A hand reached out of the darkness and grabbed Draco's robe, pulling him into the seemingly empty classroom without so much as a by-your-leave. He was thrown against a wall and the door slammed shut. Before he could say anything, Harry-bloody-Potter appeared out of nowhere and plucked Draco's drawn wand out of his hand. Where the hell did he get an invisibility cloak?
"Potter," Draco spat. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" He pushed himself off the wall and straightened his mussed robes, determined not to let anything betray his sudden nerves.
The sudden grin that broke out across Potter's face was scarier than any reaction Draco had been expecting.
"Why, offering my services, of course," he replied with a mockery of a bow.
"And what is that supposed to mean?"
Potter shrugged. "I'm done with Dumbledore. He's a rabid old coot who won't leave me alone. I have no desire to be on the losing side. Surely you can understand that?"
Draco was momentarily taken aback. Potter, the Golden Boy, offering his services to the Dark Lord. Clearly this was some sort of trick. He'd have to tread carefully.
"And what makes you think the Dark Lord would want you?"
"It's not really your place to question his judgement, now is it, Malfoy?"
Now Draco was getting nervous. He didn't like the glint in Potter's eyes, nor the casual, yet clearly competently dangerous way he was playing with his wand. He had faced down Potter many a time, but the Gryffindor had never been so recklessly insane. Despite himself, Draco was feeling quite out of his depth, and didn't like it one bit.
He stared at Potter, trying to figure out what his end game was. Potter stared back, smirking all the while. This was nothing like Draco had ever seen in all his confrontations with Potter. And it was nothing he ever cared to see again.
"Fine," Draco stated finally. "That's what you want? Come with me." He walked past Potter, calling on all his training as the Malfoy heir to exude a confidence that he wasn't quite feeling, confidence that he could turn his back on Potter without being cursed from behind. Before today, the thought that the Gryffindor Golden Boy would strike an opponent from behind without warning was laughable. Weasley? Sure, especially if mad enough. But Potter? Ha. However, Draco had been around enough dangerous insanity to know that particular glint in his eyes.
The curse never came, so Draco continued down the hall, heading for the dungeons. He heard Potter behind him, but also a quick glance proved that he had put his cloak back on. A sign of retained cautious sanity or of dangerous paranoia?
Finally, he reached the door he was looking for. "Auxilegeo" he whispered, unlocking the door. He almost sighed in relief when he saw his godfather flying through the door on the other side of the room. Severus stopped short when he saw Draco unharmed, but halted just inside the door.
"What are you doing, Mr. Malfoy?" Severus asked, his voice revealing nothing.
"We've got ourselves a new recruit," Draco answered, wondering wryly if Potter was waiting for an engraved invitation to reveal himself.
"And who might that be?" Severus asked cautiously, coming one step closer.
"Me." Harry threw off the cloak as he revealed himself to be standing next to Severus, his wand at his throat.
"What do you think you're doing, Potter?" Severus growled.
"Making sure you don't go running to Dumbledore like the good little spy you are. Your wand, please." He held out his hand expectantly, clearly pleased at having gotten the drop on his hated professor.
Instead of handing it to him, Severus tossed it on the ground, halfway between himself and Draco. Draco smirked. No one got the upper hand on Severus Snape.
Harry frowned briefly, but quickly turned his attention to Draco, keeping an eye on the wizard at his wandpoint.
"What? Not surprised that your precious Professor Snape is a spy for the Light? Not feeling even the tinsiest bit betrayed? Clearly I chose my Death Eater target poorly." He shrugged. "No matter." Draco shivered slightly at the the teen's casual manner.
Harry turned his attention back to Severus. "So, Professor, which master's orders are going to win out tonight?"
Draco inched forward, towards Severus's wand. If he could get close enough, he might be able to call it to him, through his familial bond with its master. But Harry was faster.
"Incarcerous!" he shouted, taking his wand off Severus's neck to point it at his classmate. That was his mistake.
Even as Draco felt the ropes wrapping around his body, he saw Severus draw his secondary wand and stupefy Potter, knocking him unconscious.
Severus removed both Potter's and Draco's wands from the unconscious boy before moving to retrieve his own and release Draco from the bonds.
Satisfied there would be no more surprise attacks, he turned to his godson. In the voice that made so many students quake with fear, he asked, "What is going on here?"
Draco took a deep breath, loath to admit how the Gryffindor had gotten the better of him, even to his godfather. But there was no alternative. "I was heading back to the dormitory from the library. Potter surprised me in the hall. He dragged me into an empty classroom, took my wand, and informed me that he was tired of Dumbledore and ready to join the Dark Lord." Severus raised an eyebrow at this and glanced at the boy, still lying in a heap on the floor.
"Go on."
"At first, I thought it was a trick. It had to be! But-"
"But?"
"But he reminded me of Aunt Bella," Draco admitted. "And Father," he whispered, looking down at the floor. If anyone could understand what that meant to Draco, it was Severus. Bellatrix Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy's respective brands of insanity were why Draco didn't have the Dark Mark on his arm. With crazy on both sides of his family, he knew there would be no way he would survive under the Dark Lord's attentions. But besides that, both of them had toyed with Draco enough throughout the years that he had a healthy fear of ever coming within the clutches of an insane wizard, even if that wizard was only sixteen.
He sighed, and looked back up at Severus, comforted to see the concern in his eyes.
"So you brought him to me? Good." Severus sighed and turned away from Draco to consider the other teenager in the room. "Come on, let's get him into my chambers. Can't leave him here, that's for sure."
With a flick of his wand, Severus levitated Potter, while Draco rushed ahead to open the door that lead to Severus's chambers. They couldn't leave him in this antechamber, which was open to any Slytherin who needed their Head of House.
"Where do you want to put him?"
"I suppose the bedchamber would be best. There's no one using it now." Draco nodded and wove his way through the living room furniture towards another door. Severus kept a second bedroom for any of his snakes who needed a respite from the chaos of the Slytherin common room and shared bedrooms. Draco himself had stayed there, rather a few times in fact.
Severus followed him in, and dropped the Saviour of the Wizarding World on the small bed. Another wave of his wand and straps appeared around Potter's wrists and ankles, binding him to the bedframe.
Draco watched nervously as Severus took a small bottle of Dreamless Sleep out of a cabinet. He ended the spell that kept Potter unconscious, and poured the whole contents of the bottle down his throat before the teen knew what was happening. Potter struggled weakly for only a moment before succumbing to the potion.
"There. That should keep him down for the night. Give us time to figure out what to do."
Severus walked towards the door, and gestured for Draco to precede him out. Draco took one last look at the boy on the bed, then left the room quietly. Severus followed him out, closing the door gently behind him.
Draco sat on the couch across from the fire, noting the abandoned paperwork on Severus's desk. Severus himself took the chair, running his fingers through his hair with an exasperated sigh.
"Why is it always Potter?" he asked, clearly not looking for an answer from Draco, who was wondering the same thing himself.
After a short pause, Severus asked, "What reminded you of Lucius?" This time, he was looking for an answer.
"His eyes," Draco responded shortly. He licked his lips - a nervous habit he would never allow himself to succumb to in anyone else's presence. "The- the way he handled his wand. He was just playing with it, daring me to make a move. You know how Father likes to play."
"I do." Severus sighed and sat back in the chair. "What, precisely, did he say to you?"
"He said he was done with Dumbledore, that Dumbledore was an old coot who wouldn't leave Potter alone. And that he had no desire to be on the losing side. He seemed to think that was my motivation, and would thus appeal to my sensibilities and encourage me to work with him."
"Did you believe him?"
"On the Dumbledore thing? Yes. Even you couldn't fake that vitriol, Severus. On the losing side part? I have no idea. At this point, I couldn't even tell you which side Potter was referring to. I mean, he clearly intended me to think that he meant the Light, but I have no idea which side he himself actually believes is losing."
"Is there any chance it's all an act?"
"If it is, he has no right to be in Gryffindor. No one in that House could be that good of an actor. In fact, I don't know a single person in this school who could fake what he did. He was smiling the entire time. It was bloody unnerving," he grumbled.
"So, there are two possibilities: Potter's gone insane or Dark."
"Or both," Draco muttered.
"Or both," Severus agreed. "How did this happen?" Frustrated, he practically leapt from his chair. "How in the seven hells did Dumbledore let this happen!" he exclaimed, pacing in front of the fire.
Draco was used to this sort of behavior from his godfather when faced with a particularly complex problem, and sat back to watch him.
After a few minutes, Severus clearly had come to a conclusion. He turned to face Draco. "Either way we can't let anyone find out. Do you understand, Draco? No one must know. I'll decide what and when to tell Dumbledore, but you are to keep quiet." Draco nodded. He didn't trust the Headmaster in the first place, and, like Severus implied, if he had been so lax as to let this happen to his most favored student, then there was no trusting him with the current scenario.
"At least it's a Friday. I have two days reprieve from bothering with classes," Severus said, with a glance towards his desk. "I feel like I'll need at least that much time to figure out what we are going to do. His housemates will no doubt be looking for him, but I'm sure Dumbledore will assure them that Potter's off doing something heroic, even if he himself has no idea what's going on."
Draco snorted at that. "I wouldn't be too sure."
"What do you mean?"
"The Golden Trio isn't so golden, or really a trio, anymore. They've been at odds for weeks now."
Severus was brought up short by this. Draco knew that he'd been so busy with his new position at Hogwarts that he hadn't really paid that much attention to the little gang of miscreants. He had certainly commented often enough to Draco that, now that he didn't have to worry about life and limb in the potions classroom, dependent on the intricacies of bench partners, he hadn't concerned himself too much with the daily lives of any students but his own snakes.
"Weeks? Do you know what happened?"
"No particulars, of course. They came back from the summer at some odds, but seemed to be drawing closer to solve their problems, as Hufflepuffian as that is. Then Granger and the Weasel started dating and Potter started acting odd, and now they rarely speak. In fact, Potter seems to be cut off from most of the Gryffindors."
"How astute of you to notice. Shame the Headmaster doesn't seem to have. This is just the cocktail of pressure on Potter. Going from revered saviour to outcast must really have done a number on him," Severus sneered.
Time was Draco would have sneered along with him, but he hadn't been Harry Potter's rival for almost six years without noticing a few things. Harry seemed to have lost the regard of his House, of most of Hogwarts, on a fairly regular basis. Feast or famine, that was Potter's life. Not that it had mattered to Draco until now. Now there was reason for Draco to look back at those years and see the pathways that had lead to his rival's current situation. Just as he had watched his father's descent since the Dark Lord's return. Just as his mother had told him of the days when her sister was, well, at least less crazy than she was now.
Not that he was really planning on mentioning any of that to his godfather, at least not at the moment. He loved Severus, but even he wasn't blind to the man's faults. Even with years of standing against Potter, Draco knew his anger would never match that that Severus had for Potter's father, and thus the younger Potter.
He sighed. Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to bring Potter here. Not that there was really anywhere else to go. But it would have been nice to have had the option. As a Malfoy and as a Slytherin, he liked having his options open. But here, there didn't seem to be any others. Severus was the only one who could figure out what had happened to Potter-hopefully in time to take a stand against Voldemort, and free Draco, and the rest of the wizarding world, from his madness.
That was the only reason he cared, after all. If Potter was the saviour the wizarding world believed him to be, then Draco had to help him, or submit himself to either a long life of slavery or a very short life of rebellion.
"Is there anything else you've noticed?" Severus broke Draco's reverie.
"Other than the discord in the lion's den? Not particularly. I try not to pay too much attention to the Gryffindors," Draco noted dryly. And he did. Try that is. Sometimes, he just noticed things. Little things. But, again, he wasn't about to tell Severus that. None of them were pertinent to the impending sense of doom emanating from the bedroom behind him.
"If you think of anything, I want you to let me know. In the meantime, though, I need you to go back to your dormitory. And don't breathe a word of this to anyone."
"May I come back tomorrow?" Draco asked, trying not to plead.
Severus eyed him warily, clearly unwilling to further Draco's involvement.
"Please? Severus, I-" Screw it! "I want to help. I-I need to help. Please." Draco hoped his godfather understood what he couldn't say. He was a part of this already, and damn if he wasn't going to do whatever he could to change his future.
Finally Severus nodded. "You may. But you will do as you're told. And don't do anything to raise suspicion, understand?"
Draco raised an eyebrow, an expression learnt from Severus so long ago. Severus smiled, his posture relaxing for the first time that night, and Draco felt his own shoulders mirror them. Severus had the situation under control. As much as he could, at least.
"Apologies, oh Prince of Slytherin, for even implying that you would ever raise suspicion," Severus said, pulling his godson in for a hug. That more than anything else revealed to Draco just how worried his godfather was.
Pulling away, Draco grinned back, and slipped out of Severus's chambers, heading back to the Slytherin common room. Glancing back before slipping out the door, he saw Severus sit down heavily on his favored armchair and stare intently into the fire, trying to glean answers from its flames. One last look at the closed door hiding the Boy-Who-Lived, and Draco left.
He headed down the dungeon corridor towards the Slytherin common room. It was close enough to curfew that he hoped everyone would be in their rooms rather than the common area. The further he got from Severus's chambers, and thus Severus's assured demeanor, the less sure Draco felt about the whole situation. He was so unnerved by what had happened that he wasn't even entirely sure that he'd be able to slip it past his housemates. More than anything, he was thankful that Sixth- and Seventh- year Slytherins got their own rooms, since, even though he was certain he could slip by the younger snakes unnoticed, if he went back to a room shared with his year-mates, he doubted they'd let him keep his mask long.
His steps slowed as he neared the entrance to Slytherin. He shoved all thoughts of the last hour (had it really only been an hour?) out of his mind, using the Occlumency tricks Severus had taught him, and settled his face and posture back into the one expected of Draco Malfoy.
Fortunately, there were only a few students in the common room, and they barely spared him a glance as he strode through, intent on getting to his room uninterrupted. Once inside, he quickly performed several locking charms on the door and collapsed on the bed in a very un-Malfoylike manner.
He stared up at the stone ceiling, contemplating the evening's events, turning them over again and again. What had happened to Potter? As much as he disliked the fool, Draco knew that he needed to keep it together for the coming war. No one but Severus knew that he wasn't nearly as loyal to his father as he appeared, and clearly Potter had counted on that loyalty. But why? Why did Potter want to be taken to the Dark Lord? Madness or darkness? Which made sense? Which one could they still work with? Which one might Severus have the chance to use against the Dark Lord, who was both mad and dark himself? Was Potter turning into another Dark Lord?
Draco took several deep breaths to stop himself from going down that particular path of thought. No sense in getting ahead of himself. He had to start at the beginning. But where was that? When had Potter started acting so odd?
As he had told Severus, Potter had come back from the summer acting slightly strangely. So something must have happened over the summer. Weasley and Granger must have noticed something, at least until they started dating. Was that it? Was Potter acting out because he was jealous? No, it had definitely started before that.
Draco closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on the different situations he might have seen Potter in since they returned to Hogwarts. Not that there were many opportunities for the two rivals to interact. It boiled down to quidditch, Potions, and mealtimes in the Great Hall. And since there hadn't yet been a quidditch match, and he hadn't had the chance yet to scope out the Gryffindor team practices yet, that left two chances for observation.
Somehow, Potter had managed to get into Advanced Potions, where he was naturally fawned over by Slughorn - jokes, both of them. At least Severus was still tutoring Draco on the side, otherwise he doubted he'd be learning much of anything for his NEWTs next year. But that wasn't the point. Potter. How had Potter been acting in Potions? He had been ignoring Granger, which was certainly odd considering she was probably the only reason Potter had survived in Potions this long. What would make Potter pull away from his saving grace in an advanced class? Especially since that had started even before Granger had begun dating Weasley. Perhaps that was one ticker in the insanity column.
In the Great Hall, Potter had taken to either not showing up for meals at all, or sitting near but definitely separate from the rest of his class. Even the Weaselette had stopped mooning over him. Trouble in paradise on that end? No, Potter had definitely been the cause for that rift, especially if the gossip was in any way accurate. But was the breakup for reasons of insanity or darkness? It had to be darkness. The Weasley family would probably try to cure him of insanity if they suspected it. But darkness would most likely cause Potter to withdraw from his friends, finally seeing them for the worthless Gryffindors they were. So that was a ticker in the darkness column.
So, both? Draco wasn't sure which option was worse. Insanity, Severus could hopefully control or reverse. Darkness? Well, perhaps Severus could do something about that, seeing as how he had some personal experience in pulling back from that particular brink. But both? What were they supposed to do if the saviour of the wizarding world, the only chance Draco and Severus had at getting out from under the Dark Lord, was no longer a viable option?
Despite his racing mind, Draco eventually fell into a troubled sleep.
A/N Thank you for reading!
And just one quick note: Before you get up in my grill about it, yes, I'm playing around with the timeline a bit. This works best if it's early in their sixth year, but I need Ron and Hermione to be together already, so they are! Ain't fanfic glorious?
