Title: Walk Along a Spiral

Author: Princess-Meru

Chapter Title: Chapter 5 – Getting Somewhere

Beta: Nimeneth

Disclaimer: The original story is by J.K. Rowling. All character, location, and spell rights belong to her and all publishers involved in getting Harry Potter around the world.

Author's Note: I think I'm going to switch to updating on Tuesdays. It makes my life easier. Anyway, I would really like more reviews. I'm at the end of the line here, and I will definetly begin to skip weeks if I don't get more feedback soon. ANYWAY! Enjoy!

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Harry curled up in his new bed, trying to adjust to the funny thoughts

crawling through his brain. After many tears and cries for their master, the house elves had finally stopped protesting and had moved with much mourning into the guesthouse down at the other end of the grounds. Shrill voices struck through his head shouting "Master Draco will die without his stuffed dragon and five snacks before dinner."

Oh yes, Master Draco would certainly die, but it would have nothing to do with childhood toys. Harry had full reign of the kitchen, which meant poisons galore were at his fingertips. If the idiot were to mistreat him in the slightest, the blond would find his food mysteriously coming to life in his stomach and eating its way out.

It was now late afternoon, and Malfoy had yet to come home. Harry's thoughts slowly came undone as he drifted into lazy doze. What did Malfoy do? When would it be his turn to cook? Sure, he was the maid, but that was only because he had nothing better to do. They really should be doing research as opposed to living like a couple in an

arranged marriage. Was this an arranged marriage in disguise? Can wizards even get married? Maybe this was a whole conspiracy against him to make him suffer in the worst possible way before killing him.

The grandfather clock down the hall called out five chimes. "Well," Harry mumbled to himself, sitting up "Time to make dinner."

Truth be told, he was not in the mood to be cooking, but it was all he had to entertain himself. He marched down the stairs and into the kitchen, almost entirely on automatic pilot. Scanning the room carefully, he slowly realized that he might have to make a dish that Malfoy may not eat due to muggle contamination. Pulling a mysterious

box from his bag, he thought of the only thing he could do: Bisquick it.

"What the hell is that wonderful smell?" Malfoy asked, marching into the kitchen.

Harry smiled, but knew better than to answer. He had only had a half an hour to make some semblance of a meal. He shifted closer to a cabinet to his left, hoping Malfoy wouldn't know what was hidden behind the small door.

"Harry." The Boy Who Lived saw Malfoy twitch as he said his first name "I have a few leads, so after we eat, you and I are going to have some bonding time in the library."

This brightened the boy up. "Really? So then we might actually be getting somewhere?"

Malfoy sighed. "I didn't say that. What I meant was..." he began opening drawers, looking for a snack, "that there's somewhere to start. We can't go forward if we haven't taken the first step."

"I guess you're right." Harry nodded and walked over to the newly transfigured refrigerator to grab some cheese. "But where is there to start? The magic is just... wearing off..."

"Well, we start with records. We have..." Malfoy immediately froze, staring at a very white, very muggle smelling box. "Bizkick?"

"Bisquick," Harry muttered, grabbing the box.

Malfoy sighed. "I figured you were going to kill me, but I didn't think it would be this soon."

"Coming from the person who, on my first morning here, was getting ready to punch me while I was sleeping?" Harry crossed his arms.

Malfoy blushed. "We put that behind us, didn't we?"

"No, not really." Harry turned off the oven. "Dinner's ready."

Malfoy placed a large book in Harry's arms. "This," he said proudly, "is a list of every witch or wizard that is giving off magical signals. It's called..."

"The Book of Avalon."

"How did you..." Malfoy started, but then stopped. "Oh..."

Harry sighed. "Yeah..."

"Granger?"

"Hermione..."

"Yeah..." they said together.

There was an awkward silence, which Malfoy broke. "So why was she talking about it?"

"She was doing research the bloody thing," Harry mumbled. "Something about needing to know wizarding order."

Malfoy sighed and sat down in a nearby chair. "This is the second time I've seen it."

"Second?" Harry nearly fell over in shock. "But it's nearly impossible to get a glimpse at the cover, let alone take it home! How could this be your second time?"

"You really don't remember anything about the mechanics of the final battle, do you?" Draco shifted guiltily in his seat. "I read up on your records. It must have been the post-traumatic stress, but the doctors said that you could only remember as far as getting out the door. Well... there was more than just fighting."

"Why the hell did you read that?" Harry shouted "It was supposed to be confidential!"

"Granger and I spent hours in the safe house, scanning through this god forsaken book, keeping an eye on every thing that was out on the field... who was dying... who was injured."

"Stop it! I don't want to hear this!"

"When Ron..."

"SHUT UP!" Harry collapsed into the ground and began bawling. "Shut up shut up shut up."

Malfoy stared wide-eyed for a moment, but then knelt beside Harry and placed a soothing hand on his back. "There there. We don't have to talk about this now. Just breathe..."

Harry's breathing began to calm and leaned against Malfoy. "There you go..." Malfoy whispered in his ear. "Now why don't we get you to bed and we'll talk about this more tomorrow night."

Harry shook his head. "No."

"No?" Malfoy leaned back, a smirk appearing on his face.

"Why did you bring that book?"

"Well you see..." Malfoy said "Dumbledore said something very interesting to me once; that all power was linked. Well, think of this book like the junction. Dumbledore was the one in charge of this book, so I think that if we take a close look at it, maybe we'll find a hole around Dumbledore and be able to patch it up. Is that what you wanted

to hear?"

"Yes," Harry said, visibly relaxing in Malfoy's embrace.

"Okay. Will you go to bed now?" Malfoy whispered.

"Mhmmm," Harry mumbled.

Malfoy carefully placed an arm below Harry's knees and scooped the smaller boy up. "Then off to bed we go."

The last thing Harry thought before falling asleep in Draco's arms was how much he smelled like spices. Almost like Snape's potions cabinet or the hospital wing.