In Every Darkness
Chapter Eighty Six
5.2.1997
"Where is he?" Blaise muttered, prowling up and down the floor of the Room of Requirement. Draco was waiting a few corridors away, waiting for Blaise to come and tell him all was well and that he could come to speak with Harry.
… If Harry decided to turn up.
What if he did change is mind? Blaise wondered suddenly, her stomach churning with sudden worry. Though she knew that Draco would rather speak with someone who wasn't Harry Potter, she knew also that the Slytherin boy had allowed his hopes to rise, with the idea that just perhaps, Harry Potter would be able to come up with something to alter the life his father had long ago planned out for him.
"Blaise?" Harry strode through the door so quietly that she started violently.
"Sorry," he told her with a light grin. "Where's Malfoy?"
"Waiting a couple of corridors away – he wants me to make sure it isn't a trap," Blaise replied.
Harry's eyes shadowed slightly, "it did occur to me that a trap could be a good idea, however, it would have been a breach of trust. I said I would meet with Malfoy, to speak with him, and so I will. I'm trusting that you are not his trap, leading me into something I won't like, as Ron would have me believe."
"It's no trap I'm aware of," Blaise said, still for some reason hurt that Ron did not trust her.
"If Malfoy agrees, why don't you stay for the meeting?" Harry suggested, "Since I trust you, and apparently he does."
Blaise wasn't at all sure why the knowledge that Harry trusted her (or rather, him saying he trusted her) was so important to her, but it was. "I'll ask him," she assured Harry, and hurried off to find Draco.
"Well?" the blonde, blue eyed Slytherin boy demanded.
"He's there," Blaise confirmed, "and it's no trap. He suggested that I stay for the meeting though, if that was alright with you."
Draco looked relieved, apparently having wanted to ask it, but being unsure whether he should. "Yeah, that would be fine," he said, coolly.
Blaise sighed internally, Draco had already thanked her once in the last two days, she couldn't hope for him do so again any time soon. "Let's go then," she suggested, and saw a spasm of doubt ripple over Draco's face, before it was smoothed away, and the pair of them were strolling down the corridor, Draco managing to look like he was completely in control and calm, despite the fact that Blaise was sure he was feeling very nervous about this.
"I've been here before," Draco remarked suddenly, seeing the door that led to the Room of Requirement.
"Harry told me about that," Blaise remarked.
"Really? He tell you much about himself?"
"No, not really. I don't ask about his past very often, and he usually chooses not to speak of it … he'd rather forget most of it, I suppose."
"Why?"
"He isn't interested in fame," Blaise shrugged, "I'm not sure why, but that's just the case."
Draco was processing this information when Harry swung the door open. "Hello," Harry Potter said, standing easily in the doorway. Draco saw that the Gryffindors wand was up his sleeve, easily reached, though the boy didn't hold it in his hands, which was a little reassuring.
"Come in," Harry said coolly, stepping aside.
As he walked into the room, Draco examined the room, and realised immediately that it was very different from the last time he'd seen it. There was a merry little blaze crackling in a fire place, with lounges and chairs filling a fairly small room, and a table just before the fire, upon which were set three mugs of foaming hot butterbeer.
"You mean you actually made an effort for this meeting, Potter?" Draco asked before he could help himself.
"It pays to have friends amongst the house-elves," Harry said evenly, but there was a touch of dislike in his voice now, stronger than before. Draco cursed – if he was going to get anywhere with this talk, he would have to watch his tongue.
"Sorry, habit dies hard," he apologised, hardly believing that he was lowering himself to apologise to a Gryffindor, let alone Potter.
Harry nodded coolly. There was something absent about his features, as if he was not wholly there, and though Malfoy did not know it, this was exactly the case.
"Please, sit," Harry said, waving at the lounges, seating himself in an armchair, close to the fire.
Draco sat, with Blaise beside him, on one of the lounges facing Harry.
"So, Malfoy, what is you wanted to talk to me about?" Harry asked, pretending to have no idea.
"I … I want to join your side," Draco said slowly.
"My side? I wasn't aware I had one," Harry remarked, "but I know what you mean – you mean that you wish to change sides from the dark, and join the light side."
"Yes," Draco said.
Harry nodded slowly, "I see … why?"
Draco took a deep breath, "After seeing what happened to my father last year, I started to wonder," he said slowly, "wonder if all people on the dark side would end up that way. I put it out of my mind, because I thought that being a Malfoy and supporting the Dark Lord were synonymous … then earlier this year, I saw you and your little group of friends help with stalling a full Death Eater attack, and I started to wonder even more.
"As this school year has progressed, I've seen more and more signs that supporting the Dark Lord means ending up a prisoner, stripped of everything, or dead.
"I don't want that to happen to me."
Harry nodded slowly. "I see what you mean, there have been plenty of successful Death Eater raids, of course, but that's just against helpless Muggles, whenever Death Eater's come up against competition, they invariably fare the worst from the encounters."
It was Draco's turn to nod.
"So, you've told me why you wish to change sides … now how about you tell me why you chose now to do so," Harry said, again knowing full-well the answer.
"Because my father wants me to go and be marked by the Dark Lord in twelve days time," Draco said, "I've been having all these doubts, but now I have been forced to act, unless I wish to have my destiny once more decided for me by my father."
"So you've come to talk to me … again, why?"
"Because … despite the bad feelings that have been between us pretty much since we first met, I know that you are worthy of trust. You seem to be fairly good at finding your way into danger, and taking your friends with you, but you always support your friends, and no one I've heard of has had any real reason to doubt your trustworthiness."
"Would you have gone to Dumbledore, had he been here?"
"No, I don't know much about him, and I've seen him make plenty of mistakes, despite the fact that he is supposed to be the greatest wizard of our time," Draco replied.
Harry nodded. "So, what can you do about your decision?" he asked, sounding for all the world like some sort of councillor. "Your father is free, and you are surrounding by many students who are either Death Eaters, or headed that way … do you really think that they will hesitate to harm you if you turned from your fathers path?"
"No, I don't. I'm not stupid," Draco replied. "That's another reason I wanted to talk to you. I need to find a way of changing sides which won't result in my being hurt by my former allies throughout the year, and then most likely killed the moment I return home in summer."
"I have only one possible solution to that particular trouble," Harry said thoughtfully after a moment, "but I need to talk to someone else about it before I can say what it is. You have, however, convinced me that you are sincere in your resolve, so I will do anything possible to help out."
"OK …"
"Meet me here again tomorrow afternoon, in study time," Harry said, "I should have completed everything I need to by then."
Draco nodded, hardly daring to trust that Harry had actually found a solution so quickly. He didn't question it though, there would be time for that tomorrow, if Harry didn't have anything to tell him.
"I'll see you then," he told the Gryffindor briefly, then stood and left.
"Are you going to tell me the solution?" Blaise asked.
"Not yet," Harry said with a grin. "But you're invited to that meeting to, if you want to come and Malfoy is willing."
Blaise nodded, then she too stood and left.
The moment the door closed behind Blaise, Harry stood up and the room changed around him. He tossed down the last of his butterbeer in a single gulp, and scooped up his invisibility cloak, draping it over his shoulders before he strode from the room.
Invisible to the eyes of the castles inhabitants, Harry prowled down into the dungeons, heading for Snape's office, words already flashing through his mind to begin his talk with the Potions professor.
Really Severus, that deserves more than an D, Remus spoke, as he always seemed to be doing. Severus was attempting to mark the work of the fifth year Gryffindor students.
Pray tell, why? Severus wanted to know.
The facts are majority correct, the setting out is acceptable and the spelling is near-perfect, Remus replied. I'll accept that she doesn't know exactly what she is talking about, but at the same time, I think it deserves an acceptable.
But she had this fact here wrong, Severus pointed out.
You gave that girl from Slytherin an E, and she had the same mistake, Remus pointed out.
Oh fine, Severus scrawled an angry A on the top of the assignment and moved on to the next one. Remus abated his protests, happy to have helped yet another one of Severus Snape's victims out.
Everyone had noticed that since his return from 'holiday' Severus had become more and more fair with his marking, a fact which the no one could understand, but which everyone who wasn't in Slytherin was happy about.
However, Severus was fated not to get time to mark this new essay when a rap sounded on the door. Severus glanced at his Detentions book, but there wasn't anyone written on it … how strange. There was, voluntarily, some student knocking on his door. He knew that it wasn't a teacher because the rest of them were all busy showing people around, and had already been to the dungeons.
"Enter!" he called out.
The door opened and the last person he expected to see strolled in.
"Potter."
"Professor."
"What are you doing here?" Severus demanded, eyes narrowed. His eyes flickered towards the pensieve on the opposite of the room, and he had to forcibly keep himself in his seat, rather than rush over and hide it from view.
"I wanted to talk to you," Harry replied.
Severus felt a little faint. Not only was Potter apparently voluntarily in his office, the Gryffindor boy claimed he had come only to talk! Impossible.
"Then you may leave. The door is behind you."
"No," Potter replied.
"Excuse me?"
"I said, no. This is important. I'd hardly bother to come if it wasn't," Potter pointed out.
"Fine. Sit down, and don't touch anything then," Severus said, now deciding that he was interested and wanted to hear what the boy claimed to be 'important'.
Without protest, Potter obeyed.
"Well?" Severus demanded when Potter didn't start talking, "I do have other better things to be doing, you know."
"Malfoy seems to want to change sides," Harry said, staring at a point on the opposite wall, rather than look at Severus.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, he has decided that living in his fathers shadow isn't the way he wants to exist, and he wants to join our side, Professor."
"And why do you think that?"
"I was just talking to him. He said that his father has summoned him to be marked by Voldemort, and he isn't sure that that's the way he wants to go."
"Really – and this concerns me why?"
"Well, he obviously can't just refuse – Voldemort would order him killed immediately. So he needs away out."
"Again, why come to me?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Potter demanded coolly, "He can't not join the Death Eaters, or he'll be killed, but he can't join them either, or he'd be turning his back on his right to chose his own life."
"So …"
Potter sighed in exasperation, "The only option left to him is to become a spy," the boy said.
Severus nearly hit himself over the head, feeling stupid that he hadn't seen it before. It had been rather glaringly obvious. Potter knew he himself was a spy for the Order, so who better to come to.
"So that probably means he should talk to you, since you are also a spy in the Death Eater ranks, you can tell him what to expect, and help him stay alive through it," Potter summed up.
"You haven't told Malfoy about my being a spy, have you?" Severus asked, his voice sharp and stern, though within his walled mind he was nearly gibbering with worry.
Potter gave him a look. "Of course not. What do you take me for, an idiot?"
"Mind your language Potter," Severus said, happy to be back on firm ground. "What is it, then, that you want me to do for Mr. Malfoy?"
"Talk to him. Tell him what's necessary – perhaps share your memories with him. You've been through a similar experience to what he's going through now, I'm sure he'll appreciate your advice," Potter shrugged. "I am in a similar situation to Malfoy – I was born on the side of the light and have been raised to remain on it. Unlike Malfoy, I do not have reason to doubt my loyalty, so I cannot really give him much advice."
"Very well Potter. I'll help Mr. Malfoy – bring him here sometime."
"Will tomorrow afternoon suit? I told him I'd meet with him again then and tell him if my plan would work."
"Tomorrow afternoon will be fine," Severus replied. "Now kindly remove yourself from my office."
"Gladly," Potter assured him, and did just that.
See, he isn't that bad at all, Remus pointed out.
Will you just shut up? Severus asked. I'm not interested in revising my opinion of Mr. Potter any further than I have. I am helping only because Draco is involved.
Whatever you say. But you wouldn't have known that you needed to help Draco if Harry hadn't come to you. He's a forgiving child, you should give him a chance.
I'm not interested.
Your loss then, I suppose.
There we go, Draco has chosen a side, and will be soon implementing his plan to join the Death Eaters and be a spy! Yay for Draco!
Thanks:
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WolfMoon
Hunta: Yeah, Neko's named for cats, it's her 'group name' within the modifiers. Tatsu's is the same, and he also gave up being called by his birth name – I'll go into that later.