The Family Name

By Elbereth in April

Chapter 30

They came out in a back room in the Hogs Head. Crabbe Sr. took the leprechaun and went out the back door, and his father took Draco by the arm and led him to one of the rooms upstairs. Another one of his father's associates waited there. His father dragged him over to a chair and sat him down. "Go guard the door a moment, Avery," Lucius commanded. Avery went out into the hall.

Lucius turned his attention to Draco. He raised one eyebrow, tapping his wand lightly against his crossed arms. "Well?"

Draco looked down at his hands clenched tightly in his lap. He felt cold sweat running down his sides. Fear coiled in his belly, but he looked back up and met his father's eyes. His mind was working faster than he figured it ever had before, all revolving around one question: what would Fowl say?

"The problem with me being Harry Potter's enemy is that I have no foreknowledge of his actions," he began, the words spilling from his lips. "I know you don't want me associating with Fowl, but I found myself with the same problem with him. And he's in Slytherin, in my own year, in my own dorm. The common ground was there to fake--not friendship, we've never been friends--but something like an alliance. So I did, I have been, and I learned he'd found some old papers of Lockhart's, and found out about the fairies, and somehow he befriended them and agreed to a rescue for gold. He likes gold. I've been following him, trying to figure out his exact plans, and I went with him tonight, and we ended up at our manor, which I hadn't expected, but I went along with it because I knew I could set off the wards, and you'd come, and you did." He finished, out of breath, and waited for his father's reaction.

Lucius continued his wand tapping. "The way you followed him to the Chamber of Secrets?"

"I had less warning there, sir. That's what made me--try harder."

"I despair of you, Draco. You'll never make a true Malfoy if all you do is follow and react. And you went against my orders. Did it never occur to you to ask permission for your little plots?"

That familiar feeling of wretchedness spread through Draco, the utter conviction that his father was right about his son. "I'm sorry," he whispered, looking back at his hands.

Lucius strode forward and took the boy's chin in his hand, raising his face up to stare at him. "You'd better not be lying to me, boy. If you've been working against me. . ."

"Never, Father. I'm loyal to you, sir, and to my name."

The hand clenched around his chin, causing his eyes to water with pain. "Please, sir, I'm not lying. . ."

The hand released him. The eyes regarded him with disdain. "No, I suppose even you aren't stupid enough to cross me. But you're still far too weak."

"I try to learn from you, Father."

"Learn from this, then. First and foremost, you are to obey me. Never forget that."

"Yes, sir." Draco swallowed hard.

"If you become aware of any of Fowl's plots, you will inform me before you do anything else. You can't afford to make mistakes. Once the Dark Lord is revived you will serve him well or face his wrath. I cannot save you then."

"Yes, Father."

"The Dark Lord will be revived by me. Then we will be highest in his favor and in power. You will do nothing to jeopardize this or to disgrace me. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir. I'm to be a Death Eater, then?"

"Of course."

"We'll exterminate all the Muggle-borns, then, and people like Fowl and the Weasleys?"

"Obviously." Lucius sneered at him.

"Before or after the war with the fairies?"

Lucius blinked. "What?"

"The fairies. The whole race of fairies who are well aware of the part you and Lockhart played in abducting and killing one of their own, who've worked at safeguarding their secret of existence for hundreds of years, who hate Voldemort, who won't just ignore this little incident. Sir." Draco tried to ignore the rapid beating of his heart.

Lucius's eyes glittered dangerously at him. "Been doing some research, have you?"

"You always say know your enemy." As Lucius stared at him malevolently, Draco prayed that the fear wouldn't make him vomit. He hadn't talked back to his father like this for years. "Of course, you know more than I do. What's the spell that protects you from their glamour?"

Lucius's eyes narrowed further. "Think you'll have use for it?"

"It's just that you did leave that one alive, right? And Butler, and Fowl. I expect they'll be figuring out what happened and where we've gone soon."

"They'll be too late to prevent the Dark Lord's revival. Crabbe has already taken the leprechaun on to Hogwarts. Our lord can kill them or let them live as he pleases." He paused. "I'm sending you back to Hogwarts with Avery. I want you to go to the Slytherin dungeons and stay there. Keep well out of it. As I will be doing by staying in Hogsmeade--I have no intention of incriminating myself--just in case." The two regarded each other a moment longer. Lucius's face turned pensive. "I suppose, though, that a little insurance couldn't hurt. I'll teach you the spell before you go."

"Thank you, Father. You are wise, as always," Draco said, and smiled.

Butler glanced over at Artemis as they entered the school grounds. You wouldn't notice if you didn't know him well, but to Butler he seemed almost fidgety. "Is something wrong?"

Holly snorted. "Besides the fact that our rescue mission has been a fiasco so far?"

"Nothing's wrong," Artemis denied, and then, "Malfoy's alone with his father."

Butler frowned. "You think he'd hurt his son?"

"He's a Death Eater and a Dark wizard. I'd say he's capable of anything."

"What's this?" Holly scoffed. "Surely Artemis Fowl isn't actually concerned about somebody other than himself?"

"That would be rather foolish of me. Especially regarding Draco Malfoy, of all people." Artemis's response was just a bit more heated than his normal tones, and his face was just a bit pinker than usual. "It's just. . . he was worried last night, and I practically promised him that everything would be okay."

"As I recall, you're not that big on keeping your promises, either." The day Holly believed in altruism in Artemis Fowl would be the day she eloped with Mulch Diggums.

Artemis gave her a look. "What, you want some innocent person to be abused?"

"No, of course not!"

"Then what's the problem? Let's go and fix everything."

They stopped talking and hurried onwards.

When they opened the door to the DADA room, this is what they saw: Crabbe standing a bit awkwardly over Lockhart's desk, where Kelp was lying. Prof. Lockhart himself, wand in hand, glimmering slightly with a blurry aura around him, and facing off against him, also holding his wand, was Harry Potter.

"How does Potter always get mixed up in this?" Artemis mused out loud.

"He sent me an owl saying he needed to talk to me about my schoolwork immediately. When I got here, he pulled a wand on me. It's not my fault!" Potter spoke up defensively.

"It would appear that Riddle has possessed Lockhart," Artemis told him calmly. ". . . which would explain his competence in class the other day. . ."

Gilderoy laughed. "So nice of you to join us. Crabbe told me we could be expecting you."

"What do you think you're doing, Mud Man?" Holly demanded, holding up the gun that Butler had leant her.

"You may address me as Lord Voldemort," he replied, "although I haven't been able to reincarnate my own body. I haven't been with this foolish man long enough, and he hasn't fed me with his hopes and fears like little Ginny did. All he ever does is prattle on about himself, actually, he had me longing to murder him."

"You're getting off the subject," Artemis noted wryly.

"I hate you, Fowl. But my first priority is Potter. As soon as I sent Lucius off for this fairy, I brought Potter to me." He turned to Harry. "I will kill you this time," he sneered at him.

Potter looked determined. "I don't think so."

"You won't be fully in possession of that body until you kill the fairy," Artemis pointed out. "Shouldn't you be doing that before you kill Potter?"

"I have enough time for both," Voldemort declared, a manic gleam in his eyes only worn by those who were truly obsessed.

"I don't understand. Why does he have to kill the fairy?" Potter asked.

"His blood will return me to full power," Voldemort laughed. "It's a very Dark spell."

"Enough talking," Holly said, and fired at Lockhart.

"Summoveo Vigor!" Voldemort cried, and a shimmering bubble appeared around him. The bullet couldn't penetrate the force field.

Voldemort smiled smugly. "Your foolish Muggle weapons can't get through this." Then he pointed his wand at Harry again. "Avada. . ."

Potter decided the wisest course of action was to dodge. He rolled under a table.

"Expelliarmus!" Artis tried, but spells wouldn't reach through the shield, either.

Crabbe raised his wand to join in the fray, and Butler shot him with the stun gun.

Everyone turned as the door opened.

"Is this a private party?" a drawling voice asked.

Artemis actually smiled. "Hello, Malfoy. Where's Lucius?"

"Oh, he didn't want to come." He looked over at Harry and sneered. "Of course the Boy Wonder's here."

"Lockhart sent for me!"

"Voldemort's possessing our professor."

"What--again? First Quirrell, now this? Dumbledore needs to work on his hiring procedures."

"Last time you killed me," Voldemort hissed. "I haven't told your father yet. If he wasn't responsible for bringing me to life again, I'd wipe the Malfoys from existence."

Draco's expression became unreadable. "I've been given strict instructions to live up to the Malfoy family name."

"Well, this will be your second and final chance, then. Once I've returned to full life, no one needs to know about your role in the Chamber of Secrets. I won't even punish you for it. But if you work against me again. . ."

"I've been told my purpose in life is to become a Death Eater and serve you," Draco interrupted. "I suppose now's as good a time to start as any."

"I always knew you were evil, Malfoy," Potter spat.

"You self-serving little coward!" Holly exclaimed. "I was almost starting to think you weren't as bad as Fowl! Despite the fact that your personality is twisted enough to associate with him!"

"Hey, don't blame me," Draco retorted, indignant. "I was charming to you and everything. If you can't hang onto your partners, I think that says something about you."

Butler shook his head, regarding the boy with concern.

Artemis felt a strange churning inside him. It felt sort of like--betrayal. But why would that be? Draco never said he'd do anything but get them in the Manor, which he'd done. They were the ones who'd let down on their end of the deal, by letting his father escape with him. Besides, he and Draco were never more than reluctant allies, at best. It's not like they were ever friends. Artemis could understand feeling frustration or annoyance, at another obstacle to their plans, but betrayal? That didn't make sense.

Not unless he'd unconsciously been considering their one-time alliance to be more permanent. But that would be foolish. Artemis forcibly dropped the question from his mind and looked around for the remaining pages of Riddle's diary.

Lockhart's famous smile turned into an evil smirk. "Looking for this?" He held up a bundle of papers, waved it around, then stuck it back in his robe pocket.

"We need that diary," he told the others.

"Accio diary!" Potter cast, but that spell was deflected as well. "This looks really bad."

"We have to break down the force field."

"How?"

Meanwhile, Butler had overturned a table and drug Artemis to hide behind it with him. Potter crawled over to join them, and Holly activated her invisibility shield.

"Who is that girl?" Potter asked him.

"She's an ally for our side. Listen, this is important. Before he can cast a spell, he has to drop that force field. Right now, nothing can get in, but nothing can go out, either. So we're going to have a very brief window of opportunity."

"Do you have an ace up your sleeve like last time?" Harry asked hopefully.

Artemis raised one eyebrow. "He wants to take you out before me."

"I meant one that benefits all of us, you--Slytherin."

"Butler, as soon as the shield goes down, shoot him."

Butler nodded.

"You and I will try to cast something, as well."

"What about Malfoy?"

"He's not going to be aiming to kill anybody. Concentrate on Riddle."

"Go revive Crabbe," Tom ordered Draco at this point. He moved to do so, just as Holly grabbed Kelp and hid him behind her shield.

"Sir? Your fairy just disappeared," Draco pointed.

Voldemort spun around and looked. Then he swore and searched the room wildly with his eyes. "You won't get away that easy," he snarled, dropped the force field, and warded the door against escape.

Butler rose up from behind the table and shot him. The force field was already going back up even as the bullet left the gun and it half-clipped the field, changing direction and hitting Riddle in the left shoulder. Artemis's and Potter's spells only hit the bubble and bounced off, ricocheting around the room until they hit the caged, sleeping Diricawl.

"Expelliarmus takes too long to say," Potter complained.

"I was going for Silencio myself."

Riddle was staring at Butler in shock. "You--you shot me. You shot me!" He clamped his hand over his bleeding shoulder.

"He is quite good at that," Potter remarked.

Suddenly Lockhart's eyes lit with an eerie reddish glow. He narrowed them, giving everyone a deadly gaze. "Fools. I can come back with a different body. You'll only kill Lockhart and I don't like him anyway--I don't care how charming his smile is."

Artemis began thinking very, very fast.

Abruptly, Voldemort overturned another table, crouched behind it, and cast a Revealing spell. Holly and Kelp lost their invisibility.

Artemis could just see the top of the bubble over the edge of the table. He counted the seconds it took to reappear.

"You can't run from me, fairy," Voldemort laughed coldly.

"Butler," Artemis ordered, "don't fire next time. Potter, as soon as Riddle starts to cast something, move the table."

Voldemort's attention was drawn to Draco, who was edging his way around to get behind Riddle's table. "Why haven't you revived Crabbe yet?"

"That's where the leprechauns are. She has a gun." Draco put some deliberate whine into his voice. "It's safer out of the line of fire. You're still bleeding. I don't want to bleed. You have this nice table. I want to hide, too. . ."

Voldemort clutched at his hair. "Shut up! I'm not hiding! This is strategy! And get your own table!"

Draco proceeded to do so, right next to Voldemort's. "Sir, with all due respect, I think you're losing it a bit. It's probably the Muggle influence in your blood."

Riddle was breathing fast and a bit erratically. "You. . . Lockhart is what's driving me mad, I'm sure. Maybe I'll take your body to possess. How would that be, eh? Then I wouldn't have to listen to your supremacy drivel."

Draco swallowed a cold lump of fear. "But I'd be in your head, the way he is. Trust me. I'd drive you crazy, too."

"Not if I do to you what I should have done to him in the first place." He raised his wand. Draco raised his.

"Wingardium Leviosa," Potter yelled, and the table rose into the air.

Three spells were shouted at once.