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Chapter 21: Just Another Spice to the Plan

"What is it that you want, Lucius?"

The voice of the Dark Lord never failed to send shivers up the Malfoy patriarch's spine. The man had undeniable charisma and power about him. And danger. Lucius could never forget that danger always lingered. Perhaps that sense of always being on the edge was what truly made him stoop and call another by the title "master" like a common house elf at times. His lord's favor was difficult to win, but once won, it was far sweeter a victory.

But what Lucius was about to do – was doing – was dangerous. He would never risk his neck like this on a normal basis. But this was not a normal basis; this was a dire emergency.

"I apologize for my impudence, my Lord. But I must ask…are you aware of the whereabouts of my son?"

The Dark Lord did not move for a moment. He only looked down upon his servant with an expressionless demeanor. Lucius could only be happy that the meeting adjourned just a few moments ago had been a success. It was always better to approach his Lord when things were for the better.

"You expect me to know the location of your son?"

Lucius winced. He had known the Dark Lord would react as such. His Lord was far too busy to keep up with the going-ons of those not yet in his service. But he was desperate. Draco had been gone for a few weeks already. It was a nuisance after one night, an irritation after the second, and an angering issue after the third. Only when a week had passed and there was no sign of his son did Lucius truly realize there was something wrong. Narcissa had begged him to ask the Dark Lord for assistance but he had held it off, knowing that Draco could hold his own and survive. That was how his son had been raised. But a few weeks was far too much and with no contact or sign whatsoever from Draco, Lucius had finally decided to take the risk and ask his Lord.

"I apologize, but Draco has not contacted us for weeks. Nobody has seen him either in our estate or the compound. I have checked the training halls and the archives but he has disappeared, my Lord."

Cold, crimson eyes narrowed. "I have no time for this drivel, Lucius. Now leave me. I have pressing matters to attend to – "

Desperation of a father drove Lucius to interrupt. "But surely you know of something, my Lord! Surely if you can spare some of the searches at your disposal that you have employed for your ward – "

The room was abruptly filled with the screams of a man subjugated to a Dark Lord's ire. Those outside the room winced slightly at the sound for there was many a Death Eater who could recognize a more severe punishment when they heard one. Somebody had made their Lord very, very angry.

"You dare to come to me – to come and face me! – with your worries over your pathetic excuse of a spawn? And then you dare to interrupt your Lord with the most ludicrous of propositions! How dare you presume your offspring to be of equal value to my ward? How dare you suggest that what is yours would be worth more than what is mine?"

"I – I apologize, m – my –" The man broke off with a gargled scream, struggling to reply under his punishment. " – my Lord! I – I did not mean to s – suggest –" And he could not speak any longer for the Dark Lord only pressed forward, urging more hatred into his spell, rendering his servant incoherent.

"Do not walk into my presence again thinking you may speak your mind as you wish. You may have earned your place among your men, Lucius, but never forget who you must bow down to." The Dark Lord flicked his wand and dispelled the curse, returning to his seat with his bloody eyes still glowing with his fury. "Get out of my sight."

Even partially incapacitated, Lucius was out of the room in a matter of seconds.

Lord Voldemort sat still in his seat, raised above the rest of the room like a veritable throne. He flexed his grip upon his wand as his mind jumped from thought to thought. He only completely stilled when he heard the sliding of scales upon tile.

"You are frustrated," Nagini murmured, coiling herself around her master's shoulders. "Has Harry truly hidden himself so well?"

The only answer the Dark Lord gave was another flash of rage in his crimson eyes.

~0~

Draco groaned for what seemed the hundredth time. He had begun with the most basic counter spells of course, testing to see which category responded best and work from there to find the way through the slab of stone. But none of his tests had yielded anything except for a massive headache for him.

"Still going at it?"

"Would you please learn to shut your mouth?" Draco hissed. "I think it's fairly obvious this is not easy."

"You're getting frustrated after a few minutes," Raine observed, looking at his nails and leaning against the wall as if this was the most relaxing place to be. "I'd hate to see what you're going to be like hours from now."

"This will not take hours."

Raine rolled his eyes. "From the way this seems to be going, yes. Yes it will."

"Well then why don't you take a stab at it? Perhaps you and your almighty fairy magic will work this all out."

"Fine," Raine curtly replied. "Perhaps it will."

Draco irritably stepped to the side as the pixie stepped forward. In all honesty, Raine had no idea how to even begin for pixies only dealt in natural magic but he was hardly one to ignore a challenge. He placed a hand upon the stone and sent the smallest of magical tendrils into it, hoping to see what exactly was keeping it in place.

Almost immediately, the stone opened.

Raine turned around with a smug smile on his face. "What did I tell you? Wizards are so useless at the most simplest of things."

But Draco was deathly pale, his lips drawn into a taut line and his eyes wide from shock.

"What? So startled that I managed to do what you could not?"

"Oh, I'm sure Draco just lacks the brain capacity to speak," smirked an unfamiliar voice behind the pixie.

Raine whirled around in surprise, his mouth agape. At the very threshold of the secret entrance stood a teenage boy about Draco's age. He was dressed in what seemed like standardized black robes with green lining the hood and symbol sewn into his breast pocket. A single bag was thrown over his shoulder as he crossed his arms. His hair was a veritable mess of black and his accusing eyes could only be described as the purest emerald.

"Who are you?" the pixie asked dumbly in his surprise.

"Harry," the teen promptly replied. "And you are?"

"Raine. I suppose I should thank you for opening the entrance for us…" Already, the pixie was planning some sort of excuse for being there. He knew that getting caught by one of the castle's inhabitants would not go well.

Harry sighed. "And please, let's not pretend you found this passage by pure accident as you were venturing through Honeydukes. We all know that nobody would think to open the plank towards the back of the store and travel down a dark tunnel only to sit here and try to find the way in for the fun of it."

Well, there went any hopes of excusing their way out of things. Raine raised his hands, preparing to attack when Draco's wand pushed them back down.

"Do us all a favor, pixie, and not try to get us killed," Draco hissed. "This is the one."

Ah, so this was whom the wizard was about to risk his life for?

Harry's eyes narrowed but he impatiently waved them to step inside. Raine hesitated, but Draco complied without a blink. The pixie was slightly surprised by the immediate obedience. He had never thought anybody could tame that spoiled product of a wizard.

"You too, pixie," Harry said. "Unless you want to stay out here."

They trailed him through the castle halls, weaving through stone passages and occasionally deviating off certain routes when voices or footsteps were heard.

After a few minutes of silent walking, Draco quietly asked, "What are you doing here? Imagine what the Dark –" Harry quickly motioned for Draco to stop and there was no more discussion for the remainder of their trip.

Only when they finally arrived at a girl's bathroom did Draco speak again. "Where on earth are you dragging us?"

The only reply he got was a strange hissing from Harry and a gigantic entrance a moment later at the very center of the room.

"You can't expect us to go down there, do you?" Draco asked, aghast.

Harry smirked. "Ladies first, Malfoy." And with a swift push later, Draco was flying down the slippery pipes. Raine quickly followed when Harry raised an eyebrow. He honestly would have preferred not to but he was in foreign territory and Draco was the only guarantee here. Even with his magic, Raine could not communicate with the castle as he could have others. The magic interwoven into the structure stopped him from doing so.

It left both Draco's and Raine's hackles on edge to hear Harry's echoing laughter as they descended and the piles of bones at the very bottom did little to ease their discomfort. Why in the name of Mother Earth was Draco following a maniac?

Harry came to a stop beside them and caught their uneasy glances at the bones. "Don't worry," he said offhandedly. "She won't kill you."

"She?" Draco asked hoarsely.

"It would be wise to be kind to her. She really does hate it when rude visitors come."

Raine shivered as he sensed a sudden unnatural presence overwhelm him. Something about Harry had been unsettling from the very start, but whatever was down here, he could feel more visibly. Pixies had their magic tied to the land and therefore something that disrupted the natural balance was currently residing down in the bowels of the castle.

They came to a stop at a door engraved with a set of small snakes and Raine heard Harry say something in his hissing language once again. He could vaguely recall hearing certain wizards calling it Parseltongue in the past. But he had also heard it was a rare gift that only those related to the Dark Lord possessed.

The very second they stepped into the magnificent hall, both Draco and Raine gasped as they were immediately thrown to the floor, a gigantic and immovable pressure keeping them down.

"So, Draco," Harry snarled. "Why are you here?"

The other wizard was visibly pale now, his fingers clenching and then unclenching around the grip of his wand. Raine had sensed Draco's growing tenseness as they had walked before despite his brazen comments but he had accounted it to the fact that they were in a Light Lord's domain. Now he knew that Draco had been growing increasingly nervous – scared, even – because he could sense Harry's anger. He knew Harry well enough to know that whatever had been waiting for them hadn't been good.

"Our Lord wishes for you to return –" His reply was abruptly choked off. Had it been Harry? Raine hadn't seen the boy use a wand or any movement at all to suggest he had used magic.

"Tom sent you."

Draco was freed again to speak. "Yes," he breathed out. "He sent me to get you."

"You?" Harry burst into laughter. "He sent you to come fetch me? I never knew he had so low of an opinion of me."

Draco flushed. "Well he wants you back –"

"Like he wants back a runaway toy," Harry snapped back.

"You have no idea how angry he is! He's going about cursing everybody he sees nowadays –"

"Because he's a spoiled bastard." At Draco's furious look, Harry rolled his eyes. "Even you cannot deny that Tom has a stick up his ass half of the time."

"But you have to return!"

"Because he's going to kill you if I don't?" Harry asked. "Well, I don't give a shit. He can do whatever he wishes with you."

As they continued their exchange back and forth, Raine slowly focused his magic on the stones surrounding him, calling for them to heed his call. They were reluctant, unwilling to listen to one who had not made them, but Raine eventually succeeded, gradually encouraging them to attack, to lash out at the boy arguing with the pale-haired one. He was just on brink of pouring out his magic when something large smashed itself on to his chest and he let out a pained gasp as the unnatural presence he had felt earlier suddenly assailed him.

Harry tutted from afar. "Ah, Draco. You always were a poor judge of companions. What would your father say if he saw you traveling with a pixie of all things?"

Raine could only focus on breathing heavily and pushing away the presence. This being on top of him shouldn't exist. It tipped the balance – had some control over what it should not.

"Is that a Basilisk?" Draco's voice was faint.

Raine could hear Harry's smug smirk. "Isn't she gorgeous?"

This was a Basilisk. No wonder Raine could barely keep conscious. Basilisks were among the magical creatures that Nature abhorred. Phoenixes were one because they defied life and death, always returning when they should not. Basilisks were another because they controlled life and death; one glance in those eyes and you were gone from this world.

"I must go now," Harry said, his footsteps already moving away from them and back towards the entrance. "I expect the both of you to behave until I come back. I would have to come down and find two corpses to deal with."

The two of them remained stock still until the enchantments keeping them in place disappeared. And even then, neither of them dared to do more than breathe until the Basilisk slowly slithered away.

~0~

Draco Malfoy and a bloody pixie. Exactly what Harry needed at this point and time. He sighed as he made his way up to the dorms. Curfew would not be called for another fifteen minutes but he felt the urge to just go back to his four-poster bed and lie there.

How had Draco found him so quickly? Did Tom already know where he was? Is that why Draco knew where to go? But it couldn't be. The Malfoy heir had been completely surprised to see Harry there, as if he hadn't been expecting it at all. Knowing Tom, he had probably sent Draco out with vague directions at best. The boy was just lucky to find the right place. Part of that luck was the pixie. Harry could sense the magical bond between the two. They had entered a contract of some kind, making it so that the two had to help each other out until the pact dissolved. Pixies had natural magic so that explained how they had found the secret passage inside.

The larger problem at hand was what to do with them now. Draco couldn't know that Harry didn't have access to his magic outside of the Chamber. There was no doubt that the contract with the pixie had allowed Draco to exist within the barrier and utilize his magic at the same time. Harry could taste the Dark magic within Draco. If the Malfoy heir ever found out and somehow made it out of the Chamber, Harry was as good as back in Tom's clutches. He would have no way of defending against Draco should it ever come to that.

Technically, Harry could do the same and procure a contract with a magical creature within the barrier, but he did not wish to bind himself to anybody. He was already tied to one being that it was just his luck that it was Tom.

Harry strode into the Slytherin Common Room, bypassing all of the rest of his dorm mates. Only when he was halfway across the room and nearly up the stairs did he brush the rune within his sleeve.

The next attack will be tomorrow during the match.

The entire room immediately tensed as everybody absorbed the fiery message etched into the air and only when it dissipated into smoke did they gradually relax. It was as silent as it had been before, but now there was a new sense of anticipation in the air. They had accepted the message as truth. They had been doing so for the past few weeks and by doing so, they had escaped many of the pranks that the other Houses had not. What was once a danger was now a mysterious information source that the Slytherins had inadvertently taken as their guide even when nobody voiced it aloud. There was just a quiet consensus among them all that following the fire-written instructions was best no matter how many of them disliked obeying a disembodied source.

Like puppets controlled by their master.

Harry couldn't help the satisfied grin touch his lips as he continued up the stairs. Now that he thought about it, Draco would just add some much needed spice into his plans. What good was winning a game without a few good obstacles on the way?

Merry Christmas Eve (or whatever else you guys celebrate if you're not Christian)! Hopefully Santa comes along and brings lots of gifts!

Voldemort! Gotta love him in all his angst.

And sorry for any grammatical or spelling errors! I didn't really check over it.

Till next time!