A/N HEY VIEWERS! It's that time of the week where you get to read the theft chapter to my Dramione. I got some really good reviews last week, shout out to TheQuietAwakening, who left a really good comment. Thanks TQA! Anyway, back to it. This chapter has a lot of explaining and realisation but it hopefully is a great read to! See you at the end.
Chapter 4 - You're Not a Killer
"I can't believe your luck," Blaise scoffed as he, Theo and Draco stood outside the archway to the dungeons. "I mean, a mudblood! Why don't you come sleep in our dorm mate. Don't want it to contaminate you," he snorted. Theo rolled his eyes. Draco glared and exclaimed pointedly, "I'm not giving it the satisfaction that it can chuck me out of my dorm!"
"It's not chucking you out if you choose to leave. Besides," Blaise continued, "there is no order in our dorm without you. And Pansy's missing-"
"Pansy's always missing me and complaining," Draco interrupted. Theo smirked. "Besides," Draco continued with a smirk, "That bitch is so easy to anger and annoy and it's not like I can't handle it." Blaise smirked. Theo just rolled his eyes again. "What?" Draco asked, "You think I can't handle a mudblood?"
"No, it's just,"
"Just what?" Draco questioned Theo. The bell went and everyone started moving in different directions. "Come on," Draco sighed. Usually Draco would be in the mood for potions, but he was dreading coming face to face with the potions master properly since... that night. Theo and Blaise had of course supported him and sympathised with him once they found out about his mission to kill the greatest headmaster of all time. Albus Dumbledore. He could still picture his late headmaster falling from the top of the tower, silver hair embracing and caressing his face as he fell, robe billowing around him. He was dead before he hit the floor.
The tall, greasy haired man opened the door, the draft sending his black cloak billowing out behind him. "In," he drawled. The class made hurried movements into the classroom. "Where's Professor Slughorn?" Harry asked.
"Stupid Gryffindors," Draco thought, "Slughorn's been taken in for questioning."
"Quiet Potter," the potions master drawled, "Professor Slughorn has been excused from his position for the next couple of days as he has urgent business to attend to in London."
Harry gritted his teeth and snarled, "So we're expected to be taught by a murderer?" Draco dropped his wand with a clatter on the table. He had gone too far now. Snape was breathing hard down Harry's neck menacingly. "See me after lesson Potter," he hissed. Harry took out his wand and aimed it at his teacher and yelled furiously, "YOU KILLED HIM!" Ron and Hermione stood up from their seats, which scraped across the floor, and ran forward to restrain Harry, who was desperately trying to loosen their grip. "YOU KILLED ALBUS DUMBLEDORE WITHOUT A MOMENTS HESITATION!" Harry yelled at Snape, who for a moment Draco thought looked sick but that moment vanished as he quickly hitched back his usual look, now etched with venom. "How dare you," Snape hissed through gritted teeth, "fif-" and then he paused, reconsidering, "ten points from Gryffindor, for raising your voice in my class." Harry faltered and lowered his arms slightly. What the hell was he playing at? Harry turned and threw himself back into his seat, followed by Ron and Hermione. Draco snorted. "Idiots," he tried to smirk, but he was secretly wishing he could just walk out.
When the bell signalling the end of the lesson sounded, the usual scraping of chairs reached their ears as the class scrambled to the door. "Potter," Snape growled, "And you Mr Malfoy." Draco gulped and stood up straight, eyeing his professor darkly. "What?" snapped Draco.
"Sit," Snape replied. Draco went and sat down, three desks away from the potions master. "Potter," Snape growled, but Harry cut in, "Why the hell are you even at this school? You should have been sacked!"
"I have been sacked," Snape replied coolly. Draco and Harry both looked at him. Snape continued, "I have been instructed to teach for the first couple of days until dear professor Slughorn returns. As of Wednesday, I will simply be roaming the corridors."
"Why aren't you locked up? And why are you allowed to stay here?!" Harry shouted.
Snape continued in the same, low voice, "The ministry is about to be over run with death eaters -"
"YOU ARE A DEATH EATER! AND YOU!" Harry turned, glaring at Draco, who leapt up from his chair and pointed his wand at him, shouting, "How DARE YOU!?" He flung himself at Harry, desperate to wipe the confident look off his stupid face.
"Enough," drawled Snape, and the two boys parted, fuming at each other. "As I was saying, if the ministry were to be over run with death eaters, why would they lock me up when they could just have my every move observed by your headmistress. It was the ministers idea. Do you think I enjoy prowling the place where I'm most hated?"
"Why am I here?" Harry demanded coldly.
"McGonagall wanted you to know why I was here."
"Why am I here?" Draco snapped.
"I want a word with you. Alone."
Harry snatched his stuff up and turned to leave. "Why did you do it?" Draco demanded coldly once the door had swung shut.
"To protect you," Snape said in an equal voice.
"Protect me," muttered Draco, "You think getting hit ten times with the crutiatus curse is protection?!" he yelled, "You think sleeping at Blaze's house for a week to avoid my own father's cane is fucking protection? IF I'D JUST DONE WHAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO DO, NONE OF THAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED! But thanks to your protection, I was tortured bloody senseless and father's locked in his own cell!"
Snape scowled at him and retorted furiously, "I made the unbreakable vow -"
"To hell with a vow!"
"I promised your mother - "
"I don't care!"
"You're not a killer..."
There was silence. Draco stared at him and slid down to the floor. He grasped the edge of the table and his head drooped to his knees. "I told you, Draco, I did what had to be done. You're not a killer. Even Dumbledore knew that. He was going to die that night, I saved you the life sentence of ultimate hate. "
"You didn't do that very well," Draco retorted from the floor.
"Count yourself lucky, Draco," Snape said calmly as he made his way to the door.
-.
Harry heard footsteps on the other side of the door and quickly scrambled to his feet. He hurried up the corridor and was round the corner just as the door to the potions classroom opened. He couldn't believe it. He supposed what Snape had said was correct - Dumbledore was going to die that night. There was no way he could fend off the amount of death eaters on the tower that night. He rushed up to Gryffindor tower to tell Ron what he had overheard from his two enemies. He replayed that night in his head. Draco seemed unwilling, true, and Dumbledore seemed like he knew. He knew he was going to die but then, "you're not a killer." That's what he'd said to Draco and Draco had definitely lowered his wand. Definitely. Dumbledore knew someone else was going to kill him.
-.
Draco was left motionless on the floor. He thought about what his professor had just said. "Count yourself lucky." Was Snape really hated that much? But anyone in their right mind knew that the death of the greatest headmaster of Hogwarts was going to happen that night. But no one was in their right mind, not anymore. And Snape. He seemed so put out and more non talkative than usual. Maybe he didn't want to kill him either. Maybe - "No," Draco thought stubbornly, "Not possible." Draco quickly stood up and made his way out and up into the entrance hall, making his way to his dorm. He didn't even want to consider the virtually impossible - no. The impossible.
- .
Hermione leaned into Ron and sighed, "I don't understand why McGonagall's let him back."
"McGonagall'll have her reasons," Ron groaned, shifting slightly away from his lover. They were sitting on a bench against the back wall of the library, Hermione's head on Ron's shoulder, book on lap. Just then, Harry burst in and quickly strode over to the couple, receiving a disapproving glare from Madame Pince, the librarian. "You weren't in the tower!" Harry panted.
"We were just -" Hermione began.
"No time," Harry gasped, "You won't believe what I just overheard."
After relaying the entire conversation since the class had left, there was a long silence. Then Ron broke it by saying, "And? Snape's just being Snape. Yeah maybe he was doing the morally right thing -"
"You don't get it," Harry retorted, "If Snape wanted to stop Malfoy from becoming a killer and seems distant and almost sorrowful about it all, surly that meant he never wanted to hurt Dumbledore, and Dumbledore knew he was going to die but he also knew that Draco was never going to kill him. If he knew Snape was going to kill him and Snape didn't want to, then surely that means that they - they... Surely that means it was planned."
There was a silence. "That's balmy," Ron half snorted, "Why would you plan your death?"
-.
"He'd never work with Dumbledore!" Draco thought furiously, now considering the impossible. "It can't have been planned the whole time!"
-.
"That's it though isn't it," Harry said almost excitedly yet at the same time seemed sad, "Dumbledore knew Voldemort would punish Malfoy for not killing him. He knew he had to die. Which means... He asked Snape to kill him which..."Harry trailed off.
-.
"Dumbledore knew the Dark Lord would punish me for not killing him, yes. But that doesn't mean he asked... He could never have asked... Snape?" Draco was confused.
-.
"And that means Snape's still working for the Order," Hermione finished for him. "It means he was the only one in on this plan apart from Dumbledore, so that no one could accidentally blab. It means he who must not be named trusts Snape now more than ever, and it means Malfoy doesn't get the full er, wrath of he who must not be named." Ron nodded thoughtfully and sat up straighter on the bench saying, "Sounds legit, but what if we're wrong."
-.
"Which means, if all that were right, Snape's working for the order!" Draco stared at the wall for a moment before, "And that's bullshit."
-.
Slowly, Hermione started pacing around the small space in front of the window. "I'm more worried about being right," Hermione finally murmured after a long pause. They both stared at her. "What?" she asked, "If we're right and that evil devil delves into your head Harry, or gets someone to use Legilimency on us," she indicated at her and Ron, "it means he'll find out about all of this, which I think we should most definitely avoid, and Snape will die." All traces of smiles left the boys' faces and they looked as gaunt as Hermione. "And I would have yelled at him and hated him for no reason," Harry gulped.
"And even a greasy haired bastard like him doesn't deserve death," Ron sighed, " At least not yet, anyway," he added quickly.
"I think the safest thing to do is to not mention it to anyone. Not even Snape," Hermione stated, though it was more like an order. The boys obeyed, like dogs to an owner, just as the bell went.
A/N Snape? In the Order? Could it be true?! Next chapter includes a very awkward situation on Hermione and Draco's part. See you on Friday.