Thanks to: ladywatts, Flensa, Crazy-Physco, LivingStoneLily, Utena-Puchiko-nyu, honore, Beth5572, BatteredChild, ddamato, blue artemis, bandgeekforlife, KimSpiritTalks, for the reviews. I really appreciate it. Sorry if I missed anyone.
A/N: I miss those days of weekly updates . . . and I'm going to try to get back to that. I'm going to have to, I realized, if I'm ever going to finish the "It's Mutual" series within a timely fashion. So, therefore, if I don't have the next chapter up within a week and a half, you have my permission to yell at me. I have to get out of this lazy mood that I've been in for about a year now . . . it's horrible and I find it very annoying! I'm sure you do too, having to wait over a month for each chapter.
Second, I've decided I'm combining parts II and III of It's Mutual into one story. It's just going to be easier that way. I plan on having the story as one on Potions and Snitches eventually, anyway, despite the fact it's a trilogy. (The fourth one will be that, a separate story. It won't be of the same plotline)
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Everything you recognize from Harry Potter is property of J.K. Rowling. Any other characters you don't recognize are mine, as boring and typical they may be.
Chapter 21 - Dirty
A month. A month as his father. A month fooling everyone, including Ron and Hermione, that they were each other.
Harry, honestly, was sick of it. He didn't realize how much he took for granted . . . even the short, impersonal times during class that he spent with his friends.
They both had it planned out, though. Their soul traveling was practiced enough that, if the situation was right, they could leave their bodies without much trouble. They knew that they needed to retake the potion . . . they really didn't know, though, how they were going to reenter their own bodies.
"Ready?" Severus asked, holding out a glass for him to take. Harry shrugged, taking it. Immediately, he downed the potion and they both sat down in their own position-of-choice before Severus dimmed the lights.
"Ready," Harry answered after a bit, and he slowed his breathing, closing his eyes, trying to relax. Trying to persuade his soul that he didn't need the body . . . not right now. Once in a while, Harry felt his body twitch, a feeling that brought him back to his senses immediately, causing him to have to start over.
Finally, he felt himself in the right state, and he slowly rolled out of his body and stood. He had only done this about five times so far, and the feeling was always the same. Free, yet . . . not entirely disconcerting, but it was odd, seeing his father's body lying there; knowing that it was his for the past month. Thinking about the body, he felt himself start to be pulled back.
No, he thought to himself. I want to stay free . . . The pulling stopped after a bit, and he looked around. Sometimes, he could see his father, sometimes not. He had a feeling it was controllable, but they haven't learned how, yet.
Suddenly, he spotted his own body, a feeling of want overcoming him, and he felt himself being pulled from that direction. This time, he didn't stop it. He wanted to be back in his own body, to go to his own classes, to practice quidditch . . . even help the lower years with all their annoying questions.
Harry opened his eyes and immediately stood, feeling disoriented. The stepping felt wrong, but he walked over to the bathroom anyway to look into the mirror. He was himself. Satisfied, he left the bathroom and found Severus standing.
"It worked!" Harry said, finding it odd that his own voice was being issued from his throat.
"Yes, it did," Severus drawled, glancing at the clock. It was near midnight. "Bed," he ordered. "You can stay here," his father suggested.
"No," Harry answered. "Honestly, I want my own bed . . . Night," he replied.
"Night," Severus answered, a little humor in his voice. Grabbing his bag, he left Severus' rooms and headed toward his own. Halfway there, though, he realized he didn't want to simply go back to his room to sleep. He was finally back in his own body, and he was going to celebrate, sleep be damned.
For tradition sake, he took out his invisibility cloak and threw it over himself, not entirely sure where he wanted to go. He didn't want to chance running into a professor or Filch, though, even though he could claim he had some 'feeling' he needed to be wandering the halls that night.
For no other reason than simple curiosity, Harry headed back to the direction of the dungeons, choosing one that he hadn't gone down in a long time. Not bothering to bring out the Map, he set out to find any hidden passages that he could. A half an hour searching, though, he began to get bored. Apparently, there was a lack of passages here. He was about to turn around, now finding himself slightly tired, when he felt an odd tingle; one similar to the one he felt any time someone put up a magical ward.
Knowing that no one should be in this dungeon at this time of night (including himself) Harry went in the direction he felt the magic and soon spotted none other than Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle in a corner where the candlelight did not reach. He could see them clearly enough, despite the darkness of the corridor, but their mouths were moving silently. Tentatively but somewhat instictively, Harry pushed his magic forward, trying to feel the magic in a way he never had before. It appeared to be a basic silencing charm. Silent himself, Harry tried to cancel it.
"No," Malfoy said, sounding as if he was answering a question. "He refuses to declare a side, but I don't think he likes mudbloods."
"Of course he doesn't! With all those new laws. If the Dark Lord asked him . . ."
"That's too dangerous, you dimwit," Draco snapped. "I'm sure the Dark Lord has a plan."
They were all silent for a bit before Malfoy spoke up again.
"Those damn aurors. I need to know how they found out about the room. I was lucky enough not to get caught, but the Dark Lord is angry, now."
"Is he? My father hasn't said anything about that . . ." Crabbe said slowly. "You weren't caught . . ."
"Oh, shove off," spat Malfoy. "You don't know anything about it, and neither do your fathers. I was the one at the meeting. I was the one the Dark Lord asked," he continued, sounding important. "He's mad and he wants me to fix it. And I will."
"I bet it's Snape. Or Potter."
"Or both," Goyle added, and both Slytherins earned a glare from Malfoy. "You need them, right?"
"Apparently, both of you are too stupid to understand. The Dark Lord wants them. Not dead, of course . . . he has something else planned. He has, of course, given me a few of the details." Malfoy looked over his two 'companions' with disdain. "I don't even know why I bother," he mumbled before waving his wand, probably to cancel the already-dead silencing spell. "I have work to do. You two better not tell anyone, or you will regret it."
Crabbe and Goyle left Malfoy, munching on chocolate, and Harry made sure to keep his distance from the blonde Slytherin, who was looking around carefully. Further down the corridor, he stopped at a painting and Harry watched carefully as he made a complicated wand movement. As quick as a bee buzzing by, he felt some magic zip through him, and Harry couldn't help but wonder what was going on. He sometimes felt magic, usually wards, but this was different.
He made a mental note to talk to Severus about it.
Quickly and quietly as he could, Harry slipped through a small opening beneath the painting. He had to roll in, it was so low and small, and he almost rolled into Malfoy, who had stopped on his stomach and was slowly getting to his knees. Waiting until the Slytherin was far enough away from him, he knelt, too, making sure the cloak was covering him entirely, and realized the ceiling was especially low. In the end, he wound up crawling to keep up with Malfoy, who was walking, crouched low in a position which must have been hurting his back.
Much too long on his hands and knees, Harry was glad when the house elf size corridor opened up into a decent size room. Keeping aware of Malfoy's location, Harry looked around, taking in everything that he could. There were a few books scattered about, but no brewing potions, and there was a desk behind a screen but even that held nothing of interest that he could tell. Inwardly sighing, Harry came out from behind the screen to find Malfoy sitting on a floor cushion, reading a book that appeared to be written in a language other than English. Sneaking as close as he would dare, Harry recognized the style – from the few, brief language lessons his father gave him – as German. Nothing he could made out.
Giving up and deciding to sit and wait to see what Malfoy would do next, he turned around and nearly tripped over a black and gray, long-haired cat who was apparently sniffing around him.
Damn it, he thought and moved to walk around it. The cat followed, so he stopped, glancing at Malfoy. He hadn't noticed. Yet. Harry stayed put as he tried to think of any spell he could use to confuse the cat, but he could only think of charms to use on humans.
"What's the matter, Shadow?" Harry heard Malfoy asked, and Harry's heart stopped for a few beats as the cat pawed at the bottom of his invisibility cloak, and the air refused to reenter his body as he saw the cat's paw disappear for a split second before reappearing again.
"Potter," he heard Malfoy whisper. "Accio Invisibility Cloak!" he called, and Harry grabbed on to it for dear life. Unexpectedly, the cloak made no move to uncover it's master's hiding spot. "You best come out, Potter," Malfoy said, his voice low and quiet, but not quite as dangerous as Severus could make his. "Perhaps I'll made this a little easier on you if you do . . ."
Harry didn't answer. He didn't see the point. Malfoy couldn't know it was him for sure. It might just be a ploy to get him to uncover himself; merely guesswork. Pretty good damn guess, he thought to himself.
Harry put up a silencing charm around himself. He didn't know why he didn't think of it sooner, but as soon as he did, he took a step backwards, keeping his eyes on Malfoy, who was staring intently at his location, his eyes a bit unfocused. Harry took another step backwards, and another, heading for the small corridor. Malfoy's eyes didn't follow him, and he was sure he was about to get out of the room free of being caught when he suddenly fell backwards, tripping over something.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
Harry felt himself stiffen, unable to move, and he tried not to panic. He could get out of it . . . it was something that Severus taught him. He still had his wand in his hand, and, although he couldn't speak, he murmured 'finite incantatem' in his head over and over, willing himself to be free of the binds. Slowly, as he remembered, he felt the curse unravel, and he made sure he stayed perfectly still as Malfoy inched closer to pull the cloak off of him and throwing it aside.
"Not too clever, are you Potter?" the blonde boy sneered and it took every inch of Harry not to respond. As much as he tried, though, his left leg gave a little twitch, giving away his still-bodied bluff. Not having much time to think as Malfoy already had his wand pointed at him, he yelled a quick, "stupify!" which Malfoy avoided. He had too much warning. Putting up a quick shield, he stood up, prepared to duel.
"Cru–." Malfoy started, and Harry yelled the first hex that came to mind.
"Remsticu!" he shouted, his curse hitting its mark on Malfoy's right shoulder, and he froze as Malfoy dropped immediately.
It was a Dark curse; one that he learned recently from his father. It sent the hexed into a dark, nasty dream, and often times, if left in the dream long enough, something would go and they would die. It was usually the heart.
Realizing what he had done, Harry cast the counter curse, made sure Malfoy was breathing and stunned him immediately, not wanting to have to duel the Slytherin. As he felt right now, he didn't trust himself not to use those curses and hexes that were, by the government and most often times his own conscious, off limits.
Heart beating a little too fast, Harry grabbed his invisibility cloak and stumbled toward the small room entrance before dropping to his hands and knees and crawling out, not able to stop thinking about how easily that a Dark hex came from his own wand and mouth. It seemed almost surreal. Here he was, learning the Dark Arts so he could fight against them more readily and fully and he just used one in a simple duel in which his opponent could have been taken out in especially easy means.
Feeling dirty, Harry got to the end of the tunnel and he stood up outside the painting, making sure of the spot before casting an illusion spell so he didn't have to waste time trying to close the entrance from the outside. Doing that somehow brought him out of the self-hating mood he found for himself and he threw on his invisibility cloak as he ran toward the headmaster's office.
Of course, it being two in the morning, Dumbledore wasn't in his office, so after he knocked on the door a few times, he sat down in the waiting area and hoped that Dumbledore was getting up.
Maybe this could have waited until morning, he thought to himself, yawning, but then he realized it couldn't. He left Malfoy in that room, stunned.
After about twenty minutes, Dumbledore did enter the room, looking a bit worried.
"As you've only knocked a few times, I assumed it wasn't entirely urgent," he said, sounding tired and Harry felt a bit guilty. "I hope you don't mine I took some time to dress myself properly. Now, my boy, what is the matter?"
"Malfoy," Harry stated plainly. "He was talking to Crabbe and Goyle about half an hour ago, then I followed Malfoy to a hidden room and then he attacked me. He's stunned in the room right now."
"I see," Dumbledore said. "Well, I should really have a look. Lead the way."
Back down in the dungeons, Harry lead him to the painting, canceled the illusion spell, and explained to Dumbledore that it had a very low ceiling before kneeling down to climb in. Just when he was about to enter, the entrance grew, and Harry stood up fast, startled.
"Again, I hope you don't mind, my dear boy. I fear it would do me no good to crawl, you see, so I enlarged the tunnel."
Harry, surprised that it was possible and amazed at how powerful Dumbledore must have been to be able to do that in the first place, he cautiously entered the tunnel and lead Dumbledore into the room. He stopped upon entrance, suddenly angry.
"He's gone!" he exclaimed and Dumbledore started looking around.
"Interesting," Dumbledore said. "These used to be used for the house elves. I'm surprised he found one of them."
"The room?" Harry asked, still angry, and Dumbledore nodded slowly. "He got away," Harry pointed out again. "And he took all the books he had here with him. The book! I should have brought them!"
"Do you know what they were?"
"No. Most of them were in a different language. One of them was German, I'm sure of it."
"Harry," Dumbledore said quietly, and the Gryffindor looked at the old man, stopping his rant to listen what he would have to say. "Don't blame yourself for him finding a way out. You did well, following him."
"He just did better getting away," Harry grumbled, and Dumbledore gave him a sad smile.
"I am glad that you and your father are finally in your correct bodies. It was quite confusing remembering who I was talking with before. But perhaps you should go to bed, now. I'm sure you are very tired and you have a very comfortable bed waiting for you in your room."
Harry recognized the dismissal and he left Dumbledore to search the room himself, sure that the man would be asking for his memory of the event later that day.
Once again, instead of heading to his room, he went to his father's sleeping quarters and fell onto the sofa in there, glad that his father wasn't up to scold him.
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The next day, Harry woke early to his father standing over him, staring at him.
"What are you doing here? On the sofa, no less!" Severus said, and Harry sat up cautiously, shrugging.
"Er . . ." he answered slowly. "There was a problem last night. You see, I stumbled across Malfoy and I followed him, and then he sort of . . . went missing."
"Went missing?" Severus asked dangerously, and Harry couldn't help but think how nice it was to hear his father scolding him using his father's voice and not his own. Very refreshing.
"I stunned him and then after I went to get Dumbledore, he . . . wasn't there."
"I see," Severus answered, sitting down. "Harry, remember when I said I was able to find parts of the Dark Lord's memories?" Harry nodded, wondering where his father was going with this. It made him nervous to see that Severus was thinking of not suggesting it. That meant he really didn't want Harry to do it. The problem was, though, that since Harry joined the Order, Severus had been treating him more like an adult that a child. It was nice, he had to admit, but he . . .
It was hard to explain. It was almost like Severus wasn't as protective of Harry as he was just last year. Not that it was a bad thing, of course. He didn't want his father telling him, constantly, that something was too dangerous, or he shouldn't do that . . . but . . .
It really was too hard to explain; it wasn't a feeling Harry could put in words, and that unnerved Harry more than he felt it should. He was an adult, and Severus was merely treating him like one. End of story.
"I believe you should try. Try for a recent memory or, if possible, what he is doing now. Some information on Malfoy. But be careful. Do not allow him to realize you have entered his mind. You should be able to do it without too much difficulty. You have, after all, entered my mind without me realizing it."
Harry just looked at his father with a look of disbelief.
"You want me to enter his mind? Are you mad?"
"Someday, it might be necessary. The Dark Lord knows you know of Malfoy's involvement with him and might choose you use that against you. If you can manage, we might have unlimited access to all the information we need!"
"Yes, but what if he catches me? What if . . . what if he somehow traps me in his mind or accidently kills me through our link?"
"Unlikely," Severus answered.
"Unlikely? But still a possibility!"
"Fine, don't try! I was able to relay some information, perhaps not too important, but it was information just the same, to Dumbledore during the past month. I was able to do it even though I was unfamiliar with the connection, but you've lived with it for years! You should be able to enter his mind with more ease than I was able to!"
"But what if I don't want to! What if I learn something I don't want to know? Or, what if it makes me more like him, spending time in his body? I already used a dark curse on Malfoy without even thinking about it!"
The room grew silent for about a minute before Severus, who was glaring at his son before, softened his face and now looked confused.
"What curse?"
"The Nightmare Curse. I took it off immediately!" Harry defended himself. "But the problem was that I used it, without even thinking! I don't want to learn the Dark Arts anymore. What if I get angry and use some deadly curse on someone who doesn't deserve it?"
"You want to stop learning the Dark Arts?" Severus asked quietly.
"Yes!"
"That won't solve anything," he answered.
"Maybe not, but at least I won't be tempted to use a hex I don't know."
"Perhaps we should just work on theory, then," Severus concluded slowly.
"Okay," Harry answered with a nod, feeling someone safer.
But, for some reason, he still felt dirty.
"I need a bath," he said quickly, and he left for the bathroom before his father could respond.
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"Draco Malfoy," hissed Voldemort slowly. "Have you failed me?"
"I don't know, my Lord," Malfoy answered, not looking up. "But . . . I have news that might be useful. In the room, I dueled with Potter. I was able to get away, of course, but . . . I think he knows. But," he continued before he could be punished for failing, "he used a Dark curse on me, I think. I haven't heard of it, but it sent me into a nightmare. A bad one. I asked my father about it before coming here, and he said he knew of it, but he wouldn't tell me what it was."
"Good, good," he drew out. "You won't be punished, yet."
"Thank you, my Lord," Malfoy sighed.
"You will return to Hogwarts."
"Wh– Hogwarts, my Lord?" Malfoy asked. "Wouldn't that be dangerous? If Potter told the headmaster or Snape what happened . . ."
"Then that would be your fault, would it not?" Voldemort concluded.
"Yes, my Lord," Malfoy answered, defeated. "When should I return?"
"Tonight. Before your classmates wake up."
"Yes, my Lord."
"Do not make another mistake, Draco Malfoy. I will not be as forgiving a third time."
"Yes, my Lord. Thank you, my Lord."
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As soon as Harry woke up from the vision, he paid a visit to Dumbledore. Dumbledore, though, didn't appear to think it as important as Harry thought it was.
"But he's come back! You can't possibly allow that!" Harry said, angry.
"I believe it is for the best, Harry," Dumbledore answered, "not to expel Mr. Malfoy. He could be of use to us in the future and there is always the change a debt could be claimed. For the time being, he is no threat to any of the students because Voldemort wishes him to stay here."
"I don't think he sent Malfoy back here to work," Harry said after thinking it over for a few minutes. "I think he sent him here so he could be expelled and punished by the Ministry. Another blow on the Malfoy name," he concluded.
"Yes, perhaps," Dumbledore nodded, taking a sip of tea. "Which is why we will keep quiet. Keep an eye on him, would you Harry?"
Harry grumbled as he slid his chair back and stood up.
"Of course I will! I'm not going to let him wander around the school himself!"
Harry left the headmaster's office, startling the gargoyle as he barged past, not noticing the small smile that played on Dumbledore's face as he left.