Author's notes: I do not own Harry Potter nor associates. Please review. Explanations for new terms/spells/magical items are at post-fic author's notes. Thank you.
"Draco, are you sure you're all right? Do you want to talk?" Harry asked. Draco just shrugged and continued walking. Seeing Draco so down, Harry rushed into Honeydukes and emerged with a bagful of assorted sweets and chocolates, bound to include something Draco would like. "Here, take it," Harry shoved the treats towards downcast Draco, who looked up at him with those shimmering grey eyes. Their eyes locked for a while, Harry observing the different emotions shown in the blonde's eyes- the fear of losing his father, the perplex of probably receiving a whole new puzzle to solve, and the responsibility of being the chosen one for the Slytherin accostrome.
Draco mumbled a word of thanks to Harry and took the bag of treats. He stuck his hand in and fished out a Nixxie's Nectarine and offered it to Harry. Taken by surprise, Harry awkwardly took it from Draco and began sucking on it. "How did you know I loved this?" Harry asked.
"I always see you sneak a few to classes," the blonde replied, himself sucking on the candy too. He smiled, and that smile reassured Harry that his worries were uncalled for. The two continued walking back to Hogwarts, occasionally scorned by the Slytherins who saw them together. The Slytherins scorned Draco for his company, and made snide comments behind their backs. Dumbledore has asked the help of the wizards and witches at Hogsmeade to keep the reporters out and to keep the Lucius' conditions from the students.
As the two came near the crossroad between Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, a dark figure came out of the bushes and dragged both of them with him. The figure was massive and reeked of rum, he towered over the two for at least another foot of so, his strength outweighing the combined of the two teenagers. Caught by surprise Harry immediately reached for his wand and tried to cast a spell on their captors. However, the captor grabbed from behind, Harry found it hard to cast the spell accurately on him. Draco screamed for help, only to hear the captor shout silencio and Draco felt no sound coming out of his mouth. "So he does wandless magic," thought Harry. Frantically trying to resist the captivity Harry struggled against the massive arm that practically lifted the both of them off ground. The captor brought them deep into a forest, where the light is dimmed and the forest canopy thick.
The captor set the both of them down and used a spell to bind them to their spot. For the first time, Harry looked into the face of their captor. Dressed in rugged clothes, the captor was huge, nearly seven feet tall. He was bald, with missing teeth, and carried a bottle of rum at his waist. Draco presumed that this man had to be crazy drunkard. Still bound by the silencio charm, Draco could not speak a word of disdain.
"Who are you? Why did you bring us here?" Harry questioned the captor.
"He's back!" The captor said with a smile, a twinkle in his eye that made it seem so dark. "He's back for you!" His laughters then echoed among the trees, leaving some leaves shaking.
"What do you mean? Voldemort's back? Tell him I'm waiting!" Harry felt the anger rise in him, his heart pounded in his chest. Harry has been waiting for Voldemort, to defeat him and revenge his parents. Draco turned and looked at Harry in surprise, shocked that Harry actually taunted the captor to bring on You-know-Who.
"Do not say his name, he will find you!" Another laughter filled the air, further infuriating Harry. "He's not the only one look for you," the captor hissed, drawing himself so near to the Gryffindor Harry could smell the rum of his breath, together with a stench of rotten meat. "The Rose is coming...and you cannot hide..."
"What rose? What are you talking about?" Harry shouted, his face flushed with anxiety. Never before had anyone tried to warn him like this, perhaps except for Dhobby in Year two. Harry felt the threat of facing the unknown, he feared the uncertainty. Sure, facing Voldemort would be an uncertainty of venue, time and outcome, yet Harry was certain of one thing- someone would have to die in the battle.
"The Rose of Miztgral! Haven't you heard of it? It's waiting for you..." The captor laughed again, this time to be stopped short by a shout from behind. Appearing out of the shadows was Lupin, the only Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher who has served beyond the one-year record.
"Incarcerous!" Immediately the captor was in captive himself, thick rope wound about him from head to toe. Lupin had also used a charm to prevent the man from using his wandless magic. Lupin looked very worked up and angry, pointing his wand straight at the man's face.
"Tell me, what are you doing here?" Lupin confronted the now captured man, his eyes wide with fury.
"Remus Lupin!" The man changed his tone, seemingly scorning the Professor.
"Belthazar Mahon. Tell me, what are you doing here? You know perfectly well you are banned from Hogwarts' grounds." The duo, wide-eyed with shock, stared as the two reestablished relations.
"I have to warn Harry Potter against the Rose," on speaking about the Rose, Belthazar seem to go into some form of trance, behaving in a manner befitting only a madman. "The Rose is coming for him, it's very near..."
"Are you utterly out of your mind?" Lupin shouted at Belthazar and stormed towards the youths. He released them from the charms and took them away, leaving Mahon writhing on the floor as he went on relentlessly about the Rose.
"Who is he?" Draco questioned the Professor as he escorted them back to Hogwarts.
"Belthazar Mahon. The bear. He was a student at Hogwarts but was expelled in Year 5 due to misconduct. He used to be friends with your father and us, before he was expelled and went delirious," Lupin explained. The Marauders had once included him, before he was expelled. Rumours were that he was caught practicing the Dark Arts and hence was expelled.
"What is this rose thing about?" Harry asked, still suffering from the aftershock of all the events that took place. For a moment he thought he had a close brush with one of the Voldemort supporters.
"He was just blabbering nonsense. Became a drunkard after leaving Hogwarts. Haven't met him in years. The last time I saw him was when Lily and James got married. He was at the ceremony for a while, then left. He must have been drunk. Don't think so much about it," the Professor reassured Harry that it was nothing. But it was evident that he is hiding something, and nothing Harry does it going to make him confess.
Back at the Hogwarts castle, the two, equally downcast and puzzled, went to their favourite haunt- the North Tower. Putting the rose matter to the back of his mind, Harry was eager to find out what's in Draco's box. They sat at a table and placed the box on it. The box was made of strong mahogany wood, the surface smooth and exhibited good workmanship. It was a small box, about the side of a palm, and the hinges by the side were made of perhaps gold, or gold plated material. There were some carvings on the cover- a very fine dragon and a phoenix. Draco fingered the carvings, awed by the realism of the creatures.
"Are you going to open it?" Harry enquired, for he is equally anxious to know what secrets the box held. Draco gave a nod, and placed his hand over the cover, lifting the side opposite the hinges. The hinges gave a creak, and then revealed the content. Lined with royal blue velvet and cushioning, two gold rings sat in their slots. Picking up the rings, the duo realized that in tandem with the carvings on the box, one ring was the dragon and the other the phoenix. The workmanship on the ring was equally marvelous, the phoenix tail encased with a variety of gem stones- amethyst and rubies, while the dragon had emeralds and diamonds. The rings glimmered in the light, refracting a myriad of colours that bedazzled the boys.
"Wow. These are nice," Draco commented. He was plainly stating the obvious and "nice" was certainly an understatement for those rings. "It must be some family heirloom or something," thought Draco.
"Draco, if these are meant to be wedding rings of some sort, why are they both of men's size? I thought one of it should be fitted for a girl's fingers?" Harry pointed out the discrepancy. True enough, the rings were both made to fit men's fingers, and the strange thing was, it fitted the two of them perfectly. Draco slipped on the phoenix ring while Harry had the dragon one. The rings slipped onto their ring fingers nice and snug, a perfect fit. With raised eyes and widened eyes, Draco stared at Harry's fingers, while the latter did the same. Harry gapped his mouth, but no sound came out. Draco did the same, and only a meek "gosh" escaped his lips.
Darting his eyes in another direction to avoid staring into Draco's charming grey eyes, Harry noticed a slip of paper sticking out from the box. "Hey, there's a note here."
Draco looked at the note and groaned. It was in Chinese again.
"They seem to like Chinese so much?" Draco passed the paper to Harry, who stared hard at the inscriptions on the paper, square words of such complexity every line and every stroke made a big difference.
"If that's the case, we should learn Chinese, shouldn't we?" Harry suggested. Moreover, for the wizards, picking up another language is of no big deal given the studio muggerio charm. Draco sniggered at that suggestion. "If you don't want, I can learn. Besides I have wanted to pick up a second language for a long time."
"My dear Potter sometimes I hate you so much for being so perfect!" Draco exclaimed, gleeful that he need not go through the charm again. "Let's head to the library now!" Draco pulled Harry from the seat and grabbed the box and the two practically ran to the library. Both had also absent-mindedly forgotten to take off the rings.
The library was quiet, as usual. Almost becoming a number two enemy of the catalogus, (with Hermione being number one) after checking out tons of French books and returning them on the same day the other time, Draco made Harry check out the books this time. Carrying an armload of books, the two could swear they heard a muffled gasp from the catalogus. Draco then helped Harry carry the books up to his dormitory. Fortunately for them, the Gryffindor common room was devoid of its inhabitants, everyone was outside playing or still at Hogsmeade.
"All right, cast the spell on me," Harry sat on his bed, spreading the books out in front of him whilst Draco sat in a chair next to him. The charm was cast, and Draco nearly died laughing, looking at a dorky Harry. For once, Harry actually had neatly combed hair. Studying Chinese at a tremendous speed, Harry was constantly mumbling to himself phrases and words in Mandarin, while Draco kept chuckling at him.
"What the?" Ron stood at the door and was taken aback by the blonde head in the room. It was true that Ron had agreed to let Harry help him, but forging such close friendship was not what Ron expected.
"Don't disturb him, he's study. Anyway, you can't, Weasel," the Slytherin turned around and warned Ron. He had sounded like a mother watching over her son, and Ron just rolled his eyes and left. Draco sat down, and started fingering the ring he was wearing. "Such beauty," Draco thought. The gems on the phoenix were well-cut and polished, the ring immensely expensive and priceless looking, something that only fitted the royal family. He continued watching Harry learn Chinese, himself picking up some of the books Harry had gone through, flipping through it and marveled at the language. He was quite amazed at how people could communicate and build an entire civilization based on such tiny inscriptions that resembled dancing ants with the hands and legs sticking out everywhere. Conjuring images of ants tap-dancing and doing the Waltz, Draco laughed and Neville, who happened to be in the room promptly exited, muttering under his breath something that sounded like "crazy".
Nixxies Nectarine: a peachy-flavoured soft candy on a stick. Resembles a lollipop but the candy has texture of a toffee and perhaps slightly softer.
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