Chapter X – A Test in Good Faith
It took about five seconds from the time Remus Lupin arrived at Privet Drive for him to send both boys inside to wash their newly collected dirt off and change into dry clothes. He watched their retreat into the house with some amusement, as well as a bit of wonder. If anyone had told him the day before that he would be seeing Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy not attempting to kill each other, he probably would have questioned their sanity. Even his one year at Hogwarts had taught him that much, not to mention all the information Sirius had given him, gleaned from his correspondence with his godson in the following two years. But what he had seen so far was more than just a grudging truce- the two boys were acting very much like friends, if not... Well, he would refrain from making assumptions at this point.
From what he had gathered after Harry had somewhat introduced Draco (Remus was obviously already acquainted with him, so it didn't take long), the boys were supposed to have been washing the Dursleys' car. He gave the vehicle a critical glance. Apart from the few wayward drops that had landed on the hood, the car was bone dry. He sighed. With all that would probably be happening quite soon, he doubted they'd get back to it. A few quick flicks of his wand had the car cleaned and waxed. He nodded to himself. That would leave the boys free, which he was sure they would be grateful for.
When Dumbledore had stopped by the house at Grimmauld Place to tell him that he would be visiting Harry, Remus had been happy to do so, but had wondered exactly why he was suddenly being sent. Dumbledore's explanation had been rather shocking, to say the least. His first reaction upon hearing the Draco Malfoy had apparently moved in to number 4 Privet Drive was to immediately go and check on Harry's safety, but Dumbledore had stopped him and told him not to worry, and that Harry was quite fine. He then explained exactly why it was that Remus was being sent- his job, quite simply, was to gauge whether the Slytherin could be trusted by the Order or not.
Harry obviously had given his approval by not hexing the boy; in fact, according to the information Dumbledore had provided him access to, there had been no hexes cast in the house for the entire summer, and no offensive or defensive magic of any kind had been utilized. Dumbledore had determined that the best way to determine Draco's trustworthiness would be to send someone close to Harry to check on the boys. He would have preferred Sirius, of course, but that was impossible, and Remus was obviously the next best choice. Harry trusted him, and he was almost like family; it was a perfect selection in the eyes of the headmaster. Remus, however, found that he wished someone else had been chosen.
The werewolf would normally find Harry's opinion to be quite sufficient on the matter of whether Draco could be trusted, but he also understood the tight position the Order was in, especially considering the high position Lucius Malfoy had held with You-Know-Who for so long. To be wary of his son was a natural reaction on their part. Making an incorrect decision at this point could be disastrous- if the Order put their trust in the boy and were betrayed, it could mean utter defeat; on the other hand, if they did not and Harry did, they could lose him forever.
It was at times like these that Remus Lupin wished that he wasn't the only one of the Marauders left. He would feel much better about the whole thing if he had Sirius or James around for support (Peter, of course, was not worth mentioning). But of course he knew where they both would stand on the issue- they would have had full faith in Harry's judge of character, and that would be that. Remus just wished it were really that easy.
The boys returned a few minutes later, Draco unhappily sporting one of the last clean shirts left in Harry's wardrobe- a red one with a Gryffindor lion emblazoned on the front. Harry, sporting his own House-wear, was having trouble not laughing at the expression of utter loathing on the Slytherin boy's face. Remus, also, found it amusing. The picture was certainly an incongruous one. The boys' conversation, though, as they came out of the house, was what really caught Remus' attention.
"-don't see why you couldn't just do laundry instead of making me wear this!" Draco was complaining, obviously about the t-shirt. Harry sighed audibly.
"And when did I have time to do that? Between keeping you occupied and doing chores around here, I've been rather busy. Or perhaps you missed that?" Harry was doing his best to sound annoyed, Remus could tell, but it was coming out all wrong between the fits of laughter that kept threatening to escape. "And by the way, do you know how much you really do look like a ferret when you scowl like that?" At this point, Harry couldn't keep his laughter contained anymore, and ran to Remus for cover as Draco glared murderously at him.
"Prat! I do not!" By this time both boys had reached Remus' position on the lawn, and both quieted, instinctively realizing that he probably had something to say. For a moment, though, he simply stood silently. Then, with a small sigh and a look that said he had made up his mind, he addressed the two. Or rather, Harry.
"Harry," he began, looking apologetic, and for a moment Harry was afraid he was there to arrest Draco for something or other. The startlement was obviously evident, as Remus halted whatever he was going to say to reassure the boy. "Don't worry, Harry, I don't intend to force Mr. Malfoy out. I just wish to talk to him for a while alone. Would that be possible?" Harry thought for a moment.
"Well, I suppose you can use my room, then. I'm sure there's something else that Aunt Petunia wants done." Remus was amused to see Draco's eyes roll at the words, rather than Harry's. He nodded.
"That would do just fine, I'm sure. I presume that Mr. Malfoy can lead the way?" Remus smiled kindly at the boy, who had begun looking a bit worried at the thought of being questioned alone. He was glad to see that his and Harry's encouraging looks seemed to be helping the blonde calm down. 'Or maybe yours has nothing to do with it, Remus.' He reminded himself, a thought which made him smile more broadly. At the very least, the two seemed on the way to becoming very good friends, and he was happy for them. He knew that James and Sirius would be, as well, though he could imagine Sirius complaining loudly (outside Harry's hearing, of course) about exactly who he was becoming "friends" with. Remus felt a little tug on his heart at the vision, a feeling which he quickly buried. Such things could be saved for a better time.
A few minutes later, Remus found himself sitting in Harry's desk chair, facing a distracted and seemingly nervous Draco Malfoy. The Slytherin boy was seated on Harry's bed, and was looking out the window. Remus looked, and noticed immediately that the area of the Dursley's garden Harry had chosen to weed could be easily seen through the window by a person sitting on the bed. He smiled to himself, and made a mental note to congratulate Harry later on his thinking. For now, however, he cleared his throat to gain Draco's attention. The boy quickly composed himself, wiping all traces of uncertainty from his face with practiced ease.
"Well, to start with, do you mind if I call you Draco?" Remus felt it better to start with something boring and unobtrusive than the heavy questions he was sure they would come to soon. The blonde looked startled by the question for a moment, then shook his head.
"Not really. It's fine if you'd like to." The answer was politely toned, courteous to a fault. Remus resigned himself to the fact that he would have to make friends with the boy before any questions would really be answered. And he felt there might be a simple way to do so.
"Draco it is then. You, in turn, may call me Remus. Alright?" Draco nodded suspiciously, wondering if there might be some trap here. He was rarely allowed to refer to an adult by his or her first name; in fact, the only adult he could currently think of who allowed it was Professor Snape, but he was practically family. Or was. Draco really couldn't be sure at this point.
Remus smiled at him. "So, then, I suppose we have to get into the more difficult things. How have you been surviving on Mrs. Weasley's pot pies?" Draco's head snapped to attention, and he blinked several times. Remus laughed. "I hear from her all the time about how much Harry loves her pot pies, and how she's sending him another three today and so on. I assume they make up the majority of the diet here?" Draco grimaced.
"It's alright." He shrugged, still not quite letting his guard down, though he was beginning to really believe that the man across from him really didn't mean any harm. Despite all he had heard Third Year when Professor Lupin was exposed as a werewolf, and his father's ranting about bad bloodlines and all of that, the man seemed decent enough (though his clothes were a bit shabby). And Harry seemed to know him and trust him well. Draco realized how little he had been aware of- like that Harry had been such good friends with their temporary DADA teacher. Not, he realized, that he had actually been looking. It had been far easier to assume.
"I don't mind the pies," he elaborated, "They're good, we just have far, far too many of them. I don't know how she ever expected Harry to eat all of that. The two of us together don't even have a hope of finishing all those." Draco smiled, letting a little of his amusement show through. Remus considered this an improvement.
"Well, then. I shall pass along your compliments. Or perhaps you can do so yourself one of these days." Remus smiled secretively. "Until then, though, I do need to ask the important questions. I know quite well that your father probably had you build up immunity to truth potions, so I won't bother with such things." He could read in Draco's eyes that he was impressed, and therefore that his assumption had been correct. He also suddenly felt pity for the boy. Building up immunity to any spell, curse or potion could be a painful process, and this one had probably been started quite young, before the boy left for Hogwarts. "I must, then, simply trust that you will be truthful with me. I hope that you will be, and I know that Harry believes you will be, or he may have insisted on staying. So, do I have your cooperation on this?" Draco nodded, attempting to swallow the lump that was rising in his throat.
"Well then." Remus sat a bit forward on the chair, not enough to be threatening, but enough to show that he was serious. "Why here?"
Draco found himself caught off guard again, for the second time in as many minutes. "What do you mean?" He didn't quite understand what his former professor was asking.
"When you left Malfoy Manor, you came here. My first question is, why? Of all the places in the world you could have chosen, why this one?" Remus explained the question succinctly, but not unkindly. He observed as Draco thought the question over carefully.
"I don't really know." He finally came up with, Remus raised an eyebrow, not sure if the blonde was really being truthful. He was surprised, however, when Draco continued. "I just left. I ran for a while, then Apparated here. I don't know what made me think of it, though. Logically, Harry Potter's house would be the last place they would look for me," at this, Remus nodded thoughtfully, "but I don't really remember if that's what I was thinking then or not. I just... ended up here." He ended with a little half shrug, a small sign that he hoped the answer was acceptable. Remus felt it was.
"If we made you leave here, would you go to the Death Eaters?" The question was harsh, Remus knew, but the reaction was immediate.
"Maybe before... all of this. Not now, though." Draco suddenly seemed very far away.
"Why?" Remus softened his tone, trying his best not to make Draco shy away from the questions.
"There's nothing there for me. My father was one of Them for years and years, and now he's in Azkaban. My mother is dead, isn't she?" The question seemed to come out of the blue, and Remus barely even registered it at first. Once he did, though, he answered as simply as he could.
"Yes. I'm sorry." He felt his heart break a little at the look that crossed the boy's face for a second. It was obvious that he was restraining himself from crying.
"I can't forgive them for that. She wasn't one of Them, but she never did anything against Them either. She just went along, and then they came to get me, and she told them to leave, and they wouldn't..." Draco lost himself in the memory for a moment, then recovered himself. "I would never go to them. I will never forgive them, and they will never forgive me for running. Even if I wanted to go back, I have no place there. Anyway, I could never bow to that..." Draco seemed not to have words, but Remus felt he understood.
"And besides all that..." Draco paused, and looked out the window again as his voice softened. "He's different... than I thought... And I think, his way might be better... Is that enough?" The boy looked worried that the answer wouldn't be satisfactory.
Remus smiled reassuringly. "I'm sure it is. I have a question, though, that I would like to ask. Only to satisfy my own curiosity, so please don't feel obligated." Draco nodded his consent. "Why, then, if you don't support the Dark Lord, have you been so antagonistic toward Harry?" At the look on Draco's face, he felt the need to qualify the question further. "If you don't have an answer, that's fine. As I said, it is only for my ow-" He was cut off as Draco began to speak.
"He made me mad." Draco bit his lip, as though it were painful to admit aloud. "Did you know, the first time I met him was actually before any of those friends of his did? Granger and Weasley and the lot?" Remus admitted that he had been unaware of this. "I met him in Madame Malkin's, about a month before the start of term. I didn't even recognize him. Isn't that funny? Years of my father ranting about him, and I didn't even know who he was." Draco smiled to himself. Remus had to agree, it did have its irony.
"I must have said something, but I don't think he liked me much, then. And then I met him, officially, by name, you know, on the first day of term, and he would barely even speak to me. By that point he had already met the Weasleys, so I can expect what he was told about my family. I suppose I might have been a bit of a prat about it, but I was trying to make friends with him, and he just... wouldn't, I guess. I remember what he said, too. He said, "I think I can tell the wrong sort for myself, thanks." I was so angry- I mean, no one had ever said anything like that to me, ever. I guess I got it into my head that I should hate him, and I probably said something nasty, and it just went from there. Of course, my father was all for me playing pranks on him and so on, so I suppose that didn't help, and I'm sure he assumed that I was doing all that because I supported the Dark Lord and he was himself..."
By this point, Draco seemed to be monologueing, forgetting entirely about the man sitting in the room with him, listening intently. Remus was beginning to become aware, as he thought over the boys' shared history, that perhaps all the evidence of Draco Malfoy following his father was tied up in his feud with Harry Potter, which wasn't about the war at all. And that, if the feud had been with any other student, the blonde wouldn't be under nearly as much scrutiny by the Order members. Well, the feud and his distaste for Muggle-born students. This was the obvious follow up. Draco answered the question succinctly, but with a maturity Remus hadn't expected.
"I don't really hate Muggles. I'm expected to, though, so I act like I do. I certainly hate the ones here, though. As for the mudbloods," Remus winced, and Draco offered a swift apology. "I don't really hate them either, per se. The problem is that the pure wizarding bloodlines are becoming more and more diluted. Pretty soon, there won't be any left at all, and any traces of the Pure Bloods' hereditary magic will cease to exist." Remus blinked. It was far more than he was expecting, which was something along the lines of 'they're scum', and far better as well. He nodded thoughtfully, mulling over the boy's answer for a moment before forming his next question.
"And you and Harry have begun getting along?" Somehow, it felt like the correct question to ask. Draco smiled, and glanced out the window to where Harry was still working on the weeding. What Remus didn't know, and Draco did, was that the weeding had been done days ago, and that there wasn't a single weed anywhere on the Dursley's property. He would remember to thank Harry for the support later. Remus did, however, file away the glance for future thought.
"I didn't think we would. At first I thought he would kick me out right away. But I guess it worked out." Draco shrugged his slim shoulders and tilted his head a bit. "Is that all?"
Generally, Remus knew, Draco's question would carry a distinct tone of annoyance and distaste for being held for questioning. This time, though, it seemed to be an honest question. Something had changed about the Slytherin boy, he was different than Remus remembered, though he couldn't make a judgment on when the change had occurred. He simply seemed more... normal. Like a normal boy his age would be, not as much like the spoiled rich brat he had been. It was, Remus felt, a change for the better. The much better. And somehow, that change in demeanor, rather than Draco's answers to his questions, was what truly made him confident in the decision he had had almost made since he walked into the Dursleys' yard earlier.
Remus stood up from Harry's desk chair, dusting his clothing off (he had opted for Muggle attire, though it still seemed to have slightly fraying seams and edges, much like his usual robes). "Well, then. I think its time you and I went and rescued Harry from his labors, what do you say?"
Draco agreed, and the two headed down the stairs and into the backyard where Harry was "working". He had turned at the sound of the door, and grinned upon seeing the two of them. "Everything alright, then?" He asked Draco specifically. The blond nodded, smiling right back.
"Yeah. I think so, anyway." He deferred to Remus, who nodded his assent.
"Much more than alright. In fact, if you're interested, Dumbledore gave me this. With, of course, the stipulation that I use it at my discretion, but..." Remus trailed off, giving Harry a knowing grin as he passed him a slip of paper. Harry read what was written inside, then broke out in a wide grin.
"You mean it? Both of us?" He resembled a little child on Christmas morning, given the best gift he could think of. Remus nodded.
"So, if you'd like to pack, you can both move in tonight. I believe Mrs. Weasley is making pot pie." Remus smiled as both boys groaned, though Draco not as much as Harry. He was quite confused, and Harry suddenly realized it.
"It's alright." He reassured Draco, still grinning madly. "Trust me, I think you'll like where we're going. It's a good surprise!" Harry's excitement was contagious, and Draco decided to trust him. The two were packed in only a few minutes, as Draco really had nothing of his own but his wand. They scurried about Harry's room for a few minutes, making sure Harry hadn't forgotten anything. By the time they were done, Remus had reappeared.
"I spoke to your Aunt and Uncle, Harry." Remus' face showed precisely how much he'd enjoyed the activity. "They are... aware... that you are leaving for the remainder of the summer holiday." Draco's eyes widened and he looked at Harry nervously. Harry smiled at him.
"Good surprise, remember?" He reminded Draco shortly. The blond took a deep breath and collected himself. Remus waited a moment, then continued.
"Are we all ready, then?" The boys nodded. "Alright. Hold on to your luggage and take hold of this, please." Remus produced a large, brass key from a pocket and held it out to the boys. "Just a simple Portkey, no worries. Here we go, then."
A few moments later, there was hardly any sign that anyone had ever lived in the smallest bedroom of Number 4 Privet Drive.