I may despise you, there’ll always be someone worst, so don’t think of yourself as the centre of the universe.’

***

Back at the dungeons, Draco lie down on his bed unable to sleep… again. The dark green hangings were closed around his four-poster, hiding him from the sight of his roommates in case any of them woke up. He was holding a muggle device to listen to music, which he had magically fixed to make it work in the castle. The music got to his ears and he begun to remember… He could practically hear his father’s voice saying “Draco, you go upstairs and take care of anyone you find there.”

Draco closed his eyes and the images of one of his summer nights invaded his head.

He saw himself opening the bedroom door at the muggle house. There was a young girl inside who was about 15 years old and had short black hair. She was sitting on the floor by her bed and had her arms around her knees and he could hear her crying, though her face was hidden over her legs.
He saw this long black things he recognized as wires coming from her ears and ending on a round artefact he didn’t know. He had never seen one of those in Muggle Studies.

Draco put down his wand and stared at the girl silently. She looked up at him with a scared expression, like she hadn’t noticed he was there until now.

‘What… who are you?’, the girl asked taking the headphones out of her ears.

‘That’s not important’, Draco said moving closer to her. She moved away slightly, without getting up from the floor. ‘What’s wrong?’, he asked as he whipped her tears.

The girl picked up on of the headphones and gave it to him. She took the round thing from the bed and pressed a button. Draco heard a woman’s voice singing:

She’s a pretty girl, does she make you think nasty thoughts
She’s a pretty girl, do you want to tie her down
She’s a pretty girl, do you call her ‘bitch’
She’s a pretty girl, does she sleep in your hotel
Pretty girl, pretty girl
Do you hate her ‘cause she’s pieces of you

‘Is he dead, my father?’, she asked, her brown eyes bright with tears.

Draco just stared at her, unable to say a thing, not knowing what to say anyhow.

‘Is he?’, she demanded, and Draco nodded. ‘Good, he deserved it.’

He heard footsteps getting closer. ‘Get out of here, quick’, he whispered. She didn’t move.

Lucius Malfoy opened the door. ‘Come on, Draco! Do it already!’

His son raised his wand again and pointed at her, trembling. She looked at him crying.

‘I can’t…’

‘Draco! You better do as I say or…’

‘AVADA KEDABRA!’, Draco yelled, and a green flash of light emerged from the tip of his wand.

The girl had fallen down. She would never cry again. And he was still standing there, looking at her dead body in horror.

‘Well done, son. Come on, lets get out of here.’

Lucius turned around and left. Without thinking, Draco took the round music player and left.

Draco dried the tears on his face, which were beginning to wet his Slytherin pillow. The song went on, and he cried silently remembering that girl he would never know.

A/N: The song Draco was listening is called \"Pieces of you\" by Jewel