Chapter Eight

"Hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and go with us," Judges 18:19

Draco turned up at Hermione's house on Thursday looking remarkably better than he had the previous weekend. The shadows under his eyes had faded to pale violet thanks to the sleeping potion and his face had filled out again slightly thanks to all the large meals the Snape House Elves had put in front of him.

"You know, one day we should go shopping and get you a pair of jeans," Hermione commented when she saw Draco arrive in a pair of charcoal grey trousers with a lighter grey cashmere pullover.

"Jeans?" Draco repeated, wrinkling his long nose slightly. "You mean Muggle clothes?"

"You really are better. You almost sounded like your old self then," Hermione said with a grin. "Even Severus has several pairs, you know. He likes black, stone-wash denim," she informed him.

As though I'm supposed to understand what that means, he thought. "I think I'll stick to my tailored trousers, thanks," he said coolly, leaning casually against the kitchen counter as Hermione bustled around the kitchen.

"Help yourself to a butterbeer from the fridge. I got some specially for today, Harry loves them," Hermione said.

"Is it just the three of us?" Draco asked, pulling open the fridge and rather proud of himself for remembering what a 'fridge' was.

"Yes. Ron may drop by later this afternoon but he's got Auror Academy until 4pm," Hermione said, pulling something out of the oven. Hermione heard a noise in the lounge room. "That will be Harry," she said, and walked quickly through to the other room. Draco felt himself tense. She brought back an unusually serious eyed Harry.

The two boys sized each other up across the kitchen. Harry examined Draco's face carefully, as though looking for something. What he saw obviously satisfied him because he spoke first. "You're probably wandering why the hell I asked Hermione to invite you today," he said in his unusually deep voice. Before Draco could answer, he continued. "It was because Hermione had told me about your co-operation with the Ministry in order to help them sniff out Death Eater activity; also your decision to divorce your parents and then clear out Malfoy Manor of Dark Arts materials. I imagine the past few weeks have been difficult for you in a way I can't imagine," he said directly, the gaze of his green eyes steady. "I take it from these actions that you wish to leave your Death Eater past behind," he added, his gaze suddenly more intense as though trying to gauge Draco's reaction to his words.

"That's right," Draco replied shortly, his eyes imperturbable.

"I trust Hermione's judgment. She says you're sincere and her opinion combined with the evidence of your recent actions is enough to make me have confidence in you," Harry said simply. He held out his hand to Draco. "Shall we be allies now instead of enemies?"

It was not an offer of friendship, merely alliance. Draco knew the difference. Harry was prepared to work with him but he had not made up his mind whether or not he actually liked Draco. Draco could live with that. He was not at all sure he liked Harry Potter either but he knew a valuable and powerful new allai when he saw it. Seeing Harry's hand extended towards him reminded him vividly of that time on the Hogwarts Express nearly seven years ago now when he had offered his own hand to the young Harry Potter. He had been rejected and not only rejected but scorned as well. The memory still burned but that was the past and Draco had his future to think of. He only hesitated a moment before taking Harry's hand and shaking it firmly. Pale grey eyes met bright green ones for a moment and the deal was done.

Hermione, who had been holding her breath the whole time, let it out slowly and tried not to smile too broadly. "Come on, enough politics. Let's eat," she said teasingly.

They sat down at the table to Harry's favourite meal; a mess of baked beans, potato, frankfurts and onion rings baked together casserole style. "It's a typical rugby dinner," Hermione explained when she saw Draco looking curiously at it.

"It's fantastic!" Harry assured him enthusiastically as he shovelled a steaming mouthful in.

Draco had no idea what 'rugby' was but found the meal rather tasty if extremely filling but he guessed that someone who played sport all day probably had hollow legs and would naturally love this kind of stodgy meal.

The three discussed the events in the paper and what was going on at Hogsbridge. Hermione had made a new friend who had been in France all the way through high school but was now back home in England for her University education. "What is she like?" Harry asked, still stuffing his face and now on his second plateful and third butterbeer.

"I don't really know how to describe her," Hermione confessed, looking perplexed. "I've never met anyone quite like her before," she said shaking her head.

"Oh well, that's nice," Harry said, not really interested in Hermione's new friend as she was a girl and Harry had been going steady with Ginny for the past year.

Draco wasn't listening at that point. He was trying to cover up the fact that he had only been able to eat half of the enormous serving Hermione had given him by spreading the remains over his plate.

After they ate, the three watched a new release DVD. It was Lord of the Rings. Draco found himself glued to the screen once more, completely caught up. It didn't finish until 4.30pm. Just as the closing titles came up, Ron arrived.

"Hi Ron," Harry said with a grin for his best friend. "Have you seen Lord of the Rings yet? I don't think they quite got the Orcs right. They're actually much uglier in real life, don't you think?" he commented with a yawn.

Ron was eyeing Draco with dislike and Draco was returning the compliment. "What's he doing here?" Ron asked bluntly. Draco was forcibly reminded of exactly how much he disliked Ron Weasley and his face showed his fine-edged contempt for the freckle-faced boy.

"Maybe its time for me to leave," Draco said coolly, getting up.

"No, stay," Harry said calmly. "We're going to have to have this out sometime anyway. It may as well be now."

Hermione nodded in agreement. "I haven't had a chance to tell you what I've told Harry, Ron," she said and went on to explain about what Draco had been doing in the past three weeks.

Draco sat down again stiffly in his chair. He kept his eyes lowered as Hermione told Ron about his work with the Ministry and what he had done concerning his own family and family estate. He found it embarrassing to have it all related to an old enemy. He did not want Ron's approval and was not trying to seek it.

Ron listened sulkily, still standing ready to leave himself. When Hermione finished talking he said to Harry, "do you believe all this? Do you think he's really changed his mind about Voldemort and the Death Eaters and the Dark Arts?" he asked, his face flushing with anger.

"Yes," Harry replied evenly. Draco's attitude relaxed slightly towards Harry at that point. If Harry was willing to stand up to Ron on his behalf then he really was an allai.

"How do you know he didn't change his mind the night Voldemort was defeated in order to save his own skin?" Ron demanded heatedly, annoyed at Harry's support of their old enemy and not convinced by the things Hermione had said.

"If he had been trying to save his own skin he sure as hell would not have gone within miles of Gillamoor that night," Harry said flatly. "He also would not have divorced his parents and forfeited his inheritance before knowing whether or not his parents would be caught and prosecuted."

"He had no need to tell the Ministry about the Dark Arts store in the Malfoy Manor. He could have produced a few bits and pieces of Dark Arts materials to convince the Ministry he was co-operating and kept the rooms under the Manor hidden for good," Hermione added logically.

"Well what about all those years at Hogwarts, Hermione?" Ron continued furiously. "He spent seven years calling you a Mudblood! Remember when the Chamber of Secrets was opened in second year? 'You'll be next Mudbloods!' - that's what he said. He was glad Muggle-borns were being attacked. He wanted to see you dead! You remember what he said Harry, when we used the polyjuice to become Crabbe and Goyle? He wanted Hermione to be the first to die! Do you remember that?" Ron spat.

Draco's mind was whirling. Ron and Harry had used polyjuice to sneak into the Slytherin Common Room and speak to him in second year? He had never found out about it until now. What else had this trio been up to at Hogwarts?

"What's your point?" Draco said with an indolent shrug but his eyes were narrowed.

"What's my point?" Ron shouted. "My point is that you wanted to be a murderer then too and now you're pretending to be so terribly shocked when you find out your parents are!"

"You don't understand anything," Draco said with a sneer.

"Why don't you try and explain and help us understand?" Hermione said gently.

Draco glared coldly at Ron. "I will if he promises not to interrupt," he replied frigidly.

"Fine," Ron said shortly and sat down. "I can't wait to hear this."

"First of all, you have to understand that I was brought up to believe that Muggle-borns would weaken the magical strength of the wizarding community," he began grimly.

Hermione glanced up suddenly at him. So the theory I discussed with Padma all those weeks ago was correct, she thought.

"We believed that if enough Muggle-borns inter-married with the pure-bloods that eventually the concentration of magic in our families would diminish. Of course, I have since found out this is false but only in the past week or so. Professor Snape gave me copies of Voldemort's papers. I had never seen them before. The evidence he uses to support this idea is downright flimsy. My parents were wrong to believe Voldemort and I was wrong to believe them," he said unequivocally.

"Understandable though," Hermione pointed out. "I believed what my parents told me while I was growing up."

Draco was grateful for Hermione's support. It was all surprisingly hard to explain. "I also grew up with the idea that the Dark Arts and the Death Eaters were glamorous and powerful. I was dazzled by that glamour, I guess," he shrugged. "Then there were my parent's expectations to take into account too. There was no question as far as they were concerned that I was going to be a Death Eater. Their attention and approval was hard enough to get at the best of times, if I had shown no interest in becoming a Death Eater they probably would have disowned me. Being a good Death Eater candidate at least got me some degree of support."

The room was silent for a few moments. "As for hating Muggle-borns and wanting them to be attacked in second year, I guess I thought if someone actually died then the Muggle-borns would be forced to leave the school. This would lessen the danger to the pure-bloods' magical strength in the future or so I thought," he said with a sigh.

"That's no excuse for wanting people murdered!" Ron said but with less heat.

"Perhaps not but it seemed like a drastic problem that needed a drastic solution. After all, Dumbledore wasn't going to kick the Muggle-borns out to save the strength of the magical community was he? He had to be forced to. That was the reasoning anyway," Draco said tiredly.

"But Dumbledore turned out to be right and Voldemort was wrong," Hermione said softly.

"Yes. At 12 years of age however, I believed my parents," Draco said. "I also think that a 12 year old can't really understand the hideous finality of death. It's an abstract idea to someone that young. It takes coming face-to-face with it to understand what it really is," Draco added, the corpse recently found under his family Manor suddenly clear before his inner eye.

Ron was silent. He understood what Draco was saying but it was hard to forgive seven years of enmity and insults. He found it particularly hard to forgive Draco being rich and privileged while he had grown up poor and watched his parents struggle - often persecuted by Draco's own parents.

"So is Draco your friend now?" Ron asked Harry stiffly.

"I imagine he will become a friend in time as I get to know him. For now, he's an allai and not an enemy," Harry replied honestly. Draco was glad Harry told the exact truth rather than dress it up for Ron's benefit.

"Fine," Ron said shortly. "I'm prepared to give him a chance for now if you are but don't expect me to suddenly warm to him," he added eyeing Draco suspiciously.

"That's fine by me," Draco said, with a touch of his old arrogance.

Hermione smiled to herself. In the midst of huge upheaval, some things never changed.