"Okay. I'm all done. Give it your best shot. It's impenetrable this time," said Draco tauntingly.
Harry grinned and set out to work. They'd been doing this all of Friday, with Draco setting up encryption walls and Harry breaking through them. Now it was a new day and they were at it again. Although Draco was better at encrypting, Harry was equally better at decrypting. He could always find that hole and squeeze through it. It looked like guess work, but of course it never really was.
As Draco watched, Harry slowly and step by step unwound his work. He just had to find the beginning of the thread, and then he could follow it to the end, not falling for the obvious tricks. At every progressive step, Draco's smile grew bigger and brighter. When he finished, Draco patted him on the back and they exchanged a grin.
"Is it finally time?" Harry asked for the thousandth time.
"I think you're ready," said Draco with a nod, looking nervous but excited.
Harry stretched out his fingers and twisted his wrists. He popped a few strawberries into his mouth. They'd introduced the reward system to keep themselves going. When Harry succeeded, he got strawberries. When Draco succeeded, he'd get strawberries. So far they'd all been sacrificed to Harry.
This was what he'd been training for. It was time to break into Draco's system. Draco set up the coordinations for it on Harry's laptop, which was strange, as Harry could have scanned for it just as well. It seemed like this was a very important milestone to Draco. He'd never been more serious about training Harry for any task, or ever helped him do parts of it. They were going to remotely access Draco's computer at his parents' house.
"Have you tried breaking into it yourself?" Asked Harry curiously before he started.
"Yes, and I couldn't do it," admitted Draco nervously. "But you seem to be better at decryption, so it'll be interesting to see how it goes."
Harry was starting to feel the pressure. He'd never seen Draco so tense. He went through the routine of double checking his own security and eliminating any risks of being trackable. He started pinging Draco's system. The device seemed inactive. He didn't back down. He was absolutely sure that Draco had simply shut off the ICMP protocol to trick him into thinking the device was inactive. Although that might have worked on others that would try to crack Draco's system, since Draco had explicitly asked him to crack into it, Harry knew that it would definitely be active regardless of the ping's results. Detecting the operating system (Windows) took some minutes and then he identified the firewall. He cringed at the thought of Draco having Windows on his computer. What computer major would ever only have one operating system installed on their computer? Especially only Windows?
Next came the hard part of finding an open port. He thought about using brute force, but left it as the last option since it was time consuming. Draco sat behind him, anxiety seeping off of him in rolls. Is he that anxious about me doing what he couldn't do? Harry asked himself amusedly. The minutes flew by. Sometimes he would almost be tricked into a corner of detection, but he almost instinctively evaded it. Finally, he was through.
Draco let out an excited breath. Apparently that was the step he'd never been able to get through. Harry grinned. He had so much practice at walking through minefields and now it was coming in handy. An authentication process popped up next. Faking his way through it took more time than he would have liked. His heart was beating so fast and he was starting to sweat. He wasn't sure if it was because of his own excitement or Draco's which was almost tangible. He was grateful to Draco for keeping quiet; he needed all his wits about him.
The next step was to get administrator privileges. This was where his buffer overflow would come into play. Then he could do anything he wanted because injecting a code would make the system assume that he had higher privileges that he truly did. But first he had to find an insecure program on the computer. After searching for a few minutes, one appeared in front of his eyes as if summoned. He was feeling more and more doubtful that this was or ever had been Draco's computer. Why was it so easy to find an insecure program? Why was there an insecure program to begin with?
Before he could worry about it too much, his attention was taken away by the task at hand. he was finally in. Draco was now leaning over his shoulder, trying to take it all in. It was strange how excited he was. Maybe he hadn't had a chance to browse through his computer in a long time and was reminiscing. Harry moved on to creating a back door, refocusing on his work. Now he could come back into the system any time he wanted without going through all the preliminary steps again. He did it through the compiler so that a system upgrade wouldn't completely remove his way in.
He peeled his hands from the keyboard and turned to give Draco a brilliant smile. It was done. Draco however, was too mesmerized by the screen to return his smile.
"Want to take it for a spin?" Said Harry, getting up and offering his seat to Draco.
"Genius," Draco breathed. He gladly took Harry's seat and started browsing through the system.
"Remember not to change anything and get out fast," said Harry teasingly as he went to get them some orange juice, feeling on top of the world. Of course it didn't matter if Draco did anything or took too long; it was his own computer that he was going through. He could do anything he wanted with it.
Draco was too lost in the computer to give him a reply. Harry searched through the fridge and then cupboards, but no orange juice could be found. "Where's the orange juice, Draco?"
When he heard no response, he poked his head out of the kitchen door and saw Draco typing furiously. "Draco?"
"Huh? Oh, Try the storage," said Draco without taking his attention away from the computer.
"Right then," Harry muttered to himself, going into the storage room. There was a carton of orange juice in the corner. He grabbed it with some glasses and ice from the fridge and went back to the living room. By the time he was done pouring it out, Draco was finished with the computer. As Harry sat down, still feeling the accomplishment, Draco walked to a cupboard and grabbed some vodka. He put a significant amount in his orange juice and sat on a chair opposite Harry, swirling his drink, looking troubled and deep in thought.
"What's the matter?" Asked Harry, going over to sit by Draco. "Can't take the defeat?"
"Defeat?" Asked Draco distractedly.
"You couldn't break into your system but I could," said Harry more soberly, his sense of achievement starting to fade. Why was Draco acting so strange?
"Yes, you were great, Harry," said Draco, some life coming back into his eyes as he looked at Harry. He took a large sip of his screwdriver and looked out the window.
"Draco, what's wrong? Did I do something?" Harry asked, worried now. The pain that had seemed disguised in Draco's eyes was openly on display now.
"I had to do this Harry, you must understand," said Draco pleadingly.
"Okay," said Harry, not understanding. "What is it that you had to do?"
Draco sunk in his chair, gulping down the rest of his drink. "I'm so sorry, Harry."
"But what about?" Asked Harry, feeling more and more confused. He'd done everything that Draco had asked. What could be the matter?
"That wasn't my computer that you broke into," said Draco slowly, determinedly not looking into Harry's eyes.
"What?" Harry froze. He didn't want to believe what he was hearing. But it was hard to dismiss the evidence. He'd been surprised at the things he'd found, and remembered thinking that this couldn't be Draco's computer.
"That was my Father's computer," Draco said after a long exhale. His hands were trembling, but there was an undertone of excitement mixed with the dread in his voice. His breath smelled of vodka.
"But that's okay, right?" Asked Harry, wanting to rationalize this somehow. "He knew that we were doing this, right? He consented, right?"
"Why would he do that?" Asked Draco, finally looking into Harry's eyes and frowning.
"I don't know!" Said Harry, throwing his hands up. "Because he trusts you? Because he wants to challenge you with his security? Because he knows you want to teach me and enhance my abilities? I don't know Draco, you tell me!"
For some reason Draco looked less troubled, which made Harry feel more troubled, if possible.
"No, he has no knowledge of what's happened here today," said Draco, shaking his head. "But he was aware of multiple unsuccessful attempts to break into his system which were done by me in the past."
"Why would you have me do this, Draco?" Asked Harry in horror. Nothing made sense. "Were you the one who wrote the insecure program into his computer?"
"Yes," Draco admitted, ignoring Harry's first question. Any troubled features had left him. He was in full tutor mode. "He never knew it was me who was attacking his system, so he never suspected me of manipulating his files. I told him I wanted to check my email, and I wrote that program into his computer."
Harry stood up and started pacing. "You had me illegally break into your Father's laptop. And then, and then you took over and did something. What did you do, Draco?"
"You have to understand Harry," Draco stood up, holding Harry's hands in his and stopping his pacing. He actually looked rather calm as he did it. "I knew you'd never do this if I just asked it of you."
"Of course I wouldn't have! Why are you being so calm? You looked troubled just before! And now you look all jolly fine!" Harry shouted, pulling his hands away. "What happens if we get caught, Draco?"
"I looked troubled because I didn't know how to break this to you. I am calm now because one of us needs to be. I am fine because I know we won't get caught. That is the least of my worries. You made our location untraceable, right?"
"But I didn't know there was ever any real danger! What if I missed or overlooked something?" Harry leaned on the wall and slid to the floor, holding his head in his hands. "Why did you make me, Draco?" After a few moments of silence he whispered, "Was it always for this? Did you take me as an apprentice just to make me do this?"
"No, of course not!" Said Draco, sliding down next to Harry, holding onto his hands. "I only thought of it after I saw how absolutely talented you are. You are much more resourceful than me and you have a knack for solving problems and I thought now, there's someone who can definitely do this. And then I thought yes, why not. He should be the one to do this."
"You should have told me!" Said Harry, panic settling in deeper. "I had a right to know what I was doing!"
"You never would have gone through with it."
"That's why you should have told me!" Said Harry, wanting to take Draco and shake him. "What did you do, Draco? What did you do after I left? Tell me what I will be going to jail for."
"No one is going anywhere," said Draco patiently. Harry had never wanted to punch anyone before this. "I moved some files from his computer. That's all."
"That's all?" Repeated Harry. "That's all?"
"Yes, that's all. And I removed your back door, so don't worry about it happening again."
"Gee, thanks," said Harry sarcastically. "What did you move, Draco?"
"Just some files," said Draco vaguely.
Harry took Draco by the shoulders. "Draco. Look at me. We need to take this seriously. We have just committed a crime. Your Father will sooner or later realize that some of his files are missing. He will run scans, he will contact experts, he will conduct an investigation, and there is a high chance of him finding the culprits, which in this case, is us!"
"He will never do that," said Draco nonchalantly.
"And why not?" Asked Harry in a barely contained voice.
"Because the files I removed were sensitive," said Draco dismissively.
"What does sensitive mean? Just give me some answers Draco! Tell me what I've just been a part of! If anyone, I have the right to know!"
"I know you do," said Draco in that calm voice he'd adopted. "But it's a long story. You have to calm down. And you have to listen and not interrupt. And you have to keep an open mind until my story is finished, alright?"
Harry pursed his lips. This was the second time he was giving Draco a chance to explain himself. Wasn't that two chances too many? He got up and sat on the sofa again, his eyes burning holes through Draco.
"No. You don't get to set the rules this time. This time I'm in change. Now, here is how this will go," said Harry in a controlled voice, crossing his arms over his chest. "You will sit here and tell me the whole story. You will not hide or emit any information. You will not lie. I will hear everything. I will judge your story. If I don't like it I will go to the authorities and tell them everything that has happened. If I have to go down with you, so be it."
Draco sat down beside Harry gingerly, looking troubled again.
"Okay," he said softly. "Listen to me. This is me, and this is the story of my life."