Disclaimer: same as before.
A/N: at the end.
Chapter 9
Slam. Harry and Ron felt themselves being pushed against the wall.
"What the-" Harry said groggily.
"Shut up," said Malfoy's well known voice.
"Malfoy? What the hell are you doing?" Ron spat angrily.
"I need to ask Harry questions."
"Malfoy, let us go."
"You won't run away?"
"No."
Draco slowly let Harry go and nodded to his sister to do the same for Ron. Hermione watched them from the side.
"What do you want to know, Malfoy?" Harry asked.
Draco put his face close to his arch enemy. "I want to know how much you know about my brother."
Harry groaned. "You could have been a little nicer trying to get us to talk to you."
Draco laughed bitterly. "Bull shit. You would have just started insulting me right away. This is easier."
"Draco," his sister's soft voice came warningly. He shot a quick glance and her and nodded.
"Tell me, Harry. What do you know about my half brother."
Harry thought fast. "Nothing, except he's related to me. Ugh, that's gross. That means I'm related to you in a way."
Draco's expression was grim. "I don't like it any more than you do."
"Draco."
"Yes?" he asked, turning to his sister.
"He's lying."
Draco nodded his thanks to her. He pushed Harry against the wall. "Tell me the truth," he snarled. Cygna kept Ron from attacking. Hermione backed herself up against a wall.
Harry stared. "And if I don't?"
"Do you really want my answer to that, Potter?"
Green eyes stared into silver. "No."
"Then tell me." Draco shook his captive. "Tell me the god damn truth."
Harry avoided the quick silver eyes. He noticed they were brighter now than they had been earlier.
"Harry, tell him something," Ron moaned. Harry flicked his eyes towards his red haired friend, who was being sat upon by Malfoy's sister. She was a lot stronger than she looked.
Harry sighed and shifted his gaze back to Draco. "Fine," he spat. "I know your brother is going to be sacrificed to bring back Slytherian. I know that he's related to me through my mother. I know that you don't give a rat;s ass about him."
Draco slapped him. "Never presume crap like that," he growled. He turned his head to his sister. "We were right. Father's doing crap he shouldn't be messing around with." Her eyes narrowed as she nodded.
"Come one, Draco, let's go." She got off of Ron and Draco let go of Harry. They disappeared down the hall.
"What the hell was that about?" Ron asked. Harry shook his head.
"I don't know. But whatever their father is doing, he doesn't have their approval."
"Does he need it?" Hermione asked sarcastically.
Harry helped her up. "No, but those two looked murderous."
Ron shook his head to clear it. "It's a good thing she's off limits. She's violent and strong!" he exclaimed. Harry and Hermione grinned slightly at the admiration in Ron's voice.
"It's a good thing she off limits, because she's as evil as her brother," Hermione muttered.
Harry turned to look at her. "Are you sure about that? I'm not quite so certain."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know. I'm also wondering what school she's been at the last four years."
"Who cares. Probably Durmstrang."
harry looked at Ron. "You think so? I don't. Draco wasn't allowed to go to Durmstrang so why would his sister?"
Hermione shrugged. "Who cares. Ask her yourself later if you really care. Come one. We'll be late to Defense.We've already been late to one class. Let's not be to another."
Ron shrugged. "Like Professor Namile will care. She loves Gryffindors."
"Yeah, to the disgust of the Slytherians," Harry laughed.
Hermione just shook her head at the two of them and dragged them down the halls.
***
Draco and his sister entered the common room. "Damn, what has father been doing now?!" Draco asked her.
She shook her head. "Causing trouble. He's going to get caught. "
Draco frowned. "Would we really cared if that happened?"
"Draco!"
"Sorry, it's just that I really wouldn't care. Not after the way he's treated mother. Not after he sent you away just for some stupid treaty. And certainly not after the way he's beaten both mother and I."
She stared. "He's beaten you?" she whispered.
Draco turned towards her and grabbed her wrists. "Don't tell him a told you that. You're not supposed to know."
She shook his head. "Why am I not supposed to know?"
"Because he wants you to keep thinking he's an angel," muttered Draco bitterly. "He wants you to think mother's married by her own free will. He wants you to think we're a happy little family."
She stared at him. "Oh my god. I'm so sorry."
He shook his head. "There's nothing you can do about that, Cygna. Forget it. Right now we need to figure something out." Silver eyes met silver eyes. "Do we really want to save his hide?"
She frowned and began to pace. Finally she sopped and dropped into a chair. "I don't know. If we don't, then he'll be caught for certain. If we do, he'll probably make us attend, and hte boy will die."
"You forgot something else. If we don't tell him, we won't have to deal with him. We'll be free from him."
She nodded. "Draco," she hesitated.
"Yeah?"
"Father...father has always been so nice to me. I'm not sure I can do this."
Draco frowned. "Here, I'll show you what he did. Come up to my room."
Cygna followed him up to his room. He brought out a bowl.
"You memories?" she asked.
He nodded. "Here. You know how to use it."
And she did. Soon she was caught in his memories.
"Father, please. Stop. It hurts."
"Good," the older man snarled at his son. He lashed the whip again. Red welts appeared over the young boys sking. The screaming deafened Cygna. She covered her ears.
"Father."
---
The scene changed abrubtly. She was in the same room. Draco was older.
"You what!" the father spat.
"She's smarter than me. I can't help it."
"You're only second in the class. Pathetic. You need discipline."
Cygna tried to hide her eyes from the blood that was seeping from Draco's back.
---
The same room, two years later.
"Yes, Draco. This is a new spell. I spell that keeps the pain, but the bruises are gone. Very helpful isn't it."
Draco did not move. Silent tears were pouring down his face. His father hit him. "Stop crying. Tears are a sign of weakness.
Cygna cried out. "STOP IT!"
Her brother appeared at her side. "Come on, twin. Let's go home."
---
"Oh my god, Draco. He did that to you?"
Her brother nodded. "He did the same to mother. I could hear her screams almost every night. I still wonder how he managed to marry her. I know she hates him."
"Was mother a Slytherian?"
Draco shook his head. "No. She was either a Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. I don't which."
Cygna frowned. "Odd."
He nodded. "That's not the problem. We'll figure that out later. Right now we need to figure out whether we tell father our not."
"No. Absolutely not. I hope he gets caught. Voldemort too."
Draco smiled softly. "I've missed you, swan twin."
"Me too, dragon twin, me too."
***
"So wait, what class are we supposed to be at?" Cygna asked her brother.
"Defense. Wait a moment. I need to think of a good excuse."
They paused outside the door. Draco suddenly snapped his fingers. "Got it. We'll say we were having an important discussion with Snape. He'll back us up on this. Then yell at me later for skipping class." He grinned.
"You sure this will work?"
"Positive. Besides, what is the worse we can get? A detention?" Draco had certainly come a long way from the whinny bratty first year.
She shrugged and opened the door. "After you, bro."
He shot a look of disgust at her, grinned, and walked into the room. Cygna closed the door behind hi,.
"Mr. Malfoy. Miss. Malfoy. You're late."
"I'm sorry, Professor Namile. Professor Snape had some things to discuss to my sister and I since she just moved in." Draco ignored the rolling eyes of Hermione, Harry, and Ron.
"I will confirm that will Professor Snape later. Please take a seat for now."
They sat down in the second row and leaned back in their chairs. Neither of them bothered to take notes. If you wanted to know the dark curses, you had to know their counter spells. Draco had learned a lot about that by himself and his father. Cygna had learned mostly from the family she had been staying with.
Draco studied his sister from the corner of his eye. The two had talked late last night, trying to make up all the time they had lost together. Sure, they had talked and owled each other, but it wasn't the same as living in the same house and attending the same school. Draco was glad his sister would come.
He was also glad she was in Slytherian. He had been slightly worried about that. Of the two twins, Cygna had always been the more easily going, friendly Malfoy. Draco was the intimidator. Cygna was the sugary sweet, angelic kid. It always worked on those who the twins wanted to get information out of.
Cygna also had a special ability that could tell if some one was lying with out the truth spell. Draco had never understood it, but he valued it immensely. It was much easier to deal with than trying to cast a difficult truth spell or trying to brew a potion.
Draco sighed and tried to pay attention to what Professor Namile was saying. She was doing a stupid review of last year.
"And there are no counter curses to these Unforgivable spells," The Professor droned on. Draco smirked. What an idiot. There were plenty of counters, if you knew the dark arts. Correction, there were counter spells to everything except the killing curse. Not counting whatever the heck Potter had pulled last school year. Draco was tempted to correct the teacher, but he knew that would be a the stupidest thing he'd ever done. That and the duel, which still hadn't been fought. Draco was worrying about that. He had forgotten how long the documents would last before causing both participants pain. He wasn't sure if he'd like the answer. He quickly shoved that out of his mind.
***
Harry sat at his desk, ignoring whatever Namile was saying. It didn't matter. Harry would know of all people, he'd actually had those curses performed on him. Instead, he studied Draco, who also was lost in his thoughts.
Whatever he and his sister had done, it had certainly improved Draco's appearance. Sort of. At least the eyes were bright again. Harry thought it looked odd. The rest of Draco's appearance was dull. Everything except the eyes. The ice cold gray eyes that were now staring down at the desk, not really seeing anything.
Harry wished the class would end. He really needed to talk to Dumbldore. Draco would assume everything Harry knew, Dumbledore knew, which was true. Harry sighed. No wonder Sirius wouldn't let him go along to the Malfoy's mansion. He'd already blurted out everything to Draco.
What else could you have done? murmured a little voice in his head. I could have refused him, Harry snapped back. Oh really? Yes, I could. I can resist the Imperious (spelling?) curse, I can resist that. Harry sighed again. Why did I break like that? Maybe because he was threatening both you and your friends. Your friend Ron was in pain. Harry had to admit the voice was right. He cared about his friends more than he did himself sometimes. That was a failure inside himself. Do you really think that? I don't know, Harry replied. I really don't know.
The voice was silent for a while. When Harry was finally leaving the class room, the voice answer. I don't agree with you, and for your own good you understand yourself before soon. What is that supposed to mean? Harry asked desperately. After the episode in Trewlaney's room the first day, he'd been rather scared about people mentioning the future. But the voice did not reply.
A/N: I noticed that in one of the chapters I said that Draco's twin's name was Gweneth. I changed it to Cygna. Sorry about that. Oh yeah, the predictions of the tarot cards. I plan to make them come true. Most of them at least. Nice twist to the story. Most of those predictions are from a tarot card reading deck. Just another fact. Another thing, I don't know when the next chapter will be out. I'm sorta busy the next two months or so. The soonest is the first week of July. The latest...no comment. At least I didn't leave you with a cliff hanger this time. I'm not promising anything next time though! Now to thank all you lovely people who reviewed, and please keep them coming.
Nykto- My very first reviewer!!! Definitely will be writing more. *Big grin* Although I'll be gone for a while on vacation so I'm not sure when the next chapter will be out. I appreciate the review and hope you will continue to like this story.
Spotted Tiger- Thanks! Na, you're not that crazy. Trust me, my friends are weirder. Some of them. Thanks for reviewing.
Herm- Harry is 15. I think by that age there's a lot of people swearing. *Shrugs* personal opinions. I'll try to cut back on that, at least when he isn't angry. I think people lose their minds when they get angry and don't think properly. Well, not everyone. But I think Harry has that type of temper. A quick raging temper. Thanks for the review and the opinion. I love it and it helps a lot. Thank you!
RioSundance- *wicked smile* don't you just love cliff hangers???? Hehe. Thank you so much for reviewing!
Audrey- Thanks. I'm not sure if Harry and Draco will become friends. Maybe tolerate each other...not sure yet. We'll see. I guess if they were stuck together enough the friendship might work. I want them to, but I don't think of plots. I just write what come to my head ,so I don't know what will happen yet. Thank you for reviewing!