~~ Chapter Five: A Friend in Need ~~

            "Go away."

            Draco Malfoy's voice was muffled by depression, the door, and the invisibility cloak the listener was wearing, but Harry Potter still managed to hear him clear enough to understand what he was saying.  The cloak allowed him to sneak into Slytherin undetected, but Harry was worried about what might happen if someone walked by and heard their voices.  "I'm not going to go away," Harry said.  "I want to talk to you.  Please."

            There was a pause.  "Who is it?" Draco finally asked.

            "Harry," he said.  "Harry Potter."

            "Do you know how much trouble you could get in for being here, Potter?" Draco asked.  "I won't tell anyone if you go away now."

            He would probably tell someone, anyway, so Harry decided to just stay there.  "Please, Draco, I want to talk to you.  I think I can help you."

            "No one can help me," came Draco's reply.  "Go away."

            "I'm not going anywhere until we talk."

            "We're talking now, aren't we?"

            "You know what I mean."

            Another pause.  "You're really going to be in a lot of trouble this time, Potter.  You aren't allowed to be here."

            "Do you think I care, Malfoy?" Harry asked.  "Do you think I snuck in here just because I wanted to see if it could be done?"  He paused, then spoke again.  "I can help you, Draco.  I know what it's like to lose your family."

            Draco didn't reply, but Harry could hear the sound of movement inside.  There was the click of a lock disengaging, then Draco's voice.  "All right.  Come in."

            Harry glanced from side to side to make sure no one was coming, then pulled off the invisibility cloak and opened the door.  Draco was standing by the room's only window with his back to the door.  Harry searched his mind for something to say, but it was the other boy who spoke first.  "They're dead," Draco said.  His voice was soft and weak, the complete opposite of the cocky, arrogant tone it usually had.  "My family…  I'm the only one left."

            "I'm sorry," Harry said.

            "You're sorry."  Draco closed his eyes and tightened his fists.  "They're all sorry.  But they can't do anything about it.  All they can do is be sorry."

            "You still have your father," Harry offered.  That was more than he was left with.

            "My father."  Harry wondered if Draco was aware that he was repeating what he was saying.  Draco turned around and looked at him.  His grey eyes were cold and angry.  "He doesn't care about me.  All he cares about is his reputation.  I'm the last of the Malfoy bloodline.  He can't let anything happen to me, or else he'd have to be bothered with going out and finding another pureblood witch to produce an heir."  He loosened his fists and placed a hand on the windowsill.  "I might as well be an orphan."

            "It's going to be all right," Harry assured him.  "Life will go on."

            Draco glared at him.  "How would you know?" he spat.  "Have you ever lost your entire family?"

            Harry nodded.  "Yes, I have."

            A change came over Draco.  His gaze softened, and he slumped down to the floor.  Harry walked over at sat down next to him.  "That's right, you have," Draco said.

            Harry turned his head so he was facing his companion.  "I had to live with my aunt and uncle," he said.  "They're the most horrible people I've ever met."

            "Even worse than me?" Draco asked.

            "By far," Harry said, and that elicited a small grin from Draco. "They weren't going to let me come back to Hogwarts.  Ron had to rescue me."

            "I wish someone could rescue me from my father," Draco mused.

            "That's what friends are for."

            Draco looked at his hands, folded up in his lap.  "I don't have any real friends," he said.  "Not the kind that would rescue me from Muggles."

            Harry was beginning to understand.  Draco was a bully because he was lonely, because he wanted to be cared about.  His mother cared about him more than anyone else, and now that she was gone, he was completely alone.  "If you let me," said Harry, "I will be your friend."

            For a few moments, neither one of them moved.  Then Draco turned his head toward Harry and smiled.  His smile was one of honesty and gratefulness.  "Really?"

            "Really."

            "You know what, Potter?  You're all right."

            Harry grinned and patted Draco on the shoulder.  "You too, Malfoy.  Come on.  We're late for dinner."

            "Where have you been?" Hermione Granger asked when Harry joined the students from Gryffindor at dinner.  "Everyone's been wondering about you."

            "Take a look over there," Harry said, nodding toward the Slytherin table.

            Hermione glanced over at the Slytherin table.  Draco Malfoy was sitting among his peers and conversing as if everything were normal.  Then he looked up and caught Harry's eye.  Harry smiled at him.  Draco smiled back, then returned to his conversation.

            Hermione's mouth dropped open, and she stared at Harry.  "I don't believe it," she said.  "You actually did it."

            "Malfoy's not all bad," Harry said.  "Just… misunderstood, I think.  We need to give him a chance.  Perhaps he'll change."

            "Well, here's hoping, anyway."

            That night, when all the students had (supposedly) gone to bed, Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy took a walk through the Hogwarts garden.  The two of them had matters to discuss, and since the garden was a peaceful, neutral environment, they decided to discuss them there.  If nothing else, they would most likely go undisturbed.

            "I was worried about how Draco would handle the news," Lucius said.  "Has he shown any sign of improvement since this afternoon?"

            "He was at dinner," Snape said.  "That shows that he's at least come out of his room.

            Lucius nodded in approval.  "Good.  Is he speaking to anyone?"

            "Yes, as a matter of fact.  After dinner, he and Harry Potter had quite the conversation."

            Lucius stiffened at the mention of Harry Potter.  "What did they talk about?"

            "Quidditch," Snape answered.  "About the upcoming game between Slytherin and Ravenclaw.  Then Draco asked about what he missed in classes that day."

            It seemed like a perfectly harmless conversation.  "They had a conversation without trying to kill each other?" Lucius asked, an undertone of disbelief to his voice.

            Snape nodded.  "That's the reaction I had, too.  Potter's family was killed by Voldemort, too, you know.  Perhaps the two of them can empathize with each other."

            That made sense.  "Yes, I suppose so."

            "You're not going to believe this, but Potter wished Draco good luck in the Quidditch game."

            Lucius stopped walking.  "What?"  Was his son becoming friends with Harry Potter?

            Snape was about to reply, but something caught his eye.  "What's that?" he asked, peering over Lucius's shoulder.

            Lucius turned around, and what he saw took his breath away.  It was a unicorn, glittering like the stars on a clear night.  It was standing still, with its long, graceful silver horn pointed at the sky and its silver mane and tail waving back and forth in the gentle night breeze.  The very sight of the divine creature was enough to render both men speechless.

            Finally, Snape found the ability to form words.  "A unicorn," he said reverently.

            "But how?" asked Lucius.

            "I don't know.  We'd better tell Dumbledore."

            "Good idea."

            The two of them had every intention of returning to inside the building, but they could not tear their eyes away from the unicorn.  Just then, a voice like the clear ringing of silver bells let out a simple melodious sequence of notes, and the unicorn turned its head in the direction the voice came from.  A woman walked up to it and stroked its neck.  The unicorn nuzzled its head against her shoulder, and she smiled and scratched it behind the ears.  Then she leapt up onto its back, and the two of them galloped out of sight.

            Snape shook his head.  "Alina Terringer.  It has to be.  No one else can sing like that."

            Lucius didn't find it completely inconceivable.  In his mind, anyone whose voice could melt a heart of ice like his, even if it was only for a few seconds, could easily charm a unicorn.  Just the same, though, the fact that a Muggle-born witch was capable of doing such things was annoying to him.  "What is it with her?" he asked.  "She's not a pureblood.  She's not even a half-blood.  How is she so powerful?"

            "Good question.  I don't know."

            Deep in the jungles of Ethiopia, a mountain called Ras Dashen towered fifteen thousand feet above sea level, dwarfing the world below.  Carved out of the sheltered southern face near the mountain's peak was a fortress.  Due to the severity of the surrounding environment, few had ever seen it, and fewer still had lived to tell about it.  It was this seclusion that made it the perfect place for evil plots to take shape.

            A sour-faced, dark-haired man wearing a long black cloak was walking through the stone halls of the fortress alongside a gazelle, of all creatures.  The man's name was Icarus Knight.  He was a former Hogwarts student who became a Death Eater in the seventies, then disappeared completely.  He was ready to resurface, but he needed instructions from his master, Lord Voldemort.

            The gazelle spoke.  "You didn't get Lucius Malfoy, Icarus.  I am most unhappy."

            "I am sorry, my lord," Knight said.  "He was not at Malfoy Manor when we attacked."

            "This is a very disappointing event," said the gazelle, who was none other than Voldemort himself in the form of the graceful creature.  "I thought we would only have Draco to worry about, and he would have been easy to get rid of.  Now Malfoy has gone to Hogwarts.  They will be much more difficult to get now."

            "This is just a minor setback," Knight assured his master.  "They will die."

            "I hope so, for your sake," Voldemort said.  "You're lucky I have more faith in you than I do in Malfoy."

            The two of them reached a set of doors at the end of the hallway.  Knight placed his hand on the doors and pushed them open, and they walked inside.  The room, of moderate size, was taken up almost entirely by a large steel cage.  "They can't stop us," Knight said.  He smiled at the cage, and patted one of the steel bars.  "Not even Dumbledore is powerful enough to counter what I have in store for them."

            If a gazelle could smile, that's what Voldemort would have done.  "Excellent.  I must go.  If they are not dead in six month's time, you will be."

            Knight watched the gazelle as it left the fortress, then smiled to himself.  "Do not worry, my lord.  Nothing can save them from us."

            Beside him, the large, leopard-like creature in the cage let out a vicious snarl…

A/N: Alina's last name is pronounced TARE-inn-jer.  Just thought I'd clear up any confusion.