Chapter Twenty – One: Draco

Draco was staring at Hermione fucking Granger.

'I need you to come out of sub space so we can talk.' she said, using the voice of Mistress Beth. Draco allowed himself a moment to think about it before he closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose.

I trust them.

I trust Harry, so I trust Granger. Or Beth, whomever she is.

Draco had to concentrate to perform the wandless, non-verbal magic he wasn't sure would even work.

Reserare vincula mea.

Dimitteme.

Subliberate spatium.

Liberumcorpus.

Draco chanted the spells in his head over and over while praying that one, or all of, the counter-curses would lift the curses on him. He'd done the research, but no one in current history had needed the counter curse to release them from sub space. If they had, they hadn't recorded it anywhere that was accessible for others to find it.

Draco felt the moment when the curse surrounding him began to lift, and the release was so intense that his legs gave out from underneath him. He was surprised when he didn't hit the floor, but instead landed in someone's arms. He felt the arms gather his body and lay him gently on the lush bed.

'Draco?' Harry asked, soothingly brushing Draco's hair. The action helped Draco to focus, chanting the non-verbal spells one last time.

Reserare vincula mea.

Dimitteme.

Subliberate spatium.

Liberumcorpus.

He felt the curse leave his body, but he didn't allow himself to stop just yet, focussing on two last spells.

Mens praesidium.

Nullapotentiad ipsasprincipals.

The only two spells that he knew for sure worked. He'd used them against Zabini and gotten a broken nose for it. Less than a week later he'd been given the collar.

'Yeah. I'm here.' Draco whispered to Harry.

'Can you open your eyes?' Harry asked, sounding relieved. Draco felt the bed dip where Harry sat.

'Give me a minute, please.' Draco said, turning so that he was facing Harry and resting his head on Harry's thigh. The warmth from Harry's leg soothed Draco and helped him begin to relax.

Harry ran his fingers through Draco's hair, and Draco couldn't hold back the happy hum that built in the back of his throat. He kept repeating the protective spells to himself for a few moments, until he was feeling more like his old self and in control of his own body.

Draco sighed and opened his eyes, looking up at Harry from his lap. His heart skipped a beat when he looked into those green eyes he'd never really forgotten.

My memories don't do them justice.

'Hey there.' Harry smiled gently.

'Hey yourself.' Draco smiled back tiredly, one hand reaching up to cup Harry's face. Harry used his own hand to hold Draco's in place, smiling down at the blonde affectionately.

'Do I need to give you two a minute?' Granger interrupted the moment, irritating Draco. But he sat up to talk to her.

'I thought your name was Beth?'

'I am Mistress Beth, when I'm working for Harry.' Granger was infuriatingly calm.

'But you looked so different last night.' Draco pointed out.

'You forget, Malfoy. I was top of our year at Hogwarts.' She smiled kindly, patiently. Draco huffed to hide how impressed he was.

'Of course, you were. Do you use Polyjuice Potion or Transfigure yourself?' Draco asked and she shrugged.

'Transfigure. We tried Polyjuice, but I wasn't always in a situation where I could take the potion every hour.' To Draco, it looked as though she was trying not to show how pleased she was with herself.

'She's still at the Ministry,' Harry interjected. 'But some weekends she works for me as Mistress Beth. So, we try to protect her identity as much as we can. She's helped me and the club so much, including putting up the wards around the building.'

'I can't say I'm surprised.' Draco said honestly, shaking his head. 'But why are you here, in this room with us, Granger?'

'Harry asked for my help with ...' Granger trailed off, looking to Harry.

'I want to take your collar off.' Harry said, looking into Draco's eyes intensely and distracting Draco for a moment.

'Good! I hate the damn thing. Zabini put on all sorts of spells on it before he even put it on me. I tried to take it off once and ended up with a burnt neck and fingers.' Sometimes Draco still woke up feeling the intense burn on his neck.

Draco watched as Harry's eyes flicked to his neck. Harry's breathing grew heavy as he closed his green eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Draco knew Harry had spotted the healed-over burn, and he moved on the bed to be behind Harry so he could wrap his arms around him.

Draco felt Harry put his hands over his own, and he felt a warm, pleasant glow in his stomach he hadn't felt for years.

Harry disrupted Draco when he turned and looked at his neck.

'Draco,' Harry asked softly, eyeing the collar thoughtfully. 'Have you ever taken your collar off?'

'No. Zabini wouldn't allow it. Even when I bathe, I must keep it on.' Draco said bitterly, watching as Harry turned to look at Granger again.

'Do you feel it, too?' he asked her.

'Feel what?' she asked carefully.

'Like you shouldn't be Hermione right now.'

'Yes. I thought it was just me...' Granger trailed off, her eyes falling to Draco's collar.

Will they figure it out?

'You think it might be the collar?' she asked.

'I think the collar has the same feel as the locket did.' Harry said quietly. Granger furrowed her brow in thought.

What locket are they talking about?

'But the locket affected the feelings of whomever wore it, not those around them.' Granger said, rather self-importantly, Draco thought.

'Are you saying it hasn't affected Draco?' Harry asked. 'No one should collapse that way when they slip out of sub space. I think the collar is cursed to affect everyone close to it.'

Most subs don't have to release a fucking curse so they can escape sub space.

Draco snuggled into the crook of Harry's neck so the other two wouldn't be able to read his face.

'But what kind of magic affects people that way? Other than a Horcrux?' Granger asked. Draco's head snapped up from its' place on Harry's shoulder.

'How do you two know about Horcruxes?' he asked. Harry and Granger looked at Draco in confusion.

'Voldemort had seven. We had to find them to defeat him.' Harry said.

'Oh, I thought you were talking about ...' Draco bit his tongue.

If I say anything more, Zabini will find out. I'd prefer not to know what he would do to me.

'Zabini's?' Granger asked softly. Draco met her eyes and nodded before snuggling against Harry again, his breath shaky.

'Can you tell us more, Draco?' Granger asked.

'No! He'll find out! I can't.' Draco said, imploringly.

'We understand, Draco.' Harry said soothingly, turning to hold Draco in his arms. Draco buried himself into Harry's chest and breathed in Harry's faint lavender scent deeply.

I'm safe right here.

'Harry …' Granger sounded strangled, but Draco kept himself buried.

'I know, Hermione. I feel it, too.' Harry sounded strange, too. Draco made a move to lift his head, but Harry put a hand on the back of his head to keep him in place.

'Harry?' Draco asked quietly, confused.

'Shh.' Harry said. 'Your collar…'

I thought it only affected Zabini?!

Draco leapt out of Harry's lap, eyeing the two dominants in the room.

'It's affecting you two? It's not meant to!' Draco exclaimed, shrinking into a corner of the room.

'Draco, Horcruxes have various levels of defence, to protect itself.' Granger explained, not looking at him. 'In this case, it seems that the Horcrux in your collar defends itself by affecting our dominant personalities, to try and distract our attention from it.'

'Then why did it affect Zabini the same way?' Draco was so confused, to the point he was on the edge of panic.

Neither Granger nor Harry would meet his eyes. They had no answer for him.