Draco picked up the soft black fabric and held it out to look at the embroidery. Where a house logo would usually go, there was an embroidered silver dragon. He smiled to himself at her thoughtfulness. After all, houses no longer existed. Hogwarts was no more. That thought saddened him. He had loved Hogwarts, in his own way. Yes, he'd been a bully, and he'd regretted that. But he'd been away from the pressure at home. His father was strict and critical, and it had always been a relief to get away from that. Compared to his father, McGonagall was about as intimidating as a flobberworm. And all the years of trying to impress his father had done nothing. His last ditch effort, becoming a Death Eater, he'd even failed at that. A muscle at the corner of his mouth twitched, almost a smile. That was one area in which he wasn't sorry to have failed his father. Bullying was one thing, murder, another entirely. He would never forget the look in Dumbledore's eyes during the final moments of his life. He had seemed resigned to his fate, even as he knew Draco wouldn't kill him. Dumbledore had known what was going to happen, Draco was sure of it. But why hadn't he stopped it? Why had he frozen Harry against the wall, hidden safely under his invisibility cloak. Between the two of them, Harry and Dumbledore could have defended themselves against the Death Eaters, Draco was sure of it. It was almost as if Dumbledore had sacrificed himself. But why, when the wizarding world needed him more than ever.
Draco stopped pacing up and down and sat in a chair in the corner, the robe spread out over his lap as he tried to fit the pieces together. Something was missing. Where had Dumbledore and Harry gone, leaving the school in the middle of the night? The others knew, he thought. Maybe that's what Ginny had wanted to tell him. When he had talked with Harry that night, Harry hadn't told Draco what had happened before they got to the castle, only what he'd seen from the safety of his cloak. Draco was lucky that Harry had been there that night. It's the only reason that Harry trusted him at all now.
He leaned back in his chair, fingering the folds of fabric, wondering what Snape had to do with it all. His father hated Snape for playing Dumbledore's stooge, but in the end, Snape had proved his loyalty well enough. But something wasn't quite right about the situation. Snape had hesitated, Draco was sure of it. If he had truly hated Dumbledore, it should have been easy. Suddenly, another Weasley shouting match abruptly brought him out of his thoughts.
"Ginny, I tell you we can't trust him. Just because you're snogging behind closed doors doesn't mean anything. He's just using you to get to Harry. Once a Death Eater, always a Death Eater."
"That's not true," Ginny shouted.
"Oh yeah? What about Snape, then? I knew it all along, so did Harry, but no, everyone kept telling us that he'd changed. And we were right all along!" Harry said something to Ron in a low voice that Draco couldn't hear, and then Ron shouted back "Yeah, well, just because he didn't kill Dumbledore doesn't mean anything. He was just afraid he couldn't do it." Suddenly, there was a loud bang, like someone had hit a table or the wall, and Harry finally raised his voice.
"Look, Ron. You weren't there. I saw him, I saw his face. He didn't want to do it. The only reason he was going to in the first place is because he was afraid of Voldemort."
"Don't say his name," Ron cut in quickly.
"And so are you. And you should be until…" at this point he lowered his voice again and Draco couldn't hear what he said. They continued for awhile in hushed tones, and Draco wished he had a pair of Extendable Ears. By this point, he'd pressed his own deficient ear against the door, and he heard footsteps coming. He had just made it back to his chair when the door opened and Ginny came in.
"Sorry," she said. "I bet you heard every word." He nodded, and she grinned a little ruefully. "Ron's stubborn as anything. He just refuses to think that anything might be different now." He laughed softly and pulled her into his lap.
"I think stubbornness is a Weasley trait." She playfully tapped him on the nose.
"You don't even know, Malfoy." She bent and kissed him swiftly. "But I want to tell you. Harry decided that you should be told what's going on, he thinks you can help us."
"Help you what?"
"Help us find the horcruxes." Draco pulled back suddenly.
"Horcruxes?" She nodded, worried at the look on his face. He abruptly pushed her off and started pacing.
"I didn't know you'd know what they were," she said. He nodded.
"Father had a book on horcruxes in his library. Your father never found it on any of his raids because it was bewitched to look like some boring book on the care of flobberworms." He paced faster now. "You said horcruxes. Plural. Do you mean he has more than one?" He glanced at her for affirmation and she nodded.
"He has, or rather, had" she corrected herself "six of them. Seven being a magical number. It pleased him." Draco nodded at this.
"It would. Unbelievable. No wonder he is so dark and twisted. There must be hardly any soul left in his body. Do you know what they are?"
"We know that one of them was his grandfather's ring, and Dumbledore destroyed that. And we're pretty sure that Slytherin's locket was one. That's where they went that night, to try to find it and destroy it, but someone named R.A.B found it first and left a note." At the initials, Draco looked up suddenly but said nothing. "And we think that Helga Hufflepuff's cup is one, because Riddle stole it. Dumbledore thought maybe Nagini was one, and then something belonging to Rowena Ravenclaw or Godric Gryffindor. Probably Ravenclaw, because Gryffindor's sword is the only known relic, and that's safe at Hogwarts." He looked at her for a long time.
"You only named five." She nodded, looking away from him.
"The other one is destroyed. Harry destroyed it. It was Tom Riddle's diary." He went to her then and wrapped her in his arms. His father had gloated over that particular scheme.
"Imagine, a Weasley opening the Chamber of Secrets. Oh the scandal for poor Arthur Weasley. We get rid of the mudbloods, and his daughter takes the blame."
"If I could take back everything my father did, I would," he said softly. "But I can't. Now the best I can do is try to make up for it myself. I think I know who R.A.B. is. But go get Harry." She nodded and ran out the door. They came back together, with expectant look on their faces.
"Who is he, Draco?" Harry asked in a quiet voice, not daring to hope that Draco might be able to help.
"Regulus Alphard Black." Draco said dramatically. His words did not have the intended effect.
"We already thought of that. But Sirius told us that Regulus was never important enough to be killed by Voldemort himself, so how would he know where the horcruxes were, if he knew about them at all?" Harry asked. But Draco shook his head.
"Sirius didn't know what he was talking about." Harry started to get the angry flashing in his eyes that appeared when anyone insulted his deceased godfather. "No offense, Harry, but he wasn't a Death Eater. He didn't know. In fact, I don't think many people knew just how close Black was to Lord Voldemort. He did a lot secret work for Voldemort, things Voldemort didn't want anyone to know about. It makes perfect sense." Harry nodded slowly, accepting this explanation.
"But then what happened to the locket?"
"You're in the Black mansion, Potter," said Draco, a hint of the old sneer back. But catching Ginny's eyes, he quickly dropped the act. "Have you seen anything that might be it?" They both shook their heads, then Ginny realized something.
"What about that old locket that used to be in the glass case? Could that be it?" Harry shook his head.
"No, it didn't have Slytherin's seal on it, like the one that I saw in the memories Dumbledore showed me last year. Besides, I hope that's not it. Sirius got rid of along with a bunch of other stuff."
"Harry, maybe it was disguised. After all, Voldemort wouldn't want it to be too recognizable. What happened to all the stuff Sirius got rid of?" Harry, stunned, realized that the answer might have been within reach all along.
"Kreacher!" He shouted.
