Chapter 4: Lessons of the Dementors

Draco carried his Firebolt out onto the Quidditch pitch. He wasn't the only hopeful for the Slytherin Quidditch team this year, but he was the most confident. He was going to be the new Slytherin Seeker, and that was all there was to it.

Most of Slytherin House had gathered in the stands, as was customary. The Gryffindors would almost certainly want to spy on them. Having a surplus of Slytherins around made that largely impossible. Not that Draco himself was worried. Harriet was his foe, and she wouldn't stoop to that level. She was far too proud.

Draco had some competition for the spot, but nothing overwhelming. Higgs had been a mediocre Seeker, but he was gone. All the other people trying out for Seeker hadn't even been able to beat Higgs.

Marcus Flint was the Quidditch captain, and he was a mean one, but Draco knew his number. Anything to win. And Draco knew what it would take to win.

The tryouts themselves were underwhelming. Draco competed against the other Seekers to catch three snitches. He caught all three. Then he had to do flying drills, which Draco passed with flying colours. But then Flint did interviews. This would make or break Draco.

"So," said Flint, "Are you better than Harriet Potter?"

"No," said Draco honestly, "I'm not. And I'm the best Seeker here. None of us are going to beat her playing straight up Quidditch. We're going to have to beat her with tricks and mind games."

Flint gave Draco a wry smile. "Now that is a new tactic," Flint said mischievously.

"The only way we beat Potter is as a team," acknowledged Draco, "Anyone who thinks they can beat her alone is just stupid. You need someone who is willing to do what it takes to bring her down. And that is me."

Nailed it, he thought as he left the Quidditch pitch and headed up to the stands.

He chose the most empty stands, as he knew no one really wanted to sit by him. There were only a scattering of firsties up here who didn't want to mingle with the crowds. Draco sat down to watch beater trials. But soon something caught his eye. A dark haired girl sitting alone. Draco recognized her - Astoria Greengrass, Daphne's little sister. She looked upset.

Draco shook it off at first. It was none of his business. But then an idea suddenly struck Draco. Maybe Astoria could be useful for getting Daphne to trust him. It was worth a shot. And he had to admit, it would be nice to have a conversation that wasn't just plotting and insults for once.

So Draco walked down to where Astoria was sitting and sat down, not right next to her, but one place over.

"Hey Astoria," he said happily, "You doing all right?"

Astoria looked over at Draco. She didn't seem surprised exactly. But she wasn't shutting him out either.

"Hello Draco," replied Astoria, "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I just saw you sitting here and you looked distracted," answered Draco, "I wanted to make sure you were all right."

"Did my sister put you up to this?" demanded Astoria.

"I very much doubt your sister wants me talking to you," said Draco with a laugh.

"She did warn me about you," admitted Astoria, "Which actually makes me want to talk to you more."

"She thinks I am going to try to use you to get into her good graces," agreed Draco, "I won't deny it - I want to make a good impression on you. But I'm not trying to trick you. Daphne has already judged me, so I need others to convince her that I've changed."

"Sounds fair enough," said Astoria.

"So, why are you looking so down?" asked Draco.

Astoria hesitated. "I feel sorry for Hagrid," she said after a long pause, "I've known him for a long time. He used to come and buy creatures from my father for the school. He wanted to teach the Care of Magical Creatures class for so long. And now, after one week, one of his students is trying to kill one of his most impressive creatures."

"Buckbeak is impressive," agreed Draco, "And Nott is pretty scummy for using this against Hagrid."

"I just… I wish there was something I could do to help," sighed Astoria.

Draco considered this for a moment. "Well, I was a witness to what happened," considered Draco, "I could send in my testimony. Nott disregarded all safety instructions he was given. Not just that, but I followed the same instructions and earned the creature's trust. It might help."

"You'd do that?" asked Astoria, "I know your father is one of Nott Sr.'s political allies. Won't it be awkward for you to do this?"

"Right now, I need to take down Nott Jr. anyway," admitted Malfoy, "If it annoys my father, tough. I'm playing my own game here."

"I know what you mean," said Astoria, "Sometimes I feel like defying my father as well. He tries to act like he isn't bigoted against muggleborns, but he is. He just can't see it."

"Well, maybe one day you will," said Draco, "If you do, let me know, it would mean that we have something in common."

Astoria laughed at that. Somehow, that made Draco feel good. He laughed back at her.

Draco stood up. "Well, I will see you later. I have a letter to write."

"Thanks for doing this," said Astoria, "It means a lot. I hate to see anyone suffer like this."

Draco simply nodded his head, and then he headed back towards the Slytherin common room. He only got to the bottom of the stairs leading up to the stands when he was accosted.

"What were you doing with my sister, Malfoy?" said Daphne as she threw Draco into the side of the stairwell. She was holding him by the collar, but she had her wand in one hand.

"I am not doing anything," said Draco, "I saw Astoria looking down, so I went to talk to her."

"Stay away from my sister Malfoy," spat Daphne, "Don't put her into your plots."

"I'm not putting her into any plots," said Draco, "But I won't stay away from her. You've decided you know what I am, but you're wrong. So someone else will have to convince you I'm not the bad guy here. But I have no interest in your sister, no designs, no manipulations, other than to convince her that she can trust me."

Draco pushed Daphne off of him. "If you really think about it, it's your own narrow mindedness that brought us here," he said pleasantly.

"If my sister comes to harm because of you, I will castrate you," threatened Daphne, "I will grab your cock, rip it off, and stuff it in your mouth."

"Good," said Draco, "as it should be."

Daphne stepped back. She didn't have a retort for that. Draco took the opportunity to walk away. He still had a letter to write.

XXXXX

The first two months of the year went by quickly. Harriet was overloaded with work, including Quidditch. The truth was that she was overextended, but she wasn't really ready to admit it. Helping Hermione teach their self-defense class was a lot more work than Harriet had expected. They'd already gone far past Harriet's own knowledge and were now learning new skills out of books.

Most of their friends were doing well at it though. Parvati and Seamus were having the most difficulty. Seamus had once had a 'lighting things on fire' problem. He still had it, but only for combat spells, which meant he had to be especially careful. Parvati got distracted too easily. She often just missed it when people cast spells at her. Harriet had expected Ron to slack off a lot, but he had surprised her. He'd taken things very seriously, and was always practicing ahead on his own. As a result he was often paired with Harriet when they practiced in the group, since he was the only one even close to keeping up with her other than Hermione.

Harriet's focus training was also harder on her than expected. But the reasons were very different. Trying to focus was hard. The emotional and mental drain on Harriet was taking its toll. Any evening that Harriet had focus training she had to block out the whole night, because she would be too exhausted to do anything else that night. She was making progress, but she had yet to conjure a Patronus. Still, McGonagall thought she had improved a lot.

She had taken a few extra practice sessions at the Patronus with Hermione actually. Hermione had a difficult time with the Patronus, and Harriet could at least summon the shield fairly regularly, so it made sense. And Harriet had to admit, she was more successful in her practice sessions with Hermione than with McGonagall. Virtually every attempt by Harriet produced a Patronus shield. Pretty much every memory she used was effective in those sessions, especially if she was sitting close to Hermione. Harriet wasn't sure why either. Crookshanks seemed to have an opinion on the matter from the way he stared at them, but being a cat, he didn't actually voice his opinion.

The news that Buckbeak was being investigated as a dangerous animal had infuriated Harriet. As far as she was concerned, this proved that Nott was no better than Malfoy. The hearing was set for just before Halloween. Harriet and Hermione had written letters to the Department of Magical Creatures, insisting that Buckbeak had been well trained and had just shown that he could be handled safely. She didn't expect much to come of it. A Gryffindor's testimony against a Slytherin wouldn't mean much.

Unfortunately, the committee overseeing Buckbeak's case had gone long, and Hagrid had been told that they would send him a letter that would have their decision. Harriet wondered what that was about. Was there really that much evidence? Or had the committee been bribed?

Because of this, on Halloween itself, Harriet was feeling poorly disposed towards Slytherins. That morning Harriet left the Great Hall after breakfast, wondering if she might convince Hermione to do Patronus practice, when she saw Draco talking to Hagrid in the Entrance Hall

"I really just wanted ter thank ya' for the letter you sent to the committee," Hagrid was crowing loudly, "The committee said it were that letter that made the difference. A Slytherin testifying against another Slytherin in such a matter is unheard of. I know you've done some bad stuff, but I'm willing te put that behind me, so long as ya' stay on the straight and narrow Dr… I mean Mr. Malfoy."

"Don't mention it," said Draco, clearly trying to hide his distaste for the conversation. Well, Hagrid was being very loud right in Draco's face.

"Harry, did ya' hear? Buckbeak got off scot free!" shouted Hagrid, "I know you wrote on my behalf, so thanks to ya'. Tell the same to Hermione when you see her. Gotta run now!"

And with that, Hagrid headed upstairs, practically dancing.

"Well, he was happy!" smirked Malfoy.

Harriet hadn't quite shaken her distaste of Slytherins, even with the good news, so she immediately took this as a snark at Hagrid.

"You just did this to take Nott down a peg," said Harriet, "You don't care about Buckbeak at all."

Draco briefly looked angry, but stomped on that expression hard. His face went back to a smirk.

"So what if I did?" demanded Draco, "It saved your precious Hippogriff. Isn't that what matters?"

"Oh we will be settling this on the Quidditch pitch," said Harriet, "I am going to kick your fat arse for this."

Harriet stormed back towards Gryffindor tower. How did Draco manage to steal what should have been a triumphant moment for her?

XXXXX

Draco watched Harriet leave. For one second he had feared that Harriet would see him as weak. Luckily he'd covered up his true feelings in time.

"Is that really how you feel?" said a soft voice.

It was Astoria. Draco swore in his head. He had not meant for her to see that.

"You know I can't show weakness to a Gryffindor," said Draco, "I had to be all business with Potter. Of course I'm glad I saved Buckbeak."

"Is showing compassion really a weakness?" asked Astoria.

"I suppose Potter wouldn't think so," admitted Draco, "and it shouldn't be. But people like Nott might think so. In public… well you never know who's watching."

"True," said Astoria. Draco smiled. He knew she was a real Slytherin.

"MALFOY!" screamed the voice of Theodore Nott Jr. He burst out of the Great Hall, followed by a menacing Crabbe and Goyle.

"You fucking traitor! You testified against me!" screamed Nott, "Why the fuck did you care about a stupid fucking creature! You goddamned piece of shit. Are you going soft on me?"

"Shut the fuck up Nott," snapped Astoria, "Draco obviously did it just to take you down a peg. Hell, even Potter saw it. Could you not see this coming? Very sloppy."

Nott spluttered for a while, then stormed off, his goons in tow.

"Thanks Astoria," said Draco, somewhat surprised at her reaction.

"Glad to help," said Astoria, "I guess I know who I'm rooting for now."

And with that she spun around and walked back towards the Great Hall.

Draco had to admit, he didn't know exactly what had just happened there. But he suspected that Astoria was at least partially on his side now.

XXXXX

Harriet was not having a good time.

The first Quidditch match was well underway, and of course it was being played in a miserable rain storm. Finding the snitch would be hard enough with just the rain reducing visibility. But for some reason rain messed with the snitch's height limiting magic, and it had a tendency to fly much further up to escape a Seeker than it normally did. Add to this an incredibly aggressive Slytherin team and a competent Seeker in Draco, whose broom was amazing, and Harriet was well and truly in hell.

The worst part was that Draco was in no better condition than she was, but he had taken the initiative. He was constantly zooming one way or another, and since Harriet couldn't see, she couldn't tell if he was faking or not until she got close. It was amazingly frustrating.

It was luck that Harriet found the snitch. It flew past her ear. And it was luck that she didn't lose it in the rain. But it wasn't luck, either good or bad, that caused Draco to start chasing her. That was down to the fact that Harriet hadn't thought to bluff Draco even once. A huge mistake.

And the snitch started to ascend. Not good. The last thing they needed was for the snitch to go out of the playable area. It shouldn't be possible, but bad weather had affected such things before. Damned rain. Draco followed, but he didn't seem to see the snitch.

As she went higher, Harriet began to feel colder. That was bad. And that's when she flew through a cloud Harriet and ran straight into a veritable swarm of Dementors. They were all gathered above the Quidditch pitch like vultures, hoping to feed on the emotions of the students below them.

" Expecto Patronum!" shouted Harriet as she concentrated on the memory of Sirius rescuing her.

But at that moment the fear of the dementors hit her. Her Patronus did not even generate a shield. Memories piled in her head. Her Uncle Vernon was shouting at her. Hermione was screaming as Umbridge tortured her.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Breathe in, breathe out.

And suddenly Harriet could see again. The snitch was right in front of her. Harriet grabbed it and pocketed it with one swift motion. And suddenly the fear lessened a tiny amount.

"Father, NO!" roared Draco.

Harriet turned to see Draco writhing on his broom. He was nearly falling off. Harriet flew over and thought desperately. The memory of summoning her shield with Hermione popped into her mind.

" Expecto Patronum!" Harriet cried out suddenly, not knowing why she did so at that particular moment. But it worked. Her shield burst forth and held the dementors at bay, keeping them away from her and Draco.

But too late for Draco. As the fear fled from his face he relaxed his grip on his broom. And fell off.

Harriet immediately dove, trying to catch Draco. Unfortunately Draco had still been moving when he fell, so he didn't fall straight down. Harriet missed catching him with one arm once. Trees were suddenly visible beneath her. She reached out again and caught him. For a second she had him, and she began pulling the broom up to slow them. For a moment this seemed to have worked. They slowed as she tried to control her rate of descent. But she jerked up the last little angle to being level a tiny bit too hard and her momentum compared to Draco's shifted out of sync for one moment. And the jerk of the still falling Draco pulled Harriet off of her broom.

Harriet landed in a tree, and the impact as her chest hit the huge solid branch knocked the wind out of her. She lost her hold on Draco's hand. He fell about five metres more before he crashed into the ground with a loud *CRACK*.

It took Harriet a few moments to get her breath back. They'd obviously flown out over the Forbidden Forest. Which was lucky, they'd only been a little bit above this tree when Harriet had fallen.

"You still there Draco?" called out Harriet.

"Yes," said Draco, "I landed on my 'fat arse'. And… oh shit. I, uh, also landed on your broom."

Harriet pulled herself over and looked down from the tree. Sure enough, Draco was laying all splayed out on his back, but Harriet's Nimbus 2000 was beneath him. Splintered in the middle.

"I'm sorry," said Draco, "I didn't mean…"

"Of course you didn't," said Harriet immediately, choking down her outrage, "You couldn't control it. It isn't your fault."

There was a long pause. "Thank you for saving me Potter," said Draco after a long wait.

Harriet grunted, then grabbed at the tree trunk to start climbing down. "No problem," she said brusquely. Which was when she slipped.

And landed right on top of Draco's stomach.

"OWWW, that really hurts," moaned Draco.

Harriet rolled off of the poor boy as quickly as she could. Still unsteady she pulled herself to her feet.

"Can you get up?" she asked.

Draco tried to push himself up, but was having a hard time. Finally, Harriet reached out her hand to help him up. With that Draco was able to get back on his feet, though he was a bit unsteady.

"I uh, caught the snitch," said Harriet sheepishly.

Draco broke out into laughter. "Of course you did," he said, "It's just my day isn't it?"

"Did I do anything embarrassing before I fell?" asked Draco.

"You, uh, called out for your father," said Harriet.

"I wasn't calling put to him, I was…" started Draco before he shut his mouth.

"What I saw isn't your business, but I was angry, not scared," insisted Draco, "Got it?"

"Whatever," said Harriet, "I won't spread it around in any case. Let's get back to Hogwarts."

Draco nodded, but his face was very concerned still. Whatever Draco had seen was eating at him, that was clear. It was bad enough that Draco didn't immediately think to look for his Firebolt, and he had to run back when he remembered it.

None of that was Harriet's problem, luckily.

XXXXX

Two days later, Morgan asked Harriet if she would be available on Thursday to talk about something. And Harriet realised that Morgan was finally ready to talk about what had caused her to become a dark witch. This was a big moment, and Harriet hoped it would allow her to have faith in Morgan again.

When Harriet entered, she noticed a change. Morgan's office had been fairly bare and sparse before. Now it was full of books and various trinkets. The trinkets were various trophies from the many tombs Morgan had helped cleanse of Dark Magic. Relics and artifacts of a very curious nature.

One of the books was sitting on Morgan's desk, open. When Morgan saw Harriet enter she closed the book, then locked a chain that was wrapped around it.

"That is some serious security," observed Harriet.

" Principles of Darkest Magicks," said Morgan, "Medieval tome on the use of dark magic. Useful book for a cursebreaker. But dangerous for anyone unprepared to read it. It is designed to trick readers into using dark magic."

Morgan suddenly looked a bit sheepish. "Truth be told, this book was once part of the Beauxbatons library, and they used to let seventh year students use it for Defense against the Dark Arts projects. But it was far too dangerous for seventh year students, so I knicked it."

"How did you do that?" asked Harriet curiously.

Morgan actually seemed a bit embarrassed, "I, uh, made sure I had an ironclad alibi. I pretended to be inebriated and took a dip in the lake. I was, how shall I put it...?"

" Au Natural?" suggested Harriet with a giggle.

"Quite so," said Morgan, "There were plenty of boys who were very sure of where I was when the book was stolen. Of course I had actually stolen the book hours before and staged events so that it only looked like it had been taken later. When I had an alibi."

"And you have been using this book?" asked Harriet.

"It has been invaluable in my search for how to remove your Horcrux," insisted Morgan, "Indeed I am on the cusp of a breakthrough there. But I will tell you more when I get confirmation. But we may be able to remove your Horcrux towards the end of this month, if all goes to plan."

Harriet suddenly was very excited. She hadn't really expected Morgan to succeed this quickly.

"But I invited you here to tell another story," said Morgan, "I will set the stage for telling you about the Dementors' Harvest."

"So I can't look at the book?" asked Harriet coyly.

"Certainly not!" insisted Morgan, "No third year student should be allowed to read this book, especially a sorceress like you. I will admit that your circumstances might mean you will need some of the knowledge in this book, eventually, but certainly not before you have passed your Ordinary Wizarding Levels."

"What does me being a sorceress have to do with it?" demanded Harriet.

"Because the book is so detailed that you could easily mimic much of it," explained Morgan, "You wouldn't even have to put in the effort to learn the spells. Simply reading this book would give you the ability to cast many dark sorceries, no practice required."

Harriet shuddered. That was actually quite terrifying. Not that Harriet would use such magic, but she didn't want that power at her fingertips. For the first time she began to realise just how dangerous her gift might be.

"So, let me start at the proper place," said Morgan, "It was 833 when Gawaine convinced Arthur to claim the title King of the Britons, after we had claimed the Atlantean keystone in the Holy Land. That was also when we had first heard that the Grail had survived. In any case I supported Gawaine's plan, so Arthur adopted it. Immediately there was resistance, especially in Cornwall and Wessex. But most of the independent kingdoms in what would become England and Wales agreed to bend the knee, primarily because Arthur really didn't interfere with the running of anyone's kingdom. He left them alone, but would come to your defense in times of war. This led to conflict with the Danes who controlled the rest of England."

"Wessex eventually agreed to join us for extra military assistance against the Danes, but Cornwall remained unmoved," continued Morgan, "Arthur gained their loyalty through another avenue; he proposed a marriage alliance where he married Guinevere, the daughter of the Cornish king."

"They agreed to this?" asked Harriet.

"Oh yes," confirmed Morgan, "And for years, things went well. Arthur created a coalition that would ultimately be a predecessor to Alfred the Great's conquests. Things were going well. The Danes were being driven back. But Guinevere had not produced an heir. At the time, I had embarked on a career in healing at Avalon. And I was very good at it. So Arthur eventually came to ask me to see if I could help his wife conceive."

"She was barren, wasn't she?" said Harriet sympathetically. Harriet wasn't exactly thinking about having children at this stage in her life, but she could understand how having that possibility taken away could be very traumatic.

"Yes," said Morgan, "In 839 I discovered she was barren. Not only that, but that she would not be able to conceive, period. The necessary apparatus for reproduction were just not present in Guinevere. If Guinevere had been magical, I might have been able to use a permanent transfiguration to help her, but she was a muggle, so that would have been incredibly risky. Guinevere did not take this well. She accused me of making her barren so I could take the throne. Arthur didn't believe her, but it put the two of us at odds."

"And it was around the same time that Lancelot appeared," continued Morgan, "He was a muggle, but he was a very skilled warrior. The only member of the original Round Table that he got along with was Percival. He feuded with Gawaine especially. But eventually Guinevere decided to align with him. Lancelot gave good advice from a practical standpoint, but it was advice that pushed us away from our goal of realigning all the Atlantean keystones, and towards getting even more involved with local wars."

"By mid 839, Gawaine decided he'd had enough and returned to Wales. For the rest of the year I took the full brunt of Lancelot and Guinevere's ire," said Morgan before she paused.

"I can't imagine that was pleasant," noted Harriet.

"It wasn't, though this was what caused Percival to finally break with Lancelot for a year or so. They eventually reconciled, just before I returned, of course," explained Morgan, "Anyway, I wanted to leave at that point, and in January of 840 I received a letter from Gawaine asking me to come to Wales. He said that my father's dementors were trying to break free of their bonds at the Tower of the Black Claw. It had been my father's original fortress, and it was where he imprisoned his dementors after they tried to break loose. I decided that I would go and deal with this, and use the time to collect myself and prepare to deal with Guinevere and her accusations."

"I assume you had no time for that," guessed Harriet.

"No, I did not," agreed Morgan, "Things were far worse than Gawaine knew. The magics around the Tower of the Black Claw were coming unraveled. Uther Pendragon had never intended for this to be a permanent prison, and he died before he could make a more permanent solution. But I had a weapon he did not. I was in the process of developing the Anti-magic charm."

"That's what you used to destroy the dementor on the train!" exclaimed Harriet, "Why didn't it become mainstream knowledge then?"

"Because I was the only survivor," said Morgan simply, "I took a hundred men and women with me, all witches and wizards. We drove the dementors out of the tower, then bound them to the surrounding area with a ritual. And then I set to finishing the spell that would finish them. I thought it would take me a month. It took me seven months."

Morgan stopped. It took her a long time to start up again. Finally she continued in a distraught voice, "When I completed the spell, only 20 of my people were still alive. And where there had originally been between about 200 and 250 dementors, there were now around 600. They had used our dread, our emotions to reproduce on a massive scale. We destroyed maybe 100 of them before they overwhelmed us. At the end, my people went back to using their Patroni. It was too late. They all died. Worse than died."

Morgan stopped again. "But the dementors kept me alive, made me watch every agonising death. And then…"

Morgan shook her head. "I am sorry Harriet, I can't continue right now."

"Of course," said Harriet. She'd had no idea that it had been this bad. And apparently, it got worse.

"It's the proximity if the dementors," explained Morgan, "Or rather the control unit they use to command them. I don't know.for certain, but I suspect it is something horrible. Something older than the Unspeakables, or me for that matter."

"I thought Uther summoned the dementors," noted Harriet, "Did he summon this control unit as well?"

"In a manner of speaking," said Morgan, her voice cracking.

Harriet was surprised to see tears in Morgan's eyes. Just for a second, and then she turned and wiped them away.

"Still, you made a good point," mused Morgan as she turned back to Harriet, "I haven't ever taught anyone my Anti-magic charm. Perhaps that should change."

Harriet tried not to gape. Was Morgan actually saying what Harriet thought she was?

"The incantation is Annihilate. This is the updated version of the spell I created at Beauxbatons. The original version had an incantation of Antimagus. But it exploded a lot more often than the new version, so use Annihilate," explained Morgan.

"You're teaching me your secret spell?" asked Harriet, incredulous.

"Yes, I am," said Morgan simply, "Be careful with this spell! As I said, it can explode, especially if you use it on dark magic. Unlike the Finite Incantatum, this spell does not cleanly end the spell it is directed at. But it works on virtually all magic, excepting extremely powerful artifacts like the Holy Grail. Only use this spell as a spell of last resort."

"Of course!" agrees Harriet instantly. She wasn't about to screw this up. She was about to learn Morgana's secret spell!

XXXXX

Draco Malfoy was also meeting with a teacher that evening. But it was at Draco's request, not the teacher's. Draco was concerned with what had happened when he had encountered the dementors at the Quidditch match, so he had asked to meet with Professor Snape.

He kept going over it in his head. It was his father admitting that he had been behind planting the diary on Ginny Weasley. That memory was annoying, but it had stuck with him far more than it should have. And Draco didn't know why.

At first Draco had considered that he had somehow been personally angry about the action itself. But he couldn't quite see it. He certainly didn't approve of what his father had done, but he had no emotional attachment to the situation. The closest he came to caring about that was the fact that the plan had put Ginny Weasley in peril, but at the strongest Draco would say that his emotions regarding Ginny could be described as guarded respect.

No, it had to be about his father. And so he approached Snape, not really sure why.

"So the dementors brought out your anger at your father?" asked Snape.

"Well, I was angry when I formed the memory," mused Draco, "But what I felt in the moment I was near the dementors was fear. But it was mixed with anger. I don't know."

Snape stood silent for a moment. "Perhaps the memory itself is what scares you. I hesitate to ask, but what does the memory make you think about when dementors aren't around?"

"Well I am a bit angry that my father was so reckless. But it's bigger than that. It's a whole line of disappointment in how he behaved since Harriet returned to the magical world. And I keep looking at what he did and wondering if what I did to Granger is similar and… Merlin."

Draco stopped as realisation struck him. "I'm not afraid of or for my father. I'm afraid of becoming him. Because my father is a failure."

Snape said nothing, but just stared at Draco.

"The Death Eaters, the Wizengamot, the Board of Governors, it's all the same!" shouted Draco, suddenly enraged, "My father couldn't succeed at any of them! And if the Dark Lord returns he'll get right back into it and drag me along. But I don't want to become a murderer for the Dark Lord. I want pureblood rule, but I don't want to kill innocents for it. But I won't have a choice, will I?"

"There is always a choice Draco," said Snape quietly, "If you want, when the time comes, I will do my best to help you find yours."

"You don't support the Dark Lord anymore, do you?" asked Draco.

"I support the Dark Lord every bit as much as I did on the day he died," said Snape.

Draco sat still for a moment. Did that mean what he thought it meant?

"So when did he lose your loyalty?" asked Draco.

"The day he threatened to kill my childhood best friend," said Snape.

There was a long pause. Draco couldn't believe the trust that Snape had just put in him. If Draco told the Dark Lord what Snape had just said he would be rewarded when he returned.

"I do not want to fight for V-V-Voldemort," said Draco finally.

Snape simply nodded. "Then I will prepare you for what is to come. I do not know that I can save you, but I will do everything in my power to keep you safe," he said.

And that was when Draco realised whom he had come to respect in place of his father.

Author's Note: Astoria finally makes her first appearance! She plays a really significant role in Draco's story, or course, but she also develops her own relationships with Harriet and Hermione as the story goes on. And literally as I wrote that last sentence I realized how I can give her a great climax to her story.

I intend to follow the canon romance of Draco/Astoria, and Draco's softness towards her is a reflection of what have become his real values, a dedication to his family line, as opposed to a true desire for pureblood rule. I wouldn't say Draco is likeable though. Not yet. Once you get to the end of this part you'll see what I mean. He's still willing to use shocking degrees of violence to get what he wants; his targets have just changed.

I got a review about Hermione and Arithmancy. The reason I am emphasizing the lack of scientific rigor in Arithmancy is 1. to greater emphasize the mystical nature of magic as a whole and 2. to fit in with Hermione's plotline which is about her surrendering her need to control everything.

On another note, Morgan has reason to be unable to talk about her experiences with the dementors. Remember, the experience she had turned her from a healer into the most powerful Dark Witch in history. Over the course of the next two chapters you are going to get a taste of what is going on there.

In fact, let me be more clear: the next two chapters are absolutely bonkers, and some of my favorite things that I have ever written are in them.