Copper and Bloodstone, Chapter One: Cracked

"Dumbledore has finally cracked."

"No kidding," Harry muttered, intent on the book he was reading. Then his head snapped up. "Malfoy! Get out of my compartment!"

Draco Malfoy surveyed the train compartment, and his lips curled into a sneer. "Ah, so poor Potter is all alone this year?"

Harry narrowed his eyes; his hand strayed automatically to his pocket, where his wand rested. "Get out, or I'll hex you."

"Relax, Potter, I'm not here to murder you. I was looking for Granger. I thought she'd be here. Apparently, though, you couldn't even keep your girlfriend at your side."

"She's not my girlfriend!" Harry groaned inwardly and set his book aside. "Look, Malfoy, I don't know where she went, okay? But I know where you're going to go, and that's /away from here/."

Malfoy pouted a bit, and it seemed to Harry that he was trying to look innocent. As if Malfoy could be innocent of anything. "Fine, be that way. A pox on your family. Oh, I forgot. You haven't got one."

"Yes," Harry corrected, "I have got one. They're Muggles, and thank you. They deserve worse than a pox."

Malfoy sighed and backed into the corridor. "Whatever you say, Potter. If Granger shows up, tell her I'm looking for her."

"Sure," Harry said, and mentally added, /in your dreams, Malfoy/.

No sooner had Malfoy gone than Hermione appeared, quite literally. Harry jumped and let out a strangled yelp as she sat down next to him.

"Sorry. I saw Malfoy and decided to try my Invisibility Charm," she told him, and patted his arm. "It's okay."

"You scared me. There's an Invisibility Charm?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "It's awfully temporary, but I practiced all summer. I've got some ideas on how to make it last longer."

"Funny," Harry said thoughtfully. "You've been practicing invisibility. I thought you'd go for cosmetics - make your hair straight, or possibly - ow..." He rubbed his arm where she hit him, and rolled up the sleeve of his robes to stare at the skin underneath. "I think you left a bruise."

"Well, don't tease, and maybe you won't get hurt." She gave him a beatific smile, and then tilted her head to look at his book. "Unfogging the Future. Harry, not Divination again. I thought you quit taking that."

Harry quickly picked up the book. "I did. I mean, I meant to. Things happened, all right?"

Hermione cocked an eyebrow. "You mean it was the easiest class to fake your way through."

"That is...entirely true." The reminder of the way he usually passed Divination reminded him of his other best friend.

"Where's Ron?"

Hermione shrugged. "I think he's still up in the prefects' compartment."

"Oh. That's not good."

"Why?"

"Because if Malfoy's looking for you, he'll try there next. He can't possibly not run into Ron."

"Oh." Hermione's eyes widened, and she jumped to her feet, pulling her wand out. "We'd better go save him."

"What, Ron?"

"No, you idiot, Draco. Ron's got the advantage of pure, unadulterated hatred, remember. And all of our DA training, too."

Harry trailed after Hermione, and wondered when she had started calling Malfoy by his first name. Maybe it was some sort of reflection on the fact that she was Head Girl and he was Head Boy.

That was probably why she was afraid for Malfoy's safety. Everyone - well, everyone who mattered, anyway - had considered Ron the best candidate for Head Boy. When they'd found out, Ron had vowed revenge on Malfoy, convinced that he had bought the position, just like he'd bought his way onto the Quidditch team.

Harry had intended to follow Hermione all the way to the prefects' compartment, but was dragged into one occupied by several Hufflepuffs and Luna Lovegood.

"Ow, Ernie," Harry complained. "What was that - "

"Shh," Ernie admonished, shoving Harry down beside Luna. "Don't you know the spies are everywhere?"

"What?"

"He's teasing you," Luna reported, her eyes glued to the magazine she was reading.

Oh, right. Harry should have expected things like this - though not from Hufflepuffs, really. In retrospect, he was startled that Malfoy hadn't mentioned it.

Justin Finch-Fletchley was deep in conversation with Susan Bones. "I swear," he was saying, "I think I did leave it at your house. I can't go to class without it."

"You could not have forgotten your wand. You aren't that stupid. I'm sure you just don't remember packing it."

"Come on, just let me borrow your owl - "

"She's too tired, Justin."

"Susan, please..."

"You did not forget it. You're acting like - like Neville Longbottom." Belatedly, Susan seemed to realize that Harry was in the compartment. She glanced up. "I'm, um, really sorry about Neville, Harry. We all are."

Harry made a noise that he hoped conveyed his own sorrow. In truth, he wasn't sure there was any sorrow there to convey. Honestly. It wasn't like he was dead.

"We lost Hannah," Ernie said, much more serious now. "Justin's parents tried to pull him out of school, too. So far, it seems that the DA has lost at least half of its members."

Harry groaned. As if it wasn't bad enough that all of the older students in the DA had left school. "Well, there will be new recruits. Won't there?"

"Don't be too sure. We found out that a lot of the new first years aren't even being allowed to come."

"Because of one bloody incident?" Harry cried. "That's just - I mean, it's ridiculous."

"Well," Susan snapped, "if you had actually killed Voldemort instead of - "

"Be nice, Susan," everyone chorused, which surprised Harry. He didn't know Susan as well as he knew the others, because she had left the DA last October, and had only agreed to come back on the last day of sixth year.

There were some people missing, though, since this seemed to be a meeting of the DA with himself, Luna, and the seventh year Hufflepuffs. "Where's Zacharias?"

Ernie made a face, Susan bit her lip and turned to stare out the window, and Justin shuddered. "You didn't hear?" Luna asked, without looking up.

"Don't tell me he's left school, too," Harry said.

Justin refused to meet Harry's eyes. "His parents - they were like mine. They wanted him to stay home, but he wouldn't. He had to run away. He went to Dumbledore, and, um...he spent most of the summer at Malfoy Manor."

This did not compute, and it took Harry a moment to formulate a coherent answer. "But the Malfoys are evil. Why would Dumbledore send him there?" Belatedly, he remembered what Draco Malfoy had said - /Dumbledore has finally cracked/. Was that in relation to this?

"I'm guessing that Zacharias can tell us that," Ernie said coldly. "That's if we ever see him again. He's actually been...hanging out with those horrible Slytherins."

"I never liked him," said a voice from the doorway, and everyone looked up. Ron was lounging there, grinning at them, his red hair tousled. Harry absently noted that Ron seemed taller. "But he isn't a traitor," Ron continued, "if that's what you're wondering. It wasn't his idea. He told me that much."

Harry slid over to make room on the seat for Ron, who sat beside him obediently. "Did you see Malfoy at all?" Harry asked.

"No," Ron muttered. "Hermione got to him first, and sent me along this way to see where you'd got to."

Susan got up, and nearly tripped over various legs that were in her pathway to the door. "Where's Zach, then? I'll go talk to him."

"Prefects' compartment," Ron told her, and she disappeared into the corridor.

Harry spent the remainder of the journey to Hogwarts talking with his friends. Hermione eventually joined them, looking harried and extremely concerned about something.

Harry had never been more acutely aware of how much people's opinions of him had to do with his history, especially what had happened last year. He winced inwardly. That had been an utter disaster, and had lost him more than a few of his "followers" in the DA. As it was, those who seemed determined to stick this out kept watching him, as if they might be privy to a mental breakdown if they only looked hard enough.

Most of all, he missed the easy friendship he had shared with Hermione and Ron. She was distant, worrying about things that he didn't know about, since he wasn't a prefect - and Ron, who would ordinarily be hyper and excitable, was unusually quiet.

Luna raised the only interesting topic during a lull in the conversation. "I wonder what room arrangements will be like," she said, dreamy as always. "We've lost so many of our classmates. I think I might be the only one left in my dormitory."

Ron sat up straighter, and glanced at Harry. "Hey, she's right. With Neville and Seamus gone, there'll only be the three of us."

Hermione fidgeted, and then said quickly, "I have to go talk to Draco," and fled the compartment. They all stared after her, bemused.

At last, Ron said, "When did she start calling Malfoy 'Draco'?"

* * *

It began to rain not long after they arrived at Hogwarts, and the dark clouds swirling above did not much help Harry's mood. It was horrible that each of the tables was half-empty; it was horrible that Hagrid was gone and Professor Grubbly-Plank was in his place; it was supremely frightening that Trelawney had, for once, decided to join them.

What was worst, though, was the fact that Dean still wasn't speaking to Harry, and Ginny had somehow picked up on his hatred, and kept shooting suspicious glances down the table.

Harry felt very much alone, even though his friends surrounded him. Luna looked much happier than he felt, even though she was sitting apart from the other Ravenclaws.

The first years, who were soaked from the rain, finally appeared at the doorway, and the general chatter subsided. Two small girls were in tears, and the others glanced around, their eyes wide with awe and fear.

/They don't want to be here. They know that what happened last year could easily happen again/.

Harry didn't bother to clap and cheer for the new Gryffindors, because he couldn't help feeling the shock of how few there were - two boys, three girls. There were six Hufflepuffs, nine Ravenclaws, and eight Slytherins. It had to be an all-time low. He didn't listen to the song, either. Ever since fifth year, there had always been a pointed comment about house unity. Well, as pointed as the Sorting Hat could be, anyway.

He stared over at the Slytherin table, and realized suddenly that there were a few key faces missing. Where was Goyle? Malfoy was flanked on one side by Crabbe, and on the other by Pansy Parkinson. Some of Malfoy's newer cronies, who would be sixth years now, were also gone. That gave Harry a moment of cruel satisfaction. Crabbe and Goyle were as close to best friends as Malfoy could get, and now one of them was gone.

After the Sorting, Dumbledore stood up. Complete silence fell over the assembled students. It was something about the look in his eyes, Harry thought later. A wicked sort of gleam that made everyone wonder just exactly what was going to happen next.

"I'm sure," Dumbledore said, in a soft voice that nonetheless carried to all corners of the Great Hall, "that you have all noticed those who have left us. It cannot have escaped your notice, either, what the Sorting Hat said about unity.

"By now, you all know what happened here last spring. I have taken all precautions to ensure that nothing of the sort ever happens again. However, I do feel that it is wise to take the advice of the Sorting Hat. Only as one can we defeat the evil which threatens us, and to that end, I have proposed a bit of a...different approach...to room arrangements this year."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ron murmured. Hermione bit her lip, and Harry reached out to poke her shoulder.

"Hermione. You're Head Girl. You must know what he's talking about."

"Oh, Harry," she whispered.

Dumbledore went on, "You are all - with the exception of our first years - accustomed to rooming with your year mates in your own houses. However, I've decided that, especially in view of the gaps evident to you, this is no longer a suitable arrangement. As of tonight, you have all been assigned to inter-house dormitories."

Harry saw that Draco Malfoy was systematically beating his head against his table. Ron had leapt to his feet in horror and was being restrained by Colin Creevey.

Harry wasn't certain which of these avenues he would take. For now, he settled for staring at Dumbledore as shock set in.

The din was unbelievable, and it took nearly five minutes for the combined efforts of the professors to induce silence. Dumbledore was a bit hoarse from shouting when he managed to inform them that their new room assignments would be delivered along with their dinner. He then clapped his hands, and the feast appeared.

But on each golden plate was a scroll of parchment.

Hermione was the first to reach out and open hers. She scanned it quickly, then handed it wordlessly to Ron, who read it out loud.

"In the former Slytherin seventh-year girls' dormitory: Susan Bones, Hermione Granger, Pansy Parkinson, and Padma Patil. Oh, my God. Pansy? You're going to just die, Hermione."

"Yeah," Hermione muttered. "At least Padma and Susan are there. They're both in the DA, so at least I'll have some friends to talk to."

Harry unrolled his own scroll and read it, half-hoping that this was all a cruel joke. "In the former Hufflepuff seventh-year boys' dormitory: Terry Boot, Vincent Crabbe, Justin Finch-Fletchley, and Harry Potter."

Ron nearly choked on a piece of chicken. "Oy, you're with Crabbe? Are they trying to murder us?"

All down the table, there were dubious cries and the occasional shout of happiness. "You haven't looked at yours, Ron," Hermione noted. "Want me to look for you?"

"I'm mad at you," Ron informed her. "You're Head Girl. You must have known, and you did not tell us. Some friend."

"I was sworn to secrecy!"

"Right. Sure."

Harry set his scroll aside and began to load up his plate. "You've got to read it sometime, Ron. How bad can it be?"

"Pretty bad. I mean, so far, it's just one person from each house. But that can't be true forever. What if I'm with all Slytherins? Or with sixth years, or something? I'd rather be full and miserable than starved and miserable any day."

Hermione shrugged. "Anything you say. It's your decision."

The feast seemed to go by much more quickly than ever before, at least to Harry. Ron refused to let anyone go near his scroll, and threatened to bite Colin if he made one more attempt to grab it.

Dumbledore watched it all with that same wicked gleam in his eyes. Harry began to wonder if Malfoy had been right. Maybe the Headmaster really had cracked.

It was only when Harry had finished eating that he realized something fairly key: he didn't know what the Hufflepuff password was this year. "I've got to go talk to Justin," he informed his friends, and got up.

It took him a moment to locate Justin, who was slouched down on the bench, his eyes wild. "Don't let him near me," he was saying as Harry approached.

"Not you," Ernie hastily assured Harry. "He means Crabbe."

After a moment, Justin's panicked eyes fell on Harry. "We're going to die," Justin moaned. "Dumbledore likes you! Make him change the assignments!"

Ernie rolled his eyes. "He'll be fine," he told Harry. "It could be worse, after all. Could be Malfoy."

Zacharias Smith, who was sitting across from them, sighed. "He isn't that bad, when he isn't trying to hex us. It might be different at school, though. I'll just have to wait and see."

"He's in your dorm?" Harry asked.

"Actually, I'm in his. We've got the old Slytherin dorm. I hear it gets cold in those dungeons, though."

"This is crazy," Susan Bones burst out. "I mean, what's the point of having houses if they can just do something like this? It's just - it's - "

At that moment, a shriek rang out, with another following close on its heels. Harry jumped and looked up, his gaze flickering between Ron and Malfoy, who both looked shocked. Malfoy had his scroll open and was staring at it, his cheeks flushed pink. Ron had gone paper-white.

"Oh," Zacharias said, into a sudden silence. "Did I mention that Weasley's in my room, too?"

"Oh, hell," Harry said. "Someone's going to die."

"At least it won't be me," Ernie said practically. "I pity you, Zacharias. It's going to be a war zone."

"Crazy," Susan said, with some finality. "Dumbledore is crazy."