Disclaimer: Oh yes, of course they're mine. Just as the sun is made of ice
and money grows on trees. Miss Rowling? If you wish to sue please find
someone else, I can't even afford a lawyer let alone a settlement.
Warnings: I actually wrote the ending first so we finally made it back to the original stuff. 1 more part and then the epilogue to go! YAY!...
.
Blood & Nails..
.
.
Part Twenty Nine. Memories Of Old.
.
As it had been impossible for Severus to acquire a transcript of the trial due to the fact that the decision had been announced as pending, Draco had managed to talk his old teacher into making up a Pensieve and letting him experience it for himself. So over the next few days, many long hours were spent, tapping his foot impatiently as it was made. As he had looked into the shimmering silver liquid he had felt the automatic reaction of fear rise. But he just pushed it away and stuck his hand in.
The first thing he said as soon as he had returned from watching it, was. "Why the hell would they offer to give him Veritaserum?"
"What do you mean?" Severus was sitting in front of the fireplace, reading through some of the notes Draco had stolen from Hermione.
"Why would they bring the Veritaserum out? We can dismantle it.
"Snape looked up and frowned. "Perhaps they have developed an unbreakable formula?"
"And not gloated about it? Hardly."
"They might not want it to be public knowledge."
"Severus, if it's unbreakable, I hardly see how anyone knowing about it would provide an advantage for future criminals."
"Well then I don't know. Perhaps I should ask Dumbledore."
"He doesn't even know that you were there, let's not make him curious about your interest in the whole situation. I managed to hear what he said to Harry in regards to my execution."
"Yes, it's an unpleasant thing to know that Dumbledore is not on your side. I've been there before."
"At least you had me." Draco said sullenly.
"Am I not doing enough to aide your escapade?"
"You think I'm a homicidal maniac! Don't think I haven't noticed that you lock your bedroom door at night."
"Merely a formal precaution."
"Draco snorted good-naturedly. "Yeah, sure." His thoughts turned back to the whole Veritaserum angle. He frowned. "They must have come up with a way to make it work, even in us, but how?"
"Are you addressing me, or merely the furniture."
"Whichever gives me the most intelligent answer." Was his speedy reply that earned him a smirk. "They also gave it to him the night before I was released. Then they gave it to me, but if they doubted it would work when they gave it to him, why bother giving it to me if they were unsure of my memories?"
"I really couldn't say."
"Unless they were certain he wouldn't have been able to dismantle it." His head titled to the side slightly as he ran a few scenarios around in his mind. He blinked suddenly and looked up.
"Severus?"
"Mmmm?""If you mixed an Amber Dreams potion in with water and Veritaserum, would it affect the taste much?"
"I shouldn't imagine so, it would still smell of lemon and blood, and the taste would be very similar. Why?"
"Would one clash with the other?"
"What do you mean?"
"Mix them together, yeah? Well, would you still fall asleep and would you still tell the truth?"
Severus thought about both potions in their basic forms and noted the similar ingredients in each. "Perhaps. Is there a reason to all this?"
"They gave me water and Veritaserum. Or what I thought was water and Veritaserum. After a few minutes my head started to pound. I became dizzy, my vision blurred. My thoughts seemed to accelerate, then I passed out. I woke up feeling better though."
"Hmmm, blurred vision, sudden unconsciousness. They have been attributed to some sleeping potions, but why would Dumbledore give one to you?"
"You disable Veritaserum internally with magic, sleep is the most unlikely time that you would do such a thing. They probably would have asked me stuff while I was asleep as well."
"So you think they mixed it up, gave it to you then asked you questions all over again while you were unconscious?"
"I wouldn't put it passed him. Or them. I know what Aurors are like." Draco smiled.
"Well, in theory it would work. Veritaserum has a strong persuasive component to it, so they just don't sit there and not say anything at all. But how on earth would they have thought to do such a thing?"
"Probably by Harry being an idiot. All things considered, he would have rushed up to the board of directors, blurting out weird things about spirits and magic. Looking panicked, to be more believable."
"So?"
"Well, if he just charged in there, he wouldn't have had time to cast his Patronus. There is a reason the directors of Aurors are a bunch or arseholes you know. The impact of ten Dementors lined up next to the doors on the inside of the room would have knocked him out cold if he wasn't concentrating properly."
"He never learns, does he?"
Draco smirked. "Not my Harry. Maybe in another dimension ..... ""Well, your theory is sound, at least."
"Yeah, great. Now if I could just apply my supposed genius nature to working out who the hell was trying to frame me for murder, I'd be set."
"If Miss Granger's hypothesis on split personality correct, it could have been you."
"It could have been you too, sir."
"Indeed." Severus looked over and finally decided that Draco wasn't leaving him alone anytime soon and shut his book. He ignored the victorious smirk that the blonde man tried to hide. "Oh, all right. Remind me of the evidence that was against you."
"Blood on the cloak and shoes."
"And the fact that you were found with a knife against Mister Weasley throat."
"I've explained that already. I, at least, know what happened that night."
"Well, you and the real killer, if it's not you."
"God damn it Severus, it wasn't me. I think I know my own mind. I'm not crazy."
Severus went to reply but was cut off.
"If you dare say that denial is the first sign I'm going to show you how to really slaughter someone. Don't forget that, thanks to Voldemort, I was handed over to the best instructor when it came to torture."
"Hmmm." Severus nodded, not daring to remind his former student of anything else that should probably be left in the past. "I remember."
"In a way, Harry did me a favour, for a few months." Draco licked his lips and felt his hand start up on it's give-away twitch. He balled it into a fist and slammed it down. "Okay, so the cloak and shoes. My cloak, our shoes."
"The most likely person to have put the blood there would be Harry."
"My fiancee is *not* a murderous lunatic."
"But ..... "
"To hell with Hermione's pathetic, boring theory that wouldn't hold even a drop of water! Mortel is a nutcase, yes, but I doubt all this crap about split personalities. I'll bet every knut I own that the bastard has a full understanding of what he's doing."
"You so readily think it's a man?"
"He, she, it, whatever. Mortel knows what he's doing and that is that."
"What reasoning do you have to go with that?"
"If he was only operating for a part of the day he would have fucked up by now!" Draco threw his glass at the fire and watched it shatter.
"Maybe he already has."
"What?"
"Well, you're sitting here aren't you?"
"Yeah, I guess." Draco sighed and rubbed his eyes.
"Then there is the new evidence that it was your magical energy that was isolated in the blood they found him covered in."
"Yeah, so?"
"That's not easy to falsify."
"Well, I can't explain that one, now can I?"
"You didn't cast anything when you found him?"
"I was in too much shock." Draco frowned again and cracked his knuckles. "It really pissed me off." He muttered softly.
"What?"
"It had been set up, as if killing Harry Potter. That's what Dumbledore told me about the first murder, and he was right. I remember how pissed off I was."
"And?"
"Why symbolically kill the person you're obsessed with? Most are so far gone they're convinced that everything will work out just perfectly."
"You're still limiting yourself to the assumption that they're obsessed with Harry."
"Why not? When you want to truly get to someone, you go after the people they care about, not them. Mortel tried to frame me, so it must be Harry." Draco drank straight from the decanter as his glass was long gone. "Unless they weren't framing me."
Severus waited patiently. He never did quite understand Draco's logic.
"I've been sitting around here, all self-righteous and fuming right?"
"You have always maintained your innocence and the fact that you were set up."
"I was too concerned with my imprisonment and then impending death to look at it carefully. I spent so much time claiming I was innocent I didn't take the time to work out why I was there."
"I'm not following you."
"If we take just one thing as a given, many others make just as much sense."
"What thing?"
"He was setting up Harry."
Severus let this sit for a second before responding. "You've lost me."
"No, think about it. The blood on the shoes that we both wear, the cloak that could just as easily been his. It had no identifying marks of any kind to say who's it was, it was just in the wardrobe. Hell, it's barely ever been worn."
"You had no alibi."
"Yeah, because I was out. But if he couldn't give me one, I couldn't give him one either."
"The magic residue?"
"That was after I was arrested. I'm talking about the first time around."
"So your idea is that they were trying to get him for it?"
Draco nodded. "If we just say that Mortel isn't Dumbledore or a Slytherin, how would they know that I could get to the dungeons faster than anyone else that night Ron nearly died?"
"Why did you go again?"
"The portrait had a vision, but it came too late."
"And the others turned up because?"
"You know what the portraits are like, it spread like wildfire. Harry heard it from the Hufflepuff portrait, Hermione was trying to escape from Sir Cadogan. Morgan found out from the Grey Lady and sped off to find Dumbledore. He still wasn't there by the time they dragged me off."
"Dumbledore or Morgan?"
"Both."
"And if you hadn't taken the short cut, who would have arrived first?"
"Harry most likely, he was the closest. And he turned up before Hermione anyway."
"So it is quite possible they were trying to get him?"
"Isn't someone always? Even McGonagall tried to kill him."
"True, but she was never the same since her son died. I guess she was more susceptible to Voldemort's empty promises."
Draco shrugged, not caring about her reasons. If he had to do it again, he still would have killed her. "I noticed that they removed the trophy with his name on it. The same one with James Potter's name."
"Yes." Severus didn't elaborate. "Well, after Harry, not you. Now we just need a why." He gave a dry smile. "Do you have anyone desperately in love with you?"
Draco smirked arrogantly. "Everyone."
Severus gave a grunt of laughter as the smile faded from the blonde's face.
"Desperately in love with me." He whispered thinking of a very clear memory when such a thing had been pronounced to him.
"What?"
Draco frowned, telling himself that he must be going crazy. But as he thought about a few other things, he couldn't help but think that they only supported his notion. "Sir, have you ever found that drunken proclamations can hold true?"
"Generally, why?"
"Because one was given to me once, that I decided to believe it was a mistake, not an alcohol induced declaration."
"What was it?"
"It was from when I couldn't remember. It was the week before ....."
Snape frowned, watching his former student carefully. "The week before what?"
"Samuel Matthews." Draco's head shot up. "I have to call Hermione. There's something I need to ask her, it's not in her notes." He had already made it across the room and picked up the receiver.
"Are you absolutely insane?"
He looked over as his fingers automatically dialled. "God, I hope so. For Harry's sake, I really hope I am."
Snape gave a wary look as Draco started to tap his foot impatiently.
The young wizard slammed the phone back down in frustration, before picking it up again. "Maybe she went back to Harry's place."
"May I remind you that almost the entire world is waiting on news of your death? It would seem rather foolish to call an apartment where there are possibly five Aurors."
"Five?"
"The two full time guardians, Miss Granger, Harry and I believe your little Ravenclaw opted to keep Harry company in your absence."
Draco spun his whole body around to look at Snape this time. "MORGAN? He's there too? Shit! The wards let in Aurors, even I knew that. He faked his screening tests, the fucking bastard managed it. If I'd just seen it before, but I'm too self-centred. And why the hell is no-one answering?"
Snape waited as Draco kept ranting.
"It's always about me isn't it? Me, me, me, me, me." A few moments later he again slammed the phone down. "FUCK! No answer, I have to go."
"What? Draco, now I realise this is a very stressful ....."
"It had been set up, as if killing Harry Potter." Draco raised an eyebrow. "So let's look at it logically. You hate Harry with a passion but fail at framing him for murder. What do you do?" As he talked Draco had gone over to the cupboard, fiddled with the lock and brought out the potion he was to drink later in the night. "Do you shrug and think 'Oh well, better give up.' or do you hunt the little prick down?" He drank it down.
"Hunt." Snape said instantly, taking a deep breath and then nodding, knowing he wouldn't be successful at stopping the young man anyway. "Be careful. Try not to get yourself killed just as you attempt to clear your name."
Draco barely heard him as he coughed and shook his head roughly as the potion took effect.
To Be Continued.
Warnings: I actually wrote the ending first so we finally made it back to the original stuff. 1 more part and then the epilogue to go! YAY!...
.
Blood & Nails..
.
.
Part Twenty Nine. Memories Of Old.
.
As it had been impossible for Severus to acquire a transcript of the trial due to the fact that the decision had been announced as pending, Draco had managed to talk his old teacher into making up a Pensieve and letting him experience it for himself. So over the next few days, many long hours were spent, tapping his foot impatiently as it was made. As he had looked into the shimmering silver liquid he had felt the automatic reaction of fear rise. But he just pushed it away and stuck his hand in.
The first thing he said as soon as he had returned from watching it, was. "Why the hell would they offer to give him Veritaserum?"
"What do you mean?" Severus was sitting in front of the fireplace, reading through some of the notes Draco had stolen from Hermione.
"Why would they bring the Veritaserum out? We can dismantle it.
"Snape looked up and frowned. "Perhaps they have developed an unbreakable formula?"
"And not gloated about it? Hardly."
"They might not want it to be public knowledge."
"Severus, if it's unbreakable, I hardly see how anyone knowing about it would provide an advantage for future criminals."
"Well then I don't know. Perhaps I should ask Dumbledore."
"He doesn't even know that you were there, let's not make him curious about your interest in the whole situation. I managed to hear what he said to Harry in regards to my execution."
"Yes, it's an unpleasant thing to know that Dumbledore is not on your side. I've been there before."
"At least you had me." Draco said sullenly.
"Am I not doing enough to aide your escapade?"
"You think I'm a homicidal maniac! Don't think I haven't noticed that you lock your bedroom door at night."
"Merely a formal precaution."
"Draco snorted good-naturedly. "Yeah, sure." His thoughts turned back to the whole Veritaserum angle. He frowned. "They must have come up with a way to make it work, even in us, but how?"
"Are you addressing me, or merely the furniture."
"Whichever gives me the most intelligent answer." Was his speedy reply that earned him a smirk. "They also gave it to him the night before I was released. Then they gave it to me, but if they doubted it would work when they gave it to him, why bother giving it to me if they were unsure of my memories?"
"I really couldn't say."
"Unless they were certain he wouldn't have been able to dismantle it." His head titled to the side slightly as he ran a few scenarios around in his mind. He blinked suddenly and looked up.
"Severus?"
"Mmmm?""If you mixed an Amber Dreams potion in with water and Veritaserum, would it affect the taste much?"
"I shouldn't imagine so, it would still smell of lemon and blood, and the taste would be very similar. Why?"
"Would one clash with the other?"
"What do you mean?"
"Mix them together, yeah? Well, would you still fall asleep and would you still tell the truth?"
Severus thought about both potions in their basic forms and noted the similar ingredients in each. "Perhaps. Is there a reason to all this?"
"They gave me water and Veritaserum. Or what I thought was water and Veritaserum. After a few minutes my head started to pound. I became dizzy, my vision blurred. My thoughts seemed to accelerate, then I passed out. I woke up feeling better though."
"Hmmm, blurred vision, sudden unconsciousness. They have been attributed to some sleeping potions, but why would Dumbledore give one to you?"
"You disable Veritaserum internally with magic, sleep is the most unlikely time that you would do such a thing. They probably would have asked me stuff while I was asleep as well."
"So you think they mixed it up, gave it to you then asked you questions all over again while you were unconscious?"
"I wouldn't put it passed him. Or them. I know what Aurors are like." Draco smiled.
"Well, in theory it would work. Veritaserum has a strong persuasive component to it, so they just don't sit there and not say anything at all. But how on earth would they have thought to do such a thing?"
"Probably by Harry being an idiot. All things considered, he would have rushed up to the board of directors, blurting out weird things about spirits and magic. Looking panicked, to be more believable."
"So?"
"Well, if he just charged in there, he wouldn't have had time to cast his Patronus. There is a reason the directors of Aurors are a bunch or arseholes you know. The impact of ten Dementors lined up next to the doors on the inside of the room would have knocked him out cold if he wasn't concentrating properly."
"He never learns, does he?"
Draco smirked. "Not my Harry. Maybe in another dimension ..... ""Well, your theory is sound, at least."
"Yeah, great. Now if I could just apply my supposed genius nature to working out who the hell was trying to frame me for murder, I'd be set."
"If Miss Granger's hypothesis on split personality correct, it could have been you."
"It could have been you too, sir."
"Indeed." Severus looked over and finally decided that Draco wasn't leaving him alone anytime soon and shut his book. He ignored the victorious smirk that the blonde man tried to hide. "Oh, all right. Remind me of the evidence that was against you."
"Blood on the cloak and shoes."
"And the fact that you were found with a knife against Mister Weasley throat."
"I've explained that already. I, at least, know what happened that night."
"Well, you and the real killer, if it's not you."
"God damn it Severus, it wasn't me. I think I know my own mind. I'm not crazy."
Severus went to reply but was cut off.
"If you dare say that denial is the first sign I'm going to show you how to really slaughter someone. Don't forget that, thanks to Voldemort, I was handed over to the best instructor when it came to torture."
"Hmmm." Severus nodded, not daring to remind his former student of anything else that should probably be left in the past. "I remember."
"In a way, Harry did me a favour, for a few months." Draco licked his lips and felt his hand start up on it's give-away twitch. He balled it into a fist and slammed it down. "Okay, so the cloak and shoes. My cloak, our shoes."
"The most likely person to have put the blood there would be Harry."
"My fiancee is *not* a murderous lunatic."
"But ..... "
"To hell with Hermione's pathetic, boring theory that wouldn't hold even a drop of water! Mortel is a nutcase, yes, but I doubt all this crap about split personalities. I'll bet every knut I own that the bastard has a full understanding of what he's doing."
"You so readily think it's a man?"
"He, she, it, whatever. Mortel knows what he's doing and that is that."
"What reasoning do you have to go with that?"
"If he was only operating for a part of the day he would have fucked up by now!" Draco threw his glass at the fire and watched it shatter.
"Maybe he already has."
"What?"
"Well, you're sitting here aren't you?"
"Yeah, I guess." Draco sighed and rubbed his eyes.
"Then there is the new evidence that it was your magical energy that was isolated in the blood they found him covered in."
"Yeah, so?"
"That's not easy to falsify."
"Well, I can't explain that one, now can I?"
"You didn't cast anything when you found him?"
"I was in too much shock." Draco frowned again and cracked his knuckles. "It really pissed me off." He muttered softly.
"What?"
"It had been set up, as if killing Harry Potter. That's what Dumbledore told me about the first murder, and he was right. I remember how pissed off I was."
"And?"
"Why symbolically kill the person you're obsessed with? Most are so far gone they're convinced that everything will work out just perfectly."
"You're still limiting yourself to the assumption that they're obsessed with Harry."
"Why not? When you want to truly get to someone, you go after the people they care about, not them. Mortel tried to frame me, so it must be Harry." Draco drank straight from the decanter as his glass was long gone. "Unless they weren't framing me."
Severus waited patiently. He never did quite understand Draco's logic.
"I've been sitting around here, all self-righteous and fuming right?"
"You have always maintained your innocence and the fact that you were set up."
"I was too concerned with my imprisonment and then impending death to look at it carefully. I spent so much time claiming I was innocent I didn't take the time to work out why I was there."
"I'm not following you."
"If we take just one thing as a given, many others make just as much sense."
"What thing?"
"He was setting up Harry."
Severus let this sit for a second before responding. "You've lost me."
"No, think about it. The blood on the shoes that we both wear, the cloak that could just as easily been his. It had no identifying marks of any kind to say who's it was, it was just in the wardrobe. Hell, it's barely ever been worn."
"You had no alibi."
"Yeah, because I was out. But if he couldn't give me one, I couldn't give him one either."
"The magic residue?"
"That was after I was arrested. I'm talking about the first time around."
"So your idea is that they were trying to get him for it?"
Draco nodded. "If we just say that Mortel isn't Dumbledore or a Slytherin, how would they know that I could get to the dungeons faster than anyone else that night Ron nearly died?"
"Why did you go again?"
"The portrait had a vision, but it came too late."
"And the others turned up because?"
"You know what the portraits are like, it spread like wildfire. Harry heard it from the Hufflepuff portrait, Hermione was trying to escape from Sir Cadogan. Morgan found out from the Grey Lady and sped off to find Dumbledore. He still wasn't there by the time they dragged me off."
"Dumbledore or Morgan?"
"Both."
"And if you hadn't taken the short cut, who would have arrived first?"
"Harry most likely, he was the closest. And he turned up before Hermione anyway."
"So it is quite possible they were trying to get him?"
"Isn't someone always? Even McGonagall tried to kill him."
"True, but she was never the same since her son died. I guess she was more susceptible to Voldemort's empty promises."
Draco shrugged, not caring about her reasons. If he had to do it again, he still would have killed her. "I noticed that they removed the trophy with his name on it. The same one with James Potter's name."
"Yes." Severus didn't elaborate. "Well, after Harry, not you. Now we just need a why." He gave a dry smile. "Do you have anyone desperately in love with you?"
Draco smirked arrogantly. "Everyone."
Severus gave a grunt of laughter as the smile faded from the blonde's face.
"Desperately in love with me." He whispered thinking of a very clear memory when such a thing had been pronounced to him.
"What?"
Draco frowned, telling himself that he must be going crazy. But as he thought about a few other things, he couldn't help but think that they only supported his notion. "Sir, have you ever found that drunken proclamations can hold true?"
"Generally, why?"
"Because one was given to me once, that I decided to believe it was a mistake, not an alcohol induced declaration."
"What was it?"
"It was from when I couldn't remember. It was the week before ....."
Snape frowned, watching his former student carefully. "The week before what?"
"Samuel Matthews." Draco's head shot up. "I have to call Hermione. There's something I need to ask her, it's not in her notes." He had already made it across the room and picked up the receiver.
"Are you absolutely insane?"
He looked over as his fingers automatically dialled. "God, I hope so. For Harry's sake, I really hope I am."
Snape gave a wary look as Draco started to tap his foot impatiently.
The young wizard slammed the phone back down in frustration, before picking it up again. "Maybe she went back to Harry's place."
"May I remind you that almost the entire world is waiting on news of your death? It would seem rather foolish to call an apartment where there are possibly five Aurors."
"Five?"
"The two full time guardians, Miss Granger, Harry and I believe your little Ravenclaw opted to keep Harry company in your absence."
Draco spun his whole body around to look at Snape this time. "MORGAN? He's there too? Shit! The wards let in Aurors, even I knew that. He faked his screening tests, the fucking bastard managed it. If I'd just seen it before, but I'm too self-centred. And why the hell is no-one answering?"
Snape waited as Draco kept ranting.
"It's always about me isn't it? Me, me, me, me, me." A few moments later he again slammed the phone down. "FUCK! No answer, I have to go."
"What? Draco, now I realise this is a very stressful ....."
"It had been set up, as if killing Harry Potter." Draco raised an eyebrow. "So let's look at it logically. You hate Harry with a passion but fail at framing him for murder. What do you do?" As he talked Draco had gone over to the cupboard, fiddled with the lock and brought out the potion he was to drink later in the night. "Do you shrug and think 'Oh well, better give up.' or do you hunt the little prick down?" He drank it down.
"Hunt." Snape said instantly, taking a deep breath and then nodding, knowing he wouldn't be successful at stopping the young man anyway. "Be careful. Try not to get yourself killed just as you attempt to clear your name."
Draco barely heard him as he coughed and shook his head roughly as the potion took effect.
To Be Continued.