Okay, here's Chapter Nine! I like part one, part two chapters, though I don't think there's ever going to be a chapter with a part three. That's just too much.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own the HP Franchise.
RATING: PG-13. Malfoy's just has a bad mouth. Not as bad as I've seen it in other fics, but still. Bad mouth. Oh, and. Um. Torture. That seems to be a running theme.
To the reviewers, alerters, and favoriters -- YOU ARE MY FAVORITE PEOPLE OF ALL TIME! THANK YOU SO SO SO MUCH.
Okay, I've posted a warning on my profile that I'm not able to really post something on FF because I don't have time; midterms. UGHHH. But since I've practically finished Antipathy, I CAN in fact post on this story; this will probably be the only thing I post all month (this story, not this chapter) except for a possible St. Paddy's Day one-shot. Which, by the way, I hope you enjoy! (wink, wink; nudge, nudge.) What? No, I'm not pushy. I swear.
So now: on with the show!
Midnight, Part One
by Shu of the Wind
***
"Come on, Greengrass!" Draco mocked, as the witch he loathed swiped her chin with one hand, glaring at him. "Don't tell me that's all you can do!"
The impotent fury in her face was as good as having Honeyduke's all to himself. Draco waited until Greengrass had lifted her wand again, her eyes flashing to stone with the effort of her focus, and whispered, "Legilimens."
If there was one thing his aunt had done that he had actually appreciated, teaching him both Legilimency and Occlumency was it. She had managed to get enough of it into his skull to keep even Snape out of his mind, and other than the Dark Lord, Snape was the most skilled Legilimens he knew.
Bellatrix would flay him alive if she knew who he was coaching now.
Greengrass had improved. Even from her last attempt. Her mind was sharper, more aerodynamic – she was ready to pierce through the shields he'd thrown up around his mind, far beyond ready. Only putting all of the force of his hatred behind it kept them up, kept her out of his head.
It was cathartic, this literal battle of wills. It gave him something to focus on, something to nail all of his anger to and wring it from him, like water from an old cloth. It always came back, but it gave him a few moments he could enjoy that held nothing of the insanity of the world, nothing of his constant turmoil. The only thing that irked him was that it was Greengrass – the cause of most of his problems in the first place – who helped him find that calm. She had done it through blackmail, and he had no doubts of the fact that she was still using him to achieve some goal, but it was probably only those moments of calm that keeping him sane.
No matter who she was, the idea that there was someone in the castle walls who knew what hand the world had dealt him made some things far easier.
He didn't tell her anything about what the Carrows did, and she never said a word about the D.A., though he had seen enough of her memories to know that she was working with them, that she was the one who had gathered so much information on the Slytherins and passed it on to them. And he still wanted to choke her for it, but the give and take of the Occlumency sessions were by now too important for him to do it.
It was a true Slytherin relationship – it might not have been enjoyable, it might not have been healthy, but whatever it was, it was mutually beneficial, and that was what mattered.
"I have to report to the dungeon today." Greengrass said suddenly, once he'd managed to fend her off again. Draco stared at her, startled at the breach in protocol. She never spoke up about anything she did, only asked him pointed questions about Legilimency, Occlumency, and, sometimes, whether he was a coward, usually in reference to his unwillingness to let her into his head since that first lesson in the Quidditch pitch, and especially not since she'd asked about the Mark. Never personal information. He didn't like hearing about it.
"What the hell does that have to do with me?" Draco said, refusing to meet her gaze. "Everyone reports to the dungeons sooner or later. That's the price."
"The price for what, Malfoy?" Her tone told him it had been exactly the wrong word to use. "A stable society? Oh, sure, just torture a few children, Astoria – your dark master will reward you for it when the time comes!" She kicked a bit of turf. "Don't worry if you throw up, Astoria, that'll pass eventually! You'll actually like it sooner than you think! Malfoy, don't you realize how sick and wrong this all is?"
"Don't start that." Draco said, in a dark voice. "Don't you dare."
"Well, don't you?" Greengrass asked. Her face was filled with pure fury. He hadn't seen her this angry since the issue with Lovegood, and for a few short days, he'd hoped – stupidly –that that had taken the edge off of her temper. "It's the Patil twins in there today. Both of them. Your bloody Zabini friend caught them helping get a first year into the hospital wing. They were helping a kid, Malfoy, and they're being punished for it!"
"Don't you bring this up." His voice was a hiss, steam escaping from a train. "Drop it, Greengrass."
"How can I drop it when it's me who has to do it?" She was shouting at him, glorious and incensed, her fingers crooked into claws. She'd obviously been dying to bite someone's head off all day, and clearly, this was the result. "How can I pretend that this isn't disgusting? How can any of us believe that this isn't horrendous, vile, insane, completely bloody heinous? How can you just stand there and let them do it when somewhere you know it's wrong?"
Draco said nothing.
"Oh, right, I forgot –" she laughed, the sound high and hysterical. "You're the one who'd throw his own friends to werewolves before you had to suffer an instant of pain!"
To his horror, Draco noticed that her eyes were too glassy to be normal. Greengrass continued to rage and storm at him. "I can't even pretend to do it because the Carrows will be in there, watching every moment of it, waiting for me to slip up! I can't let them go, I have to do it and you're just standing there like it's so damn normal! You're worse than they are!"
The Carrows will be there? Draco thought, instantly on alert. The Carrows never supervised detentions unless they regarded the torturer as a partner…or an enemy.
"Greengrass." Draco said, quietly. She ignored him.
"You're just standing there!" She snatched up her broom, wringing it with her hands. It looked like she was attempting to strangle the thing. "How dare you –"
"Shut up." Draco ordered, biting back the impulse to shake her. "When did you learn this?"
Greengrass blinked a few times, her mouth hanging open slightly. Clearly, she hadn't expected him to interrupt, or say anything until she had finished calling him every name in the book. "This morning. What does that matter?"
"When do you have to go to the dungeons?" He asked, already wondering. Her mouth slowly closed, and her eyes sharpened; she'd caught the tenseness in his words.
"An hour from now."
"They suspect you." He said, collecting his broom. Greengrass's eyes widened, and she stared at him, her mouth dropping open again. "So get over yourself, you stupid cow, and forget that you ever said any of that, because they'll know. You go in there for your required half an hour, you do what you have to do, and then you leave, and you never say anything or show anything to make them even more suspicious of you."
She pressed her lips together stubbornly, marching up to him and prodding at him with one finger. "And what the hell gives you the right to insult me and lecture me like a child? How do you even know they suspect me?"
"It's common sense, you idiot, so quit being such a fool and do what I say." Draco flared. The spot where she'd poked him burned.
"If you ever tell me what to do again, Draco Malfoy, I will hex your face off and turn you over to the D.A. myself." She hissed, so far beyond hot anger now that the temperature was dropping around her. "No matter what I am, how much of a traitor, I am not –" She set both hands flat against his chest, shoving him back a few steps. "–someone who will roll over and take orders from you. And I am not –" she shoved him again, taking advantage of the fact he was still rocky on his feet "–someone you can belittle to make yourself feel better. So don't you ever say anything like that to me again, or it won't just be your face that I hex off."
She snatched up her bag, set her broomstick over her shoulder, and stalked from the stadium, leaving Draco to mouth a few non-complimentary words at her retreating back. The anger boiling in his veins was a different sort of anger than the type he'd been feeling lately – not pointless anger, futile rage at what had happened to him, but the kind of wrath that only came when he had been insulted.
Frustration steamed through him as he realized that Greengrass was never going to even think about coming near him ever again. Somehow, that made him angrier; he Summoned his broom, trying to let off steam by focusing every atom of his being on flight, but for once, not even that was going to work.
Bloody stupid bitch.
***
"That completely idiotic, selfish, stupid git." Astoria snarled under her breath, slamming into the fifth year girl's dormitory and startling the half-blood Rosalie King, who had been brushing her hair in front of the mirror. King dropped her hairbrush, her eyes widening to the size of Galleons.
"Astoria?"
"Shove off." Astoria snapped at her, too furious to think of an excuse. King flinched, and bent down to pick up her hairbrush again, her hair disguising her eyes, and Astoria abruptly felt guilty. Some hypocrite I am.
"I'm sorry." She said, almost under her breath. King, surprised, glanced at her through her bangs, eyebrows marching higher up her forehead. "Just…just knackered, that's all."
King smiled faintly, pity glittering in her eyes. She knew exactly what Astoria had to do today; she had been there when the Carrows had summoned her to their office, and knew what that meant as well as anyone. "It's all right. Forget it."
Astoria flopped back onto her bed, wondering if she could simply skive it off. Complain of a headache, a bellyache, a sudden, uncontrollable, epileptic fit. She knew the Carrows wouldn't accept it. And as much as she hated to admit it, what Malfoy had said made the worst kind of sense. The Carrows wouldn't be watching her unless they were expecting her to fail, and had some sort of back-up plan in mind…
She rolled over, pressed her face into her pillow, and tried not to scream, because she knew just what she had to do. And her willingness to do just that was what scared her more than any sort of torture.
***
At exactly seven o'clock, Astoria stood in front of a dungeon door, wiping her sweaty hands on the folds of her cloak. She could already tell that the Patil twins were inside; she could hear the hoarse whisper of the Carrows, almost feel the manacles around her own wrist. She took a deep breath, holding it, and wondered if she would ever make it out of this room alive.
She opened the door.
"Greengrass." Alecto Carrow looked pleased; her ugly face was twisted in triumph. "Nice to have you show."
Astoria steadfastly averted her eyes from the twins on the wall, crossing the floor to stand in front of Alecto. Amycus wasn't there, but Malfoy's cronies were – Crabbe and Goyle were leaning against the wall, their faces half-cast into shadow. Astoria wondered how long until their Dark Lord would reward them with tattoos on their arms, just like he had done with their fathers. It was clear that was what they wanted, besides their need to cause pain.
She felt ready to vomit, but swallowed it back anyway. Her wand was slick with sweat in her hand.
"Y'know what you've come here to do." Alecto said, jerking her head towards the Patil twins. For the first time, Astoria ventured a glance at them. They were both steeled for the pain. Parvati had her eyes closed. Padma's were open; she was staring at Astoria, hate coloring her face. "Go ahead, Greengrass."
Alecto had already been at work here. She had heard the screams as she had come down the stairs. Astoria wondered if Parvati was steeling herself, or if she had been knocked unconscious by the pain of the Cruciatus Curse.
"No."
The word slipped out before she even realized it. Padma's eyes widened as Astoria turned, staring Alecto in the face. Crabbe and Goyle straightened, flexing their arms threateningly; clearly, people had done this before, and the mere hint of physical violence had turned them into gibbering puddles of compliance.
"If you don't, Greengrass," Alecto said, her voice turning dangerously soft. Her eyes gleamed triumphantly. "I will."
Astoria stared at her for a long moment. Pretended to waver. Fingered her wand nervously. Then she lifted her hand, pointing her wand directly into Alecto's face.
Good Lord, I am so going to regret this.
"If you don't let them down this instant, Professor." Astoria said, grateful to hear that her voice wasn't shaking. "Give them their wands back, and let them walk out of this dungeon without a peep of resistance from you, I will."
All the color drained from Alecto's face, and Crabbe and Goyle stopped flexing. Astoria kept a single eye on them, raising her voice. "And don't think that I won't do it to you, Gregory, Vincent. I know how fast you can run, and I know that whatever you try to do, I'm going to be faster. You let them down and give them their wands back."
Neither of them moved.
"You traitorous little cow." Alecto spat, looking furious. "You've been working with them. I know you have. I have evidence, proof – the headmaster will want to deal with you personally!"
"You think I'm working with those half-blood traitors slathering paint?" Astoria sneered, heart hammering in her chest, everything turning cold. Proof? What proof could they have unless Malfoy told them? "You're stupider than I thought. I have absolutely nothing," she emphasized, without looking at the twins, "to do with them. No, I'm doing this because frankly, Professor, I just don't like you." She pressed the tip of her wand against Alecto's throat. "And I'm wondering how long you'll be able to take it if I curse you in the heart."
Alecto said nothing. Her eyes bulged with fear.
"Let them go, now!" Astoria shouted. Sweat dribbled down the back of her neck. "And…and I'll stay here." It was a stupid move, but the only thing she could think of. "I'll stay here. Agreed?"
Alecto's piggy little eyes narrowed, one of them jerking haphazardly in the socket. She stared at Astoria. Astoria stared right back.
"Agreed." She said abruptly. "Crabbe. Goyle. Do as she says."
As Crabbe and Goyle shuffled forward, Alecto licked her lips, stared at Astoria, and smiled.
***
"They've caught a spy in Slytherin House!"
Word rippled through the common room like a tide, ebbing and flowing as more details came in. A spy, in Slytherin. She hadn't admitted it, but it was true all the same. She'd forced a Carrow to set free two known members of the rebellion and volunteered to take their place. No one was quite certain who she was, other than the fact that she was a Slytherin.
When people put questions to him, Draco pretended he didn't know what they were talking about. His stomach churned at the idea of Greengrass in the dungeons, but it churned even more at the thought of trying to get her out. She knew what she had signed herself up for when she'd been so bloody noble. She knew. It wasn't his problem any longer, and he wasn't about to risk his skin to play a knight in shining armor.
Draco Malfoy laughed hollowly, turning to stare into the fire. After all, he was no knight. And this – whatever it was – was no fairy tale.
He didn't need Legilimency to tell him that.
Stupid blind naïve noble fool.
You bloody coward, Malfoy. You leave such cliff-hangers.
