Draco Malfoy stood in the Room of Requirement, alone, holding an apple. It was about the end of the school year and he wasn't any closer to accomplishing the task Voldemort had set for him. At first proud to be following in his father's footsteps and become a Death Eater, he was now disillusioned. He could see plainly that this task was meant to be impossible, that he was meant to fail. And for that simple reason he couldn't. He would show Voldemort.
Slowly, he walked through the mess that was this version, called the Room of Hidden Things - which was what he had dubbed it when he came here earlier in the year to sit alone, overwhelmed by the gargantuan task he had been given.
As he approached his destination, a large cabinet, he looked at some of the other junk that had been left in here. There were discarded Butterbeer bottles, some of which were broken, and abandoned trinkets from earlier days. Looking more closely at one pile he saw a well-worn copy of Advanced Potion-Making.
Draco, still walking, pulled out his wand from his pocket, as well as a very yellow piece of parchment that looked like it had been crumpled and smoothed out many times before. He had lost track of the countless times he had pored over it in bed, trying to get the incantation just right, or wondering if there was another way of doing it.
He stopped in front of the Vanishing Cabinet, the first of the pair. The other was in Borgin and Burkes, and he was trying to fix the connection between the two. Bellatrix Lestrange and her fellow Death Eaters were waiting for him at the other end, to provide the necessary distraction so he could get Dumbledore alone.
Draco looked down at the paper, took a deep breath, and began speaking the incantation. It was long and complex, and mispronouncing it would have fatal consequences if he tried to use the cabinet after. When he finally finished, he took the apple, opened the door of the cabinet, and slowly, carefully, placed it on the bottom, before shutting the door again.
He stood before the Vanishing Cabinet with his eyes closed, fingers clenched tight around the handle of his wand. He was running out of time, and this was probably going to be his last chance this year.
The Cabinet started making noise. Slowly opening his eyes, Draco saw that white fog was coming out from around the hinges of the door. He began to panic; not knowing much about them (except how to fix one) he wasn't sure whether or not fog was supposed to come out of it, or if it was still broken.
Finally the fog died down. He braced himself and took a deep breath. "One, two, three, open," he said, and yanked the door open. He looked down, fully expecting to see a mutilated apple, like the previous failed attempts that had thoroughly disheartened him. Instead, he saw an intact apple.
Draco, relieved, let out the breath he'd been holding in and took the apple out of the door. Carefully, he folded the piece of paper containing the incantation for the spell to repair the cabinet, and stuck it in his jacket pocket.
Before he went through himself, he wanted to be doubly sure that the cabinet worked completely. He didn't want to get stuck in limbo like Montague did. It was an inglorious way to fail, a way that he did not intend to have happen to him.
He went back to an earlier pile of junk and selected the same copy of Advanced Potion Making that he had seen before. Before putting it in the cabinet, he flipped through it slowly. There were lots of incantations here, most that he'd never recognised. Then he focused on one.
Sectumsempra - for enemies only.
Memories came flooding back to him, some recent, some not.
He was lying on the floor in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, covered in his own blood after being cursed by Harry Potter with this spell. He was so weak he couldn't move and Moaning Myrtle was screaming about murder in the bathroom.
He was sitting in Potions class while Professor Slughorn fawned over Potter and how amazing his potions were. He could distinctly make out Granger getting mad. Draco remembered her complaining to Potter about how he wasn't following the steps in the book. Also, considering that Draco was surprised to find that Potter had even passed Potions in the first place, why was he doing better than Granger? Nobody did better than Granger in anything.
More memories. Sitting in Malfoy Manor at the long supper table while his father got mad at him for being beaten in terms of grades by a muggle-born. Now, looking back on it, he didn't really think that was a very big deal. But still, it was his father, and he cared about his father.
Who was now in Azkaban, thanks to Potter. Abruptly, Draco flipped to the front inside cover of the book. Under the inscription Property of the Half-Blood Prince, there was a second line. Now property of Harry Potter.
Potter. This was Potter's book.
Draco felt rage rising within as he held the book in one hand, his wand in the other. Silently he stood there, before realising that he had a job to do. Taking long, quick strides, he quickly crossed the short distance from the pile of junk he was currently standing at back to the Vanishing Cabinet. He opened the door, climbed in, and shut it quickly.
The Cabinet took a second to work, but then it did. When he started to move, Draco decided he would never travel by Vanishing Cabinet again. He felt like he was being yanked and torn in every single direction. Even though, deep down, he knew that he was changing cabinets and landing in the one at Borgin and Burkes, he was still surprised and unready when he was abruptly thrown into the air and smacked against a wall. He lay motionless in the bottom of the cabinet while everything whirled to a stop.
Draco felt like throwing up. The apple had come back whole. Why was the cabinet so violent? Was it normal? He slowly began to lift himself off the floor, then thought better of it.
While he was lying there, unmoving, he remembered a passage from a book he had read while trying to fix it. The first time a newly repaired Vanishing Cabinet is used by a living being, the trip to the other is particularly rough. After that, there is nothing to worry about.
With this realisation, he suddenly felt a lot better. He picked himself up, pushed open the door of the Vanishing Cabinet, and stepped out.
Borgin and Burkes looked somehow different than it had at Easter's, when he'd come here with Bellatrix to get the incantation from Mr. Borgin. Draco had been harsher on him than usual, and he had even threatened to set Greyback on him if he didn't comply, and leave the Cabinet where it was. He didn't have any control at all over Greyback. He knew that, and Bellatrix knew that, but Borgin hadn't, and the threat had worked.
He looked around. The whole place looked dark and foreboding - fitting, perhaps, for a store that would be the staging area for a Death Eater attack on Hogwarts. The walls were covered in grey stone, and left bare. The floor, usually grey stone, now had a pitch-black carpet on it. On the carpet was a skull, in what looked like an imitation of Voldemort's Dark Mark. It was as though Borgin & Burkes was formally announcing who they were supporting, in the hopes that the Ministry would've ever show up and decide to walk in.
There were different artefacts along the walls, on one long waist-height shelf. Draco began walking down it, looking at the inscriptions on the labels, mentally formulating a plan to get to Dumbledore's office unnoticed. He needed the Death Eaters to distract everyone else. He also needed to be able to get to Dumbledore's office without anyone stopping. Suddenly he had an idea. He strode quickly along the shelf, only stopping at the Hand of Glory. He stood there for a split second, then nodded and dashed out into the street.
As he emerged into Knockturn Alley, Draco hoped fervently that nobody would be in Diagon Alley, and that he wouldn't be questioned as to why he wasn't in school. He walked quickly, and put away his wand, making sure he had Galleons in his pocket when he did so.
He moved quickly, although trying his best to appear like he was part of a group, and not a loner. In these days, with the Ministry being more vigilant (and especially if your father was a known Death Eater imprisoned in Azkaban), you had to be careful.
Draco passed by several shops, until he came by the one he wanted: Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. He entered, and quickly found what he wanted, before Fred and George started asking questions. He hefted a bag of Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder in one hand and reached in his pocket for the 20 Galleons required for it, to have the money before he got to the counter. He was pretty sure the Weasley twins wouldn't trust him.
He approached the counter, where Fred was, and laid both the Powder and the Galleons on the counter. Keep calm, he told himself. Nothing wrong with buying something. Fred raised his eyebrows at the purchase, but rang him through anyway. Relieved, Draco took the offered bag gladly and left the store.
Walking back to Borgin and Burkes, his plan was coming together quite nicely in his mind. He and the Death Eaters that showed up - Bellatrix had said about 20 - would leave the Room of Requirement, and he would use the Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder. Since he would be carrying the Hand of Glory, he and the rest of the Death Eaters would be able to see just fine.
As he got back to Borgin and Burkes, he took the Hand of Glory from the table that it had been on, and then exited that room through the back door.
Bellatrix stood waiting on the other side. How she had managed to avoid the Ministry eluded Draco, although, knowing her, she had probably killed one or two people just on the way here. Behind her were more Death Eaters. Draco let his eyes roam over them, counting to see who she had brought with her. Yaxley, who had disappeared after Voldemort's fall and mysteriously reappeared this year. Alecto and Amycus Carrow, who had escaped from Azkaban last year. Goyle Sr. Selwyn, who Draco barely knew. Thorfinn Rowle, a giant Death Eater that Draco compared briefly to Rubeus Hagrid. Gibbon. Beside him were Augustus Rookwood, Rabastan Lestrange, and Mulciber, who had all fought in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. They had escaped from Azkaban earlier in the year.
He was pretty sure that was everyone, and then Fenrir Greyback stepped out from behind Mulciber, who he towered over. Draco gulped. Greyback was the last person he wanted coming to Hogwarts. He would attack people, even though it wasn't the full moon. Come to think of it, the only other werewolf he had known personally - Remus Lupin - had been perfectly okay.
Draco didn't know why he just had that last thought. Twenty minutes ago he had been ready to murder Harry Potter and now he was basically sympathising with him!
Of one things he was certain, though: he didn't want Fenrir Greyback. And suddenly, he was coming up with a plan. He was pretty sure Dumbledore would be accommodating, even after he'd caused 2 people to be in the Hospital Wing.
Quickly, he explained to the Death Eaters what he wanted them to do: follow him through the Vanishing Cabinet and act as a diversion so he could get to Dumbledore. As he said this, Draco thought, I'll be getting to Dumbledore, but not in the way you expect.
He turned and led the way to the Vanishing Cabinet. The Death Eaters trailed behind, perhaps unsure of whether or not it worked. Appearing undaunted, he walked up to it, climbed in, and closed the door.
The book he read was right. The trip back was a lot easier than the first time. He felt like he was flying. There wasn't any bumps or jolts, and the Cabinet didn't throw him around like a rag doll upon landing, which he was immensely grateful for.
As he got out and waited for the rest to show up, he steeled himself to carry out his plan. Only the holder of the Hand of Glory could see through Instant Darkness Powder; he could use that to his advantage.
Bellatrix came first, then Yaxley, then all the others a bit faster, probably once they realized they weren't going to get stuck. When Greyback came through, he was grinning from ear to ear, his teeth, sharp as fangs, showing. Draco turned away and tried to hide his disgust. He strode quickly to the door leading out of the Room of Requirement, yanked it open, and threw Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder out into the hall.
Then he walked out, without waiting for the others, wand in hand. Yaxley was the first to follow, and to realize what he had to do. Draco felt his hand clap down on his shoulder, realized who it was, and mentally groaned. Yaxley was probably the second-best dueler here, after Bellatrix. If he had to jinx him off of him...
Slowly, the Death Eaters formed a line behind Draco. Looking back, he thought they looked positively ridiculous, and he couldn't help laughing mentally when he thought about what they were doing right now.
As they progressed down the corridor, Draco tightened his grip on his wand and began counting in his head. One, two... On three he turned, quickly, and cast a nonverbal Revulsion Jinx at Yaxley, forcing him away and off his shoulder, before sprinting as hard as he could in the direction they had been going.
After running about a hundred metres he turned around a corner and waited, breathing hard. He could see perfectly, but the rest couldn't. As they came blundering into view, he stepped out around the pillar, raised his wand, and cast a spell that had become infamous over the years. A blinding flash of green light (at least to him) shot towards Greyback, and threw him over the column of Death Eaters, where he hit the ground, lifeless.
Instinctively guessing what happened, the group of Death Eaters began sprinting towards him as well, out of the powder that had been limiting their vision. Draco turned and ran as well.
He raced down the hall almost blindly, part of him involved in casting Shield Charms behind him, another part of him cringing, waiting for the seemingly inevitable Killing Curse that would penetrate through any block he put up.
Draco chanced a look back. Instead of chasing him, they were mulling around, confused, as though they weren't sure what to do now that their main objective was irrevelant. He left them there and hoped all the first-year students stayed away from the seventh floor for the rest of the day.
Quickly, he raced down the main staircase and stood in front of the statue marking the entrance to Dumbledore's office. He speedily guessed the password, and surprised himself by getting it right on the first try. As he was rising up to meet Dumbledore, he tried to go through what he was going to say, but no good way of explaining seemed to come to him.
He was all the way up, and there was no point in waiting, so he took a deep breath and stepped forward. Who he saw in Dumbledore's office shocked him.
What was Potter doing here?