A/N: O_o! And I have finished chappie 4! Yay. :D This is getting interesting. Quite a bit happens in this one, too. The mystery of the hissing cauldron is explained, and you get to meet the last of the three OC's. ^_^ You won't get to fully meet him until the next chapter, but at least he actually exists beyond his letter. Chapter 5 will be coming sometime after I go stalk Tom Felton.

Disclaimer: Do I look like I own Harry Potter? No, I don't. So piss off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter Four: Pacta sunt servanda (Agreements Must be Honored)

Snape said nothing more until they were both in his office, the door quickly sealed with a charm. Draco did not think this was a good sign; previously, when Snape had told him of the blood contracts, he hadn't bothered to do anything more than close the door.

"Mr. Malfoy," Snape began, looking suddenly agitated. "It has begun."

"What has, professor?" Draco looked at him. He hadn't been expecting that sort of phrase.

"A chain of events I had hoped would not happen," Snape turned to go his desk, his back facing Draco as he spoke. "Events that could become most... dire."

"Dire-? I would hardly call a hissing cauldron "dire"," Draco stated, frowning. He wasn't sure he entirely believed what he was saying.

"It wouldn't be," Snape looked at him, now less agitated than before. "If it weren't speaking Parseltongue."

Draco's mouth twitched, but he could think of nothing to say. That it had been speaking in Parseltongue was the last thing he might have guessed.

"I can see from the expression on your face that find this bit of information more than a little shocking," Snape said simply, in a tone that seemed to convey that he understood Draco's reaction. "But you must be willing to not only except this fact as true, but to also except what it means."

"Oh, I know what it means," Draco said curtly. "Not that I want to, but I know its either face it, or find myself very dead, very fast."

Snape smiled, as though this was what he had been hoping Draco would say. "I must say that I'm relieved that you caught on so quickly, Mr. Malfoy."

"Which means-?" Draco looked at him expectantly.

"It means that I have only to ask you, Mr. Malfoy," Snape replied smoothly, unruffled. "Whether you've made a decision as to where you stand in all this."

"What's it to you if I have or not?"

Snape considered this for a moment, then replied. "I would suppose it isn't my business."

"Well then stay out it," Draco snapped, standing up.

"I'm not certain if that will be completely possible," Snape began, standing as well. "Not while so much remains untold and unseen, even to myself."

Draco couldn't think of a good retort, so he simply glared at the professor. Snape said nothing, and looked unaffected. Draco's expression dropped when he found himself suddenly curious about something.

"Er, professor?"

"Yes, Mr. Malfoy?" Snape raised an eyebrow at Draco's sudden change of mood.

"You wouldn't happen to know what my cauldron was... saying, would you?" Draco asked, feeling a little sheepish.

"I wondered if you might ask. I do not speak the language of snakes, b but I know that particular phrase well enough." Snape smiled oddly, pausing for a moment before simply stating, "Agreements must be honored."

Draco was quite sure of what that meant. It gave him a sudden, inexplicable chill. He turned, and walked to the door.

"I do suggest you make your decision soon," Snape said before breaking the charm he had put on the door to seal it.

Draco said nothing, leaving the dungeons as quickly as possible. When he reached the top of the stairs that lead out of the potions classroom, he heard a cry of "viridis vinxi!" before finding himself once again bound by a slender thread that seemed to be made of pale green light. Then he heard giggling. He groaned.

""Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me"," he heard Lucinda quote. "But what is it when you're fooled thrice?"

"That," Constance replied. "Is a very good question, indeed."

"I suppose," Draco put in. "That you're going to drag me all over creation again before letting me go?"

"No, just until we get to the common room." They stated together.

Yet again, he was dragged through what seemed like every set of stairs the ancient castle contained. When they got to the common room, they didn't do him the service of tossing him in a chair before unbinding him this time, just threw him roughly on the throw rug by the fire. He sat up slowly, emitting various pained sounds as they seated themselves in two of the armchairs.

"So," Lucinda began slowly, an unusual edge to her voice. "What did our dear professor have to say this time?"

Draco stared at the fire as he found himself feeling unsure of just how much he could trust them. He decided, though, that from the expression he had seen on Lucinda's face when his cauldron had begun to speak earlier she knew exactly what Snape had told him.

"Parseltongue," he replied flatly. "But-" He began, turning his face from the fire, to look at her reproachfully. "You knew that, didn't you?"

She smiled. "You catch on quick," she said quietly, nodding in approval.

He snorted, smiling ruefully. "Snape also said something along those lines."

"Did he? Interesting. I don't suppose he told you what the cauldron was saying, did he?"

"What-?" Draco looked at her in amazement. "You mean, you don't know?"

"How would I?" She said, looking perplexed. "Its not like I'm a parselmouth."

"Well, Snape knew, and he's not either!" Draco snapped. He looked away again, feeling extremely irritated. "Snape said it meant "agreements must be honored"."

Lucinda didn't say anything. When she opened her mouth to speak a few moments later, a large barn owl came swooping in through the stone doorway as a group of second years entered. It landed on the arm of the chair Constance was sitting in and looked at her expectantly. She goggled at it for a few moments before coming to her senses and taking the folded slip of paper that was tied to its left foot. She read it quickly, then looked up, an odd look on her face.

"Its from Dominic," she whispered, looking at Lucinda.

"Who?" Draco asked, utterly clueless now.

"My cousin," Constance told him hastily. "Anyway, it seems his lordship is rather... impatient."

"Let me guess what he's impatient for," Draco looked at her, frowning. "Me, correct?"

"Of course," she said simply. She looked the letter over again before continuing. "It doesn't say much more, just that he'll be in contact soon."

Lucinda grabbed the letter from Constance, who in turn glared at her. "You overlooked something rather important, dear," she raised her eyebrows at Constance.

"Oh," Constance eyed her defiantly. "What might that be?"

"He also says that our dear Dark Lord wants him to be the one to come fetch Draco," Lucinda stated. Her expression then changed to one of innocence, and she batted her eyelashes before going on. "Oh, wait, Draco's not supposed to know that yet.."

Draco stared at Lucinda in disbelief, and Constance dropped her head down, slamming it into a palm raised to catch it.

"Whoops," Lucinda grinned.

"Oh, I'm sure you feel just awful about letting that slip," Constance rolled her eyes.

"Oh, yes," Lucinda answered slyly. "I'm absolutely devastated."

Draco sighed impatiently, and stood up, wanting to leave the two girls, and discussion they were having. It wasn't really where he wanted to be at that moment.

"Hey," Constance said. "What're you doing?"

"Going to my dormitory, if that's all right," He snapped edgily.

She blinked. Lucinda looked at Draco curiously, then said, "Of course it is."

He was taken aback, just a bit, but was too agitated and tired to really care that they were going to let him go, just like that. He heard one of them murmur a goodbye as he left them. He didn't reply; he didn't care to do anything except get away from them.

When he reached the dormitory, he found it blessedly empty. There would be no one to bother him until classes were over for the day, most likely. He was suddenly very glad he didn't have an afternoon class that day; he had some time to get his mind off of what was going on. He pulled out a quill and some parchment, intending to work on the essay Snape had given them in class earlier that day.

He didn't get very far though. The essay topic was a very boring one, and he was tired from not being able to sleep correctly for the last week due to all the chaos he had been suddenly been thrown into. He dozed off while still on the third line of the first paragraph. He woke to the sound of what he at first thought was a flute. An odd thing to be hearing in his dormitory. It didn't bother him much, and it didn't occur to him that there had to be someone producing the music in the room with him. He got up to find out where the music was coming from, and his eyes fell upon the player.

"Ahh!"

"For God's sake, don't scream!" The older boy said.

"Who in the hell are you?" was all Draco could managed to say.

The boy smiled, amused now that Draco had stopped screaming. "I would be Dominic. You've met my cousin, I assume?"