Disclaimer: I don't own any of the orginial Harry Potter character because I am not that creative...but I wish i was...I only own the plot and my characters.
Unbreak My Heart
chapter 5: I Need Your Arms to Hold Me Now
"You want to kill me now do you? I know you, I see it in your eyes but it now your eyes that are staring back at me right now. Who are you, are you gonna be the Draco I know, the Draco that Hermione loves or will you be Voldemort's shell?" Blaise scolded him while standing straight up in defiance.
"What do you want from me? I warned you of what would happen should I return, I warned you to stay away yet you refused until it was too late." Draco replied icily.
"You control the demon within not me. What is your choice?"
"I choose Hermione but I can't get her back alone." Draco confessed at last with her wand wavering in his hand. The strain of the fight was getting too intense to hold back the opposing force from within.
"Then you're going to have to trust me and..." Blaise trailed off before finishing
"And what?" the blonde questioned eagerly.
"And....forgive me." he finished with slumped shoulders knowing the danger was passing but the guilt was taking its place.
Draco was about to reply as the pitter patter of feet began to resound through the hallways just outside the door.
"We need to go somewhere else to finish this, will you help me?"
"As you wish, old friend. But on one condition."
"Whatever you want but we'll discuss that after we leave." Draco answered before grabbing Blaise by the shoulders and leading him to the window.
"What are you dooooooiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnggggg......." Blaise screamed as Draco pulled them both through the window and both started to plummet to the ground.
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In the Room of Requirement, Tara stood at the front of the room with Harry waiting for everyone else to get comfortable because they would need everyone's full attention for this. Harry was staring at her in anticipation of her explanation that she had promised him. Even with his frustration with her and her secrets, he found himself in awe of the calm and take charge manner that reminded him of Hermione wrapped in a smaller and darker figure. The women in his life always seemed shock and amaze him with their calming grace and self assurance despite the amount of confusion or danger. As the din of the crowd began to subside, Harry watched her display of force while she garnered everyones attention with a single word.
"Ready?" she bellowed to the group.
All idle conversation and chatter ceased at once and faces of all in the room focused on her instantly. Commanding this band of students would require all of her patience and tact, she instructed herself systemically.
"We are here today at the request of the Headmaster to organize groups to patrol and research recent events that could threaten the safety of Hogwarts and its occupants. Should you agree to participate, we ask for your full attention and effort to the task for which you are assigned. Anything told to you or discussed in this room must say within its members and cannot be shared with the other facility or students, understood?" she directed firmly.
"What is this threat?" Mel asked while others were nodding their heads in agreement to Tara proposition.
"If this is so important, why is the Headmaster entrusting this to us instead of the teachers and the Ministry?" Rachel, a fifth year prefect from Gryffindor, called out too.
"We will answer all your questions in due time but first we have to establish who wants in and who wants out." Tara explained quickily to avoid chaos.
"We need to know if anyone wants to leave now for it will be your last chance." Harry clarified for her. Seeing that no one had made any move to leave, Tara resigned herself to begin her task.
"First, following the Final Battle this spring, the Order with the consent of the Ministry put us all under memory charms to allow us time to deal with the death of our classmates. That charm is being reversed now so everyone will begin to have flashes of memories long since forgotten. If you have any problems with your memories, please let us and Madam Pomfrey know so that we can help you through this."
"They did what?" Tixa screamed along with several others.
"QUIET..." Tara shouted above the raised and outraged group. "Listen now, ask questions and be angry later, ok?"
A series of "yes" and "ok" followed from the group as they realized that this was only the beginning of the story.
"Next, for those of you who remember Draco Malfoy, he was believed to be dead after the battle but it has come to our attention that he is not. He returned to the school hospital wing late last night and is being attended to as we speak. Part of our research will involve finding out what happened to him and how he came back here." Tara went on.
"But You-Know-Who is dead, right" Mary-Kate, a slytherin prefect, asked nervously having feared retribution following her helping the light side in the Final Battle.
"Yes, however, we do know that he has made in an artform to return on many occasions so we can't rule out a return right now." she answered and then waited for the reaction that she knew was to follow.
"When will we remember all of this?" Mel shouted out to her again.
"Soon but it won't be pleasant, nor will the rest of this meeting be unless you all calm down and let us finish." she replied in frustration. How would they possibly be able to organize all this with only the help of scared children with no real understanding of the danger they were all in, her sighed to herself while looking at her co-conspirators Harry, Ron and Katie.
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The footsteps echoed through the hallway as Dumbledore and Narcissa made their way to the hospital wing. Narcissa couldn't stop the constant fidgeting of her hands on her robes because of the butterflies in her stomach at the prospect of seeing her son alive and well again. She had finally convinced herself that he was gone and it was time to move on when she received the owl from the Headmaster requesting a meeting with her which made this all more difficult to comprehend. However, the hardest part of this all was the fact that it may not be the Draco she knew. Would she be able to let him go again if he is evil or would her motherly instincts prevent her from being objective?
"Albus." she called out faintly.
"Yes?"
"I don't think that I should see him until we know for sure that it is him."
"I understand your apprehension Narcissa but, without the help of Mr. Zabini or Miss Granger, you may be our only way of knowing if it is really him." Dumbledore began gently. "Who better to know him than his own mother?"
"I know but if I see him again, I'm afraid that I will not be able to be objective. He's my only child, Albus, how can I turn my back on him?" she pleaded.
"We faced the same issues with Lucius and I was hoping that you might have learned the dangers of turning a blind eye but I guess I was wrong." he stopped abruptly and turned to face her. "If he has been compromised, we could lose as many lives if he is and we have to fight him. Are you prepared for that?"
"I am more than happy to help but if I see him than my loyalities would lie with my son and not the ministry. Are you prepared to face my choice?" she questioned.
"We have considered this and we sympathize with you situation but it really is our only option so I guess we are."
"Or maybe I could work on helping to get Miss Granger or Blaise back for you. Limit my access to my son until we have more information." she suggested more from fear than convience.
"Perhaps, let's visit with Poppy first and get the update on the others first then we talk more about how to resolve this." Dumbledore agreed.
With a simple nod from Narcissa, the two continued on their way to the hospital wing when they were distracted by the sound of a resounding cry coming from the window. Dumbledore ran to the window just in time to see two cloaked figures in free fall to the school grounds but he was about to call out a suspension spell, he noticed that the two were caught by a broom and then zoomed off into the night. This defiantly complicates matters, he thought to himself as he turned around to two startled faces and an array of questions which he actually had no answers to.
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As the broom came from nowhere and caught the two young men, it was Blaise who most relieved after believing that Draco had just killed them both. He was still however, trying to slow the pounding in his chest when Draco finally spoke.
"Quite the rush wasn't it?" Draco panted as he looked behind him and into Blaise's horrified face.
"Crazy git...you could have killed me."
"Fear is not becoming on you old man."
"Arsehole. Where are we going?" Blaise asked now that he was calm.
"The Hog's Head." Draco replied flatly.
"Who are we looking for Draco?"
"A little information on the person that Hades really wants."
"Who is it?"
"I can't tell you right now."
"Why? I can't help you if I don't know who we're going after."
"Just know this....it's someone we both know and we'll have to go through Potter to get em." Draco explained.
With that Blaise pulled away from Draco half tempted to leap from the low flying broom. Draco could feel his friend's jerking motion and knew the thoughts that had to be going through his head so he landed the broom in a clearing to face him.
"I don't have a choice. It's this person or Hermione at this point."
"Who is it?"
"I can give you but one hint."
"Alright. Have at it." Blaise stood glaring at him.
"It's someone that means everything and nothing to each of us. Someone who's mere presence altered the course of the war. They were never meant to be and now I have to help ratify that situation." Obviously from Blaise's reaction, he would have preferred a description of the person.
"C'mon now Draco, at least tell if its a he or she." Blaise pleaded.
"Can't....that's the only hint I can give....for now." And then Draco mounted the broom and waited to see if Blaise was going to join him. Just as he was about to take off without him, he felt the extra weight upon the broom and smile inwardly at the knowledge that he was not alone.
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Tara was about to begin talking to the assembled group again when she saw the door to the room open and the Headmaster along with Draco's mother entered the room. Upon seeing the newest additions to the meeting, everyone stopped bickering and turned to see what the Headmaster was going to say.
"We have some troubling news for everyone." Dumbledore began. "Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Zabini have left the school grounds and we are going to need some of you to come and help us to try and locate them. We will teaching those who join us some advanced locating spells so only 6th and 7th years are allowed. In addition, whatever you observe must stay in the strictest of confidence. Are their any volunteers?"
Immediately a barrage of hands shot in the air but the ones chosen for the task at hand were Pavarti, Neville, Tixa and Justin Finch-Findley. After they all left the room, Tara quickly adjourned the meeting and asked for everyone to return the following evening after they were able to gain more information for them. Harry faced Tara when everyone had left and asked the question that was plaguing all the other minds as well.
"What was that all about?"
"Did you sense it too?" she asked him in return.
"Sense what?" Harry countered as Tara realized that it wasn't her vamp senses going crazy, it was the empathy.
"Dumbledore's hiding something. I think that we should pay a visit to the hospital wing and let me see what's in Hermione's subconscience."
"I disagree, I think that we need to follow the Headmasters orders." Katie stated defiantly.
"We have to find out what's going on and Dumbledore's already proven that he can and will lie to us." Harry reasoned.
"They were just trying to protect us. Can't see what going out on a limb has done to us?"
"What do you mean?" Tara shot back.
"Draco back and possibly dangerous. Hermione's in a coma. Blaise is...well we don't what he is but I don't think that I want to find out. Why can't we just go back to how it was before we started meddling in things that we none of our business?" Katie cried out.
"Calm down there drama queen. Everything's under control we just need more information." Tara joked.
"I hate you. You really are evil, did you know that?" Katie fumed.
"That attitude didn't do much for Cheyan, you know?" At the mention of Cheyan in such a way, Katie lunged at Tara ready to rip her limb from limb. Harry grabbed a hold of Tara and Ron grabbed onto Katie trying to calm each of the girls down before they killed each other.
"Stop this now. We have to Hermione and we both of you to do it, understand?" Harry shouted the two girls mercilessly.
"I won't help that...that....vampire freak!" Katie screamed and ran from the room leaving the others with their jaws dropped wide.
Author's Notes:
Sorry that this took so long but I hope that you enjoyed it....more coming soon....cliffies beware.
Please remember to read and review.
