Chapter Four: At the Altar

Feeling exhausted after the days absurdities, Draco made his way to the Room of Requirement. Mentally scolding himself for nearly everything he told Potter.

Being caught crying in the girls loo is a new leave of humiliation for me. What the hell was I thinking talking to Potter about the torque of all things? Perhaps I have truly cracked. I wonder how you can tell?

After he had left the bathroom Pansy had been far too concerned with where he had been. Not that he didn't value her friendship or her concern, but she needed to remember that he was marked for death, most of the Slytherins knew it and no amount of affection was going to change that. The rest of his friends had stopped asking questions weeks ago. His dismissal of Crabbe after he had demanded to know what was going on in the room he locked himself in all the time, had convinced most of the other students in his house to stay away from him.

It's better that way, he thought.

Anyone that was close to him would be another target or could be threatened to 'intimidate' him into success. They had been looking for guidance from him from the very start of the term and now they didn't know what to think. It was obvious that his father's fall from Voldemort's grace had been upsetting to them as well. Everyone knew that Lucious was closer to the Dark Lord than most. To have failed a mission and be left to rot in Azkaban was, incomprehensible to many of them. One thing was painfully clear. Voldemort was mad!

The fear of Voldemort's madness gripped the Slytherins unlike any of the other houses at Hogwarts. They would be the first to be recruited. Expected to cooperate because of their familial ties and house loyalty. It was obvious to them that already some of their peers had made a commitment to the parents or the Dark Lord and they were now watching the rest of the Slytherins to see who would not be so easily persuaded.

The Malfoy family stood as an illustration of what happens to those who fail and the message had been received clearly. He would need to have a chat with Pansy again. It was really for her own good.

As Draco paced the hall thinking "I need the room with the Vanishing Cabinet," the entry appeared on the wall. He quickly went inside and locked the door behind him. At first glance the room looked like a dumping ground of random things. Most of which had been placed on Flich's restricted list. Fortunately for Draco, he knew that this room also harbored plenty of things he could use in his mission to kill the headmaster.



When Montague had mentioned his little trip into the Vanishing Cabinet Draco had to hide this excitement. Not even the old man Borgin knew the potential harm the twin cabinets could cause. Upon finding broken cabinet he fixed it then warded it from his side when he was not using it to sneak out of Hogwarts.

The cursed necklace he had given that Katie girl from Gryffindor had also come from this room. The room had been filled with books that you could not even put into the restricted section of Hogwarts library. Some things were broken but most things looked as if they had been tossed inside, and the owners had intended to come back later.

It was the literature was Draco's favorite thing about this place. There was so much knowledge on Dark Arts artifacts in one place it made him wonder if the headmaster knew the Room of Requirement could do this.

Sighing to himself, Draco slumped down into an old, broken chase lounge and pulled a book from a pile that he'd made months ago. He had lost his nerve to kill Dumbledore after he had nearly killed the Weasel. Why that bothered him he didn't dare explore.

Having found a way into Hogwarts was all the service Voldemort was going to get out of him and only when he knew his time was up. Maybe he would at least spare his mother if Draco did that much. Shrugging to himself he continued to read.

His current read had some of the darkest theory and spells he had ever come across. Alchemy and Necromancy so twisted it was almost barbaric. None of it was legal, but there was a section that had caught his attention. It was the section on Horcrux.

He remembered his father had caught him in the Malfoy library just before he began Hogwarts. Draco had been looking at a book titled Illustrations of Immortality By: Mary GrandPre. The table of contents had a chapter on Horcrux, but his father had snatched the book from him quickly and threw it in the already burning hearth.

Now that set Draco's interest ablaze. If his father had been that adamant about him not knowing what was in the book it must have been good(in a figurative sense).

HPDM

Harry checked the map again when he left the Headmaster's office making sure Malfoy hadn't left the Room of Requirement. Luckily for him he was still there. Making his way to the seventh floor corridor he began to think about just how he was going to approach Malfoy after their encounter in the bathroom earlier that day.

He's going to think I've gone nutters. Hell, I think I've gone nutters! It doesn't matter. If he wants help than I'll help him, if not then…er, best not to think about that right now. Perhaps it is better if I just leave him alone.



Soon enough he found himself standing in front of the entry into the Room of Requirement. His hand unconsciously rose up to knock on the door.

Well here goes nothing