Chapter two: Tapestry

She looked odd, Harry decided. Pansy Parkison looked odd sitting at the kitchen table of number 12 Grimmauld place. What with her long tangled hair and puggish face, the years had not been good to her. She could be pretty though, he thought. If her face didn't look so tired and worrisome. Yeah, she could be pretty.

"Alright Parkinson, start talking" Ron took the lead sitting across the table from her. Harry watched her every move. How she would bring her fingers to her mouth, and at the last moment drop them.

"I didn't realize at first. ..when everyone was surrounded in the Great Hall, he was the only one I couldn't find. And then, when he and Narcissa both missed their trials and the day Lucius was kissed, that's when I knew something was really wrong."

"I owled him but never got a reply. His floo was disconnected. When I finally managed to break into the Manor, it was empty. It was like they had never lived there."

"Maybe they moved." Ron yawned.

"No you don't understand, in Malfoy Manor there is this giant tapestry with the names of every single Malfoy." Harry nodded, there was one very similar in Grimmulad palace. It seemed something common to have in old pure blood families. "It has every single Malfoy name ever born, dating back centuries ago. And right where Narcissa and Draco should be are..nothing. The tapesetry ends with Lucius Malfoy.. it's like they never exisited." Wrinkles appered between her eyebrows "He used to say this thing.." she thought for a moment, or perhaps it was for dramatic pause, she was a slytherin of course. "He'd say, Pansy I'm surrounded in darkness so one day I will be the darkness. I never thought much of it until I saw the tapestry. "

"Thats not possible" Hermione brows knit together. "The magic in those tapestries are impossible to reverse."

"I tried looking for him. I haven't found a body or any sort of clues to lead me to where he might be. I travelled as far as America and I- I-" She broke down into tears. "It's been five years and it's as if he's just vanished. I need to know what happened to my friend to save some sort of peace of mind. Even finding his dead body would be better than this maddness I live with. I've spent five years looking for him and Narcissa both, but it's like they never existed. They became the darkness...poof."

Pansy remained quiet for a moment before getting up.

"It's getting late. I should leave." " Thank you Potter for listening, I understand that this is a lot to take and if you refuse to take the case I understand. I just didn't know who to go to."

She stopped before Harry and looked him dead in the eyes. "Just know, if you take this, the life of Draco Malfoy was neither happy or easy. He's been through things no person, let alone child, should be subjected too. It won't be easy."

"What do you mean," Hermione inquired.

"If you wish to take the case, I will of course all that I know. But I can't yet."

"You can't tell us?" Ron boomed "You're trying to get us to find out what happened to that ferret, risking our own lives and getting into merlin knows what kind of trouble and you can't tell us why? I bet he's on some bloody boat in the middle or the mediterian tanning and being fed bloody grapes from half naked women and laughing at us."

She shot Ron a look so dark the tips of his ears turend red. "You would never understand what he went through. And unless the case has been taken up I have no reason to tell you secrets that Draco himself as shared with no one but me."

She walked towards him pressing finger to his chest."Listen Weasel, you have no idea what it was like for Draco, a small boy, living with grown death eater men. They were animals and he was there prey."

Harry pased the living room of floor of number twelve Grimmauld place. His mind stuck on the blonde.

"Are you going to help her?" Ginny had asked later that night. Her back was to him as she washed the dishes. She much like himself, perfered to do it the muggle way.

"I-I'm not sure. It's a lot to take on," he murmerd.

"Well of course you're going to take it, you're Harry Bloody Potter! You live for these sorts of things. You are the savior."

"Ginny you're not cross are you? I mean if the idea of us being apart for a bit troubles you, I won't do i-" he was cut off when she turned around her slender fingers pointing at him, her brown eyes like dagers.

"Oh no, don't try to put this up on me! I will not tell you what to do because than you'll resent me for it."

He had fought a troll, raced against dragons, beaten a dark lord. But nothing was more terryfing than an angry woman.

She leaned against the sink her lips parting to let out a soft sigh. "You'll do the right thing Harry, you always do."

He smiled softly before crossing the floor and scooping her in his inhaled her sweet scent. But even that couldn't distance him on his thoughts of the slytherin prince and the unease that crept over him.