Chapter 2

Indeed, Draco Malfoy was standing behind Tonks, looking thoroughly angry, though not a fraction of what Harry was feeling. But before Harry could even open his mouth, a voice came thundering into the room.

"BOY! WHAT ARE ALL THESE FREAKS DOING HERE?" Harry turned on his Uncle angrily, pointing his wand at the beefy man.

"You—listen—to—me. I didn't choose to be here, okay? I know you didn't either, but for God's sake, you're the only bloody family I have! Can't you at least leave me alone? I'm going to leave in two days and never come here again, for the rest of my life!" The large man purpled.

"You dare speak to me that way?" the Muggle demanded. "YOU DARE? We took you in! After all that your stupid mother did to Petunia… We took you in! Fed you! And you, always having owls following you, and freaks jumping into the house whenever they want! You sent a ruddy snake after Dudley! You had those horrible dementy things come here! And I'm sick of it! What did we do to deserve you and your baggage? You, who've darkened our doorstep for sixteen years!"

Harry was fuming and humiliated. A rush of feelings as a child came back to him… being given that awful hair cut, being chased and landing on top of a building… it all came back to Voldemort and his stupid Aunt and Uncle. Harry wasn't even aware that the ground was shaking, absorbed as he was into his own horrible feelings.

"Er—Harry? Why don't we leave this for another time," began Tonks tentatively. "We really need to talk, and—"

"How the hell can you say that you took me in?" Harry demanded. "Your son used me as a Punching bag for years. YOU told him to!"

"I most certainly did not! You were a freak, he was teaching you a lesson!"

Harry noticed that Petunia and Dudley had entered the room and were staring at everyone in the room with trepidation.

"You—I was laboring for you since I could walk! Making breakfast, mowing the lawn… I was three! I wore clothes that were five sizes too big, my glasses were fixed with tape—"

"You should have been grateful!" roared Vernon. "At least you had clothes! You were a pitiful boy, always making things happen! And we had to explain you to neighbors, make lies for you—"

"YOU MADE ME LIVE IN A CUPBOARD!" screamed Harry.

"Harry," began Hermione, "Really! Just take a deep breath, calm—" Harry thunderously ran over to his broom cupboard, blinded, his heart thumping with anger and hatred. He grabbed the handle, and threw it open.

"THERE! I slept there until I went to Hogwarts! That was my room! They—YOU—locked me in there! In a bloody cupboard, and I slept with spiders, and it was always dark, and stuffy—You had to cover up your own lies, you coward! If only I'd told someone, then I'd have had a normal childhood and you'd have been in jail!" Harry looked around finally, lowering his wand, and panting. Ron, Hermione, Tonks, and even Malfoy, were all looking at Vernon Dursley with disgust. Harry hadn't realized that he'd never told Ron or Hermione about the cupboard. He took a deep breath and was about to speak, when Tonks spoke instead, in a threatening tone.

"You are sick, you know that, Muggle? Absolutely disgusting! How could you treat a child like that? Do you know what, don't answer that. Get out of this house before you get hexed to your grave! Get out! All of you! You can come back later, when we're gone. Then Harry can deal with you…." The Dursleys looked angry, that was certain, and Vernon's mouth twitched as if he wanted to say something to the woman with pink hair, but thought better of it. A minute later, the car screeched in the driveway, and the Dursleys were gone.

Everyone was still staring at Harry with pity and fear, except Malfoy. "Now what are you doing here, you filthy Death Eater?" spat Harry. "Tell the truth!" He had no sooner said it than realized that those words sounded very familiar. Ominously familiar. Tom Riddle had said those words as a child, in much the same tone. Harry raised a hand to his mouth for a moment, before trying, once more, to calm down. "Malfoy, what are you doing?" he repeated.

Tonks kicked her cousin in the shin, and seemed to be enjoying herself immensely. Malfoy looked at her with disgust before speaking. "Potter… Er, well, the Dark Lord isn't the happiest with me at the moment, and my Mother is being held captive until I complete another task. I remembered what Dumbledore said, and, I—well, he said that I could join this side and they'd protect my family. And, well, I know you won't believe me, but I wouldn't have killed him. That was what I was supposed to do. So I went and looked up my cousin, here, because I didn't know where to find anyone else."

"And my fool mother is delighted that her nephew has decided to join the light, apparently, and begged me to take him to you, Harry." Harry exchanged disbelieving looks with his best friends.

"Listen, Malfoy," he said harshly. "You were in it with Snape, I know you were. He made an Unbreakable Vow to your bloody mother, and killed Dumbledore because you were too much of a coward. Yet I would've thought Voldemort—what, scared to hear your master's name?—would've been pleased with you for finding out how to get into Hogwarts…"

"Yeah, getting the Cruciatus curse put on a million times definitely means he's pleased with me," mumbled Malfoy angrily. "He says if I hadn't figured that out, I'd be dead along with Dumbledore. But I should've known better than to come here…you'd never listen to me, you've hated me since we first met…"

"Malfoy, you're the one who was insulting my friend! And I'm pretty damn glad I didn't get all chummy with you, where would I be now? Voldemort's right hand man?" he leered angrily.

"Listen!" yelled Malfoy finally. "Fine, if you don't want my help… fine! I—I'll do the task he gave me… Merlin, Potter! Please! He's going to kill my whole family! He's torturing my bloody mother as we speak, no doubt… either that or her sister is. Look. I need to save her, and you—have a saving-people thing. Couldn't you get your people to just get her out of there?"

"Why don't you do it, if you're so good, Malfoy?" asked Ron angrily.

"I knew there wasn't a choice. I never had a choice, Potter! You don't understand, you think you do…. "

"Okay, what is this so-called task, Malfoy?" asked Harry.

"I'm not telling you unless you agree to help me!" said Malfoy angrily.

"Once a Slytherin, always a Slytherin," muttered Tonks, rolling her eyes. Malfoy stood up straighter proudly.

"Listen, Dumbledore trusted Snape and he betrayed us. Why should I trust you? You don't have one reason!"

"What was in it for Snape?" demanded Malfoy. "Nothing. What's in it for me? Everything! Why don't you understand? Are you that thick?"

"I—Is your Mum going to just join up the Death Eaters again? What about your Dad? Look what he did to Ginny, look how many people he's tortured and killed! He deserves to have Voldemort kill him!"

"I'm not going to beg," growled Malfoy, "But how many of your people can tell you things I can tell you?"

"I don't know," said Harry, exasperated, "as you won't tell us what you can tell us!"

"I can find out secrets, I can find out why the Dark Lord's so mad at my Dad because of that stupid diary… I can find out Pureblooded things! You just don't get it, how important that can be! I can tell you what You-Know-Who tells me, if he doesn't kill me first, and I can tell you about the task he's set me. He's enjoying seeing me suffer, see. This one's harder than killing Dumbledore. And my whole family's lives are at stake." Harry thought for a moment. What on earth could be harder than killing Dumbledore? Maybe gaining entrance to the Order of the Phoenix….

"How about," he began angrily, "we save your stupid mother, and send the both of you to Azkaban? That sound nice? I have you right here, after all. Tonks, you're an Auror." Draco paled considerably. "Yes, maybe I'll send you to Azkaban while I'm making my decision."

"You can't. You can't do that," he stuttered. "Then He'll really kill me! All of us. Potter… I don't know what I can say to you. Wait—Can I do the Unbreakable Vow?" Everyone gasped. Harry held his head in his hands, angry that the stupid Order was in his hands. But—who else could lead it? Nobody else knew about the horcruxes, the adults anyway.

"Malfoy, I don't know yet. Yeah, we'll get your stupid mother out, if we can, though I don't know… I'm not sending any of our people to their death. But… dammit, I don't know! What do you think, Ron? Hermione?"

Hermione spoke first. "I don't know, Harry," she said quietly. "I just… I mean, it's so unlikely! But then again, I didn't wholly believe you all year that he was a Death Eater and… I wish Dumbledore was here." Harry glared at Malfoy.

"And who's to blame for that?" he said under his breath. In Harry's eyes, Malfoy, his mother, Snape, and Voldemort were all equally responsible. "Well…I think that you don't deserve it, but—stop going to Voldemort. I don't need you to be a double agent. Leave Voldemort, and I'll help protect your family."

"Just—leave him?" whispered Malfoy. "The longest one who's ever lasted was Karkaroff, and he barely lasted a year!" he exclaimed. "I'll never be able to just—disappear!"

"My house. You can stay at my house. But I'm going to be watching you, you hear me Malfoy? You tell me everything you know so far, and you help me if I ever need you, which is unlikely, and I'll hide you until the final battle. There, you will stand on the side of the light, do you understand? You will fight with us, and if you live, I will testify for you. If you die, then it's your own fault. You should've gone with Dumbledore before the Death Eaters got to the tower."

"What?" asked Malfoy, surprised. "How do you know? You weren't there…"

"That's my business," snarled Harry. "But before I let you in, I'm going to tell you that during Order meetings, you're confined to some room I'll pick out. If they're even held there. You're not to touch any Order-related things. I'm going to have wards on things, and House Elves that will watch you and report to me what you do. Do you understand?" Malfoy nodded, eyes shining with hatred.

"Now," said Harry, walking over to where Malfoy was standing, bound. "Since Snape isn't at our disposal at the moment, this is for my father." With that, Harry punched Malfoy in the stomach.

"I hate you, Potter!" he yelled angrily. Ron and Hermione looked shocked.

"Anyway," said Harry, turning to everyone else, "How's Remus, Tonks?" She smiled happily.

"He's good. We're—er—together now, I guess you'd say. He's dead stubborn, that man. Took me a year to persuade him." Malfoy scowled in the background.

"I'm really happy for you," said Hermione breathily. "You and Remus make a wonderful couple, really. Are you going to Bill and Fleur's wedding?" she asked interestingly.

"Actually, we are," smiled Tonks. "It's not a very big wedding, but a lot of important people are going, from Gringotts and the Ministry. I heard that there will be Goblins there."

"Really? That's fascinating!" exclaimed Hermione, ignoring Malfoy's mimic of her jumping up to answer a question. "Goblins rarely socialize with wizards, this should be so interesting!"

"How does everyone know everything about things in my family except me?" demanded Ron once more. "Are—are any Veelas going to be there, I wonder?"

"I hope not," said Hermione darkly. Harry silently agreed with her.

"Where is the wedding going to be, anyway?" asked Harry. "The Burrow?"

"Yes, in the back yard," answered Hermione immediately. "I heard Mrs. Weasley telling Fred and George that they had to de-gnome the whole place the morning of. They were having an absolute fit!"

"I can imagine," said Harry, frowning at the memory of de-gnoming the garden a few years back.

"And Ginny and Fleur's sister are bridesmaids… I think Ron's twin cousins are the flower girl and ring-bearer."

"What? I don't have twin cousins," frowned Ron.

"Er… you do, Ron," laughed Tonks. "They're my second cousins by marriage or something." Ron shook his head in disbelief. "They're four, and they're cute little things. April and Austin Fawcett are their names."

"You're related to the Fawcett's?" asked Hermione immediately. "Two of them go to our school; I didn't know they were your cousins."

"They're not," said Tonks, laughing. "They're Ron's cousins' cousins on the other side."

"Well, we're getting a bit off topic," laughed Harry. "Tonks, would you mind taking Malfoy to—wait, who's the Secret Keeper now? You can't have a dead…." Harry trailed off.

"Er, someone was made the secret keeper about five minutes after the Death Eaters escaped. But I don't want to say it in front of him," she said, gesturing at Malfoy. "But I have a note for him to read if you want to let him in. I'll tell you, when I see you again… Dumbledore left you a note you know, Harry; I think it's in the said place as we speak. You can read it when you come by…."

"Oh, right," said Harry. "Nobody told me… I guess we'll stop by and have a meeting after the wedding really quickly. And then we'll set off." Tonks nodded.

"Well, I'd best be off, Harry. Thanks. And, I think Remus has been wanting to talk to you. We'll owl, okay?" Harry nodded.

"Bye, Tonks," he said. "Malfoy—remember what I said. If you are lying, I will kill you, and that's a promise." Malfoy inclined his head shortly, though malice still shone in his grey eyes. The moment Tonks shut the door, Ron, Harry, and Hermione began speaking all at once.

"What do you reckon Malfoy's up to?" began Harry.

"Harry, why didn't you tell anyone that you lived in a cupboard for ten years?" demanded Hermione.

"Why don't I know anything about my brother's wedding?" Then they all stared at each other. Harry started to laugh.

"What's so funny?" demanded Hermione, who was close to tears. Harry looked at Ron, who also had begun to laugh. Hermione rolled her eyes, muttering about 'boys'. Harry then suddenly was hit with realization of how much he truly loved his friends.

A few minutes later, the three friends were sitting in front of the television, when Harry suddenly sat up. "What is it?" asked Ron curiously.

"I have to sic Kreacher on Malfoy. He'll find that pleasant enough. Hey—Kreacher!" A loud sound cracked in the air and Kreacher stood before Harry. A moment later, Dobby, and, to everyone's surprise, Winky, were in front of them as well.

"Master called," said Kreacher with disgust. "And Kreacher must do as Master wishes, but Kreacher hates his master and wants his Mistress, Kreacher does…"

"Shut up, Kreacher—and don't bang on the floor!" he added hastily. "Now, Malfoy is in Grimmauld Place. Watch him, and I don't care if you have to curse him, don't let him touch, read, or look at any Order information. Don't let him leave, and report to me immediately if he does anything. Do you want to go as well, Dobby?"

"Harry Potter, Sir! Dobby would be honored to, but Dobby and Winky is in need of a job, Sir!"

"McGonagall didn't stop paying you?" asked Hermione, a fervent look in her eyes.

"Oh, no, Miss," said Dobby. "But Hogwarts is sad without Dumbledore, Dumbledore was such a good wizard, almost as great as Harry Potter! And we is looking for another job, but if we don't find one, we is planning on working at Hogwarts again." Hermione nudged Harry.

"Oh—right. Dobby, I'll pay you and Winky, I'll pay you what Dumbledore paid you." Dobby's tennis ball-like eyes filled with tears.

"Harry Potter wants to employ Dobby and Winky?" he asked disbelievingly.

"Er, of course I do, Dobby. You all can just—go on to Grimmauld Place; er… Dobby and Winky, you might want to find Nymphadora Tonks so she can tell you where it is. But you have to both swear not to tell anyone any of the Order business and all—it's top secret." Winky began howling.

"The Malfoys is bad wizards! Bad! My poor Master…poor Master!" Then Kreacher began wailing as well.

"My Mistress! She is mad at Kreacher for working for half-bloods and Mudbloods and Scum…but Kreacher tried, Kreacher tried to get rid—" Dobby looked helplessly up at Harry, who felt bad for the elf.

"Well, you all can go along…and don't forget to eat and sleep and stuff…" he added, glancing at Hermione.

"You are too kind, Harry Potter Sir!" exclaimed Dobby, before the three elves disappeared.

"That was interesting," commented Ron. "Today was weird, if you ask me. First McGonagall—then Malfoy—then the house elves…"

"The house elves came because of Malfoy," reminded Hermione. Ron sighed.

"Very true, Very true…" They sat immersed once more in the television for a few moments.

"What time is it, Ron?" asked Harry, chuckling at the fact that he still wore his old watch.

Ron looked at the watch he'd gotten for his birthday. "Er—I don't really know which one shows the time," said Ron, confused. Hermione and Harry looked at the watch curiously, but neither of them could figure out the meanings of the stars and moons either. Deciding that time wasn't of the utmost importance, anyway, Harry sat back and stared once more at the screen. Ron, especially, was fascinated with the Muggle contraption. It was several minutes before Hermione spoke up tentatively.

"Harry? Well, I was thinking, and… do you think Ron and I could, well… could the three of us look at the cupboard for a minute?" Harry looked at her incredulously.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"Well," she began, "I don't know exactly. But you know how we learned about V-Voldemort's past?" Harry nodded slowly. "I think it's kind of important for us to know about your past too. Before you say anything, I know that you want to let your pride get in the way. But, Harry, Voldemort—really, Ron—His Death Eaters don't know about him, just as he doesn't know about you. And that's ultimately going to be their downfall; why else would Dumbledore have made such an effort to show you Voldemort's past?"

"I agree," said Ron. "I mean, we know you mostly, but you never talk about before Hogwarts. Most people still think you were probably brought up treated like some prince…" Harry scowled at the word. "I mean, not that kind of prince; you know what I mean," said Ron quickly. Harry considered this for a moment.

"I guess you can see it, but I don't know what you'll gain. It's just a normal broom cupboard. And you've seen these Muggles—they hated my Mum, they hate magic, they hated me. It really is all there is to it." Hermione and Ron nodded slowly, but got up nonetheless.

They walked over to the cupboard, and Harry opened the door. Hermione peered inside first, but Ron looked at Harry, worried. "Are you sure it's okay, mate?"

"Yeah," said Harry, trying to act as if it was no big deal. He peered inside quickly and then stepped away, waiting for his best friends to come out. He vaguely wondered why there weren't even brooms or anything inside.

"Harry—this is so eerie!" exclaimed Hermione. "You can feel raw magic in here!"

"That's what this is?" asked Ron.

"Well, it has to be; I've read all about it…"

"What is raw magic?" asked Harry curiously.

"It's emitted when you're feeling a powerful emotion. It's what causes accidental magic and all. Wow," she muttered, closing her eyes. "Don't you feel it, Harry?"

"No," said Harry. "How do you feel it? I think this is sort of what Dumbledore could sense when we went on that mission…. How do you feel it?"

"Just clear your mind," answered Hermione.

"I hate clearing my mind," sighed Harry dejectedly, as he once again began counting the days until he was rid of this house forever. He fell asleep that night dreaming about stars and moons planets encircling on watches.

A/N: Hope you liked the chapter! New one will be out soon, please review!