sweet as lemonz: I always enjoy writing Adrian and Harry scenes, personally I've always thought Harry needs a mentor who's a little less perfect then Dumbledore. Snape's more of a challenge since he keeps wanting to go OOC.
newspaper taxi: if you can take the time to review I can take the time to reply. Glad you're enjoying it.
Chapter 18: DracoSeverus and I were careful to keep our relationship a secret from everyone else in the building. It's something that we really have too much practise at having done the same thing as students because we hadn't wanted to risk the fallout that would occur if everyone had found out that a Gryffindor was dating a Slytherin. Now things were a little more serious then that because we were supposed to be playing the parts of two people on opposite sides of the war.
Most of our time spent alone together was when I went down to pick up the weeks worth of potions ingredients for Harry's lessons, any other time we could find above that was just a bonus. We also sat next to one another at meals so we could talk, though we were careful about what exactly we discussed. I don't think anyone ever caught on, besides Grandpa who would just give us knowing looks now and then. Though I think Harry might have suspected but to his credit he never said anything.
Then the castle was plunged into chaos. The reason was that someone had started breaking into teacher's offices and classrooms and stealing things. The most alarming thing they took was potions ingredients, not just because of what you could do with them but because they broke effortlessly through the wards on Severus' office, even when he intensified them.
I had always placed anything of real importance in my office which was locked and warded but when Severus' office was broken into I took out my old books on curse breaking and found something that would let the entire castle know if someone tried to break into my office and hopefully catch the person in the process.
For a long while it looked like the thief had no interest in my office and that most of his interest lay in the realm of potions. Then one night at about two in the morning the alarms on my office went off.
Leaping out of bed I grabbed my wand and headed for my office door only to find that the culprit had fled. I had only just turned off the alarms when Grandpa, dressed in his pyjamas and fluffy purple slippers, showed up followed closely by McGonagall in her nightdress, Flitwick in what looked suspiciously like children's pyjamas, Sprout in dressing gown that appeared to be thrown haphazardly over her nightdress, and Severus in his night shirt, looking like he'd sprinted up here from the dungeon.
"It didn't catch him," I said wearily aware of how comical we all must look. "Which means he is either very, very lucky or very, very good."
Before anyone could reply Harry came skittering around the corner barefoot and in his pyjamas, wand in hand, followed closely by Ron and Hermione who were also in pyjamas though Hermione had grabbed slippers.
"You were told to stay in your dormitories!" McGonagall exclaimed.
"But of course Potter is above the rules," Severus sneered.
"I just wanted to know what was going on," Harry said stubbornly looking back and forth between Grandpa and I waiting for an explanation.
"We almost caught our thief," I explained. "But he was good enough that he only tripped the alarm and didn't get caught by anything else."
"How do you know it was a boy?" Hermione asked.
"Are you implying, Miss Granger, that it was you who has been breaking into offices?" Severus asked and I found myself resisting the urge to smack him so that he would shut up.
"I just have a hunch that it is," I replied thinking of Draco Malfoy who was the only branded Death Eater among the students.
"How can we be sure that it's a student and not someone who's an animagus small enough that we wouldn't notice them?" Harry asked.
"We can't know," I replied. "But we can be fairly certain because the animagus that you are thinking of would have never got far enough through these wards to trip the alarm."
Harry didn't seem completely satisfied with that answer.
"But, rest assured Mr. Potter," said Flitwick. "That there are ministry Aurors watching all entrances and exits to the school all the time. It would be practically impossible for someone to enter this school without us knowing."
"Unless, of course Potter and his friends know of a secret passage not being watched."
"Now Severus," said Grandpa, "I'm sure Harry would have told us if there was anything we needed to know. Minerva, can you escort these three back to Gryffindor tower, then the rest of us should head back to bed as there are classes to be taught tomorrow."
That left Severus and I standing in the hall under the pretence of him asking me about the wards. Once everyone has gone we step into my office and close the door.
"You think it's Draco who's been stealing things," he said.
"He's the only logical one. I just don't have any proof."
Severus was silent for a long moment. "Be careful around Draco, he comes from a very powerful family…"
"Money may impress others but it doesn't impress me," I replied. "And his ability to break through wards doesn't necessarily suggest any powers out of the ordinary."
Severus sighed. "You have never been around the pureblood hierarchy. The Malfoy's are a very powerful family, not simply because they're rich but because they are very, very dangerous. For that reason I could go back to the Slytherin dormitories right now and they would tell me that Draco has been there all night."
"That doesn't mean I'm scarred of him. Or Lucius for that matter."
Reaching out he placed his hands on my shoulders. "Adrian, you need to be careful, even if you don't see the point to it. They are both very dangerous."
Yeah, I thought, but they're still scared of Dumbledore and I have Dumbledore's blood running through my veins. Out loud I said, "Yeah, well I can be dangerous too."
- - - - -
Being careful has perhaps never been my strong suit, because the very next day I came up with an set of wards so elaborate for my office that anyone trying to breaking could be caught in several different ways and if they didn't break down enough of the defences then they might end up getting injured. The talk of the school of course, was how my office alone had repelled the thief from entering and suddenly all the students seemed to respect me that much more. There were even whispers that the thief had been frightened off when there failed to be another break in after a few days but I was hardly inclined to agree.
A few nights later just before I headed down to pick up that weeks potion ingredients I spotted Severus hurrying across the grounds to the gate with his Death Eaters cloak on. Resolving to keep an eye out for when he returned I headed down to his office to collect the ingredients anyway.
Arriving in the dungeons I noticed the door to his office was already open and pulled out my wand. Sure enough Draco Malfoy was standing there going through the shelves.
"Turn around, Mr. Malfoy." I said causing him to jump and drop the jar that was in his hand. "Now, empty your pockets."
Glowering he slowly pulled various potions ingredients out of the pockets of his robe placing them on Severus' desk.
"Come with me Mr. Malfoy, we are going to see the Headmaster."
But even Grandpa couldn't get him to confess that he'd been the one breaking in to offices and classrooms. I had a feeling that if he had not been caught red handed tonight he wouldn't have even admitted what he'd done tonight. I was half expecting him to tell us that he had been forced to under the Impurius curse.
The next evening found him arriving in my office at eight where I stood waiting with Filch.
"Good of you to show up on time, Mr. Malfoy," I said sarcastically nodding to the clock which read ten after eight.
He didn't say anything simply electing to look around my office, his eyes lingering in the direction of the bookshelf.
"Until Easter, Mr. Malfoy, from eight until ten every night you will be helping Mr. Filch clean the school, the muggle way."
He looked mutinous.
"Given what you were caught doing I'd say you are getting off rather light, wouldn't you agree?"
He simply sneered at me.
"He's all yours, Mr. Filch."