Betrayal

Chapter 1

Two years later, a particular Draco Malfoy was to be found staring sullenly at a full-length mirror in the bathroom of his dormitory room. The door had been locked, of course. He was dressed in a sombre black suit and black tie. He sighed, slowly loosening the tie and then taking off his coat, letting it drop to the floor. Tears that he had held back now flowed freely, making him look weak and feeble, considering his already pale, pasty complexion. It was this moment of weakness that annoyed him. He was supposed to be like his father: cunning, cold, dignified and strong. Unfortunately, as the seventeen year-old had come to realise over time, he possessed none of those qualities that made Lucius superior and well-respected to and among other wizards in the wizarding world. He was just Draco Malfoy, school bully, someone to watch out for but not someone anyone would care to respect. He was, he realised, as he stared at his puffy, red-eyed reflection, pathetic. After last week's events, he felt his weakness had been confirmed. He had failed his father, and he had failed himself.

Professor Snape was dead.

The Killing Curse, all the mediwizards at St Mungo's had confirmed that fact. Draco felt sick at the thought. Since when did Death Eaters start killing one another? He heard from his father that the war would begin soon, but Father had not enlightened him further on the matter. The loss of a spy on Dumbledore would certainly put them at a disadvantage. The fact that there was a traitor within the Dark Lord's inner circle was even more frightening. His mother had casually mentioned in her last letter, delivered yesterday, that "Lucius (was) away". Which meant investigations were being carried out at the highest level within the Death Eaters, and that the Dark Lord was not pleased. Professor Snape had been in the Inner Circle and was privy to all that went on within the Dark Lord's chambers. Who had known? Who was the traitor? Even Draco, a Death Eater himself, and son of the Dark Lord's most trusted right-hand man, could not hope to join the Inner Circle until he was much older. He had yet to master all the spells required. Another notch in his private 'failure list'. The biggest blow to him was not the fact that Lord Voldemort had a yet undiscovered enemy, but it was because his mentor, Professor Severus Snape was no longer there to cover his weaknesses. Attending the professor's funeral had been painful, and to add insult to his emotional injury, Potter and his Gryffindor friends had the nerve to whisper and laugh, even during the funeral. Were they still torturing the professor even in death? Potter's unkind, thoughtless behaviour made him wish the war would start soon, and that he would be the one to kill Potter for the Dark Lord.

It would make up for all his failures.

A loud knock on the bathroom door jolted him out of his reverie. It could only be Crabbe and Goyle, back from stuffing their faces in the Slytherin common room. Picking up his coat, he straightened himself to join the grieving Slytherins downstairs.

* * *

Harry played idly with the ends of his loosened necktie, his chin propped up in his right hand against the window. It was a warm autumn afternoon, perfect for playing Quidditch, but his mind was far from the game he loved so much. What Hermione had said to him during Professor Snape's funeral had certainly been...enlightening? surprising? Harry was at a loss for words right now. Not that he had cared much for Snape to begin with, but to think of Snape dead, of Snape no longer being there, it was jarring and made him immensely uneasy. In the span of four years, he had had to mourn the loss of Cedric, a loyal friend, Sirius, his beloved godfather and Snape, who if nothing else, was his teacher. Always losing, Harry wondered, why was he always losing? His thoughts strayed to Ron. Ron had started growing cold towards him in their sixth year, which finally progressed to outright ignoring him for the past six months. So he had lost his best friend, Ron too. Hermione's words still rang in his ears: "Have you realised...Ron disappeared the night they found Snape's body? And the mark you think you saw on his arm last year? What does that tell you Harry? It's difficult for me to say this, and I don't know for sure, but..." Harry had cut her off right there. He didn't even want to think about what she was insinuating.

Death Eater? A Weasley? Those words could never possibly be mentioned in the same sentence. The Weasleys were good people, they weren't like those stupid Malfoys! And Ron had proven himself to be a true friend to Harry not too long ago. However, a nagging thought stuck at the back of his mind, back then we were all just children, weren't we? Technically, he realised he still was a child; he would only turn 18 next year. But a lot could change in a year, couldn't it? He was strongly reminded of his father as a fifteen year-old, and what Sirius had said about his father changing for the better just two years down the road. Change came gradually...how long exactly had Ron been a Death Eater? Harry immediately banished the question to the back of his mind as soon as it popped up. He needed more proof. Maybe Ron had something to hide, but it definitely couldn't be something as terrible as betraying your own friends and family, could it?

He laughed at the thought. No, to him, Ron was a nice guy, and he wouldn't press the matter, even if Ron was currently missing. He reminded himself about what Dumbledore had said, that a war was about to begin. Needless paranoia about your own friends was the last thing anyone needed right now. He would just have to wait for Ron to reveal whatever deep, dark secret he was concealing from Hermione and him. When he came back from wherever he was, of course. Ron had been missing for a week. Ginny had been inconsolable and rarely present at the Gryfinddor table for meals these days, to the point that Hermione had become a sort of foster mother for her, dragging Ginny down from their dormitory to the hall and checking up on her as much as possible, even between classes. Harry felt sorry for the grief the Weasleys were going through right now, and especially, he felt sorry and a little angry at Ron for running away from Hogwarts.*

Harry let out a heavy sigh, and got up to change into more comfortable clothes. No matter how much he tried to avoid the matter, a single, nagging thought was still buried at the back of his mind: Ron couldn't be a Death Eater, could he?

Notes: I've decided to continue this story, but I doubt that it would be finished. The plot for this story has been changed a grand total of 3 times, which makes for a rather shaky story. In terms of plot, unfortunately, nothing much is going to happen. Just a warning for those looking for an exciting, fast story: this story isn't planned to be one...it's going to move rather slowly. The prologue, originally slated as Chapter 1, was written before Order of the Phoenix was released, therefore back then, with all the book rumours floating around, it seemed more plausible that Ron could actually be a Death Eater. Personally, after OotP came out, I think now that it is highly unlikely that any member of the Weasley family (including Percy) could ever join Voldemort's side. Therefore, consider this fanfic AU, because it takes some liberties with Ron's character from canon. Ron in canon, in my opinion (and probably most) would NEVER abandon or betray Harry.

* Ron runs away from Hogwarts! This idea isn't entirely original, credit goes to MSN for the original premise, of Harry running away from Hogwarts! This was in MSN Entertainment somewhere in November, under Information about the PoA movie. I found a link to 2 screenshots of the error ("Harry runs away from Hogwarts in the latest installment.") from someone's Livejournal, but I won't put the link here since I don't have permission from the person who owns the Livejournal.