Chapter 12: This and That

The next morning, Severus walked into the boys' room to find them both
peacefully asleep in each others arms. He had to work very hard not to
laugh at the irony of the picture, he figured they both were too tired
to see where they were going so they ended up in the same bed. He was
going to wake them up for breakfast, but he thought it would be amusing
to let them wake up on their own.

Walking out quietly, to start making breakfast, knowing that the aroma
of food would wake one of them up eventually Severus couldn't help
thinking how cut they looked together.
Not fifteen minutes after he had started making breakfast, a noise
coming from the room alerted him that at least one of the boys had
awakened.

He walked over to the door to find Draco sitting up staring down at
Harry, a dreamy expression filtering through his face.
Severus cleared his throat and Draco looked up embarrassedly.

"Morning Sev, why didn't you wake me up before, and what am I doing in
this bed?"

Severus raised an amused eyebrow before answering, "What, you don't
remember? I woke you up last night from the chair so you could come in
here to sleep in your bed. I daresay you should have watched where you
were going, it would have saved you some embarrassment."

Draco just glared while trying to get out of bed slowly so he didn't
wake up Harry.  Of course, whenever someone tries to do this it goes
just the opposite.  So of course, Harry woke up to find Draco leaning
over him with his arms slightly draped across him. Both boys froze
staring into each other's eyes before Severus interrupted them.

"Breakfast will be serve in a few moments you two, I suggest you get
changed beforehand because we'll probably get a visit from the
Headmaster."

Harry and Draco both jumped apart after Severus left, both blushing,
Harry more so than Draco.

"You can go ahead and use the bathroom Harry, I'll use the bedroom."
Draco mutters softly as he went over to the trunk in the corner of the
room with the initials D.M. on the front.

"Thanks," Harry muttered just as softly, after opening his trunk and
getting his clothes, he headed towards the bathroom.
*~*~*~*~*

As Severus just finished setting the food on the table, both boys
entered the kitchen a little more awake, neither of them looking at
each other.

Severus just laughed mentally at the absurdity of the boys' behavior
before silently sitting down and serving himself some of the omelettes
he had made.

"So, how did you two boys sleep?" He asked after ten minutes of
silence.

Both boys looked at each other before looking down quickly blushing
red.

Draco cleared his throat while reaching for some toast before
answering regularly, "I slept great, how about you, Harry?"

Harry answered, trying to keep the nervousness out of his voice, "Oh,
umm, fine, just fine." He shot Draco a small smile that Draco barely
caught, but didn't say anything about it, knowing he would only be
mercifully teased by Severus who was now engrossed in the Daily Prophet
that had appeared on the table.

Harry looked around the kitchen table once again, noticing there was a
lot of muggle machines, but no outlets or plugs or anything, Draco
noticing the confused look on Harry's face explained quietly.

"You know that no electricity or whatever it's called can be used at
Hogwarts anyways, they are run on magic.  Some old wizard was charged by
the Misuse of Magic in the Ministry when his stove was found to burn
cold fire. Anyways, after a while, he died, and his daughter got a
hold of all his possessions.

"When she was going through it all, she found lots of things that had
been tampered with to allow them to run on magic. It's easy to see
what she did with the knowledge, isn't it?"

Harry looked interested in the story before thinking on the question
that was asked. He knew Draco was asking this for a reason, probably
testing him in some way, but Harry had no idea why. Maybe he should
say what he would do, or maybe what she should do with the items.

Shaking his head, Harry decided just to answer whatever came to mind.
Severus, who had finished the Daily Prophet, watched this with
interest, he knew what Draco was asking, and he himself was a Slytherin
after all.

"Well," Harry began, "I think before all this happened, with the
Dursleys that is, I would answer differently, but I now know what human
nature is really like. There might be some exceptions, but everyone
has their evil side, the one that tells them to commit crime and all
that. Anyways, I'll have to say that she either went straight to the
Ministry and turned the stuff in and then someone else found it and put
use to it, or she took the stuff back to her house to figure out how it
all worked.

"She then would bring it to the Ministry saying she was experimenting
for something or another and discovered a way in which Muggle
contraptions could be used in magically sustained homes. The Ministry,
since it's blinded by greed, would then believe her story, thinking
only of the profit that the machines would bring them. The woman would
then go home quite a few Galleons richer."  Draco and Severus just sat
there stunned, sure Draco had asked him that question, but they both
thought he would answer with a Gryffindor answer, not something that a
Slytherin might say.  Harry looked between Severus and Draco before
finally getting fed up,

"Well, what is it? What did I say?"

Severus blinked before realizing what Harry had just asked. "Well,
what you just said would be considered something a Slytherin would say
if they were asked that question. I don't know if you realized it, but
Draco was testing you, only to see how you thought on questions like
that and how you perceived human nature. Needless to say, you
surprised both of us because that was a very Slytherin thing to say.

"We were expecting an answer along the lines of 'she was so generous
that she went straight to the Ministry and turned the stuff in, in
return the Ministry thanked her and she went on her way back home.
Then later another Ministry worker would stumble upon the machines and
see them for what they should really mean.' Are you certain that
you're in the right house?" Severus asked lightly, only to be
completely surprised by Harry's answer.

"Actually, I'm surprised the Headmaster didn't tell you what almost
happened. The night of the sorting, I had to argue with the hat not to
put me into Slytherin.  The only thing I knew about the house was from
the other students saying it was the evil house and then again, Draco
here had just been sorted into Slytherin. You can say we already
despised each other so I refused to go into that House.  After a little
while the hat relented and allowed me into Gryffindor.

"He told me I could have been great in Slytherin, and that the house
was sure to show me my path to greatness. You can be sure to know that
that scared me, after all, I knew so little of the wizarding world
then, I didn't want to become great or anything, especially if it was
going to be because I was evil."

Severus and Draco sat there, allowing the information to sink in.
After a while Draco looked up, an uneasy look in his eyes.

"Harry, you know that I'm not him, or rather, not the Draco from back
then don't you?"

Harry looked confused before realizing what Draco meant, "Yeah, I
know, you've changed, rather, you have finally become yourself. I also
know we were both foolish back then and we all made mistakes.  Besides,
I already thought we went through all of this didn't we?"

"Actually, we didn't, it was more of a mutual understanding."

"Well, there ya go, it was mutual so why did we have to talk about it?"

"God, here we go again, the Gryffindor stupidity strikes again."

"Hey, I thought you said I was just worthy to be a Slytherin!"

"Yeah, that was before you opened your mouth to allow your Gryffindor
side to show again."

Harry just opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before
settling on glaring, his bottom lip poking out slightly.

Draco just smirked before his eyes fell down to Harry's mouth. 'God,
he looks so kissable right now.  Wait!  I can't kiss him, not now,
probably not ever.' He thought to himself before both boys were
knocked out of their slight glaring contest.  Severus was laughing
quietly at the boys' antics.

This only turned their glares onto him which made him laugh even more,
before they knew it, all three of them were laughing, breakfast totally
forgotten.
*~*~*~*~*

Thousands miles away, a group of black cloaked figures were standing
around a throne. A large snake was seated at its foot while a man,
pale as snow, but no where near as pure sat upon the chair.
After a long period of silence, he spoke, his voice coming out
sounding closely like a hiss.

"Welcome my faithful Death Eaters. You are the only ones I'm sure of
your trust, however, you are still not forgiven for abandoning me like
you did. Malfoy! What is this that I hear about your son?"

"My Lord, he escaped somehow, I had him locked in one of the dungeons,
and he must have had some way of escape."

"Silence.  That is enough excuses for yourself, if you fail me one more
time you will be punished. Wormtail, how has your spying been coming?"

"N-nothing new has be-been spotted my Lord, ex-e-except for S-Snape,
he has been s-seeing Albus frequently, also, D-Draco Malfoy is within
H-Hogwarts along with H-H-Harry P-Potter My Lord."

The Dark Lord sat in his chair, going over the information he had just
received.  He suspected Snape was a traitor ever since he tried stopping
Quirrell from getting the Sorcerer's Stone four years ago.

"I see, Lucius, how did your son get to Hogwarts?" Voldemort said
softly.

"I do not know my Lord, perhaps he had some help from an out-"
Lucius was cut off from finishing with a lazy Crucio from Voldemort,
after a few minutes of watching Lucius writhe on the floor, Voldemort
lifted the curse.

"I do not appreciate you trying to force the blame on others for your
obvious mistake. One more mistake Lucius, and Nagina shall be fed to
her hearts content."

Lucius stood up, shaken.  "Yes My Lord."

Voldemort nodded his head once. "Anyways, since I was, unable to
watch my followers for so long, you all shall have separate tasks to
complete, no one but yourselves and myself will know what they are, so
if you fall you shall be considered a traitor and will be punished
accordingly."

A shiver went through the entire group of people.  They had seen the
torture Voldemort had used on past traitors.

"Anyways, as to what we will do about Snape. Does anyone here wish to
say something?"

A person towards the back slowly made their way forward, bending to
kiss the hem of Voldemort's robes before kneeling to speak.

Voldemort nodded his head and a soft, male voice spoke from beneath a
white mask.

"My Lord, at the end of the year, I received information that he is
somehow tied to Dumbledore. I believe he is in his secret order, and
has been spying on you from before your, umm-" the man trailed off,
not quite sure how to speak of his Lord's downfall.

Voldemort look slightly irritated before showing no emotion, "since
you are new, I shall not punish you for your inability to speak
properly. You shall all refer to the time period I was gone as my
temporary absence."

"Thank you my lord," the cloaked figure replied before backing back up
into the crowd once again, but not before seeing a lock of red hair
fall past his mask.

"As to Severus Snape, I have always suspected him of betrayal, but he
was most invaluable in his art, everyone here must not show that we
know of his betrayal. Continue on acting normally around him, we shall
need his expertise for a little while longer before we can extract
revenge."

A loud cheer went up from the people, all looking forward to a night
of fun with the traitor.

Voldemort held up a hand, "Wormtail, have you gotten the scrolls yet?"

"N-no my Lord, the temple is g-guarded th-thoroughly, they don't
a-allow a fly into it, n-ne-never mind a r-rat."

"I see.  Lucius, Crabbe, Goyle, help Wormtail out in breaking into that
temple, I need those scrolls before we attack."

"Yes My Lord," they replied, all bowing to their master.

"Yes, you're all dismissed, I'll call you when I need you again."

"Yes my Lord, thank you my Lord," resounded through the room as one by
one they all disappeared with a pop, all but one, who was standing off
to the side in the shadows.

"Wormtail, next time, bring me better information. Crucio." As
Wormtail fell to the floor twitching in pain, screaming, Voldemort
laughed a high cruel laugh.

TBC-

AN:  Sorry this chapter is a little short, but I already have the next one done…but I didn't have anything to put in here without the chapter being way to long….but the next chapter is finished so I'll just put that up too.

Anyways, sorry about the delay, AOL was being a prat and shut off for a week, and then when it got turned back on it crashed….so I now have a new e-mail address and AIM…Anyways, thanks to my beta, I'm problem free in my grammar now ^.~…aren't you happy?

LOL, umm….tell me what you think, ttyl bbye  R&R!

PS: if anyone sees any problem or has any questions, feel free to ask me, my e-mail is valley59@adelphia.net and my AIM is Sevvie Rules   umm…I think that's it, hope you liked this chapter.