Prompt 10 – Out of time
Continuation of HP 100 Memories (prompt 9). I decided to upload it separately so you won't get confused by missing prompt numbers.
Out of time
Draco was just about to be eaten by a huge Hippogriff, when the doorbell rang.
Wait – the doorbell? There usually were no doorbells in hellish, dark caves, a thousand miles under the ground. Or doors, for that matter.
Before he could fully figure out this logical problem, his feet had already acted on their own accord and were carrying him into the direction of the insistent ringing.
Having come to the conclusion that he must have been dreaming, he received another shock when he opened the door and saw The Boy Who Grinned Insolently Right Into My Sleepy Face.
Otherwise known as Harry freaking Potter.
Draco´s mind being currently on vacation, his tongue did the only sensible thing it could and tried to speak without guidance from upstairs. Which resulted in some primeval mouth athletics in evolutionary order – first some fish gasping and then some reptile retching sounds.
Seeing that Harry´s grin was even widening (Why can´t his face just split? He already has a lightning on his head, for Merlin´s pants' sake!), he tried again, this time with more focus.
"What the-?!"
There. That was at least not mute.
Since Draco couldn't utter anything more eloquent at the moment, Harry decided to take pity on him.
"Hi, Draco. Long time no see, eh?"
He could swear that he saw his former school Nemesis' left eye twitch and tried to resist the urge to watch him struggle a little bit longer.
"You're probably wondering what I'm doing here. Well, I was just cleaning up my new place, you know, where Sirius Black used to live and-"
"Hold on, Potter! Where Sirius Black used to live? As in Sirius Black, who was supposed to be a crazy mass murderer but turned out to be in the freaking Order of the Phoenix? What in the name of Merlin's beard has he got to do with me?"
Harry briefly wondered just how much Draco knew about his godfather. After all Wormtail had lived at Malfoy Manor, but then again he couldn't imagine Lucius Malfoy sitting down with his son and explaining the biographies of Voldemort's followers to him. Judging from Draco's face he wouldn't want to hear anyone's life story at the moment though. So he tried to make it short.
"I was just coming to that point. While cleaning up, I found this picture and...I thought you might want tohave it."
Seven teenage boys stared back at Draco, but he didn't recognise one of them. They seemed to be the Slytherin Quidditch team though.
"What- Potter, who are these people and why would I want to keep your junk?"
"Because the guy in the middle is your cousin. Regulus Black. Does that ring a bell?"
Frowning at the bell metaphor, he racked his brains for any memory he might have of this cousin. Apparently he had been Sirius Black's brother. But he didn't even recognise the name.
"Sorry, Potter, but I have no idea what you're talking about. So what if he's my cousin – all pure blood families are related to each other, I thought you knew that."
This time it was Harry's turn to be surprised, as Draco noticed with satisfaction.
"You don't know him? But your mother must have told you about him! I mean he was...well, he was different from Sirius."
"Different? What do you mean?"
"He was a Deatheater."
Now he could hear bells ringing. In his ears. Had Potter really just said that? Had he come to open old wounds?
"Look, if you're here to rub it in my face, then-"
Harry raised his hands in defence when he saw Draco reaching for his wand.
"Hey, keep calm! I'm not teasing you or anything! It's just a fact, ok? If you were so kind as to lower your wand and let me in I could tell you the whole story."
Draco lowered his wand but continued to stare daggers into his opponent's oh-so-famous forehead.
"Why would you come over here just to tell me the tale of a long lost relative? Is this some kind of reconciliation thing?"
A sigh of impatience escaped Harry's lips.
"Don´t worry, I'm not trying to be friends or something. I just thought you might have an interest in this photograph. If you don't want it, I'll throw it away, but that would be a shame. So will you let me explain or not?"
Biting his lip for some more moments, Draco eventually stepped aside to let Scarface in. He never would have thought that this would happen. He wasn't sure he preferred this to his dream.
"...and then he ordered Kreacher to get back with the real locket and made him swear to destroy it."
Draco was at a loss for words once more. He had listened patiently (that meant with a lot of snide remarks of course) to Potter's story of how he found out about Regulus Black's secret, and now he didn't know how to feel. A part of him (the part that sounded like his father) screamed to just shrug it off as one of Potter's weird world-amending missions, but another, much more timid part longed to find sense in this. There were some striking similarities that couldn't leave him cold.
"So...he became a Deatheater at 16?"
His voice sounded very young all of a sudden.
"Yeah. Just like you."
Potter had the nerve to stare right at him with those freakish green eyes.
"And just like you he realised that it was a mistake."
Merlin's pants! He said he wasn't trying to be friends! Draco's mind panicked.
"But unlike me he didn't manage to get out alive. Probably because he had to pull a Potter and try to destroy that horcrux-thing."
He wasn't sure he had fully understood what Potter had told him about putting one's soul into objects, but he certainly was glad he hadn't known about this eerie detail when You-Know-Who had lived at the Manor.
For some reason unknown to Draco, Harry had to smile at this.
"I knew you would like him. And you should ask your mother for some more information the next time you meet her. Maybe you shared even more than what I just told you. "
Leaving Draco utterly dumbfounded, Harry got up and made indications to leave. He was almost out of the door when Draco discovered how to get up again.
"Oh, and Ginny probably wouldn't want me to do this, but it would be great if you came over to Nr. 12, Grimmauld Place some time for a cup of tea. I'm sure Kreacher would be out of his mind to get to see the heir of Sly-, errr, I mean of the noble house of Black once more."
And with that he simply left. Draco could have sworn he heard him actually cackling at the end of the hallway.
Crazy Potter...wait a minute. What did he mean with Kreacher getting to see me once more? Who is that supposed to be? Sounds like a rat's name.
But that was not the most urgent question which bugged him right now. Standing there in the doorway, he looked down at the battered, old photograph in his hand again. Something like a lightning bolt went through him when he realised that Regulus had played seeker. Draco felt completely out of time. As if he had just travelled back forty years to meet his alter ego. Maybe Potter had been right. He definitely needed to invite his mother for tea. Soon.
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