DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters. 'Sides, you'd get more blood out of a turnip then you would money out of me! HA!

AUTHORS NOTE: Hey, sorry it took so long to get these chapters out. I was stuck for a while but finally worked my way through it. Hope your enjoying the fic so far. J

SUMMARY: Harry feels like he's in hell, Draco's living through a nightmare. Can they help each other before it's too late to save either one?

FROM THE LAST CH. The question of how Draco Malfoy had moved so silently during their scuffle and discerned his location with a rumbling stomach kept Harry awake for quite a while. When sleep finally came, he dreamed of being stalked in the night by a slivery beam of moonlight.

Tainting the Innocent

Chapter Ten

He was furious. They had failed, yet again, to capture that weak and powerless woman. Members of the tracker's family lay in pieces all around, but he was allowed to live. Kneeling in the center of the carnage, he held the severed head of his small son and sobbed. Black cloaked figures ringed the bereaved man, gruesome masks hiding any expression.

"You failed me, Jonas," he said coldly, his voice sending chills down the spines of even the most loyal. "I hope you understand why punishment was necessary." He waited a few moments for a response, but when the weeping did not cease his anger rose again. "Think ignoring me will bring that pathetic brat back, do you? Crucio!" The head went flying as Jonas Zacherby convulsed, his screams of agony echoing off the surrounding trees. The poor man fell to the ground on all fours, shuddering as his grief took over again.

"Lucius," he called. A masked follower stepped from the crowd near by.

"My lord," he said, dropping to one knee.

"Remove this vermin from my sight." The other man hurried forward to do his master's bidding, but was stopped cold as the chilling voice continued. "She was your responsibility to begin with, Lucius. Find her. Your years of loyal service will not be taken into account if you fail me again. Your son is not so secure that I cannot get to him."

"Yes, my lord." Though his voice was steady as stone, his hands shook with fear. It pleased him to see the effect he had on even one as powerful as Lucius Malfoy. The pleasure surged through his body and burst from his mouth in a bloodcurdling cackle.

He woke with a cry, laughter ringing in his head. His head throbbed horribly as he whimpered, clutching his hands to the source. Once the pain subsided to a manageable level, he thought over what Voldemort had done and shuddered with horror. Death Eater or not, no one deserved what had happened to Zacherby, especially for such a small reason. So the man had failed in finding someone, big deal. Whatever the woman had done to have Voldemort casing her down, he wished her luck.

Harry began to think of that night Malfoy's powers had gone awry. "She hasn't written…why the hell hasn't she written?" Could the distressed Slytherin have been talking about the woman Voldemort hunted? If so, who was she?

Deciding that such things were best left for the light of day, he reached into the nightstand drawer beside his bed to grab a Dreamless Sleep draught. He rarely had two visions of Voldemort in one go, but decided not to take the risk. He was out cold in minutes, wrapped in the unnatural blackness brought on by the potion.

"Harry, come on mate, wake up," Ron shouted, startling him out of sleep. He shot up in bed and glanced all around. Ron was the only person in sight and the light coming through the windows explained why. He squinted his eyes with pain from the assault of light.

"Wha…Ron?"

"Yes, you dunderhead. We've let you sleep all morning, but now it's time to get up. It's lunchtime and Hermione wants us to grab something quickly before meeting her by the lake." The redhead proceeded to pull his best friend out of bed in a most unceremonious manner. Harry flopped on the floor with a groan, rolled onto his back, and reached for his bed.

"I don't wanna. I'm going back to sleep right now and if you try something like that again I'll hex you." He tried to climb back into bed but Ron barred his way.

"No you don't. Get your lazy arse dressed and downstairs or I'll do it for you!"

Harry tossed him a challenging glare. "You wouldn't." Ron pushed him onto the bed, shoved a knee into his stomach, and began to pull his shirt off. "Ron…bloody hell…stop right-…friggin bastard…FINE," he finally shouted. He angrily shoved his friend to the side and hopped up. Stalking to the trunk at the foot of his bed, he muttered incomprehensible, yet surely vile, curses.

"Good, now let's go," Ron said after Harry finished getting dressed. Harry made dirty faces to the back of his friends head all the way down to the Great Hall.

His fellow Gryffindors gave him concerned glances as he sat down and began filling his plate. He set his cutlery down sharply and glared at all of them. "What?"

"Harry, are you feeling alright," Neville asked gently. Harry's recent mercurial moods could be quite scary for the sensitive boy.

"Yeah, you look like hell," Ginny stated bluntly, quickly getting back to her turkey sandwich.

"I'm perfectly fine, why do you ask, Neville?"

"Duh," Seamus chimed in. "Because you look like hell, genius."

Harry made a sound very close to a growl and stood up abruptly. "Let's go, Ron." He turned and walked away without checking to see if his friend followed.

"But, Harry," Ron whined after him. "Lunch!"

Ginny slapped her brother upside the head. "You pissed him off when waking him up, didn't you?"

"Probably startled him awake and threatened him when Harry tried going back to sleep," Dean said sagely.

"It's not my fault he gets huffy if you don't let him wake up naturally! I'd much rather deal with a grumpy Harry than an angry Hermione. Much less scary." With that, he grabbed up some sandwiches and ran to follow his friend. When he got past the doors, Harry had disappeared. Figuring he'd gone to the lake, Ron headed in that direction. Jogging up to Hermione, Harry was nowhere in sight.

"You did wake him up, didn't you, Ron," Hermione asked sharply. She was sitting surrounded by schoolbooks weighing down rolls of parchment and quills neatly lined up with their respective bottle of colored ink. Having decided to reinstate study time, she compromised by having it outside instead of the dusty library. The concession must have cost her big.

"Of course I did," he snapped back indignantly. Sometimes he wondered how they staid friends, considering her low opinion of his ability to perform even the simplest of tasks. It was tremendously frustrating. "I take that to mean he never arrived here, then?"

"You mean you lost him!"

"He stormed out of the Great Hall when the others started ribbing him."

"Why didn't you follow him," she yelled, standing up and shoving her face into his to do so.

"I assumed he'd have come here, knowing you wanted to see us and all," he yelled right back. "Not that I blame him for taking the chance to run!"

"What's that supposed to mean, Ronald Weasley?"

"Precisely what I said! If I'd thought about it, I'd probably have done the same!"

"Well good thing you're not too swift on the up take. What is this grudge you have against me for trying to shape you and Harry into better students? I'm doing it for your own good!"

"You're being a bloody nuisance, is what you're doing! I swear, it's like living with my mother year round instead of just during breaks!"

"Wha...how dare…," Hermione sputtered for a few more moments. She seemed at a loss for words, but that never lasted for long. "YOUR MOTHER? Ronald Weasley, that is the absolute limit! You pig! You rat! You…BASTARD!" She had balled up a fist and hit him in the chest with each insult.

"Fine," he yelled. "I'll find him on my own. We never needed you anyways!" Turning on a heel, they stalked away from each other. Hermione was mumbling under her breath about nasty horrible hexes in very tender areas and Ron simply looked murderous. Both were completely mindless to the large crowd they had attracted.

Harry watched the confrontation between his two best friends from a second floor window. It had completely slipped his mind that Hermione wanted to see them until he'd witnessed the yelling and screaming. He didn't feel particularly worried about this temporary rift in their friendship; Ron and Hermione argued horribly all the time. They would be speaking to each other within a few days and everything would be back to normal in less than a week. Harry, along with the whole school, was of the opinion that Hogwarts would be much more peaceful if they'd just admit they wanting to shag like bunnies.

"Pathetic, aren't they?"

"Did you expect something different? It's the Weasel and Granger!"

Harry whirled around at the voices, coming face to face with Pansy and Draco. Even though he'd been thinking along those same lines only a moment before, Harry felt the need to defend his friends. "They are not," he growled out articulately.

"Please, Potter. If they'd just come clean about wanting to rip each others clothes off, things like this would happen much less often."

Both Harry and Draco pulled a face. "Darling, I really didn't need that mental image."

"Oh you poor baby. Temperamental stomach? If you can't handle something like that, how do you do it, having to look at that pasty face everyday?"

Pansy twittered at her friend's expense. Draco shot her a withering glare and grabbed her arm before responding. "As much fun as I'd have standing here exchanging insults with you, we have somewhere to be." He began to drag Pansy down the hall, ignoring the girls squeals of protest.

"She hasn't been caught yet," Harry called, looking out the window at the surrounding mountains.

Draco froze and slowly turned towards the brunette boy. Pushing his companion ahead, Pansy went on without him, tossing concerned glances over her shoulder until out of sight. All of his attention was focused in on Harry. "What did you just say," he asked icily.

"I said Voldemort hasn't captured her yet. As of this morning, she'd still managed to evade his Death Eaters." He continued speaking in a quiet voice. "I've wracked my brain trying to figure out who you would care about enough to have such an outburst. It just didn't make sense, given what a self-centered ass you are. I think I've got it now, though."

"Do you really," Draco asked in an expressionless voice.

"Yes," Harry said, turning to face the other boy. Somehow, Draco had moved within an arms reach of him, making not a sound. Alarm briefly flared through his chest but not enough to quiet him. "The only woman I can think of that you would care about, and who would also be your father's responsibility, is your mother. Am I right?"

"What if you are," Draco asked in a low dangerous purr. The alarm returned, only not as a fleeting emotion this time. He had never seen such a deadly expression on his rival's face. The realization came that he didn't know what Draco was capable of, and was now alone with him in a deserted hallway.

"Just thought to pass on the information, is all," Harry said, making his voice sound unruffled. The effect was dampened, however, when he backed himself into the windowsill as Draco slowly advanced on him. Suddenly, he was slammed against the opposite wall and gasping for breath from the impact when a hand was clenched onto his throat.

"What do you know, Potter?" Draco's face was pulled into a feral snarl, his eyes darkened with rage. When Harry didn't stop gasping, he squeezed even harder, making the poor boy's eyes pop out. "Has that demented woman rubbed off a bit; are you suddenly a seer, Potter? Answer me, damn it! What's happened to my mother?" The desperation in his voice would have been moving if Harry weren't so focused on not being able to breathe. He slapped and gouged at Draco's hands to get the message across to let go a bit. Finally understanding, he released Harry's throat and grabbed hold of his robes. "Well?" Harry spent a few precious moments gulping air into his starved lungs, trying to fend off the impending blackness. "Potter," Draco yelled, banging him against the wall.

"Nothing! I don't know anything other than what I've told you, I swear. That's all I was able to see."

The blonde looked at him suspiciously. "So you are a seer, then?"

"No. I'm sure your father's told you about my link with Voldemort?" It was curious to note that there was no reaction to the Dark Lord's name. Most people flinched, at least. "Well, even if he hadn't, Voldemort knows about it already, so there can't be any harm in telling you."

"So you saw my mother through this link with You-know-who?"

"Not your mother, Voldemort. I saw him punishing a Death Eater for failing to bring her in and then putting your father on the job." That did get a reaction. His face became swamped with worry and terror. If this weren't such an odd moment, and this wasn't Malfoy, Harry probably would have felt quite sorry for him.

"Merlin, she should be here, where I can protect her. He'll kill her!" Malfoy or not, he couldn't stand by without saying something to soothe that pain.

"Only if he can find her; she's evaded them so far." He'd meant it to sound encouraging, but Draco's face just became darker.

He seemed lost in thought for a few moments, completely oblivious to the fact that he still had Harry pressed against the wall. "Who was the Death Eater?"

"Jonas Zacherby." Harry was shocked when Draco flinched at the name and his face grew troubled.

"How did they punish him," he asked sadly.

"You probably don't…it mean, it's not really-"

"Tell me!" Harry was banged against the wall for good measure.

"H-his whole family was slaughtered and Voldemort made him watch. They were blown to pieces."

"He only followed because Father made him afraid of what would happen to his family if he didn't." He went quiet for a few moments. "He probably didn't search very hard for Mother so that she had a better chance of escape."

"I'm sorry," Harry said.

"Don't feel sorry for me, pity Jonas. He served a monster to save his family and it ended up getting them killed." He seemed to finally realize that Harry was still trapped between him and the wall. He moved back quickly, brushing off his hands as if having touched something dirty. "You're sure there's nothing else? Did they have an inkling of my mother's location?"

"No. Not that they said while I was there, anyways."

"Why did you tell me this?"

The question caught him off guard and he remained quiet for a bit, trying to figure that out for himself. "Because," he finally said. "Voldemort threatened that you weren't completely untouchable if your father fails. Figured to give you the heads up. And-" He stopped suddenly, realizing how silly this was going to sound, considering who it was.

"What?"

"Well…you always seem so in control, even when being a total git. You must love her very much to have let your magic go wild like that. It just didn't seem right, not telling you she was safe. That's all." Draco stared into his eyes as if trying to crawl inside his mind. Harry was quite grateful for all of those occulemancy lessons.

Finally, he broke into the Malfoy smirk. "You are such a Hufflepuff."

"I am not," Harry said, outraged at the insult.

"Right, you're a Gryffindork. You may go now."

Harry scowled at the imperious tone. "Thanks ever so much, your majesty. Glad I have your permission after almost strangling me to death."

"It takes far longer than that to kill someone by strangulation."

"Really, and how would you know?" Draco looked at him coldly, and Harry decided he'd rather not find out.

2ND AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yea! 10th chapter! This is the farthest I've ever gotten on a posted fic! I'm all proud of me and stuff! Also, reviews would be appreciated! Just a thought.