Chaser's tale.

An hour later, there was a knock on the bedroom door, and Ron

called for them to enter. The boy came into the room and looked at them hesitantly.

"I just wanted to apologise for before. Well Dumbledore thinks I should anyway," he

said glancing at Fred, looking rather sheepish. "It's just that I get so bored being stuck

in here and all I want to do is get out and do something. You lot can and I guess I took

my frustrations out on you. Sorry."

"That's okay, I guess," said Fred, looking a little doubtful.

"Hey, what was going on downstairs?" asked George eagerly.

"Well.Dumbledore said that I can tell you, but it's not very interesting. They

chucked me out before they started really discussing the Dark Lord and stuff."

"Who are you?" asked Hermione. Harry thought that this was much less important,

and from the looks of things so did the others, but he figured he'd better be nice if

they were going to find out anything.

"I'm Harry," he said holding out his hand. The boy looked at Harry, and nodded, "I

know who all of you are. I'm Hayden Malfoy. I think you know my cousin, Draco."

They all frowned at this. Hayden laughed,

"Don't worry, I'm not a big Draco fan. Or Malfoy fan, come to think of it. I'm in

hiding so that they can't find me. You see I'm not like them. I care about my life, but

don't want to have to kill to lead an exciting and wealthy life. I never really had to

decide whether I supported the Dark Lord, I was always just left to my own devices,

but pretty soon it was going to get to the stage where I was asked to join him. Well I

knew that I couldn't say yes, but on the other hand I couldn't say no either. I don't

really want to die. I've spent a long period of time living with my best friend as a cat,

and as nobody but her knew that I'm an animagus I was too difficult to track down.

Even her parents didn't know, which is good as they'd probably have handed me

straight over to my family, or just plain kill me on the spot. Her mother says she loves

her daughter, but nothing is more important than the Dark Lord. Eventually though,

we got really desperate, and she managed to contact Dumbledore, she told him, while

begging him to understand that I needed protection. I don't think he was very happy at

first but he isn't the kind of man who'll turn down a plea for help. Well, of course

Dumbledore wanted to know as much as possible about the Dark Lord's plans, and

what I knew of the Death Eaters. You'd be surprised at how reckless they can be at

times; they never even noticed that a cat was constantly following them around! My

dad didn't even think about it because we don't own a cat! They have big plans and

they truly believe that they're going to overthrow the wizarding world, and I actually

think that they could succeed." Hayden took a breath, and they all stared at him in

amazement.

"It must be awful being related to Death Eaters," said Hermione, in a state of shock.

Hayden shook his head," That's all I ever knew. It was my friend that convinced me

that it was all wrong, or I probably would have joined. She is a Death Eater you see.

She was trying to protect me, but if he finds out she'll be dead for sure, which is why

I'm in hiding. To protect her as much as me. She's never had anything to do with the

whole set-up as she's the same age as us, and so was only a baby when he fell. But

she's been raised by Death Eaters and she was marked as a Death Eater as a baby.

Cruel if you ask me, we're normally allowed to make up our own minds, but for some

reason it was important to the Dark Lord that she was marked immediately, and her

parents allowed it! Obviously idiots, but well, look at my family. She still follows him

though and in many ways she truly is a Death Eater, she was hardly ever at school but

she knows so much about the Dark Arts that it's unbelievable. She knows stuff that

nobody'd dare to teach in a school. That's about all I know to be honest, though I

reckon there's a lot more to it than that."

"What about these plans?" asked Ron. Again Hayden shook his head," Definitely

can't discuss that. It's really between Dumbledore and the Order."

"How come you don't go to Hogwarts?" asked Ginny.

"We went to a school in Holland called Sidilo. It's a tiny place, but just like Harry at

Hogwarts, she was very well known over there. She was the most famous person in

school because she knew more about the Dark Arts than many adult wizards that work

in the Ministry! I didn't always hang around with her. We were very close, me her

and William. But we had separate lives. We were all born into Death Eater's families

but the rest of the school were fairly similar to Hogwarts in the sense that nobody had

really made a definite decision to join the Dark Lord if he returned. Most are terrified

of him and support Dumbledore. Will's parents died through their support of the Dark

Lord just after he was born so he now lives with his Grandparents. They don't support

the Dark Lord, so he's been brought up as against dark magic, but his grandparents

think that they shouldn't get involved. This caused problems for us as good friends.

Two of us were of strong Death Eater blood, and so he was banned from seeing us.

My best friends parents were unsure about me and disliked Will, so we had quite

adventurous times trying to spend time together, we became great at hiding, lying and

sneaking about."

"But if she's a Death Eater won't Lord Voldemort." Harry ignored the

flinches,"know that she's disobeyed him?"

Hayden nodded," If it was anyone else it would be a problem, but the one thing that

her real dad taught her from a very young age was how to do Occlumency. She's in

the process of teaching me, but I'm not really any good at it."

"Her real dad?" asked George.

"Her parents aren't together. Her mother married some one else. Her dad doesn't see

much of her, but he's taught her a bit of magic, and visits her a couple of times a year.

He's not a very good dad but he's taught her a bit about protecting herself, which is

better than her step-dad who hates her and is forever cursing her and hurting her"

"Wow," offered Fred.

Hayden shrugged, "It sounds worse when you're explaining it to someone else."

"Why didn't she just move out with her dad?" asked Ron.

"Couldn't. He didn't want her, and they fight constantly. Like I said he's a rubbish

dad. Her mother, at least, knows how to look after her, and has always given her

everything she needed. Well, sort of."

"How will she react now that you're gone?" asked Harry. Hayden shrugged.

"I doubt she'll be that bothered, like I said we had quite separate lives."

"But now that Voldemort's back, won't she be in danger. I mean, she's done so much,

why didn't Dumbledore take her in too?" the Weasleys glared at Hermione, and she

shrugged, "we have to start using his name!"

"Because it would have looked fishy. I have a choice. Become a Deatheater or run.

She already is a Deatheater. She would have been killed. It's much easier if we do it a

little at a time. Anyway, Sidilo chucked the three of us out because we got into so

much trouble. Their not like Hogwarts, the faintest whiff of trouble and you're out.

They associate trouble with Death Eater types. Saying that we did get into a lot of

trouble. It was mostly me and her though; poor Will just got chucked out for being

there. Her mother wasn't bothered-means more time can be spent on the Dark Lord,

and it costs her less. She was always expected to be chucked out anyway. Her and

Will were often caught creeping around. I could always transform, and was constantly

able to escape trouble. Will's grandparents were dead upset, but they decided that the

school wasn't good enough if they were so closed-minded, and they've enrolled him

at Hogwarts. So I'm going to go as well, so that I'm near to Dumbledore, and at least

I've got Will close by. His grandparents don't know that though! If anyone asks I'm

just a new Hogwarts cat, but Dumbledore's trying to get me a room so that I can study

and not fall behind. I still have to pass my exams!"

"That's a weird story," said Ron. Harry couldn't help but think that him transforming

to escape trouble, and leaving his friends, was quite self-centred. He didn't voice this

opinion in front of Hayden, but Hermione did mention it later, and the others agreed.

"Its even weirder to be living it. It also feels kind of good to have been able to get it

all off my chest without having the entire Order glaring at me like I'm going to

double-cross them!" he replied. Harry and Hermione exchanged looks. If the Order

were worried should they be?

"Kids!" called Mrs Weasley. The sound of her voice brought them all back to reality,

and they headed downstairs.

Over the next week they spent their time, discussing the extraordinary tale

between them, although none of them spoke to Hayden of it. He seemed to get on

quite badly with some of the Order, probably due to his upbringing. He and Moody

disagreed at every opportunity, and he was always at odds with Sirius and Mrs

Weasley, and Fred had developed a clear dislike for him. This seemed a little odd, as

George seemed to find him all right, despite the fact that he cared mainly for himself,

and thought little about how others were affected by his actions. Hayden was often

moody, bad tempered and self-centred. Lupin said that he was probably just

frightened.

"After all, how would you feel if you had suddenly turned your back on your family,

friends and the most powerful dark wizard, and knew that you could be murdered at

any moment?"