Black Truth
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Serpentis Draconis
Harry fumed silently as he paced the Gryffindor Common Room. Draco had been missing for over fifteen hours now; how long exactly wasn't known because Harry didn't know when Draco left.
Harry fought back the yearning to hit something, knowing that were he to let out his rage, his two friends would become more scared of him than they already were. As it was, his behavior resembled a caged animal to them.
It was all just so stupid! Sure, if a student was petrified the whole school went on bloody alert, but if a student was just missing, there were protocols! Was Draco really missing? Bloody hell, Harry was so sick of hearing another teacher ask that to the rest of them.
Snape had gone to Dumbledore immediately and while Harry was sure that Dumbledore believed them, there was a bunch of legal stuff set in place for just this occasion.
So after rounding up all the teachers at four in the morning, they had begun searching the castle. All of it. Every room. And Harry had been sent back to his dormitory to wait! Then, when everyone realized Draco really wasn't in the castle, as Harry had been telling them, they had to search the bloody Forbidden Forest because apparently Draco had permission to go there because he needed someplace to go be a Veriae for a while where no one could see him, or something like that.
And of course, the centaurs hadn't taken kindly to a group of people gallivanting around in their forest, even if one of those people had been Hagrid, who knew his way around pretty well. Of course, they found that Draco wasn't in the forest, after three hours of searching. Harry could have told them that but they didn't listen, of course.
So now they were thinking that maybe Draco really wasn't in Hogwarts. So they had to go check Hogsmead! Harry, of course, knew that Draco wouldn't be found there. He knew where Draco was. So did Snape and so, he suspected, did Dumbledore.
"Harry, are you OK?" Hermione asked cautiously as she saw her friend had stopped pacing.
"Do I look like I'm OK?" Harry shot back immediately.
"Looks like you're worried sick," Ron observed.
"We should have stopped this searching hours ago!" Harry exploded. "If he'd done something stupid like going to Hogsmead, then he would have been back by now anyway!"
"And he wouldn't have left in the middle of the night," Hermione added.
"Exactly!"
"So what are we going to do about it?" Ron asked.
"What can we do? They obviously don't want us involved," Hermione pointed out. "You shouldn't even be here, Harry. They told you to go wait in your rooms in case he came back."
Harry waved a hand at the Marauder's Map on the table. "I would have known if he came back," he muttered.
"But if they go to find you and tell you that they actually believe you, you won't be there," Hermione continued.
Harry sighed. "Yeah. You're right. I'll see you later then."
"They'll find him, Harry." Hermione tried to be comforting.
"Yeah, even if they have to send Dobby to go open the door to Malfoy Manor for them," Ron joked.
Neither of the two saw Harry stop and smile slightly as he left the Common Room.
Dobby was, as always, ecstatic to see Harry Potter.
"How can Dobby be helping you, Harry Potter?" he asked brightly.
"I need your help Dobby, and it's very important."
The House Elf practically squealed his joy at being able to help.
Harry crouched down low in a corner to talk to Dobby so that the other House Elves in the kitchen would not overhear. "Could you still get into Malfoy Manor if you wanted to?" he asked.
Dobby's ears drooped a bit but he nodded. "I could, Mr. Harry Potter sir."
"I need to get into Malfoy Manor, Dobby. It's important. I need you to connect one fireplace in Malfoy Manor to a fireplace here. Can you do that?"
"Oh I can, Mr. Harry Potter sir!" Dobby was again happy to help.
"Connect it to the Room of Requirement's fireplace then." Harry grinned and the two parted ways.
Harry walked back and forth in front of the Room of Requirement. I need a fireplace and floo powder, he thought forcefully as he paced.
Opening the door revealed an empty room except for a large, ornate fireplace, filled with logs and yet unlit. On the mantle above the fireplace was a large pot filled with floo powder. Perfect.
A small pop sound to his left indicated Dobby's return.
"It's all done, Mr. Harry Potter sir. I is connecting you to the fireplace in old Master's study."
"Perfect, Dobby." Harry went to grab a handful of floo powder.
"Mr. Harry Potter sir!" Harry turned back to Dobby. "There are bad people in that house, Harry Potter, VERY bad people." The elf's eyes were wide and Harry realized immediately what the elf was talking about.
"I'll make sure they don't see me," Harry promised, cloaking himself in his invisibility cloak before stepping into the fireplace.
"Malfoy Manor!"
In a flash of green flames, Harry Potter was no longer at Hogwarts.
Ron noticed that Hermione had been quiet for a long time; her quill was paused over the word she had been writing three minutes ago.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Ron, what way would you leave the Gryffindor Common Room if you were going to the dungeons?" Hermione asked.
"Well I'd go left to the stairs."
"So would I. But Harry went right."
Ron suddenly had a bad feeling. "But where would he go?"
"Let's go have a chat with Medusa." Hermione stood and the two made their way towards the dungeons.
Draco cautiously arrived at Malfoy Manor, calling on the numerous wind currents in the area to shield him from sight as he touched down on the lawn. Flying from Hogwarts to Malfoy Manor took a long time, even with the help of the wind and water currents making clouds to hide him. It was also very tiring. Draco had to stop three times along the way to rest and regain his strength, lest he fall out of the sky for lack of energy. But he had planned for this, which was why he'd left so early in the morning and had not planned to get back until Sunday evening.
It was just about time for supper. If all was well, he'd just slip inside and surprise his father for a meal, get reprimanded for doing something so foolish, and then they'd talk about these attacks. Draco knew though that all was not so easy as that. The letters had warned him of this. But what was wrong… that was what he was here to find out.
The wards around the Manor recognized him, he noticed as he felt the subtle touch of Veriae magic, his father's addition to the wards. Stepping up to the large double doors, he waited for the wards to admit him. Silently, the door unlocked and he slipped inside.
All the lights were on inside the Manor. Strange, Draco thought. His father never left all the lights on. Malfoys were creatures of darkness, and his father was quite comfortable with only one candle lit in the entire house, thank you very much. Draco had inherited this taste from his father. The only one who constantly left all the lights on in the rooms of the house was… Narcissa.
Draco's lip curled in disgust as he walked silently down the hall, dropping into a corner when he heard two female voices talking.
"-have to have him write another letter tonight."
"'Cissy dear, don't worry. He can barely move, much less use those Veriae powers."
"-nothing can go wrong tonight-"
"-Initiation-"
The voices got quieter as the two women walked away, leaving Draco fuming. He knew those voices. Narcissa and his aunt, Bellatrix. Something strange was going on here, Draco thought. But he had to find his father without being seen. If Bellatrix was here, then who knew how many other Death Eaters were here as well. So Draco headed for one place that no self-respecting Death Eater would bother going: the kitchens. The House Elves could tell him what was going on.
Ron and Hermione ran through the halls, oblivious of the rule that said they couldn't, heading to the kitchen. They waited impatiently for the portrait to open and raced inside as soon as they could fit through.
"Dobby!" Ron panted. "Where's Dobby?"
"Hello friends of Harry Potter!" Dobby waved to them from where the House Elves were mixing raspberries into pie mix.
"Dobby, Harry's in trouble!"
Dobby's eyes widened to a size they did not think possible and in an instant he disappeared. Ron groaned and Hermione sighed at this action.
"Well, there goes that idea," Ron muttered.
"Attention! Will all students please return to their Common Rooms immediately!" McGonagall's voice sounded through the school.
"We have to tell Dumbledore," Hermione spoke, her tone leaving no room for discussion, not that Ron would have protested anyway.
Harry rolled out of the fireplace and just missed hitting the leg of a mahogany desk.
"What was that?" a gruff voice asked.
"What was what?" another answered.
"I thought I heard something."
"I think you've gone crazy."
"Shut up."
Harry pulled the invisibility cloak tighter around himself as he edged towards the open door. The two Death Eaters began to argue as he slowly slipped out. Harry ducked into a dark corner just outside the door. If Snape was right and the Death Eaters hadn't rerouted the floo system, he should be somewhere in Lucius's wing… which was on the opposite side of the house as Draco's. Now that he was actually here, he didn't really know exactly what he was going to do. Somewhere in this house was Draco, Lucius, a whole lot of Death Eaters, and maybe Voldemort. He had to find the first two without running into the second two.
"Master Draco!" a House Elf squealed as the boy slipped into the kitchen. The boy hushed the House Elf, listening to see if there was any movement in the hall before turning back to the creature that was cowering at his side.
"Speak quietly. What has happened?"
"Oh it was awful, Master Draco!" The House Elf, buried her face in his robes as she sobbed. "They sent these things to attack Master Lucius, Master Draco, big black creatures that make the air freeze!"
"Is my father alright?" Draco recognized the description of a Dementor.
"They is ordered not to hurt Master Lucius, Master Draco. That was for… s-someone else… they said. Then other people came, lots of people in black like Master Lucius used to wear."
Black like his father used to wear? His father still wore… Draco then realized what the Elf was saying. Black like his father used to wear, black robes like his father used to wear, Death Eater robes.
"Then a man with red eyes came!" the House Elf continued. "Eyes like blood, Master Draco, and skin like no one who ever came to the Manor had!"
Lord Voldemort was in Malfoy Manor?
"When was all this?"
"They is coming one week ago, Master Draco. Diddy hear… Diddy hear that they is making Master Lucius write to Master Draco as if nothing is happening. Diddy hear they is planning to gather all the black robed people here, Master Draco, so that when you come home for the summer they can make someone else come here too."
"Who?"
"They is not saying, Master Draco. They is saying their Master wants to kill him, Master Draco."
Harry. They wanted Draco to lead Harry to Malfoy Manor.
"Diddy hear they say that many more come tonight, Master Draco! You are not safe here, Master Draco!"
"Many more? If they have all the Death Eaters here, who else is coming?"
"They is saying those that would become Death Eaters will come here tonight, Master Draco. You have to leave, Master Draco, before they is finding you!"
Draco felt sick. Initiation. Tonight was the Initiation. That had to be what the House Elf was taking about. He had to get-
He heard someone try to turn the doorknob and he froze, looking for a place to hide. Diddy barely held back a shriek and pushed Draco into an empty cupboard under the countertop.
There was a muffled word from outside the kitchen and someone entered the room.
"C-can Diddy h-help you? S-sir?" The frightened house elf cowered before the closed cupboard door.
"You can move out of my way for a minute." The Death Eater pushed the House Elf aside and stepped up to the counter. He sighed and sat down on the counter. "I know what you're doing Draco, and I think you're crazy."
Draco's eyes widened as he realized he knew who this Death Eater was. Very well in fact. This Death Eater was Blaise.
"You picked the worst time to do a rescue mission too. This is the weekend for Initiation, and You-Know-Who is here somewhere along with all the Death Eaters and those who want to become Death Eaters. Most of the Slytherins from school are going to be hanging around if they're not here already."
"And I didn't think you were going though with the Death Eater bit," Draco said quietly through the wood.
"I don't have a choice in the matter. Listen Draco, you may be my friend but once the Initiation takes place I'm not on your side anymore. So you have to find your father and get out of here before then. I heard some of the others talking, and he's being held up in the north tower. That's really all I can do for you at this point."
Blaise got off the counter and left the room, pausing at the door to add. "Don't let me see you."
Draco waited a minute before exiting the cupboard.
"I-is you okay, Master Draco?"
"Yes, Diddy, I'm fine. Diddy, can you get me to the north tower?"
Diddy began to shiver. "Master doesn't want to go there. There's a big snake up there. It eats House Elves sir! Diddy doesn't want to see Master Draco hurt."
"My father's up there, Diddy. Can you get me up there or not?"
Diddy nodded sadly and snapped her fingers. The kitchen disappeared and the hallway of the north tower appeared around them.
"Diddy, I need you to do one more thing for me."
"What is it, Master Draco?" Diddy whispered.
"I need you to go back to your normal duties and act as if nothing is wrong." He turned his back to her.
"But-"
"Do it Diddy."
There was a small popping sound and Diddy disappeared from behind Draco. Keeping to the shadows of the hall, Draco silently thanked his third great-grandfather for wanting to redo the entire house in the gothic style. He'd only been able to talk his wife into redoing the towers because she never went up there and would never have to see it. But as Draco pressed back into the shadows caused by an obsidian gargoyle and a Death Eater passed by on her way to the stairs, missing him completely, Draco made a resolution to redo the whole house in that style.
But there weren't many places that one could hide someone in the north tower, Draco had to admit. There was only an old owlery up here and a hardly used platform for stargazing.
He continued his way down the hall and towards the stairs up to the owlery. There were no sounds echoing down from the top of the curved staircase, so he began to slowly climb them.
"There's no sign of Mr. Malfoy anywhere in Hogsmead," Professor McGonagall said wearily. "I believe we must act as if he really has left Hogwarts."
"There is something much worse going on, Minerva," Dumbledore said gravely. "I've just gotten word from the Ministry. Azkaban has been attacked by Dementors. I believe it is safe to assume that any Death Eaters who were in Azkaban have been released."
"Do you... Albus, do you think the Malfoys have something to do with this?" McGonagall asked suspiciously.
"No, Minerva, I do not think they do. I do, however, think that someone wants us to think that."
There was a loud banging sound on the door and the sound of two frightened voices from outside the office shouting, "Professor Dumbledore! Harry's disappeared!"
Almost as if on cue, a figure dressed in black stepped from the fireplace in the Headmaster's office. Snape paused slightly at the shouting before wincing and turning back to the Headmaster. "He's calling, Albus. And I've noticed that a few other Slytherins are missing, not just Draco Malfoy."
Harry was lost. He was somewhere in the south wing… or was that the south part of the north wing? He had no idea. But wherever he was, it wasn't where he wanted to be.
"Sir?"
Harry jumped at the timid voice.
"Sir, why is you wearing an invisibility cloak?"
Harry turned to see a House Elf cowering near the wall. He moved farther into the shadows near the Elf. "I'm trying to help Draco."
"Master Draco? Master Draco is being in the north tower, sir… sir is being Master Draco's Harry!"
Harry nodded and the House Elf nearly clapped with joy.
"How can I get to Draco?"
"I can take Sir close to there." Harry nodded and the walls seemed to bend and blend around him to form a new hallway.
Draco tried the door and found it locked. Reaching up, he plucked a single feather out of his wings and, after it turned to steel, jammed it into the door. After a hard push, the door creaked open.
The small amount of light from the stairwell shone on the floor of the old owlery. Draco felt all his feathers turn to steel as he stepped further into the room. His father lay chained to the wall, wings retracted. There was almost no trace of his normally regal presence and strange burn marks covered his body, dried blood coated his arms and torso. Only the slight movement of his chest told Draco that he was alive.
Harry's vision swam as a sharp pain shot through his skull. Anger, Draco's anger, swirled around him like a cloud. Checking to see that there was no one in the hallway, he began sprinting down the halls, trying to make as little sound as possible.
A hiss sounded near his father's feet and Draco found himself staring into the eyes of the longest snake he had ever seen. It rose to look Draco in the eyes, its tongue flickering out as if to taste the air… or his fear.
Draco began to edge away from the snake, trying to see if he could get to his father by going around it. The snake turned to continue to watch him as he stepped deeper and deeper into the shadows. Draco couldn't see the stone floor nor what was resting on it. He froze as he bumped against something that was not the stone wall.
A deep hiss cut through the darkness and Draco jumped back across the light that was cast into the room from the hallway. A creature moved in the darkness and began to crawl out of the shadows and into the small beam of light.
Harry winced as the somewhat familiar feeling of pain began to spread across his stomach. Draco was in trouble. He crossed into another hallway and turned down into the corridor that connected to the tower entrance.
Draco looked up into jeweled faceted eyes whirling in a red fury as the dragon loomed over him. As he looked up at the black scaled monstrosity, he never saw the large snake slither out of the room.
Draco's wings curled forward to protect him from the dragon's fire as he jumped backward to avoid a silver-tipped claw reaching forward to grab at him. He now realized why Voldemort had chosen this tower to hold his father in. With the window closed no magical currents could get into the room, which left the Veriae powerless.
The room was small and cramped, and Draco was pushed farther and farther back into a remote corner of the room, away from his father. His wings scraped against the wooden rafters as they sloped down towards the floors.Another step andhis back hit the stone wall. He was trapped.
Harry ran through the corridors as quickly and silently as he could. The burning sensation in his stomach was growing hotter and larger by the second. As if he needed more urging to get to Draco; he berated the bond silently. He was already going as fast as he could.
After rounding a corner, he was forced to stop suddenly and press back into the wall as a Death Eater strode down the hall. She stopped and looked around. Harry held his breath and waited, hoping she would just move on.
"I know you're here, Potter," a familiar female voice drawled. "Draco and his father are up there but you'll have to survive me to get to them. This is the only hallway up to the north tower, so don't even think about trying to find another way up."
Her eyes glittered insanely as she grinned at the darkness. "I made sure we could have a proper fight. My cousin may have taken precedence last time, but this time, Potter, I'm going to kill you."
"No you won't Bellatrix," Harry mouthed silently, aiming his wand at her. His mouth began to form words-
"You shall not harm Harry Potter!"
"Dobby?" Harry whispered as Bellatrix spun to look at the House Elf that had materialized behind her.
In a manner akin to Lucius Malfoy in Harry's second year, Bellatrix was thrown backward, hitting the wall with a crack that couldn't have been healthy. She slid to the floor in a heap, unmoving. Harry pulled the invisibility cloak off as he stepped into the hallway.
"Dobby, what are you doing here?"
"I came to help Harry Potter sir."
Harry winced as another wave of pain hit. "Come on Dobby," he told the House Elf as he grabbed the cloak and headed for the stairs. Sounds of snarling echoed down the stairwell. Harry raced up the stairs as he heard a strangled shriek and threw open the door at the top of the stairwell. He stopped short at the state of the room.
The room was covered in splatters of blood. In the far corner he could see Draco outlined in bloodstained steal wings, the mutilated corpse of a dragon in front of him. Draco was staring down at the corpse with an expression akin to horror.
"Draco, are you okay?" Harry asked as he stepped into the room.
"I think I'm gonna be sick." Draco spoke softly.
"Fine, but not now. We have to get out of here before they figure out what's going on."
Draco nodded and stepped gingerly around the mutilated body. Harry walked up to where Lucius was chained to the wall and pressed his wand's tip to the man's temple. "Enervate."
Voldemort stood as the ceremony finished, frowning slightly.
"M'Lord?" one of the Death Eaters asked.
"I want you all to search the mansion," Voldemort hissed. "Nagini has informed me that we have some guests."