A/N: I am really sorry this took so long! I don't really have
that good of an excuse. *looks guilty* Well, last week I had
finals and the two weeks before that were pure madness, (if
anyone else is having their finals now- you know what I'm talking
about) so there's a weak excuse...kind of. SORRY!!
The Potion of Immortality:
Part FourVoldemort was looming over Draco when he finally awoke after learning that Longbottom was an "associate" with Voldemort that he had passed out. Voldemort's face floated vaguely in front of Draco, who thought he was still dreaming.
When Voldemort's face only became clearer, Draco realized everything that he had finally convinced himself hadn't happened, had actually happened. It was slighty disturbing.
Draco had been trapped in the creepiest of the Malfoy dungeons for a few days; he had eaten hallucinogenic cherries that had been spiked by Voldemort, and Voldemort had announced he knew Longbottom. Draco shivered as he recalled the memories.
"I'm not sure what you want from me...you want to know if I know Longbottom? Yes, I know him...he's rather...ah...slow isn't he? A Griffindor who is on good terms with Harry Potter? Is that who you're talking about?"
Draco's head was pounding with the worst headache he'd ever had, and his arm was starting to have shocks of pain that made him bite his tongue every time he lifted his head to look at Voldemort. He was so distracted with everything else going on that he hadn't noticed that the pain was coming from a specific spot on his arm, where his Dark Mark was.
"Neville is not as slow as you believe him to be. Actually, he is one of my best recruits. I am very pleased with his work, but he needs some assistance with some research his latest assignment. Sit up, young Malfoy...that's better."
Draco lifted his head up and straightened his back against the dungeon wall. "What kind of research do you need him to do? Can't you just-"
Voldemort looked insulted and replied coldly, "I can do anything I want! I just would prefer not to waste my time looking through moldy books. I have more important things to do." Draco was surprised at how insecure Voldemort was acting.
Voldemort lifted his chin proudly. "It is time we get out of here. I have found out everything I need to about you. Stand up with me, young Malfoy." Draco felt himself being pulled up by an arm he couldn't see, then was sucked away in a dizzying swirl of colors and power.
Voldemort and Draco landed in the uncannily deserted Malfoy dining room, which was looking particularly spectacular for the holidays. Draco hurried frantically up to his room, after being told by a revolted Voldemort to clean up for some important guests they were having over for dinner.
Two Death Eaters, one of whom had joined in the first new
member joining ceremony since Voldemort's uprising, were the
"important" guests. Completly appalled, Draco stared
open-mouthed at the new member . The Death Eater grinned at Draco
and gave him a look that clearly said, you didn't really
think I was a good boy, did you? Draco was unable to deliver
any kind of response except for shutting his mouth.
Neville Longbottom gestured for Draco to take a seat next to him,
which Draco did slowly in his shocked state. The man across from
Neville was talking quietly to Lucius and kept glancing around
the room nervously.
When Draco took his seat, Lucius cleared his throat and his wife
Narcissa, who had come in shortly after Draco and looked like she
was about to ask a question, stopped to hear what Lucius had to
say.
Lucius took a huge, dramatic breath before beginning his
anticipated speach. "Draco, I think I am right in saying
that you already know Longbottom here? Neville, I hope you excuse
Draco's shock. I think he's of the opinion you are on the
Dumb-one's side."
Lucius paused pointedly before beginning to talk once again.
"Draco, I assure you that both of our guests do not care for
such nonsense, and that both have proven themselves several
times. Narcissa, this is Neville Longbottom, a student at
Hogwarts. He is also my apprentice, but is often instructed by
our other guest. That reminds me...neither Draco nor Narcissa
know of your living existence, Wormtail."
Narcissa gave Wormtail, Lucius, and Neville a confused look as
the three Death Eaters chuckled in harmony. "I'm not sure I
understand...Wormtail? Should I know anyone famous named
that?"
Narcissa was obviously trying to hide her temper, which rarely
surfaced except when she felt she had been left in the dark about
some deep, dark secret. Although she looked harmless, she could
turn vicious when angered. Lucius, who knew all of the above from
previous experiences, hurried to explain.
"Wormtail's true name is Peter Pettigrew, and he was
supposedly killed by Sirius Black many years ago. Of course,
since Black was never on our side, Wormtail was never killed or
harmed, unless you count the painful experience of cutting off
his own finger."
"Well, it wasn't that bad. Look at what I've got now! This
makes up for all that pain, and more." Wormtail flashed his
silver arm for all to see, and Draco rolled his eyes, utterly
unimpressed. However, his brain had just recalled that his father
had said something of importance a few moments ago. It was really
very important, if only he could recall it...
"Sirius Black is innocent!?" Draco couldn't stop
himself in time as he was greatly surprised by the changes in
side-switching history. Lucius was furious with Draco's outburst,
but pushed his anger away and focused on having Draco under
control again.
"Yes, Draco. Many things are not as they seem." Lucius
said in a clipped voice. Wormtail and Neville exchanged excited
grins as they began to enthusiastically chatter about how they
each had turned to the Dark Side. Draco quickly lost interest in
their conversation.
His attention was revived a few times during Neville's story:
particulary when he called Wormtail "Uncle."
It seemed that Wormtail's brother was Neville's father. Draco
also found it interesting that Neville's parents had been
tortured for information because the Death Eaters thought
Wormtail might have slipped up and told his brother more than he
should have. Due to the complexity of these thoughts, Draco's
fork missed his mouth more than once, but none noticed.
Soon after that informative story, they began to talk about
things Draco could have fallen asleep hearing about (but he
managed not to). Draco began to ask his father if he could leave
by jerking his head casually in the direction of the door.
"Draco, you want to leave our conversation so soon? Are we
boring you? Would you prefer to know what we're talking about? It
would be rather easy for us to explain," Wormtail said in a
cruel voice meant for three-year olds.
"I don't care whether you want to know or not. You must
know. Even Neville knows, and he doesn't know too many inside
things." Neville shiften uneasily in his chair. "...not
things like Lucius and I do anyway." Wormtail was looking
very proud of himself.
"What you must know is this. We have Harry Potter's life in
our hands. We know what will kill him off in a second, but we
need two people stationed at Hogwarts for it to work. One of
those peole must not be in the Gryffindor house, and the
other needs to be in order for our plans to work."
Draco, with his interest rejunevated, asked Wormtail several
times using different words how they had Harry Potter's life in
their hands, but Wormtail pretended not to hear.
Lucius would have smacked Draco upside the head when he began to
grumble about doing things for people when he didn't know why he
was doing them, but stopped. Smacking Draco would have made
Lucius look bad and Narcissa would have probably zapped him dead
on the spot. Not to mention, he had grown rather fond of Draco
over the years.
"I think I will tell Draco just what he needs to do later.
Sound good to you?" Neville and Wormtail nodded yes to
Lucius, and smiled maliciously at Draco. Draco pushed his
untouched food around on his plate, and waited to be dismissed.
How much longer until I go back to Hogwarts? A week? It
depends on how long I was down in that dungeon...I think I was
there for two days, but it might have been less.
I feel like I left Hogwarts a year ago. After all, so much has
happened...becoming a Death Eater-- that reminds me! What was
that thing that was put on my arm? Have I ever asked anyone what
it was? I can't remember. Damn cherries, making me forget
important things...
Voldemort left two hours ago, so I can't ask him...I really don't
know who to ask. My father would die if I asked in front of our
"honorable" guests...even though they would both be
very proud to answer my question.
It would be just one more thing for them to be able to brag about
knowing. If I can stand the humiliation of admitting that Neville
Longbottom knows something I don't know, then I guess it would be
worth it to ask him...but can I stand it? No...it's not a big
enough issue.
I bet that if I had read those documents I agreed to I would
know. Opps. Crap, what if the answer was in
there? Would I get in trouble for not knowing? Probably. Damn!
Now I can't ask. Wait, didn't Voldemort say something to me after
he put it on me?
What was it...he said something...he named it...Did call it a
Mark? Did he call it that? If he did, he must be referring to the
Dark Mark...my father's favorite.
Oh great, I need to go to the bathroom and check it out. Wait,
didn't it fade away? Oh wow...I'm acting like my hair color says
I should.
"DRACO? DRACO!"
"Oh, what? Dark- yes?"
"I was just saying, DRACO, that if you really want to
go...you may." Lucius was glaring at Draco for showing a
lack of respect in front of the guests, but Draco didn't care.
"Oh, may I? Thank you. It was nice to see both of you. Good
night." Draco didn't even bother to make an excuse for
leaving, he was too distracted. Draco pushed his chair out from
under the table so quickly that it got caught and tipped onto its
back legs. Draco stumbled, caught himself, and hastily shoved the
chair under the high table before he sprinted from the room.
Draco knew he would be scolded for his actions later in the
night, but he didn't care about anything except getting far, far
away from Wortail and "Nev," as he was supposed to call
Longbottom.
"Do you think he'll understand what to do from so few
instructions? Do you think he can just be told what to do in
general, but not how to go about doing so? I don't."
"Well...."
"See what I mean? You need to give Draco more instruction.
He doesn't understand...your hints aren't getting through to him.
He thinks he's supposed to wait for further
instruction..."
"Well, isn't he?"
"No. That's precisely my point. He needs to meet with that
other boy...what's his name?
"Longbottom, Master."
" Yes, him...They need to figure out the ingredients for the
Potion, and they should also try to locate a unicorn. After all,
that's the whole point, isn't it?"
"Yes, of course it is...of course."
"Tell Draco what he is to do. Exactly, Lucius."
"Yes, my lord. It will be done shortly."
After leaving the dining room, Draco climbed the long stairway to
his quarters. He was instantly distracted by his silky black cat,
Finecci. Lucius disapproved of Finecci because her past was
unknown, and for all he knew, Finecci was not purebred. Draco
shuddered to know what his father would say if he requested to
bring his beloved kitty to school.
Visions of Lucius's eyes bulging and a vessel in his neck
twitching as Lucius exploded with anger brought a grim smile to
Draco's lips, but it vanished as soon as it had come. The vision
portrayed reality, and it was a reality Draco hated. For once, he
wished to be individual. He wanted to be more than just a Malfoy,
but, for now, being a Malfoy would have to be good enough.
Draco leaned down to stroke Finecci's back, and smiled as she
gave a shiver of delight. It was obvious Finecci did not receive
the kind of attention she wanted, but Draco could do nothing
about it. At least, he could do nothing about it now...
Draco continued up the stairs, and decided he would inspect his
arm in his personal bathrooom to look for any signs of the Dark
Mark. Finecci followed at his heels, and when they reached the
door to the bathroom she willed the door open with her mind.
Although it was not apparent whether she was a pureblooded
magical cat, it was obvious that she had some magical origin.
"G'job, Finecci" Draco said in the kind voice that he
reserved only for her, and perhaps his mother too.
After all, it had been Narcissa who insisted on taking in
Finecci. Narcissa had liked Finecci's silky coat, and thought her
colorings, which were nothing more than black, would match the
furniture. When she had first seen Finecci, and Lucius had, of
course, been reluctant to keep her, Narcissa's best argument had
been "At least none of the cat hairs will show up on my new
chair!"
Although that argument was weak, Lucius could not stand to make
Narcissa angry with him. Therefore, Narcissa and Draco had gotten
their way, and all Lucius could do was sulk.
Draco sat on the edge of his bathtub and rolled up his left
sleeve. He looked at every possible angle of his pallid and thin
arm, and he finally found a trace of what looked like it could be
the Dark Mark. Draco inspected it closer, and came to the
conclusion that it was indeed the Dark Mark, but it was so faint
that it was almost invisible.
If he tried to ask Lucius about its appearance on his arm, and
showed Lucius where he thought it was, Lucius would probably
squint and say that Draco was imagining things. Of course, there
was the slightest of chances that Lucius would leap up and
announce to Draco that all Death Eaters had a trace of the Dark
Mark on their arm as a symbol of their devotion to Voldemort.
Draco decided the possibility of such a thing happening was too
slim to risk looking like a paranoid fool.
Draco leaned over to stroke Finecci's small head, and pointed to
his arm whispering, "You don't see anything there, do
you?" Finecci looked up at Draco with a befuddled
expression, since Draco rarely spoke directly to her except in
extreme situations. Draco had discovered long ago that Finecci
had the power to show exactly what she wanted to say through her
eyes, and so he searched her eyes for any trace of answers.
Draco interpreted the look in her glassy green eyes to mean that
she knew the answer to his question, but thought that Draco could
answer it without her help. He cursed under his breath and glared
at Finecci, who hissed and successfuly stared him down. Draco
finally decided that he couldn't afford to make any hasty
actions, and chose to pretend that his arm had never hurt him
before.
Draco remembered that Christmas was only a day away (he had
finally checked a calander to figure out what day it was).
Although Draco was originally saddened and disappointed when his
father announced that the family would be having a milder
Christmas celebration than in previous years, with fewer
presents, Draco realized that he really didn't need or want
anything in particular. Therefore, Draco didn't care if he
received less than he usually did.
Draco awoke on Christmas morning in a more cheerful mood than he
usually would when he had to rise before the sun did, and he
gleefully opened his closet to pick out a favorite dressy outfit.
He prodded and poked around through his clothes, but his
enthusiasm began to deteriorate as he noticed that all of his
clothes were a grim black.
Finecci streched and strolled out of Draco's room. Draco shook
his head in mild confusion, since he hadn't noticed that Finecci
had even been in his room all night. Draco took a step back from
his closet and stumbled over a package he hadn't noticed before.
It was wrapped in fluffy sky blue tissue paper and had a small
note attached to the right hand corner of it. Curiously, Draco
leaned over and removed the note from the package, taking special
care not to damage the tissue paper.
Dear Draco,
We can't be there to see you open your Christmas gift, but we're
sure you will have many opportunities in the near future to thank
us for it. Have a nice day.
Although the note was unsigned, Draco could tell it was from his
mother and father. They, of course, were too busy to spend
Christmas morning with him and he would have to spend the day by
himself, as he usually did. Eager to see what extravagant thing
his parents had given him this year, Draco tore apart the paper
and studied its contents.
Inside was a silky cloak, made of material which flowed through
his hands like nothing ever had before. He had only heard of such
a cloak in story books, and couldn't believe that he had the good
fortune to be given one. He tried it on over his fleece pajamas,
and he looked in the mirror across his room to see whether his
suspicions would be confirmed. Draco was pleased at what he saw:
nothing. As he had thought, his parents had given him an
invisibility cloak.
Draco felt a rush of freedom, and decided to march around the
house to check up on how the servants behaved when they thought
he wasn't watching. The conversations he overheard were rather
dull, and it appeared that none of the servants were much
different than he thought they were when he wasn't around.
The butler and primary maid glared at each other a lot, and it
was obvious they wanted nothing more than for the other to leave.
The house elves were cheerful and hard at work scrubbing the
kitchen floor. Draco was slightly disappointed; he had been
hoping to uncover some great scandal. Draco spent most of the day
wandering the house in his new cloak, but took it off an hour
before dinner. That was around the time when his father came home
from business. Lucius had, of course, continued to work even on
Christmas day.
When the great double doors to the Malfoy mansion opened up to
admit Lucius, Neville Longbottom was at his side. Lucius pulled
Draco aside and briefly explained that Draco and Neville needed
to plan what they were going to do when they returned to
Hogwarts, which would be in only a few days time. Draco led
Neville into one of the many offices, complete with highback
leather chairs and an expensive wooden table.
"As I understand it, Nev," Draco choked out
Longbottom's nickname uncomfortably, "we have to make some
plans. I don't get what those plans are supposed to be about, but
I'm assuming that you do...right?" Draco shifted
uncomfortably in his chair. He didn't like to have to admit that
anyone knew anything more than he did.
"We need the blood of a unicorn, so I guess that means we
have to find a unicorn, huh Drai?" Draco convulsed a bit at
Longbottom's use of his childhood nickname, "The only
problem is that I...can't quite..um...figure out how to,
well..."
Draco muttered something under his breath about having to work
with idiots, and then replied "We have to find a unicorn and
kill it, but you don't know where one is. Is that about it?"
Draco looked around the room for a bit of comfort, but found that
he portraits of long dead old men did not work well for that
need. "You know what, Nev!?" Draco had had a sudden
burst of an idea that was either completely horrible or
wonderfully brilliant. "I think my Christmas present would
work as an excellent help for you..." Neville leaned forward
in his chair, skeptically staring at Draco with the belief that
Draco could come up with no better an idea than he could.
"And that is?" Neville was obvious jealous that Draco
had come up with an answer before he had.
"I got an invisibility cloak for Christmas! It could easily
hide you..."
"You would think of the obvious, wouldn't you?" Neville
examined his immaculate fingernails.
Draco narrowed his eyes and asked harshly, "What would you
mean by that?"
Neville seemed to recover from his sudden burst of jealousy.
"Nuthin', Drai, nuthin'. It sounds like a great
idea..."
"You think I'm just going to...loan out my precious cloak to
anyone!? Well, you're wrong! I do expect you...to do something
for me in exchange, you know."
"We're supposed to be partners in crime, you know? I'm
helping you out by telling you our mission..." Draco sighed
impatiently, as if the argument was not going the way he wanted
it to.
"OK, I've got it. I've got something relatively easy for you
to do for me...it just might take some explaining. Here, I'll
show you while I get my cloak for you."
Neville looked at Draco suspiciously before following him out of
the door.
Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley were having another of their
typical arguments. It was unclear to anyone else who was in the
Gryffindor Common room just who was winning, but Ron could tell
that Hermione was running out of good arguments.
"Neville is a good kid, Ron! Why can't you see that? You're
just being jealous Ron, and you know it."
"Jealous? Of what? What does he have that I don't?" Ron
glared at Hermione and dared her to answer.
"Ron! Get over yourself for once in your life! I like you.
You're a pretty cool guy, but..."
Ron stared at Hermione in horror, and whispered "You can't
think...you don't think-"
"Obviously, I think a lot more often then you do, Ron! So
don't even TRY to say that I don't think." Harry Potter was
watching his best friends argue with great interest, since he
knew that something big was going to happen. Either Ron and
Hermione would finally admit that they liked each other, or Ron
would go crazy and never talk to Hermione again. The more Harry
thought about it, there were many more possibilities as well.
Ron and Hermione's argument was paused when the portrait opened
and an unsuspecting Neville Longbottom strolled in, apparently
back from his vacation. He was dragging his trunk, which was
weighed down by a small carrying crate. The occupants of the room
looked at Neville curiously, and he opened the cage's door to let
a small black cat jump out and prance around.
A/N: Wow. It's over. I actually FINISHED part four! Actually, I
don't have school this whole week...so I wouldn't be surprised if
I got another one or two fics out pretty soon.
Please review...pretty please? If you give me a signed review
I'll read your some of your fics and give you a nice long review-
just tell me the titles of the ones you especially want to be
read. Hey, look at that! I'm letting you guys put advertisements
in my reviews...hehehe. Oh well. Can you at least give me some
constructive criticism as well? That would be really cool.
*wonders if anyone is still reading what she's writing* Please
review!
thanks, ~dani the semi-blonde Death Eater who loves Draco
Malfoy and worships the ground Voldy walks on~ *giggles*