A Different Sort of Bond
Disclaimer: I do not own the Potterverse.
Author's Note: Another of the small changes becomes apparent here. Hermione went with Harry to follow Draco into Knockturn Alley and they saw him buy the necklace that later harmed Katie.
Chapter 9
"Harry, I have to admit you were right," Hermione said.
"Always nice to hear," Harry said. "About what?"
"Malfoy," she said frowning. "He really is up to more than the usual this year."
Daphne's ears perked up at that and she looked up from the Runes textbook she was studying, "Oh? I've tried to keep up but I knew there were things I'd be missing. None of my usual sources are willing to gossip in front of Harry regardless of what privacy spell I use and Tracy is too nice to get as much out of them as I do."
"Is it more than the yearly rumor of him being marked?" Tracey asked.
"Yes," Hermione replied. "You've heard Katie is in the infirmary?"
Harry nodded, "Yes, we've been to see her. They say she'll be alright eventually but I wish I'd been there."
Hermione nodded, "Me too. So I investigated." Hermione brought out his invisibility cloak, "Thank you for loaning this to me."
Harry took it with his fee hand, "Thank me by telling me what you found out."
"She got hurt because she noticed her friend Leanne was acting oddly and had a glassy look to her eyes," Hermione explained. "She thought it might be the imperius curse and that was later confirmed by the nurse."
"So how did Katie get hurt?" Harry asked. "Did Leanne hurt her while imperiused?"
"No," Hermione replied. "Leanne was ordered to bring a package to Dumbledore and Katie tried to get it from her. As they struggled the paper ripped and a necklace that was inside dropped out, just barely brushing Katie's skin as it fell. That was enough to put her in the hospital, so imagine what it would have done to anyone lifting it."
"She doesn't remember who gave it to her does she?" Daphne asked. "I've heard of cases like this from my father. Since using the spell is an automatic life sentence most all of them tell the victim to forget who cast it."
Hermione nodded grimly, "That's correct. Leanne didn't even know what happened to her. She was never part of the Defense Association last year and I'm not even sure she was aware the spell existed." She turned to Harry, "I think fake Moody only gave that class to our year. It was a way to get his sick jollies from you and Neville."
Tracey hugged Neville, remembering how pale he'd looked when the torture curse had been discussed and then demonstrated on a spider.
Daphne sighed and nodded, "It's one reason dad never believed the claims by Malfoy's dad and others that they had been imperiused. If the dark lord had wanted covert operatives under imperiused command he would not have let them remember it nor would he mark them so visibly."
Hermione nodded in turn, "You're right. Using the cloak I managed to get a look at the necklace and its the same one we saw Draco buy in Borgin and Burke's while Ron covered for us."
"We need to get that information to the aurors," Harry said.
"Already done," Hermione replied. "I sent a school owl with a note to Tonks. She replied that she'll include it as evidence passed along from a snitch in Knockturn alley but that it wouldn't be enough all by itself."
Daphne gave a sour smile at the look on the faces of all three Gryffindors, "Unless the aurors can prove he gave it to her himself or find other evidence of that he can just say it was stolen. It used to be that buying such a cursed object was itself a crime but Theo's father is the one in charge of the cursed objects department and is rather free with exemptions for old friends like Lucius Malfoy and the other oh so reformed ex deatheaters. If you want him arrested or given any worse punishment than detention with his head of house then you'll need to catch him in the act."
"If that's what is needed then that's what I'll do," Harry said. "Thanks for returning the cloak Hermione. I'll be needing it tonight. I'd offer to take you along but as you well know it only fits two people now that we are all older."
"I know Harry," Hermione replied. She turned to Daphne, "looks like you're going on your first Harry Potter adventure. It's not all dodging fangirls and gluing naked people to ceilings you know."
Tracey giggled, "That sounds like more of a Daphne adventure, full of embarrassing awkwardness and unwanted lust."
"Can I help it if boys drool over my chest?" Daphne said. "And as for tact and subtlety, there are generally wasted on teenage boys so I don't bother using them. If my frankness throws the girls off and makes them think I'm a bull in a china shop then good. They'll never see me coming if I decide to move against them."
Harry asked, "Is Astoria still stuck there then? I was sure someone would have let her down by now."
Hermione smirked, "Well I would have, only she decided she wanted to call me names when I ended the silencing spell to ask what happened so I just reapplied it and moved on." She looked at Daphne, "What did she do?"
"I'd ask why you think I did it but that would be a silly question," Daphne said. "She attacked us in the hallway in some sort of half assed ambush to try and get in good with the blond ponce. She has a fierce and wholly irrational crush on him."
Hermione winced, "I'm sorry to hear that. Good luck tonight and please be careful. I'll be back tomorrow after class so you can tell me what happened. If you need help at any time though Harry you know you only have to ask."
Harry smiled, "I'll remember. Thank you Hermione."
After Hermione left Harry made sure the cloak fully hid both of them Harry led Daphne out into the corridor and let Tracey close the door behind them. Harry casts a spell to muffle sound and the one to mask scent. They walk down towards the dungeon level but see nobody. "We should head to the seventh floor and check the door to the RoR," Harry said quietly.
"The RoR?" Daphne asked.
Harry nods, "The Room of Requirement. Maybe you call it the Come and Go room? The one on the seventh floor that is only there if you summon it?"
"Holy crap Potter," Daphne said. "You mean you've found it?"
"In Fourth Year," Harry replied. "We used it to train the D.A. in Fifth Year. I'd thought the secret was sure to get out to you Slytherins then. I mean Umbitch found it." He started moving toward the staircase up.
"Damn," she whispered as she followed. "I did hear that rumor but I was thinking it was embellishment." She shook her head, "With most heroes they only do half, or less, of what you hear. With you it's closer to twice or three times as much. If the room is where you say it is I'm not going to doubt anything you say you can do. I swear if you tell me tomorrow men have been to the moon I'll believe you!"
Harry chuckled and almost told her about the 1969 moon landing but decided he'd wait until after he'd showed her the room. It was a long trip up to the seventh floor but both were in good shape so they arrived without any huffing or puffing. The corridor with the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy also had what looked like a pair of first year female Slytherins bracketing the area where the door appeared.
"Does this look fishy to you?" Harry asked.
Daphne nodded, "Probably polyjuiced. I'll stun the near one and you stun the far one."
Harry nodded, "On three." He counted down then stunned his target.
Daphne checked out hers, "Do you know any way to check for Poly?"
"No," Harry said. "And I've been looking."
"Let's just wait a bit then," she said. "Whoever set these two as guards should be back out soon. Poly doesn't last more than hour and everyone knows it."
Harry nodded, "Good idea." They sat against the wall still under the cloak and waited. Harry re-stunned the two every ten minutes. After thirty minutes the two girls turned back into Crabbe and Goyle. "Wow," Harry said. "I can't believe they agreed to that." Then after a quick glance at Daphne he clarified, "I mean becoming first years."
Daphne snorted, "Yeah sure." But she didn't say anything else so Harry assumed it was fine when actually she was just saving it for a later argument.
Eventually after another forty-five minutes a door appeared in the wall opposite the tapestry and Draco came out. He was looking scared, worried, and exhausted. When he saw the stunned bodies of his two cronies he scowled and reached for his wand but Harry cast a silent stunner that caught him before he had it out.
"Now what?" Daphne asked. "Same as Astoria? Or should we interrogate him?" She frowned, "We do need to know what he was doing in there but I'm horrible at all mind and memory related spells and according to Hermione so are you."
Harry frowned for a long moment then studied the Marauder's Map. "If I'd remembered it earlier we wouldn't have had to wait to find who those two were." Then he saw something on the map that gave him an idea. He turned back to Draco, "Accio dark objects!" He used the variant that allowed you to control where they landed and piled them against the wall. He cast the same spell at Crabbe and Goyle and added their few things to the pile. Then he vanished their left sleeves making sure the dark mark was immediately visible on their arms, "McGonagall will be here in a few minutes on patrol. Hopefully she'll do something more about this than give them detention with Snape. Just in case though I think I can get us into whatever room he was working in and bugger up whatever he was working on."
"Well he certainly didn't have a look of triumph on his face when he exited so I doubt he was finished. Let's go, if nothing else we can avoid having to hide from the Deputy. You've mentioned two people seeing through this cloak so I'd rather not take the chance that she can too."
Harry nodded, "Good point. Follow me and think about finding the place Draco just left."
Soon they were in a large room seemingly stuffed with all manner of junk. "Don't touch anything," Harry said.
"Do I look like Ron?" Daphne answered.
"No, and I'm pretty glad about that," Harry replied.
"Pretty glad?" Daphne repeated. "Anything you want to tell me Potter?"
Harry started snickering, "Nope, sorry if I was unclear. I am very glad you look as beautiful as you do Daphne."
"That's better," she replied. "What a pile of mismatched objects! Everything from badly scribbled poetry to a jeweled tiara and that's just what we can see from the door."
Harry pressed a hand to his scar, "There's a horcrux in here."
"How can you tell?" Daphne said.
"They make my scar hurt," Harry said.
Daphne paled, "That's a bad sign Harry. A very bad sign."
Harry sighed, "I was hoping it wasn't what I thought it was. Sometimes I hate my fucking life."
"We'll call the Unspeakable when we get back to the room," Daphne said firmly. "He knew. He didn't say it outright but if you think over what he said he knew and can fix it. Remember?"
Harry's frown lightened and he smiled, "Hey, yeah! I do remember. Thanks Daphne!" Harry kissed her cheek. "Let's go destroy the horcrux. Each one we get is one less chance of the bastard coming back the next time I kill him," Harry gestured to the diadem/tiara. "I think that's it."
"So how do we destroy it?" Daphne asked.
"The same way I destroyed the book," Harry said. "Basilisk venom. In this case, our blood." He extended his hand over the diadem, "Cut it just enough to bleed and we'll see if its concentrated enough. If not we'll try something else."
She shook her head and spoke in exasperated tones, "Your Plan A is to hurt yourself and see if that helps?"
"Uh, sorry?" Harry said.
"Stand aside Potter," she said scowling. "I'll try a few things first. If none of that even scratches it then maybe we can try using our blood but even then I'd rather go break another fang off from Fido and use that."
Harry moved out of her line of fire and Daphne took off the cloak and laid it on top of a small table then started casting. "Draconis Halitu!" caused a stream of fire to pour from her wand. "Wow," she grinned. "Having access to your magical core makes casting these spells so much easier." She looked over at the red hot but otherwise undamaged tiara, "And it seems I'll need it." Pointing her wand at it again she called out "Aqua Fortis!" Which was followed swiftly by "Dirumpo! Praefringo! Aqua Regia! Dissiliunt!" and a final "Ira Hecate!"
Harry was both appalled and admiring at the spells she used. Everyone of them would have destroyed any ordinary jewelry. They dissolved the marble bust the diadem was on and the granite table the bust was on before finally breaking the horcrux to release the soul piece inside.
"Wow!" Harry said. "Remind me never to make you angry."
Daphne smirked, "Oh don't worry, I will."
Harry noticed a trail in the thick dust and pointed it out, "I guess he went that way. Let's see what he was working on."
Daphne nodded, "We should. Just let me do the destroying okay? We'll both stay healthier that way."
Harry blushed, "Yes Daphne."
The trail stopped at a damaged wooden cabinet. Harry did some diagnostic spells, "It's too broken to tell what it did when whole but I'd rather not take a chance. Destroy it please dear?"
Daphne smiled, "Of course dear." She cast a single spell and the wood aged to dust. "Damn, normally I'd be flat on my back after all this spellcasting if I managed it at all. I hope I retain some of this power after we're separated. It's fucking awesome."
Harry led the way back to the invisibility cloak and once again invisible they peeked out of the door into the hall. Seeing no one they made their way back to the room and removed the cloak once inside.
Tracey and Neville were waiting up for them. "How did it go?" Tracey asked.
Harry grinned, "Great! We destroyed the thing he was working on, got him into trouble with McGonagall, and destroyed another horcrux."
Daphne frowned, "Also bad in that Draco knows somebody found out what he was doing, he might not get expelled, and we found out that Harry's scar is a very bad thing. Pass me that crystal Trace, I'm going to call that healer right now."
