Year Six: Harry Potter and the Secret Letters

Chapter Ten: The Hasty Attempt

Warnings: Do not fear. Draco is going through a lot, just as we knew he would. Be patient. It will work itself out. Other than that, try not to kill me for following the book. Haha.

The Daily Prophet continued to sport more and more depressing news come October. Innocent people were being arrested in hopes that the knowledge of the Ministry taking action would calm the wizarding community. Stan from the Knight Bus was currently awaiting trial after being heard boasting about the Dark Lord's plans. The Patil twins' mother had been found dead, murdered by Death Eaters, and the girls were wanted home. The only thing that kept the students at Hogwarts was the security offered by Dumbledore's presence. However, the problem was that the Headmaster had been strangely absent for the past week, and it was starting to unnerve the teens.

Draco had received a package from his mother that afternoon containing licorice wands and an urgent letter. He smirked as the candy reminded him of the last question the Gryffindor had asked of him, but his good humor quickly turned sour when he read her correspondence. All of the mail was being censored, so Narcissa's hints were vague, but she made it clear that he was to visit Snape before leaving on the Hogsmeade trip the following weekend. The first step in the Dark Lord's plan. The licorice instantly lost its appeal and Draco handed it over to Crabbe, who seemed to find it far more appetizing, while the blond exited the Great Hall in the direction of the Slytherin dorms.

The more he thought about his task, the more anxious and nauseous he became. He had the beginnings of that panicked feeling which made you not want to get out of bed for a month. The arrival of his first orders was making the threats real. Voldemort does not exaggerate when it comes to the tortures he would happily perform on you if you fail. And the Lord's threats were menacing. If Draco did not succeed, he and his parents would be openly humiliated and tortured in front of the Death Eaters, undergoing the Crucio Curse from the members and the Lord himself. And once they were milked of all the agony they could produce, they would be murdered. Draco had no doubt of the truths of this; he had heard the screams of such suffering once before when Voldemort had used the Malfoy Manor as the meeting grounds after their previous location had been disclosed. The traitor screeched until he lost his voice, and even then the rasping continued throughout the night until Draco awoke the next morning to utter silence. That quiet had been almost more unnerving than the wailing.

Draco softly closed his bedroom door behind him and laid on his bed, taking the transfer sphere from his pocket and examining it slowly. The candlelight from the wrought iron chandelier in the center of the room reflected dimly off of the glass. It had become habit by that time to speak to Harry when he was in bed. He had been making progress with the other boy, using Potions class as an excuse to talk with him almost daily. The amount of time spent giving Harry advice had taken a toll on the quality of his own work, but he deemed it unimportant. His assistance was earning Harry's respect and attention, and that was what mattered. If he succeeded in winning Harry over, it could lead to fulfilling the Lord's wishes, which would lead to Draco being branded and taken out of the school to become a Death Eater. If he failed… he would be slaughtered. Either way, he hardly felt his N.E.W.T.S. held any priority.

After that realization, he hadn't stopped at Potions. He was also teaching Harry little charms and incantations that he thought the Gryffindor would find helpful or amusing. Muffliato, a spell that filled nearby persons' ears with an unidentifiable buzzing, was turning out to be rather commonly used to keep professors or peers from hearing them whisper into their transfer spheres. A few of the jinxes he shared with Harry had backfired when the Golden Boy casted them on Crabbe and Goyle, albeit still humorous. And as their Charms and DADA classes grew more advanced, so did the private training the Malfoy heir was providing. And the more serious their conversations were becoming. It would start as 'How do you enunciate this spell?' and turn into 'Did you know that the Dark Lord tried to use this spell on me once?' Most of it was Harry opening up, inviting him in. The Gryffindor was getting flustered from his friends' constant dismissals of the 'Malfoy may be a Death Eater' problem and Hermione's accusations of Judas' apparently obvious shadiness. Harry found that Judas was always on his side even though he still claimed to be a neutral party, and the black-haired teen found it refreshing for someone to agree with him, whether over trivial matters or the Dark Lord. Draco usually became quiet around then and just let the other boy vent. He feared too much about giving himself away. He supposed it was for the better; his listening skills certainly could use some improvement.

Remembering this created a longing in Draco to listen to the other boy ramble about nothing in particular. He brought the sphere close to his mouth a couple of times to say something, but would then hesitate and move it away again. He didn't really have a reason to speak with the Gryffindor, nothing to say or ask or joke about. Nothing except the urge to contact the person who was on his mind. Irritated at his own indecision, he deemed purpose unnecessary and that he was perfectly free to speak to people whether or not he had legitimate reason.

"Harry—"

His bedroom door clicked open and Draco jumped with surprise, instantly hiding the transfer sphere beside him between his thigh and the folds of his bedspread. Theodore Nott's face appeared around the door, searching eyes landing on the blond and blinking with confusion. If he suspected Draco of hiding something, he didn't say anything, although he sent a knowing glance towards where the sphere was concealed. "We're going to be late for Transfiguration," he informed shortly, apparently set on waiting for Draco to get ready before leaving.

Theodore wasn't technically part of Draco's 'group.' Then again, Theo wasn't really part of anyone's group. He was the son of a Death Eater, but he found his studies to be more important than any of the social parties he could partake in. And for that reason alone, Draco found some level of respect for the boy. Hurriedly stuffing the sphere in his pocket and grabbing his book-bag, doubling back for his copy of Guide to Advanced Transfiguration that he nearly forgot, he and Theo made their way out of the dungeons and to McGonagall's classroom.

XXXXXXXXXX

Snape was going to kill him. No, Voldemort was going to kill him. The very first step of his duty unable to be completed because the head of Gryffindor House gave him a detention for that Hogsmeade weekend! He kicked at the air in front of him as he headed for his godfather's office. The corridors were empty since most students were still in class. McGonagall told him to leave since he was 'unable to pay attention and insisted on not turning in the homework.' In truth, he had forgotten about the homework in lieu of Quidditch tryouts and Harry and the Dark Lord and Potions and Merlin knows what else. How was he possibly expected to remember a stupid essay on how turning walls into doorways is a practical skill? This was the second essay he missed in the last month, and Minerva deemed that worthy of a detention. A detention that just so happened to land on their first Hogsmeade weekend and the day his first trial was to take place.

Draco rapped on the professor's door impatiently, and the dark-haired man emerged after only a moment. Eyes flickered over the student briefly, and then Snape stepped aside to allow the other in. Severus lost no time in explaining Draco's next steps once he was sure no one else was in the vicinity and casted a silencing charm on the door. "I cannot tell you all of the details of what you must do, as I am not aware of your exact orders, but Narcissa has passed on to me that you are to perform your task while at Hogsmeade, where it can be mistaken as any Death Eater attack. You are to—"

"I can't."

Snape paused and gave the boy a critical look. "And why is that?"

"Because McGonagall just gave me a detention for this Saturday," Draco stated curtly, lazily taking the chair in front of his professor's desk and examining his pale fingernails as nonchalantly as he could.

The man came around to stand in front of the boy and hissed dangerously. "What?"

"Was I not clear the first time?" Draco sneered. "I have a detention. If I don't show, it will only place further suspicions on me. I'm already under close watch because of my father mysteriously escaping from Azkaban and the Dark Lord searching for more followers. And since I actually am performing an assassination attempt here, I do not think brandishing my rule-breaking is the smartest idea."

"Obviously your rule-breaking is already flourishing since you managed to already receive a detention."

"Don't be ridiculous. I missed an assignment, is all. The woman is bloody insane. I missed it because our workload is too great as it is, and now she deducts another hour from time I could be spent doing her assignments."

"Do not be so melodramatic, Draco. You would have gone to Hogsmeade for the entirety of the day and would have accomplished nothing for school." Snape sat in his customary chair and steepled his fingers in thought. "Now we must determine what to do—"

"You will do nothing." Malfoy sent his godfather a sharp glare. "This is my task, and I will accomplish it my way. The Dark Lord entrusted it to me. I do not need you and my mother holding my hand through it."

"You are aware, I'm sure, of what will happen if you fail. I cannot allow your pride to blind you when the lives of others depend on your success. You may gamble with your own life, but I will now allow you to gamble with that of your mother or myself."

"It is not my fault that you made the Unbreakable Vow! That was your own choice. Just as this task is mine." The blond stood and shouldered his bag once more. His patience towards the man he once respected was dwindling rapidly in face of his new responsibilities. He was well aware of what was weighing on this year, what his only options were. Kill or be killed. This was his life now. "I'll get it done. Just give me time," he stated, a bit calmer, then nodded farewell and left the man's office.

XXXXXXXXXX

Draco had wracked his brain the entire week to plot something in order to appease the Dark Lord. He knew he couldn't kill the boy in plain sight, and Harry would never go down without a fight. But if signs of progress were not reported, Voldemort might take that as failure. So he sent out multiple owls and pulled many strings, calling favors from contacts even more threatening than his mother would have liked, and finally arranged a secret exchange that was to take place in his absence. Draco purchased a cursed opal necklace that he remembered seeing in Borgin and Burkes in his second year. Mundungus had been caught and terrorized into delivering the packaged necklace to Blaise, who Draco got to participate after explaining that it was an order from the Dark Lord. From there, Blaise was to give it to a Gryffindor to deliver to Harry.

It was dodgy, and wasn't very well-structured. But it was something. If Mundungus skimped out, the Death Eaters would kill him instead of Draco. And if Blaise could not find an opportunity to slip it to a student, then they were less likely to be tortured. It was exhausting, and Friday arrived after what seemed like years. The weather was becoming harsh, so he decided to relax in the Slytherin Common Room after Defense Against the Dark Arts had ended, his legs hanging over the side of his armchair lazily. Blaise had followed him and sat on the sofa nearby. Including him in this plan had greatly diminished the amount of suspicion Zabini had been accumulating. Now he sent Draco meaningful glances every so often, as if conspiracy to murder was a bonding agent and they were new brothers in arms.

No words were spoken due to other students being around, but they were both deep in thought about the plan that was to be set in motion the next day. Draco was getting anxious about being discovered, for many reasons. Mostly because it was the cowardly way. If it did happen to work and the murder was accomplished, Voldemort would still not be pleased that he had yet to perform an Unforgivable, and his father would be shamed. Cunning and wit were key traits in being a Slytherin, but casting the Unforgivables is key to being a Death Eater. It would not be enough to gain Voldemort's trust and he would be forced to complete another task afterwards. Be that as it may, Draco was not convinced that he could defeat Harry in a duel. Harry had been better at practically everything since they first met, and had shown up Draco on many occasions during that time.

So, to Draco, it didn't matter how it was done. All he knew was that Harry Potter must be killed.

XXXXXXXXXX

Harry woke early on the morning of the trip, which was proving stormy, and whiled away the time before breakfast by practicing little charms on his DADA textbook. As it plopped down on his bed after changing back from being a butterfly, it opened to a page that they had yet to get to in class. He glanced over it, slightly curious, and found it was a sort of levitation spell: Levicorpus. He figured it had to be something between wingardium leviosa and mobilicorpus and lazily flicked his wand at the book. "Levicorpus," he whispered. When nothing happened, he frowned and repeated, "Levicorpus." The book continued to lay flat on his bed.

He took out the transfer sphere from where he kept it under his pillow (lest it be stolen in his sleep) and spoke into it briskly. It had become habit to ask Judas for help in all things school and Malfoy related. Unlike Hermione, Judas never lectured him about doing his own work for once, and therefore he enjoyed the other boy's advice more. "Judas, are you awake?"

Draco was in that stage of sleep where you aren't really asleep but are still lying motionless with your eyes closed. His mind was pleasantly blank, basking in the warmth of his blankets and the familiar smell he had come to find comforting. He took a deep breath and began to shift, bringing feeling back into his limbs. The smell of Harry was all around him and he smiled to himself. It took another few moments for it to register that the smell was from the sphere, but it no longer surprised him; he was getting used to it. "Yes, good morning, Harry. How are you?" he asked after pulling out the sphere and stretching his legs a bit.

"I'm great, actually. Looking forward to Hogsmeade today. Listen, do you know the spell levicorpus?"

Draco was slow to open his eyes as he settled back into his sheets. His brow momentarily creased in thought. "Um, yeah. It's a levitation charm. Why?"

"I can't get it to work. Is there a special wand movement or way to pronounce it?"

"Pronounce it? Harry, it's a nonverbal spell."

The Gryffindor pressed his lips together a little. He wasn't very good at nonverbal spells, as Snape had been quick to note every chance he could during DADA class. Then again, Judas had been more help to him than Snape ever had. Flicking his wand at nothing in particular, he clearly enunciated the spell in his head. Immediately, somewhere in the room someone yelled! Harry yanked back his bed curtains to see Ron dangling by his ankle in midair, obviously having been levitated violently right from under his covers. He was still detangling the blanket from himself when the faces of the other boys appeared. Dean and Seamus roared with laughter and Neville was picking himself off of the floor where he had fallen in panic.

"Sorry!" Harry yelled over them, turning from Ron's startled face back to the sphere. "What's the counter-jinx?"

Draco frowned, trying to arouse his foggy memory. "Uh— Liber… Liberacorpus?"

Harry instantly waved his wand at his helpless friend, thinking the counter-jinx with all his focus and never once doubting Judas' word. There was a flash of light, and then Ron landed on a heap on the mattress. "Sorry," Harry mumbled feebly, embarrassed at causing his friend to be laughed at.

Ron simply rubbed his head. "Next time, I'd rather you set the alarm clock."

The room laughed a little more casually this time and everyone set to getting ready for breakfast. Harry snapped his book closed and whispered to Judas sheepishly. "I better go. I think that was one of the rudest awakenings I have ever given Ron."

"Wait, did you just cast it on him?"

"On accident! I didn't know what it would do."

Draco just snickered, tossing and catching the globe again jovially, the thought of the weasel dangling by his ankle being a rather amusing thought. "Nice one, Harry."

"Oh, shut it," Harry chuckled, the adrenaline from moments before passing by. "Better head down for breakfast. I'll talk to you once we get back from Hogsmeade this afternoon."

Draco's smile fell a bit as the memory of what awaited Harry that afternoon returned to him. "Yeah… I'll talk to you later."

By the time Ron and Harry had made it to the Great Hall, Weasley was happily recounting that morning's mishap to Hermione, who was sending icy looks to Harry. "Was this spell, by any chance, another one told to you by Judas?"

Harry frowned at her. "You always jump to the worst conclusion, don't you?"

"Was it?"

"Well… Yeah, kind of. I mean, he helped me with it, but so what?"

"So you just decided to try out an unknown spell Judas told you about and see what would happen?"

"Why does it matter if Judas told me?" he persisting, preferring not to inform her that he had first seen it in the textbook. Her ever-present suspicions of Judas made his irritation flare, and he was automatically on the defensive of his new friend.

"Because it's probably not Ministry of Magic approved. And also," she added when Harry and Ron both rolled their eyes, "because I'm starting to think that this Judas character is a bit dodgy."

"It was a laugh!" Ron asserted, pouring some ketchup onto his sausages. "Just a laugh, Hermione, that's all!"

"Dangling people upside down by the ankle? Who puts their time and energy into learning spells like that?"

"Fred and George," Ron shrugged. "It's kind of their thing. And, uh—"

"And my dad," Harry added, only just remembering. He had witnessed it when he fell into Snape's Pensieve last year. Not that he had ever told Ron or Hermione about it. "I—Lupin told me."

"Maybe your dad did use it, Harry, but he's not the only one. We've seen a whole bunch of people use it, in case you've forgotten. Dangling people in the air. Making them float along, asleep, helpless..." The girl's voice faded off as memories of the Quidditch World Cup filtered through their minds.

"That was different," defended Ron. "They were abusing it. Harry and his dad were just having a laugh. Admit it, Hermione, you only don't like Judas because he's better at Potions than you are," he noted with finality, flicking a sausage in her direction to enunciate his points.

"It's got nothing to do with that! I just think it is very irresponsible to start performing spells when you don't even know what they're for. And stop talking about 'Judas' as if he's a real person. I bet it's just a stupid façade, and it doesn't seem as though he is a very nice person to me."

"I don't see where you get that from," Harry cut in heatedly. "He's done nothing but help me and talk to me and joke around with all of us. If he was a… budding Death Eater, or something, he wouldn't be wasting his time being friendly with me, now would he?"

"Not all Death Eaters are as brutish as some. Becoming your friend would be easiest way to get to you when you're vulnerable."

Ron blinked a bit before speaking up. "Hold on a second. So just because I'm Harry's close friend, that makes me suspect of being a Death Eater?"

Hermione appeared frazzled as she began to lose track of her argument. "I'm just saying that you and I are in the perfect position for the Dark Lord if we happened to be Death Eaters."

"There is no way they would let me be a Death Eater!" Ron said indignantly, a bit of sausage flying of the fork he was now brandishing at the girl. "My whole family are blood traitors. That's as bad as being a muggle-born to them."

"Yeah, they'd love to have you," Harry added sarcastically. "We could all be best pals if they didn't keep trying to do us in." The redhead laughed at this, and even Hermione gave a grudging smile. The topic was dropped as they hurried through breakfast to get on their way to Hogsmeade.

XXXXXXXXXX

Draco was slowly losing his mind. The amount of anxiety and guilt building up in him was suffocating. He had been sitting in the Transfiguration classroom since breakfast, forced to write his missed essay for zero credit as his form of detention while McGonagall sat at the front of the class grading his peers' homework. Normally, this would have been the best way to serve detention; he could just spit out whatever random facts about the spell he wanted until it filled the page requirement and he was able to go free. But this morning, his mind was so far away that he couldn't concentrate long enough to remember what the thesis of the essay even was.

Whether this worked or not, word would get out fast. There was an assassination attempt from within Hogwarts. Parents would panic. Security would be elevated even further. His father would hear about it and give him a sound lashing. Voldemort would be furious. And that fear was more than enough distraction to keep him from writing about some stupid, useless charm!

Meanwhile, he was constantly worrying about Harry. Was he still okay? Does he suspect? How will he be able to talk to the Chosen One after trying to murder him? But mostly, it was the ever-present fear of if Harry was still breathing.

There was a loud shudder through the castle as what sounded like the front doors had been slammed open. McGonagall was on her feet instantly and heading for the Entrance Hall. "Once you are finished, you may leave your essay on my desk and leave, Mr. Malfoy," she directed to him over her shoulder. After he was sure she had made it down the staircase, he rushed out the door and looked over the banister for any sight of what was going on. He couldn't see anything but a couple of other students standing around staring just as he was.

Tracy Davis was hurrying up the stairs in his direction and Draco held out a hand to stop the other Slytherin. "What in Merlin's name is going on?"

"It's Katie Bell. Hagrid just carried her into the school. It looks like she's cursed!" she exclaimed before brushing past him, intent on spreading the gossip as quickly as she could with the Ravenclaws.

Draco backed into the classroom and shut the door once more. His plan had gone wrong… terribly, terribly wrong. He could have killed Katie Bell. He could have killed Katie Bell! He leaned heavily against the wall, mind racing frantically with what that now meant. Zabini had successfully done his part of passing off the necklace, but Katie must have opened the package and touched it. An innocent had gotten caught in the crossfire of Draco's war. He had no idea what his father would say, or what the Dark Lord would say.

Something moved outside the window and Draco slid a little closer to get a better look. Four figures were joining up with a taller woman who he could barely tell was McGonagall. He didn't recognize the students at first, but then Ron's red hair gave them away. The five talked for a moment and then all headed back for the castle through the wind. Despite all of the conflictions going on in Draco's brain, there was a significant amount of relief as it sank in that Harry was safe.

He sat down at his desk and began rambling about the wall-into-a-door charm, whatever it was called. He didn't care. But he was at least able to block out his other uncertainties and throw together a haphazard essay. Within an hour, he would be out of that classroom and talking to Zabini about what exactly occurred.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Well? What happened?" McGonagall demanded of Leanne, Katie's friend who had witnessed everything, as soon as they were in her office on the fourth floor. Leanne tried to explain how Katie had come back from the bathroom in the Three Broomsticks with the package but had refused to tell her who it was for or where it came from. As the two had argued, the parcel had ripped open, and—by this point, Leanne was so overcome that she could not form another word. McGonagall swiftly dismissed her to the hospital wing to get something for shock. Once she had gone, Minerva turned sharply to the Gryffindor trio. "What happened when Katie touched the necklace?"

"She rose up in the air, began to scream, and collapsed," Harry explained before either of his two friends could speak. "Professor, I… I think Draco Malfoy gave her that necklace." His sudden accusation of Malfoy made Ron rub his nose, embarrassed, and Hermione shifted in her chair a little as if distancing herself from Harry.

Minerva recovered first and pressed forward. "That is a very serious accusation, Potter. Do you have any proof?"

"Well… no. But, over the summer, we did see him in Knockturn Alley." Harry quickly retold the story of the three of them following Draco to Borgin and Burkes and listening to his conversation. When he had finished, Minerva looked succinctly confused.

"Malfoy took something to Borgin and Burkes for repair?"

"No, Professor, he just wanted Borgin to tell him how to mend something; he didn't have it with him. But that's not the point. The thing is that he bought something while he was there, and I think it was that necklace."

"You saw him leaving the shop with a similar package?"

"No, Professor, he told Borgin to keep it in the shop for him—"

"But, Harry," Hermione stepped in, "Borgin asked him if he wanted to take it with him and he said no."

"Because he didn't want to touch it, obviously!" Harry bit back at her, not feeling up to dealing with her hypocrisy.

"What he actually said was 'How would I look carrying that down the street?'"

"Well, he would look like a bit of a prat carrying a necklace," offered Ron feebly.

"Oh, Ron, it would have been all wrapped up so he wouldn't have to touch it! It would have been quite easy to hide inside a cloak where no one could see it. I think whatever he reserved at Borgin and Burkes was noisy or Bulky, something he knew would draw attention to himself."

"Malfoy could have sent off for it if—"

"Enough!" McGonagall interjected, looking furious and successfully shutting up her three students. "Potter, I appreciate you telling me this, but we cannot point the finger of blame at Mr. Malfoy purely because he visited the shop where this necklace might have been purchased. The same is probably true of hundreds of people. And in any case, we have put stringent security measures in place this year. I do not believe the necklace could possibly have entered the school without our knowledge."

"But—"

"And what is more," Minerva continued with an air of awful finality, "Mr. Malfoy was not in Hogsmeade today."

Harry gaped at her, deflated. "How are you sure?"

"Because he was doing detention with me. He has now failed to complete his Transfiguration homework twice in a row. So, thank you for telling me your suspicions, Potter, but I need to go up to the hospital wing now and check on Miss Bell. Good day to you all." She held open her office door and the three had no choice but to file out in silence.

They walked all the way to their Common Room without saying a word, Harry's anger at Hermione for siding with McGonagall fading as they got further from the situation. By the time they were sitting in plush armchairs in the empty room, he felt compelled to join once they began discussing what had happened.

"So who to you reckon Katie was supposed to give that necklace to?" Ron asked to no one in particular.

"Goodness only knows," Hermione mumbled, shaking her head. "But whoever it was has had a narrow escape. No one could have opened that package without touching the necklace."

Harry considered the question for a moment. "It could have been meant for loads of people. Dumbledore, probably. The Death Eaters would love to get rid of him. He must be one of their top targets. Or maybe Snape if they thought he might be turning to the Light side. Or—"

"Or you."

"Couldn't have been, or Katie would have just turned around and given it to me right there in the lane, wouldn't she? We were behind her all the way out of the Three Broomsticks. It would have made a lot more sense to deliver the message outside of Hogwarts, what with all the extra security and everything. I wonder why Malfoy told her to take it into the castle."

"Harry, Malfoy wasn't in Hogsmeade!" Hermione asserted, actually stamping her foot a little in frustration.

"He must have an accomplice then! Crabbe, or Goyle. Come to think of it, another Death Eater. He'll have loads better cronies than Crabbe and Goyle now that he's joined up."

Hermione and Ron exchanged a look that clearly deemed there was no use arguing with the other. The redhead shrugged, changing the topic. "It wasn't a very slick attack, really, when you think about it. The curse didn't even make it into the castle. Not exactly what you'd call foolproof."

"You're right," Hermione affirmed. "It wasn't very well thought-out at all."

"But since when has Malfoy been one of the world's greatest thinkers?" asked Harry.

Neither Ron or Hermione answered him.

TBC…

A/N: Wow. o_o I can't believe I'm actually doing this. Ummm, tell me what you think of this chapter! Your feedback is the only thing keeping me writing. Sorry for there not being much Harry/Draco interaction in this one. This was more about explaining what the hell happened in the book, because we all know we hated it. Oh, and after further consideration, I have now decided that it will be absolutely necessary that I rewrite the seventh book as well, so be prepared for that. Otherwise, Ta!