Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns everything in this story except for Orlando Baragon, Anna Ominous, the Spiritus Apographon, and of course the plot.
The Filth in Purity
Chapter 12: Something in Common
Draco ran his hand along the ebony black handle of his new treasure, Parilis, the Scythe of Salazar Slytherin. According to Dumbledore, he was now the heir of Slytherin.
That brought his mind to another horrible thought. If his aunt Lavinnia discovered Parilis was gone and told the Dark Lord……
Draco shuddered. Even though Voldemort had been resurrected, Parilis still viewed him as dead. The Dark Lord did not like competition for power. If he found out Draco was now in control of Parilis, Voldemort would permanently remove the competition. Draco did not want to die.
"Why did I take this stupid thing with me? It's only going to get me killed." Draco hissed at himself. His roommate Blaise Zabini was currently talking to some girls in the common room, so there was no one to hear him.
Because you couldn't bear to leave Parilis in the house with that woman. A logical voice called in the back of Draco's mind. More than that, you couldn't stand to be without it at all.
Draco took in a deep breath as it occurred to him that Parilis was like that ring in a book he once read. Everyone desired to have it, and no one could resist its enticing call, just as he could not resist Parilis. And everyone who was taken over by the ring ultimately ended up dead.
Draco shut the lid to Parilis' box, hiding the weapon from view. He would not let a mere object get control of him. Well, maybe just one more peek….
"Malfoy? You in there?" The familiar voice of Orlando Baragon and knocking sound came from the other side of the door.
"Great, I was wondering since you're back early would you like to get some extra practice in?" Since it was an unscheduled time, Orlando was asking if Draco wanted to, not demanding.
For once, extra Quidditch practice sounded good. It would help him clear his mind of troubles, and force him away from Parilis for a while.
"Yes, yes I think that's a good idea. Just give me a few minutes to get dressed." Draco called so Orlando could hear him through the door.
"All right I meet you in the common room."
When Draco heard Orlando's footsteps fade, he quickly slipped Parilis' box under his bed, and then went to his closet to change into his Quidditch Uniform.
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The new heir of Slytherin. Snape gazed around at the students as he walked through the Slytherin common room. Which one of them could it be?
The Slytherin students shrank under his piercing gaze. Their head of house seemed to be in a bad mood and decided it was best to just lay down low.
At the other end of the room he noticed Orlando Baragon had his broomstick across his shoulders and was talking animatedly to Draco Malfoy who was putting his shin guards on. Those two were prime suspects to be the heir.
Orlando Baragon, his family was considered "new money" due to the fact they had made their fortune instead of inheriting it. Snape did not know much about Orlando's family background, just that Orlando's mother was from an old Italian family, and his father, a British native, had started Baragon Broomsticks. Orlando himself was a top student with enormous ambition, not only was he pushing to win the Quidditch Cup, he was also grooming himself to take over as head of Baragon Broomsticks when his father wanted to retire. Snape vaguely remembered Orlando's older sister Veda, she had attended Hogwart's at the same time he himself had.
"Malfoy, Baragon." Professor Snape addressed the two boys.
"Greetings Professor, how are you this fine Sunday?" There was some sarcasm in Orlando's voice, now that it was December, the weather was growing cold.
"Quidditch practice instead of studying, I see." Snape crossed his arms over his chest.
Snape looked over the two boys very carefully.
"If you mean my potions homework, it's already done." Orlando smiled proudly. "Though I can't speak for Malfoy."
Snape's gaze shifted to the blonde haired Slytherin.
"It's done." Draco said shortly, keeping his eyes on strapping on his shin guards.
"But is it done well?" Snape was doing his usual stare down to try get Draco to look at him. Much to Snape's dismay though not to his surprise, Draco had long since been immune to such things. His father had given him as many doses of stare downs as often as possible.
The head of Slytherin was about to demand that Draco should pay attention, when Orlando chuckled. Snape turned his attentions to the Baragon boy and raised a questioning eyebrow.
"Sorry Professor, I was just thinking. Everyone thinks we Slytherins have it so easy because you are our head of house, but really they only have you breathing down their necks in class, while we have you doing it to us all the time." Orlando chuckled again.
"And you best bare that in mind Mr. Baragon!" Snape put his hands on the arms of the chair on either side of Orlando and glared down at him. "I will not stand for my own students making me an object of their jokes. And if you continue to do so you will find yourself dire consequences, do I make myself clear?"
"Crystal." Orlando gulped. Snape was one of the very, very few people who could intimidate Orlando Baragon without pointing a wand in his face. Mainly because Snape was one of those people who held Orlando's future in the palm of his head.
Draco, who had finally finished with his shin guards, looked up in surprise. Usually Snape would have passed Orlando's comment off with smirk and a mock warning, but this time he was serious. Draco had seen Snape in a mood like this before when he was at Malfoy Manor. The Professor usually acted like this when he was trying to find something and wasn't succeeding, which frustrated him to no end and made him lash out at everyone even his own students.
If Snape was still in this mood Monday morning, if he was this bad to his own students, Draco could only imagine what the Professor would be like to the Gryffindors, Potter in particular. Draco almost felt sorry for Potter...almost.
"Tell me Baragon, do you speak Parsaltongue?" Snape asked as he straightened up again.
"I—I-beg your pardon?" Orlando was still shaken from Snape reprimanding him, so he was taken completely off guard by this question.
Draco felt his breath catch in his throat. That's what Snape was looking for, he was looking for the heir Slytherin. Draco couldn't remember if his father had told Snape that he could talk to snakes.
But Dumbledore couldn't have told him I was the heir, otherwise he would have come and confronted me directly. Draco thought. I didn't ask Dumbledore to not say anything about Parilis, apparently he found the loop hole in that promise. Heh. The old coot would make a good Slytherin if he put his mind to it.
"I remember your sister being one." Snape said coolly to Baragon.
"Yes, Veda was one." Orlando said slowly, furrowing his brow, trying figure out what Snape was getting at. He remembered his sister Veda mentioning Snape was one of her peers when she was at school.
"But not me. In fact I got jealous that she could talk to snakes and not me." Orlando tried to sound casual to lighten the mood, but was failing miserably.
" Amusing." Snape didn't sound amused at all as he turned his attention to Draco.
"And what about you Malfoy?"
Draco cringed on the inside, but managed to keep his face straight. This was bad, he didn't want to lie Snape, but he couldn't tell the truth either. Snape was a Deatheater like his father, he would tell Voldemort that Draco was the new heir of Slytherin.
"With all due respect sir." Orlando inadvertantly came to Draco's rescue. "Draco and I must get out to practice while there is still light. I mean you want us to beat the Gryffindors in January don't you? Get the trophy back from McGonagall?"
"Yes." Snape said slowly, keeping eyes on Draco. Draco had by this time put on the impenetrable Malfoy mask of indifference. "I grow tired of seeing the Quidditch Cup on McGonagall's desk. Proceed."
"Just a minute Professor I was wondering if there was any further information on who or what attacked me." Draco finally spoke.
"As I've told you we have long since sent the evidence gathered from the scene of your attack, but with the Dark Lord's remergence The Department of Magic Forensics is backed up, investing recent death's for the Dark Lord's touch."
"I can imagine." Draco said darkly. "On a different note, if you have the time could you teach me how to brew the pain killer potion you make for me, that way I wouldn't have to bother you about it all the time."
"I'll have to think about it. The main purpose of distributing the potion to you myself is to make sure you don't overdose." Snape said seriously.
"Heh. Come now Professor I haven't gotten that desperate to avoid my exams." Draco smirked.
"I'll think about it." Snape said in the tone of voice that usually meant "I'll think about it," was a euphamism for "no way in hell."
Draco nodded and walked past Snape to join Orlando in walking towards the door.
"Professor," Orlando stopped, "I'm sorry for my comment back there, I did not mean any offense really. It just sort of slipped out in the moment."
"You are forgiven." Sanpe said coldly. "Now go prepare yourselves for getting that trophy back."
"Yes, sir!" Orlando nodded, and he and Draco continued toward the door.
Snape stared at the two boys as they left the common room. The conversation had crossed out Orlando as a possibility. The heir of Slytherin would be a Parsalmouth, Salazar Slytherin was a Parsalmouth, as well as his former heir Voldemort. Orlando was not, Draco on the other hand...
It couldn't be Draco. Lucius would have told him if Draco was a Parsalmouth, right?
Snape shook the idea to the back of his head for later contemplation, as he went off to interrogate the rest of his students.
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"You okay?" Orlando asked with some concern in his voice as he and Draco crossed the courtyard to the outside gate.
"Why do you ask?" Draco looked at him suspiciously.
"Just, I don't know, it just seems like your shoulders have a lot of weight on them." Orlando shrugged, but the concern never left his face.
"You have no idea." Draco muttered.
"Well, do you want to give me an idea, or just keep it to yourself?"
"I'll keep it to myself right now. Maybe later I'll give you an idea, but I don't feel like talking about it now." Draco down at the ground.
"All right, suit yourself." Orlando tried to sound casual, but he couldn't completely hide his curiosity to find out what was eating Draco.
"So what about this sister of yours?" Draco asked, eager to steer the conversation away from him. "You you mentioned her an number of times, but that's all."
"My older sister Veda, she attended Hogwarts too. She's much older I should say, 15 years my senior." Orlando spoke in casual voice, but Draco noticed an underlying tone to it, that sounded almost like...sorrow.
"If she's your older sister then who's that little girl I've seen running around your house when the team has been there to practice over the holidays." Draco raised an eyebrow.
"That's her daughter, Olivia." Orlando smiled, but it was rimmed with a slight sadness.
"Why haven't I seen your sister around?" Draco asked carefully.
Orlando's smile faded, and he looked down at the ground, but continued walking, until they had reached the small hill overlooking the lake, where they had been holding their extra snitch-catching practices. He stopped and took in a deep breath.
"She..."
Orlando had hardly begun when there came a strange beeping sound. Draco had heard it before a few times only when he was in muggle crowded areas like the train station. What followed was someone picking up a small metal contraption, putting it to their ear and saying "hello."
To Draco's utter shock, Orlando did just that.
"Hello?" Orlando spoke into the metal contraption. "This better be important."
Draco watched curiously as Baragon spoke then paused as if waiting for someone else to speak. Apparently someone did, for Orlando answered.
"Oh, you've got to be joking." Orlando sounded exasperated, obviously something had gone wrong.
"Damn. Just a moment."
Orlando turned to Draco, putting his hand over what Draco guessed was the mouth piece for the contraption.
"Draco I've got to solve a business crisis. Can you amuse yourself for awhile?" Orlando suddenly looked very tired and his eyes almost pleaded with Draco to just cooperate without dispute or insult.
"All right." Draco agreed, he had some things to think over himself. "I'll be by the lake. By the way, what is that thing?"
"It's a cell phone, you can talk to someone miles away with it. I'll tell you all about it later." Orlando smiled and continued his conversation.
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Harry Potter gloomily walked up the small hill near the lake, he liked going there when he had troubles on his mind. He'd let Hedwig fly around just for fun and sit and watch the gentle movements of the water.
However he did not expect to see the captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team, pacing around the top of the hill, talking on his cell phone.
"Um. Excuse me." Harry approached the Slytherin.
"Just a minute." Baragon spoke into the phone, then turned to Harry and snapped, "What?"
"How does your phone work here? I thought electronics couldn't work on Hogwarts grounds." Harry furrowed his brow.
"It's magically enhanced, now... now go away." Baragon said hurriedly putting the phone back up to his ear
Harry shrugged and continued down towards the lake. He felt all of his muscles tense up and his jaw clench when he caught sight of a familiar blonde figure standing at the edge of the lake, throwing stones at some the large rocks sticking out of the water.
Draco took aim carefully, he threw the stone so hard that it took off a bit of the rock when it hit.
"Nice shot." Harry called out to him.
Draco, obviously recognizing the voice, whirled around as to not be caught off guard if a hex was coming his way. However, seeing as Harry did not have his wand out or looked as if he was making a move to get it, Draco smirked.
"It's easy when you are aiming for someone you hate."
"Sorry?" Harry raised his eyebrows in confusion.
"Merlin, you are so dense, Potter." Draco rolled his eyes and turned back to face the lake. "I can't fight back against the people I hate without being punished, so I use my imagination and pretend the rocks are the people I hate."
Harry mulled this over in his mind and decided it wasn't such a bad idea, goodness knows he had a few people he hated, but couldn't fight back against.
"Mind if I join you? Or do I have to go on the other side lake?" Harry asked in a deadpan voice as he walked to the edge of the lake.
"Frankly Potter I don't a damn what you do." Draco said in an exasperated voice.
"Fine, just stay out of my way." Harry snapped.
Draco's narrowed his eyes, but said nothing.
Harry picked up a stone and aimed for a particularly fat rock. His aim was dead on and even caused a few cracks in the rock.
"Who was that?" Draco asked, looking amused.
"Why do you care?" Harry snorted.
"Fine be that way." Draco spat.
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence, then Harry let out a sigh and answered.
"My cousin."
"Really?" Malfoy smirked. "And what did this cousin do to irk Saint Potter so?"
"Don't call me that!" Harry snarled rounding on Draco. "For your information my cousin Dudley and his parents, my "guardians," have made my life miserable for the past fifteen years!"
Draco frowned, his eyes widening a little in surprise, but then they narrowed and he turned his attention back to the lake.
"At least you don't have an aunt who puts the Cruciatus Curse on you at the slightest transgression."
"Maybe not, my aunt and uncle only made me live in a cupboard for the first 10 years. Ten miserable years." Harry spat.
"A cupboard? You're joking." Draco's eyes widened slightly in shock.
"I wish I was." Harry's jaw clenched and unclenched, as he threw another stone into the lake.
" And Dumbledore hasn't done anything?" Draco raised an eyebrow.
Harry hesitated for a moment, he didn't want to insult Dumbledore in front of Malfoy.
"He has no choice, I have no choice. I have to go there because..." Harry stopped, the lump rising in his throat growing painful. He was afraid if he opened his mouth either a scream or a sob would come out, neither of which he wanted to do in front of Malfoy.
"Oh good you two haven't torn each other's heads off ." Orlando walked down the hill toward the two boys, "Well done Malfoy."
Harry turned and walked away without saying a word.
"What's his problem?" Orlando furrowed his brow as he watched Harry go.
"His life I think." Draco muttered, throwing another stone.
Harry stormed up the small hill heading back towards Hogwarts. Though he felt a little better knowing Malfoy was just as miserable as he was. He stopped and looked up at the sky. The sun was beginning it's descent into the west, in a few hours the stars would be would be shining brightly. Harry began to shake slightly as he tried to hold back tears at the thought of one star. The brightest star in the winter skies, Sirius...
Sobbing over stars? Harry thought. I'm falling apart. I can't do this alone. How can they expect me to be strong for everyone else when I can't even be strong for myself? If I could just see Sirius one more time, tell him I'm sorry, maybe I could be strong.
Harry snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the faint sound of a dog barking ahead of him. He opened his eyes and looked in the direction it had come from. He saw nothing. At first, he thought the bark was just a delusion, but then in the distance he saw a dark shape escape the surrounding forbidden forest.
Harry pulled out his wand as it drew closer, he identified it to definitely be a big black bear like dog. He felt the lump rise again in his throat, this dog looked exactly like his godfather's animagus.
The dog stopped and sat down in front of him, wagging its tail vigorously. Harry let a weak smile creep across his face in response. It was then he noticed there was a collar around the dog's neck.
"Who do you belong to?" Harry knelled down and carefully reached out toward the small gold plate that hung around the dog's neck.
The gold identity tag read:
Name: Padfoot
Owner: Harry Potter.
Harry felt as if his heart had stopped.
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smiles evilly Cliffhanger! Sorry for the long wait, I hope this next chapter makes up for it. This was a hard chapter to write, so many different things went on in this chapter.