Secret Meetings
"Well I think I'll head up to the library now" Harry announced to Ron and Hermione.
"The library?" Ron said incredulously "You're going to the library?"
"You know you don't all have to seem so surprised that I'm actually doing work" Harry said, slightly annoyed with the general reaction.
"The library?" Ron repeated.
"Well I think it's wonderful!" Hermione said beaming at him while Ron continued to look at him as though he was crazy.
Harry stood up, "see you guys later" he said to them both and started walking quickly out the hall hoping to see where the two Slytherins had disappeared to. But they had vanished.
He began to weave through the corridors towards the library thinking that he might as well try to get the potions homework done now that he had told Ron and Hermione that that was what he was doing. He ambled along the last corridor towards the library door his feet making light scuffing sounds against the stone floor and looking at all the pictures on the wall that either nodded in acknowledgement or still snoozed in there frames and Harry realised how little he had been down this corridor in all the time he had been at Hogwarts.
He pushed open the solid wooden doors that led him into the completely deserted main library; he browsed around the shelves clustered with dust covered books that had not been looked at for ages and others that were cleaner evidently more recently read. Picking out a potions book that Hermione had recommended; he sat down at the table closest to him.
He had just gotten comfortable and had even begun to take a few tips in when a series of loud thumps followed by a yell and raucous laughter startled Harry out of his book. The door that led to the restricted section of the library swung open and Rafe strode out completely unaware of Harry sitting in the corner table.
"Who knew you of all people would lower yourself to such a level" He called back through the door in a jeering voice, "You just wait until everyone hears how desperate you are, you pathetic little charity case! No one will be looking up to you now" He let out another long cruel laugh "I suppose you can have this for your service" He chucked a few galleons through the door and then marched out still laughing.
Harry stood up as the sound of Rafe's footsteps disappeared and walked cautiously towards the door. Taking a deep breath he stepped into the room and gasped. Lying in a crumpled heap in the middle of the cold floor was Draco Malfoy. He was once again only half clothed and had his back to Harry. In full display were six long scars starting from nearly the bottom of his back to the top of his shoulder blades. They were angry red and looked fairly recent. Harry took a few steps closer and could see that behind the new scars were some older fading ones that also ran the length of his back but all of these were sealed and had definitely not been caused just minutes ago.
"Malfoy?" Harry asked quietly. No reply.
He tried again a little louder but still there was no answer. Harry placed his hand on his shoulder and turned him around so that he was lying on his back now. The sight made Harry inhale sharply. There were bruises forming around Malfoy's closed eyes and on the side of his chest, a horrible mix of blues and purples that caused Harry to wince.
"Oh my god" Harry whispered.
He pulled Malfoy into a sitting position and with extreme difficulty pulled his arms through his school shirt. On his left arm he noticed that Malfoy had a bandage wrapped round but the curiosity passed quickly as he merely decided that it was probably from a past encounter similar to this one. He buttoned up Malfoy's shirt to hide the bruises and pulled out his wand to cast a levitating charm so that harry could take him over to the hospital wing as quickly as possible.
He sprinted back around the corridors towing Malfoy along with him and burst through the hospital wing doors. Madame Pomfrey jumped up startled at the sight of the two boys then hurried over to them.
"Lay him on the bed Potter – gently! – that's it, now tell me what happened" she instructed as she lifted Malfoy's eyelids and peered at his unseeing eyes.
Harry hesitated for a second, wondering whether to tell her the entire truth or not but then decided to be vague with the details.
"I'm not sure, I just heard some thumps and someone running away so I went in and found him lying unconscious on the floor." There, Harry thought, enough detail to say what happened without being too specific.
Madame Pomfrey glanced at him not sure whether to buy the story but Harry was saved from being asked any difficult questions as Malfoy let out a pained groan.
The nurse turned quickly to Harry, "Mr Potter I'm not sure that you should be here right now, Mr Malfoy might not appreciate it too greatly that you were the one that brought him here"
Harry nodded, Malfoy definitely would not be happy to learn of who had brought him to the Hospital Wing. As he turned to leave he heard Madame Pomfrey say in a clear voice "Mr Malfoy can you hear me? Can you tell me what happened to you" Malfoy stirred and mumbled something. Harry paused at the doorway curious as to what his response would be. But like Harry he was not keen to share the details.
"I – I don't know… I don't remember" Malfoy lied.
Slipping silently out the door, Harry remembered the scars on Malfoy's back. How did he get those? Harry wondered, it was becoming clear to him anyway that Malfoy's life was not the lap of luxury everyone believed it was, in fact it appeared to be the complete opposite.
He headed out into the grounds under a huge tree by the lake where Ron, Hermione and himself sat on sunny weekend afternoons. Ron and Hermione were already there.
"Hey how did you do with your essay?" Hermione asked as he approached.
What essay? Harry thought, Oh! The potions essay he had been supposedly working on.
"Not so great the book I needed wasn't there so I didn't get much done" he improvised quickly.
"You got to read this mate, it's bloody awful!" Ron told him shaking his head with an angry look on his face as he held out the Daily Prophet to him.
Harry took it and saw the large headline on the front page.
DEATH EATERS RELEASED
"WHAT??! You're joking they can't be let out already they've barely been in Azkaban for four months!" Harry turned to Ron and Hermione who both looked as angry as Harry felt.
"The ministry's corrupt though isn't it? They're all terrified of you-know-who now that they all know he's out there." Ron said disgustedly.
"Is it all of them?" Harry asked, feeling sick at the thought of the Death Eaters being able to roam the Wizarding World as freely as they liked.
"No", Hermione told him "there are six of them; they're being let out for six weeks to see if they can be in public without killing anyone."
Harry read down the page to the list of names.
Rodolphus Lestrange
Walden Macnair
Antonin Dolohov
Alecto Carrow
Avery Nott
Lucius Malfoy
"Malfoy!" Harry exclaimed "How the hell is he being allowed to go round in public?!"
"They should all be hung" Ron muttered darkly.
Hours of ranting later, they all decided to head back to the Slytherin common room. Everyone was there apart from Malfoy, Zabini and Pansy Parkinson. Harry guessed that those two were probably with Malfoy in the hospital wing. The first thing Harry noticed when he walked in was that all the Slytherin's looked ecstatic and he soon realised why. They all had a copy of the Daily Prophet. All the Gryffindors on the other hand were looking murderous and glared at every single one of the Slytherinsin turn.
The trio went and sat down over by the fire along with Seamus, Dean and Lavender who joined in with the rant of how sick and twisted the whole situation was. The doors to the common room swung open and they all glanced over to see Malfoy, Zabini and Parkinson enter the room.
"What's going on?" Pansy asked, also noticing the Daily Prophets.
"Hey Malfoy your dad's are out of Azkaban!" Goyle called over to him. Every Gryffindor turned to glare at Malfoy who Harry presumed would also join in with the celebrations. But he was wrong.
Malfoy stopped stock still in the centre of the room. "He's out of Azkaban?" He repeated after a second of hesitation in a hollow voice.
"Yeah" Goyle said, still waiting for him for him to jump up and down with glee.
Zabini and Pansy both glanced at each other then towards Malfoy and although Zabini disguised his feelings well, adopting his favourite blank mask, Pansy's face showed concern and fear as she looked towards Malfoy and Harry could almost hear her thoughts wishing him to hold things together. She reached out and subtly touched his elbow reassuringly.
Malfoy swallowed once then said "That's brilliant!" and aimed a smirk over at the Gryffindors. Goyle grinned, completely fooled by Malfoy's response, but none of the Gryffindors nor Nott (who had been watching Malfoy's reaction out of the corner of his eye) were fooled at all and Harry could see Malfoy's hands shaking as he went over to inspect the newspaper while Nott stood behind him, smirking gleefully.
