Black Truth

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Division

Hermione worriedly scanned the Great Hall one more time for the seemingly only missing students for breakfast that morning. Next to her Ron was not nearly as worried, chatting with Seamus and Dean about some Quidditch related topic.

"Harry and Malfoy still aren't here!" Hermione hissed in his ear.

"Relax Hermione," Ron grinned. "They're probably just sleeping in."

"But the articles!"

The grin dropped off Ron's face. "What? That's today!"

Hermione nodded.

The redhead groaned and turned back to his eggs as if to look for solace by doing so. "Well, at least they're putting out a united front then."

"What?"

"They're both skipping the publicity."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "That won't help them! It will just make it look worse!"

As owls began to swoop through the rafters of the hall Ron smiled wryly. "Well, there's nothing we can do about it now, Hermione."

Harry sighed and nestled his face deeper into his pillow. When that pillow moaned at the action Harry didn't think twice about it, already drifting back into dreams. But when Draco suddenly bolted upright, throwing Harry completely off of where he had been draped over his torso, Harry protested.

"Shut it Harry, we've missed breakfast!"

"Wha'r you talking…" Harry trailed off into a yawn. Maybe sleeping on the cold floor wouldn't be so bad…

"Get UP Harry!"

Harry was pulled off the floor and pushed towards his trunk with a shove.

"We have five minutes before classes start!"

"Classes?"

"Divination for you, Harry. You'll have to run."

Draco appeared next to Harry, fully dressed in his school uniform – how did he manage to do that so fast anyway! – and groaned at Harry's state of undress.

"You can't go to class in your nightshirt, Potter! Move it!"

It was perhaps the use of his last name that finally jolted Harry out of his sleepy stupor. "Fine, Draco, I'm going! Look, just go to class. Trelawney won't miss me if I'm not there for the first few minutes."

The blond hovered for a moment, as if making sure Harry did indeed begin to get ready for class, before leaving at a run.

Harry entered the incense-laden room as quietly as he could, but he'd forgotten that one of the floorboards near the door squeaked.

"Ah! Harry my dear!" Harry jumped as Trelawney seemed to materialize beside him. "It is so good to see you did not take the shortcut through the fourth floor corridor! Had you done so I foresaw that you would have met your utter demise." She fixed him with a dreamy smile that reminded him strangely of the look Luna normally wore. "Your inner eye must be expanding for you to have begun to realize the workings of fate so well!"

Harry nodded mutely, trying to ignore the sniggers coming from one corner of the room that were undeniably Ron's.

"Take your seat dear, your classmates will fill you in on what they are working on."

"Harry sit over here!"

Harry looked over to see Padma waving him over toward where she and almost the entirety of the female population of the Divination class were sitting. There was one empty chair. Harry looked over at Ron with a pleading gesture but his friend could only shrug sympathetically as Trelawney shooed him over to the girls.

Harry sat and it was as if he had been catapulted into a practice room for dueling spells. Only the spells weren't spells, but a barrage of whispered questions.

"Harry! Why didn't you tell me you were like that? We could have gone shopping!"

"Harry! What did Draco do when he proposed to you?"

"Was it romantic Harry?"

"Did anything happen, Harry?"

"Can I help with the wedding Harry?"

"Am I invited to the wedding Harry?"

"Can I be in the wedding Harry?"

Harry sent another pleading look at Ron who was barely holding in his laughter. "Um, you'll have to talk to Draco about the particulars. He's doing the organizing of the wedding," Harry mumbled as softly as he could.

There was a shriek of delight and Harry wondered how unnatural girls must be in order to actually reach that range of sound.

"That's so romantic!"

"Wanting it to be a surprise!"

Harry groaned inwardly. I wonder what Trelawney would say if I told her I would in fact not be killed by Voldemort but by being smothered with questions… maybe I should tell her that all the whispering is clouding my budding inner eye…

Harry attempted to catch up to Ron when the class ended, but to no avail. The girls practically dragged him from the room, their voices resuming their usual volume. Harry was overwhelmed by questions on all sides and by the pure noise of it all as they half-walked, half-dragged him through the hallways of Hogwarts. Words melded together as he couldn't pick out which girl was asking which question anymore.

And then his knight in shining armor appeared. Except his knight wasn't exactly in armor, but in standard black Hogwarts robes with a Slytherin badge emblazoned upon them.

"Excuse me girls, but Harry seems a bit flustered. Mind if I cut in?"

An arm wrapped around Harry's waist and steered him away from the gaggle of girls who cooed and awed as Harry was lead away from them.

"How do they make those noises without going deaf?" Harry wondered as they turned a corner and Draco let go of him.

"That is a mystery that I have often wondered about. I believe it is not something the male gender is supposed to solve," Draco drawled.

Harry shook his head. His ears were still ringing. "Well, I guess it could have been worse."

"Oh believe me, Harry, go down to the Slytherin part of the school and it'll get worse."

"What happened?"

"Nothing yet. They're divided in opinion if you ask me." Draco ticked each opinion off on a finger as he spoke. "One part is just confused and unsure if the whole thing is real or not. One part has decided that, if I hadn't been already, I am now the epitome of betrayal. And the third part just doesn't care, and is waiting to see what becomes of the whole thing first."

"That's nice of them," Harry muttered.

"The Gryffindorks appear the same way though," Draco smirked. "But I think you have another category to add: those that think it's the best idea ever and the cutest thing in the universe." Harry groaned as Draco changed his voice to mimic the girls they'd just left as best he could.

If dinner was any indication of the temperament of Hogwarts students, Harry was exceedingly glad that he'd skipped lunch. He barely had a chance to eat.

"What were you thinking Harry?"

"It's Malfoy Harry!"

"Someone quick! Check for a Dark spell! He can't be acting of his own mind."

"But it's so adorable!"

"Are you crazy! It's horrible! You're not actually going through with it, right Harry?"

"Harry? You're not really getting married, are you?"

And it was about at this moment that they saw his ring. Again, the reactions were varied, but forceful. Harry's arm was dragged towards everyone that could reach so that they could get a better look at it and discern that it was, in fact, an engagement ring.

Over on the Slytherin side Harry could see that Draco was faring only slightly better. The Slytherin students seemed to be quieter with their inquisitive statements, but more vicious.

There was a sudden clatter and smash of food and cutlery falling to the floor, as well as the soft whimpering of someone who'd been hit before Snape's voice roared out:

"Mr. Zabini, you will not act in such a manner towards your fellow students!"

Harry peered over Ron's head to see Blaise standing over a seventh year Slytherin, his fist still curled from the punch that broke the student's jaw. Draco, sitting next to where Blaise was standing, looked nonplussed about the entire situation, but his eyes showed a slight irritation towards the student sprawled on the floor.

"He's not going to get in trouble for that," Ron muttered. "You can tell Snape's just making a show of it. He's not really angry at all."

Harry collapsed, books and all, onto the bed, completely exhausted.

"Going to leave me any room, Harry?"

Harry's reply was something between a "mufgh" and a "gfruf" before he lifted his head partway off the mattress. "Not at all. Wake me for exams."

"I doubt even you could sleep for almost three months."

A muffled, "I can try," was his answer.

Draco rolled his eyes, shifting Harry's books off the bed and onto the floor where they landed in a heap. Then he shifted Harry's legs from where they had been dangling off the bed to a more restful position. Harry murmured his thanks.

"Stay awake a bit longer, Harry," Draco said as he pulled out a roll of parchment, ink, quill, wax, and the stamp with the Malfoy crest carved on it.

Harry half rolled himself onto his side so he could peer at what Draco was writing. "Who are you writing to?"

"I don't know exactly, Harry. You'll have to tell me."

"What?"

"I'm paying your price, Harry. You have to select a next of kin for me to send it to though."

Harry blushed red at the word "price" and buried his head in a pillow.

Draco pulled it out from under him. "You must know who is closest to you in family status, Harry."

Harry was silent for a moment. Then he mumbled something into the sheets so all that Draco heard was: "-mus."

"What?"

"Remus. Remus Lupin."

"The werewolf?" Draco asked incredulously.

Harry nodded. Family-wise, Remus was his closest wizarding kin. He doubted Draco would want to send anything to the Dursleys, much less money from the Malfoy family vault.

Draco was still staring at him. "How exactly does that work?"

"He and my father were friends in school," Harry replied, fighting off a yawn. And now that his godfather was gone, he was the last link Harry had to his real parents.

Draco nodded thoughtfully. "I think that qualifies then."

"Unless you'd rather send it to my muggle relatives." Harry couldn't resist.

Draco grimaced. "No."

"Ok then. Remus it is."

Draco continued writing. The silence stretched for a few minutes, broken only by the sound of Draco's quill scratching the parchment.

"Draco?"

"Hm?"

"How much are you sending him?"

Draco grinned devilishly, ripping off a large scrap of parchment and scribbling a figure on it. "Well the normal price for one marrying into the Malfoy family is this." He dropped the parchment next to Harry.

Harry gaped. "What?" Had he really counted those zeros right? "You're kidding!"

"Of course," Draco drawled thoughtfully. "Considering that you're The-Boy-Who-Lived and all, decorum would state that I double it."

"Double it?" Harry was instantly awake, trying to calculate how large a figure that was. He couldn't. "That's crazy! How many vaults are you going to have to empty for that?"

Draco frowned. "I think it'll take about a sixteenth of one of the minor vaults. Yeah, that's about right. Maybe one seventeenth, but that's not taking into account the interest that has added up since the last time I checked the value."

Harry stared at him, mouth agape. "Draco. With that much money, Remus could live like a king for the rest of his life."

Draco grinned. "Are you implying that you won't? You're going to be a Malfoy, Harry." He leaned forward to whisper, "We live better than kings," before capturing Harry's mouth in a brief kiss.