Chapter 58

Percy

The knock at the door woke me before Annabeth, which was surprising in its own right. That the knock came from Colin Creevey, a Gryffindor kid a year or two behind Harry and his friends. He seemed nice enough and was a fierce competitor and dedicated student, but was a bit too slight of frame for sword work, at least with the Normans. He had quickly excelled at archery though and had made the break through on spells. He was assigned to the archery unit that would cover the in field area beside the stone bridge, and the bridge itself.

"Sorry to wake you Percy, but you have a visitor in the commons."

"Wha?" I mumbled, still half asleep. "What time is it?"

"About three I think."

Great. I had only slept about four hours. Not enough after the last few days.

"Who is it?"

"Malfoy."

This was odd, even by my standards.

"Okay, tell him I'll be there in a moment."

I dressed quickly, just throwing a bath robe on over my pj's, trying not to disturb Annabeth and was generally successful. She half mumbled something about the light, but I turned it off and she never woke.

I went to the commons and found Colin and Malfoy standing there, not talking. Colin had no idea what to say, and whatever Malfoy wanted clearly wasn't intended for Colin. I was armed with a wand in my robe pocket and Riptide on my tee, and had my watch on, so I wasn't particularly wary for my safety.

"Thanks Colin, could you let us talk alone?" I asked.

Colin nodded and went back up the stair case to the boy's dormitory. Apparently he was one of the ones who preferred sleeping there as opposed to the barracks.

"Thanks for seeing me. I have things.. things I need to tell you, but first, may I ask, do you know what became of my father?"

"How do you mean?" I replied, trying to feel out what he knew and didn't.

"He went missing a few weeks ago. He has been involved with the Death Eaters for some time, something my mother opposed and, well, I was okay with. It seemed rather bad ass growing up, to have an outlaw father. But... well over the break my aunt told me that he had never returned from a mission the dark lord sent him on to distract Potter, Dumbledore and the Ministry so other followers could break supporters out of Azkaban. You probably, well lets not pretend. You know about that, it was in the papers. I just need to know, if you do know, is he alive somewhere? Azkaban maybe?" Draco asked, his voice breaking with obvious anguish.

"When I last saw your father he was bruised, but alive. I do not know his condition now. He may be quite well. He isn't at Azkaban though. He is... well he is at a prison that in order to leave someone must die. Whether he lives or not, I do not know. I'm sorry. He made bad choices and picked the wrong allies." I answered as honestly as I could without breaking the rules of the quest in so far as confirming the gods existence.

"Well, thank you for that. Bellatrix told me that you killed him."

"No, and she wouldn't know anyway. I led the team that captured him, but no one was killed that night. As I said, he may well live."

"Thank you for your honesty. I hope... I hope there is a way to ask for his release after this is all over. Despite what you may think of him and his, uh, politics, my mother misses him dearly, and he... well he is the only father I have known."

"My father was rarely in my life for years, so, yeah. I can appreciate that."

"Crabbe and Goyle's fathers. You, well, you and your people. You killed them at the train that night. You didn't know that of course, they were masked."

"I regret their loss, but again, they picked the wrong associates and attacked children..."

"Oh, no. No apologies are necessary. They were horrible people, even by Death Eater standards. Cruel and stupid much like their children. I, well Vincent and Gregory are my friends and have taken their loss hard. They only learned of it in the last weeks as well and won't be returning to school. I fear for their safety in the coming days. But what I needed to tell you, my aunt, Bellatrix, she's been in charge since, well the Dark Lord has been unavailable. She assigned me a task, well, several tasks, on his behalf. I have... I don't want to do them, but I fear for my mother and myself if I don't."

"What is it she wants you to do?"

"Kill the Headmaster. And the leader of the Americans, I guess that's you. They say its you, or that Hazel girl, but, well I don't care. If possible Potter too, but she doesn't think I can. Something about a prophecy. There was a rumor about that in school last fall, that only Potter could kill him, and only he could kill Potter. You probably heard it too."

"Yes, I confess I had heard that."

"The Dark Lord is expected to awake in the next few days. His condition... I guess I need to tell you that too. A month or so ago something happened, no one can say what, but it is believed that Dumbledore shattered his mind with a previously unknown spell. You probably know that already as well. He is healing now and his healers think he will wake within the week. When that happens the Death Eaters will seize the Ministry. There is nothing to be done about that, they have people in key positions already. Then his army will attack Hogwarts. I am to let several of his more skilled assassins in through a vanishing cabinet. They are to carry out the murders if I haven't been successful. Bellatrix has alerted his followers to be ready this Friday."

"I see. What is a vanishing cabinet?"

"Its like a teleportation closet. They come in pairs. You get in one at one location and get out at another, but someone has to open the door at the other. If you open the door yourself you just go back to where you got in."

"And there is one here?"

"Yes, in the Room of Requirement, the version where everyone has tossed their rubbish and stored things for centuries. You have to ask for the one where everything is hidden. I'm pretty good at getting into the room. Most people have trouble with it."

I thought for several moments and considered what Malfoy had told me.

"It has been my experience Draco that information like this comes with a price. What is it you wish from me?"

"Safe passage and full pardons for myself and my mother. Her family vault at Gringotts was burgled in the last couple days so she is withdrawing and moving some gold so she will be ready to move fast. She is all that I have left Percy, if I can call you that. Oh, and if you could help release my father, if that is possible... I... I know he would be changed."

"Percy is fine Draco. Safe passage would not be a problem. Pardons are a governmental matter, but candidly our work is done outside government supervision anyway so that would probably not be necessary. You have my word that if this checks out I will get you and your mother to safety, to the best of my ability, so long as I am able. Should the Ministry ever attempt to charge you or your mother with anything I will intervene on your behalf. As to your father, that is beyond my control, but there will be a time of reckoning and I will see what I can do."

"Thank you. Uh, what should I do now?"

"Return to your dorm. We will need a way for you to contact us discretely. Tomorrow drop by after classes, my friend Leo may have something for you to signal us with at the right time. Does Slytherin have a tie clasp or any other jewelry you all wear or is that up to the individual?"

"Uh, no. On occasion I wear a bar at my collar to lift my tie."

"That should do. I will see what Leo can do. Its short notice, but he is quite good. Can you apparate?"

"Not legally, but yeah, I'm not licensed but I know how. My... my father taught me." He said as tears welled in his eyes.

"We are coming to a time where that law will not be strictly enforced. Go rest my friend. The coming days will be harsh."

I returned to Annabeth and my chambers in the Leodis slipped between the covers.

"Are you going to tell me about it or are we keeping secrets now?" Annabeth whispered.

"Sorry, didn't know you were awake. Colin Creevey came and got me, Malfoy was in Gryffindor commons and wanted to speak." I told her everything that was said.

"Well we know one thing then."

"What's that?" I asked.

"We can sleep in tomorrow if nothing is going to happen until later this week."

"We meet before breakfast with Dumbledore." I reminded her.

"Crap" was her only reply and moments later that soft breathing noise she makes when she sleeps was all I heard. I kissed her shoulder and soon nodded off myself.

We dragged ourselves out of bed and arrived just as everyone else did. The aerials, thanks to Reyna's instruction and Amazon's amazing catalog of coffee beans, had learned to make espresso almost as good as the cafe in New Rome everyone loved. The caffeine was a blessing after the late night we all had, especially myself.

Hazel called the meeting to order, somewhat confused as to why we were meeting other than a development in finding the diadem that Frank had told her about just before. She asked to be brought up to speed. Hermione gave a general recitation of the conversation the night before, with Luna and Harry saying they would meet with the ghost of Rowena that morning. It was expected that this would lead to the finding of the diadem, if anything could, and that its destruction might trigger the awakening of the dark lord and thus the war. Hazel had a few questions but signed off on the plan and asked the Headmaster to excuse both from classes. She also added Piper to the team just in case her power with the voice was needed.

We were about to go to breakfast when I asked to speak. Over the next few minutes I told all present, which was the Order, the Professors, DA1, Luna and the quest members of our discussion and Draco's requests. I mentioned the vanishing cabinet, but not where it was. This would turn out to be a regrettable ommission later in the day.

"Do you think he was sincere?" Frank asked.

"Yes, I believe so. In any event his information matches what we already knew. We shouldn't let our guard down and I suggest this week instead of further training we run drills on defending the castle. As to his requests, well, I'm not sure whether we can recover his father, presuming he is alive, but safe passage for him and his mother shouldn't be a problem. I figure if he can apparate he and his mother to the door of Gryffindor Tower we can lead him through and put him on the ship, or even Camp Half Blood."

"Or Disney World. I'll get started on the tie bar by the way." Leo said with a grin.

"As pale as he is he might die from sun burn there." Rachel said to everyone's laughter.

"His father hasn't been charged with anything, so its not as though he would need a pardon, if we decided to let him go, which I'm not sure we should. Maybe we should make sure he doesn't have a wand then turn him over to Molly." Lupin said causing Molly and most of the rest of us to laugh. Even Dumbledore giggled at that idea.

This was discussed, as well as his sincerity and his mothers level of involvement with the Death Eaters. Sirius had some insight here as they were related. He felt she had never adopted the Death Eater philosophy but had rather just supported her husband. An argument ensued of the role of women in marriage between Rachel and Sirius, with Rachel being shocked to learn how subservient most witches were in their marriages. It was just unheard of for a wife to think differently than her husband at least openly, and Mrs Malfoy had never opposed, but never been active either in so far as the Death Eaters were concerned. Sirius felt that even if prosecuted she could not be found culpable, and this was good enough for us. Snape was particularly vicious towards Mr Malfoy, although not his wife or Draco. If anything he defended them, but clearly thought Mr Malfoy was a pompous ass who's loyalties changed with the wind. Dumbledore merely mused that Mrs Malfoy's closeness to Voldemort might be useful.

What to do with Draco and his mother, and how exactly to rescue them became something of a problem, but we had a few days to work out the logistics of that. Having pondered until breakfast, it was time to go lest the whole of the school wonder where most of its professors were. Snape and Dumbledore, as we walked there, asked to bring in all the professors that evening so as to advise them on their positions in defending the school and it was agreed that this was a good idea, except for the ghost who taught History of Magic and Professor Trelawny who it was felt lacked the ability to contribute.

Snape's first day as Defense teacher began with him attempted to regain his sneer. To do so he focused on berating Slytherin House mostly, and Gryffindor just enough so that no one could claim he was playing favorites. He ignored the Americans altogether though, which was fine by us, none of us had gotten enough sleep. Expecting a torrent of sparks like Mrs Weasley had given us on her first day we had auras of protection cast. The other houses had not, thinking it would be cliche for him to do what she had done, and as a result got shocked repeatedly from a spell caster who had little patience for whining.

We all had a hard time focusing as we awaited word from Harry, Luna and Piper, but they would not join us until our next class was about to start and we could not speak until lunch. This being the case we ate in the Leodis study room with most of the Order, DA1 and Luna of course.

"'Its in the place where things are hidden. If I know where that is, I only have to ask, and if I have to ask, then I will never know.' It took a while to convince her, but that is what she told me." Harry announced.

After a long silence Rachel asked "Does she hang around with Apollo by chance?"

Something about what Harry said reminded me of something but it took a minute to put my finger on it as I was was still run down from lack of sleep. A general discussion broke out about storage in the castle and there were all kinds of storage rooms. The academic crowd leaned towards the library as Ravenclaw was all about wisdom and wit and that is where wisdom and wit would be stored. Others suggested perhaps a magical compartment in a broom closet would satisfy the riddle, while others suggested we go through all the storage areas in Ravenclaw tower.
"Tell me about the room of requirement." I finally said to everyone's silent stares.

"It is a multi purpose room built into the castle by the founders. It can be used for whatever the visitor requires be it large meetings, small meetings, that sort of thing. It always comes equipped with whatever the user needs, whether it is chairs and tables or even catering. Why do you ask?" Dumbledore said after a long silence.

"Could it be used, or a version of it used, to store things so that the faculty or others might not find it?" I asked.

"For years it has been. When we were here as students James, Remus, Peter and I would often place things in a version of it that we didn't want found. That version is like an enormous warehouse that goes back centuries. There is no telling what might be in there." Sirius replied.

There was a pregnant silence while all considered this.

"I know one thing that is in there, a bloody diadem." Ron answered.