Chapter Title: On The Run
"Amico, please," Blaise glared over the top of his book, "you are causing me great tension and a lack of focus." Draco paced the floor of the sitting room, stopping occasionally to go to the window and look out at the sky.
"I believe, translated, he said sit the hell down, you're wracking everyone's nerves." Sirius said.
"I cannot." Draco glared, "Blaise, she should have written back by now. Something is wrong."
"She is, how you say, on the lamb." Blaise replied darkly, "Draco, she'll be fine. She's a clever witch. Please, sit."
"Fine." Draco huffed, sitting on the couch beside the Italian and beginning to bounce his foot.
"I'm going to petrify him if he doesn't stop." Hermione sang, writing out her Charms essay. Suddenly, there was the flutter of wings and both Slytherins dove for the package attached to Tonks' owl. Draco got it off first, batting Blaise away and tore the letter open.
"I cannot stand the suspense, Draco, read it aloud."
"Dear Draco and Blaise, You need not have warned me. My love came to take me away well before I got your owl." Draco read and both relaxed greatly, "Blaise, you'll be happy to know Aunt Tilly was with me when he came and she is with me now. For clear reasons, I cannot tell you yet where we are going. However, I can tell you that we are leaving the United Kingdom for safer grounds and less Marked. My love says hello and he wishes you both the best. After this, I want you both to know I finally believe in the curse and I will pray for your safe return to me daily. I worry I will not get that, as 'sod off and get bent you half blooded bastard' are generally considered words you do not spit at the Dark Lord, Draco. Quite frankly, I find it crass and unhealthy, to say the least. We had heard nothing of what had become of yourselves or Severus so our spirits are lighter now as we travel. You must know I will not be returning to Hogwarts until after the war has finished and maybe not at all. Aunt Tilly sends her love to you both and begs you be safe so she may see you again. I have shrunken both of the trunks you kept at my home and sent them as well. Merely tap your wands upon them and they will resize. Inside is a thousand galleons a piece. I would have sent more, but I know not if we will need what we have. Aunt Tilly has included several items as well. I hope with all my heart that this finds you well. All my love."
"She and Mother are well then." Blaise sighed, relaxing. He took the two tiny trunks and resized them before sitting in the floor to shift through it. He snorted, "she included our blasted book, Draco."
"I let her borrow it." Draco nodded, pulling out a sneakscope, "this, at least, will come in handy. We won't be as welcome in Slytherin."
"Aha!" Blaise grinned, "Mother sent our homework. That is a relief. My books as well, so we can be better prepared… Ah, and she has been to Spinner's End."
"What makes you think so?" Draco asked and he rolled his eyes and Blaise held up the photo from the back room at Spinner's End.
"Awww," Hermione cooed, "you were almost cute. Is that when you brewed Amortencia?"
"I have never!" Blaise squawked as Draco's jaw dropped,
"Amortencia? Granger, are you barking? Have you seen us? We do not need Amortencia, nor have we ever brewed it!"
"Aww," Harry grinned, tilting his head to Hermione, "you've hurt their feelings."
"Pride is more like it." She snorted, "I heard you brewed a love potion when you were seven. I also heard it was Amortencia. If that is incorrect, I apologize." Draco looked to Blaise, eyebrow quirked and smirking,
"What were we brewing at age seven, Blaise?"
"I believe we had completed a successful Polyjuice with Severus' help. We completed acceptable Draughts of Living Death on our own by that time as… oh." Blaise laughed, "that love potion! I had forgotten it existed. As much as we've spoken of it since the school year began, I cannot believe it slipped my mind."
"You are fully aware of what The Curse entails, correct?" Draco asked, "I assume Black has told you?" They all nodded, "well, at age seven, we became rather distraught over this curse. There is no way to break it you see. So, it occurred to me that we should work with the curse. We would find a potion to make us unable to love anyone. Originally, we had settled for not ever loving anyone. When Father told us that was impossible, we decided to go for the potion. To cease our worries, Severus made up a ridiculous spell… how did it go, Blaise?" The Italian flipped through the book and read aloud once he'd found it,
"I call to the winds of the sea, to come and draw up a loved one for me. For they shall be loved, and love me. I call to the winds of the sea, bring me someone to be loved by me." He snorted and rolled his eyes, "ridiculous, really, that we would believe such nonsense. I remember the night clearly. Our instructions were to invent a person who could not possibly exist. It would be a 'dry' potion which is a mix of dry ingredients. Since every person is different, the ingredients didn't matter as much as the spell. We picked different things and placed them into our respective bowls, each to represent qualities that simply could not exist to us. Once we gathered them, Severus went over them to see to it each of our persons were unreal enough. We were rather proud of that potion."
"That's actually… it sort of makes sense." Harry frowned. They both nodded,
"That's why we believed it for two years," Draco snorted, "by the time we were nine we were more able to handle the idea of The Curse and it became a rather large family joke."
"What about the potions ingredients you had?" Hermione asked, determined still.
"That was the potion." Blaise snickered, "Draco's I believe. Each ingredient, as I said, responds to a quality no one can have. Such as… what was it, amico? Malestorm knots to make it a boy? Si, who could fall in love with a boy?"
"I hardly knew homosexuality was a possibility at the time." Draco sneered, "hush."
"I can think of one good thing that's come from The Curse." Harry said. Blaise, Draco and Sirius all turned to look at him.
"Oh?" Sirius asked, "what?"
"You don't have to marry that awful woman anymore, Malfoy."
"By Salazar, he's right!" Blaise crowed, smirking at Draco, "you are quite free, Amico!"
"We go back to Plan A and do not reproduce then." Draco nodded, "The Curse has no choice but to stop."
"There is a way to break it though." Hermione said, "if it does truly exist, isn't it a sacrifice of love?"
"Oh, 'Mione." Sirius sighed, shaking his head, "yes, that's there but I personally believe it was put in some generations ago to instill hope in future generations."
"Agreed." Blaise said, "that clause has caused nothing but more pain and adds to the curse."
"How so?" Harry frowned, "how could it hurt?"
"Many, many Blacks and Zabinis have died in the name of that clause." Draco replied, "my cousin, Regulus, for example. I do not remember the details, no. Others have committed suicide, feeling that if they did it for their children's freedom from The Curse, it would break it. Even still, others have dove in front of curses for complete strangers and family, all in the name of breaking The Curse."
"Try to remember what Regulus died for." Sirius said, "I'd like to know."
"I remember." Blaise said, "he died because you were betrayed by Pettigrew and he figured it out. There was also speculation about the Gemini Box." Sirius sat up stiffly, leaning in.
"The Gemini Box? What were the speculations? What was said? Did he find it?"
"Supposedly." Draco nodded, "according to Aunt Belatrix, Regulus found the Gemini Box and that was the real reason he was struck down. She said he hid it somewhere in this house, that The Curse was so strongly entwined in it that it killed him."
"That's bollocks." Sirirus snorted, "the Gemini Box was supposed to be here anyway, that's what I've always been told. Believe me, if it were here, I would have found it. One of our ancestors would have found it. In fact, Great Great Uncle Pegasus went mad pulling up floorboards to find it."
"What's the Gemini Box?" Hermione asked.
"The story goes like this," Sirius began, "well, I'll give you the basics of it as no one really knows what happened. There once were a set of Black twins. Their names were Lyra and Leo. One or the other maybe both fell madly in love with a Zabini. Now, some say the Zabini cheated and others say the other twin was mad with jealousy over the unrequited love from the Zabini. She or he, whichever did which, cast a curse upon both families. It's said that anyone descended from that Black, for example, the Weasleys, are curse free. Anyone descended from the Zabini and the other Black are fated to endure The Curse. However, it's said that the two cursed ones didn't believe in The Curse. Just in case, they created The Gemini Box. In it is the only way to break The Curse other than the sacrifice of love. Supposedly, they hid it somewhere here. In the Most Noble and Ancient House of Blacks."
"You people have led miserable lives, haven't you?" Harry asked. Sirius, Draco and Blaise nodded.
"It's been this way for generation upon generation, Potter. We've learned to cope." Draco replied, looking around, "still, a part of me wants to hope it's here. We always said we'd be the one to break the curse."
"So did Regulus and I." Sirius replied, "don't dwell on The Curse, boys. Watch for its signs but don't dwell on it. You'll go mad like Pegasus Black. Of course, if I was named Pegasus, I may go mad anyway. Say, did you know there is a Black cousin named Nymphadora?"
"That's tragic." Draco said, making Sirius burst into laughter, nodding.