Chapter Two
They had not gone at once of course. Snape had first collected every vital potion that was available and having given half of them to Draco, they had apparated out separately. It had been agreed that they would apparate through different locations, this was to throw the aurors off track, in case any of them were actually trying to locate them.
Theoretically speaking, the aurors had a good idea as to where the notorious Death Eater Severus Snape lived; the Fidelius charm however prevented the aurors from turning up at his doorstep uninvited.
If Snape had felt apprehensive about letting the boy go alone, he did not show it. He had given him the instructions precisely and after an initial moment of confusion, the boy had gone along with them mutely. Whatever he was thinking, his questions and doubts, Draco kept them to himself. When Snape at last apparated to the address, he found much to his relief Draco waiting for him.
Snape was looking around critically, his eyes taking in the crumbling brick red house, the barn, and the untended garden overrun with weeds.
"It is a muggle farm," said Severus conversationally, a trace of humour in his voice.
"I did not have much of a choice, all right," snapped Draco. "I had seen the place when I was scouting the area before the attack. It was close to the woods and uninhabited, so …" he trailed off, still uncomfortable with admitting he had helped Potter. "He is in the barn," he added sullenly.
The inside of the barn was normal enough, if you could avoid looking at the four-poster bed tucked neatly in between the stacks of hay at the far right hand corner of the barn.
Draco had always been good at transfiguration, and he seemed to have recreated his bed from Hogwarts right down to its Slytherin colours. The covers swallowed up the thin knobbly figure of Potter, who looked even younger than he was.
Severus Snape set to work immediately, with Draco hovering behind him.
"I didn't know what was wrong with him at first," Draco, explained, even as Snape muttered diagnostic spells over the body. "I mean, I didn't see the blood, from his side, and I gave him a strengthening potion but when I took off his cloak…"
Draco fell silent as Snape gingerly peeled away the haphazard bandage, just above Potter's hip, and sure enough, the ugly wound came into focus. There was literally a hole the size of a bludger, and the red flesh was swollen.
"It looked worse yesterday, what with the bleeding and I swear the flesh was pulsating," whispered Draco, his face twisted in disgust.
"That would be because of the Cruciatus Curse. Chances are some sort of poison must have been used to keep the wound from healing," said Snape matter-of-factly. While Draco watched in morbid fascination, Snape scraped at it with a knife and transferred a bit of the flesh into a vial, all the time careful not to touch it.
"I used a wound healing potion, shouldn't the poison be…"
Snape cut him off, "You will need something stronger than a wound healing potion to counteract the poison, Draco. Honestly, I thought you learned something more useful than just Potter baiting in my potion classes," he drawled maliciously.
Draco flushed and shut up, much to Snape's satisfaction. He was admittedly being too hard on the boy, as from the looks of it, he had miraculously enough, with his rudimentary skills in healing, kept Potter alive during the night. He however, needed to think and Draco's endless chatter was not helping.
The boy was still sallow from loss of blood, and feverish; the poison in the wound probably contributing to that. As for other damages, it would take Snape more time to assess each one.
Snape tipped a number of potions down Potter's throat, before asking abruptly, "Did he wake up at all?" Snape knew it was highly impossible, and yet…
Draco shook his head, "He has been out cold ever since I found him."
Then looking at Snape's grim expression, he asked haltingly, "Is that bad?"
"I cannot tell. It will take more time and more potions."
"But, you can heal his body by magic," Draco said animatedly
"And what will you do about his mind? You think that just one Cruciatus Curse was used on him. The pain is enough to make him lose his mind, if not worse… "
"If not worse, what could be worse than losing your mind?" Draco asked horrified.
"He may never wake up. His brain might have shut off, for good."
For a while, Draco remained silent, and then to Snape's surprise Draco chuckled, "Years I have spent spreading rumours that Potter's going bonkers for sure, and it had to happen now."
It was an odd statement and Snape looked searchingly at the boy, before he spoke. "I just said, it is a possibility."
Draco did not respond and Snape continued, "I shall be back soon. Give him some more of the blood replenishing potion after half an hour."
Draco's face instantly filled with despair and he said hoarsely, "Professor please, are you going to tell him that I am a traitor?"
"I won't be wrong now, will I?" Snape retorted. He wanted to see to what length the boy could be pushed and so he pressed on.
"I saw your memories Draco, along with your emotions. It would be an insult to your intelligence if you tried to lie now."
Draco flushed, and he said wildly, "I should run for it like…"
"Like Igor?" taunted Snape. "Oh yes, he lived like a dog for almost six months before the dark lord put an end to his suffering."
The boy stumbled away from Snape as if he had been dealt with a physical blow. He seemed lost, utterly lost as to how to deal with the situation. All at once, his face hardened and he said fiercely, "Then perhaps I should try and kill you, considering you are the only one who knows." He pulled out his wand, his fingers curling in a tight fist around the wand, but he was shaking from head to toe.
"Do you think you can kill me?" sneered Snape; he did not even bother to pull out his wand.
"No," said Draco backing away from him, "but I figure I should try at the least." He came to a stop, as his legs brushed against the bed.
It was obvious enough that he was shit scared.
Snape snorted in disgust as he said curtly, "Put that away, Draco. If I did not know better, I would say that Gryffindor's false bravado is contagious. If we were back in school, your behaviour would have forced me to dock points from my own house. Now, I want some answers. You went home last night, didn't you?"
Draco Malfoy looked positively scandalized. He wondered idly as to whether it was he or Snape who had gone utterly barking mad.
"Well?" sneered Snape, he had reverted to his classroom behaviour, the one he used on Gryffindors.
"Yeah, er yes sir." When he realized Snape wanted more information he continued, "I gave him some of the draughts and cleared up his wound, then went home. Mother knows I don't like being disturbed on nights when I take part in one of the attacks. So it was safe to sneak away, once I'd made a show of going to bed. By morning, I realized that something was really wrong with him and I did not know what to do. St Mungo's burnt down or I would have probably activated a distress spell around him and it's not like I can go to Hogwarts with him and demand to see Pomfrey." He smiled grimly at the particular image in his head.
"And so you came to me for what, advice?" He sounded scathing but his hopes rose at the thought. Draco had come to him, not to Bellatrix or even to his mother. Apart from feeling slightly flattered, he felt it was a good sign.
"Something like that," Draco answered shiftily. "I knew, only you would know how to treat such a curse and so…"
Foolish boy, did he really think he could wheedle out information from me?
He was not angry per se, just amused at the boy's raw ideas.
They stayed like that for a while, both lost in their own thoughts, until Snape, as if making his mind up, said, "Well, I will have to go and see your mother, so as to tell her the wonderful news."
"Which is?" asked Draco softly, not daring to meet Snape's eye.
"That we have smoothened out our differences and that we have progressed so well that it's high time I help you with your lessons," he finished smoothly.
Draco looked surprised at first but then asked cautiously,
"It might excuse the time I am going to spend helping you with him, but you think she'll buy that?"
"Of course, after all it was her suggestion. One of her secret sorrows was that her 'very intelligent' son could not complete his studies because of the dark lord's return. In fact, though she'll never admit it, she resents him for that."
Draco made a face, as he grumbled about her excessive 'mother-ishness', but Snape could see he was pleased with the idea.
His attention shifted to Potter and anger flared up slightly, 'whatever had the foolish boy been thinking, going with those aurors?' but he didn't have time to ponder about it at the moment, and instead said to Draco,
"I will put a few spells on the premises though the less magic that we use the better. The place isn't safe and we will have to move him somewhere else. Use a cooling charm on him if the fever rises."
Draco nodded absentmindedly, his eyes still hovering on Potter. Snape could sense his unease and he wished he had more time…more time to think this ludicrous little venture through and to draw a clear defining line as to where Draco stood.
"So that's it," began Draco hesitantly. "You are not going to tell him."
"Not at the moment."
"But what sort of a mad game are you playing? On whose side…" he spluttered to a stop at Snape's sneering expression.
"The less you know, the better, Draco," he drawled. "I expect you to do as I say, and not ask any more questions. In return, you will not have to worry about the disclosure of your impulsive actions."
Draco looked ready to argue, but then his shoulders sagged and he nodded miserably.
"Good, I trust, you will still be here, when I return," Snape said dismissively.
His words though had been carefully chosen and he saw Draco start at the word 'trust.'
Draco mumbled a yes, his grey eyes catching Severus' for the briefest instant. If the boy had any foolish plans to run away, they seemed swiped clear by Severus' words. The boy seemed willing, at least for now, to trust him.
The thought only made Snape scowl more. He did not want this…this responsibility of being answerable to the trust of a seventeen year old.
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"You're planning to take him WHERE?" thundered Draco. He had been mentally prepared to act like Snape's lapdog. Snape's suggestion however had caught him off guard and he was far from heaping simpering praise on to it.
Snape hardly spared Draco a glance. He had paid a short visit to Malfoy Manor and then had gone immediately to his potion lab. He had found much to his relief, that the poison was not lethal. Its purpose seemed to keep the wound festering, and now that the antidote was applied, the wound was beginning to heal slowly.
Potter's condition, however, was far from satisfactory. The boy was all skin and bones and seemed to have been wasting away, for a while now. He wondered darkly as to what Molly Weasley had been up to. Was it not her sole use to the Order, to keep the pack of them well fed?
"Professor?" Draco's whining was getting to the irate wizard, and he levelled a cool gaze at him.
"I believe you heard me perfectly well the first time."
"But you cannot take him to your place," wailed Draco.
"And why is that?"
"Because that is the home of a Death Eater and this is Harry Potter we are talking about." Draco's voice suggested that Snape was about to commit cold-blooded murder.
Snape shot him a patronizing glance before he said with evident contempt, "I wonder whether you are suffering from a Confundus charm, Draco, or did I miss the flyer which declared that Draco Malfoy had joined Potter's fan club?"
Draco's glare for all its impressiveness was completely lost on Snape. He continued briskly, his fingers already deftly packing the potion vials.
Draco on his part kept a mutinous silence throughout the proceedings and Snape finally explained, "The aurors are sure to scan the peripheral area to the attack as soon as they finish handling the family of the aurors that you kindly helped to dispose off." He saw Draco flinch, much to his satisfaction and he pressed on, "If they spot the magic, they are sure to come down …"
"And if we leave Potter here, they will treat him," cut in Draco angrily.
"The basic skills aurors posses, Draco, is spelling out hexes from a sixth grade dark art's defence text book and acting superior. Their healing skills are next to nothing. Potter needs expertise."
"They'll take him to a healer," countered Draco. Truth was, he was terrified of the mess he was getting himself into; leaving Potter to fend for himself, seemed a good way to back out.
"What would happen then? The aurors will have a field day. What a better way to redeem themselves in the public eye. Boy who lived saved by the scan and patrol division of aurors. It will be all over the papers. The dark lord will make enquiries and the exact way Potter was found is sure to come to light. Do you think that our lord will be so dense as to not notice that the boy who left the attack early that night and the traitor are the same?"
Draco was now looking aghast.
"I never thought…"
"That's quite evident," cut in Snape maliciously.
Draco looked wearied by the verbal assault, and he hung his head, his eyes downcast.
"He will be safe in my house," offered Snape much more patiently than before. "The aurors could look for all eternity and not have a clue and the dark lord is hardly going to be surveying the quarters of his most trusted Death Eater."
"What about Potter's bloody friends? They were not at the attack; they must be looking for him."
"They don't know."
"Come on, Professor, they must know about the attack already. The mudblood is probably going to appear on the Daily Prophet's front page, all teary eyed and snivelling."
"They did not know Potter was going with the aurors," clarified Snape.
For a second, Draco was confused as to how Snape could know this and then he said accusingly, "You have been looking inside his head."
"Such a crude way of putting it, Draco, I barely skimmed through his thoughts. What was the bait for the aurors?" he asked abruptly.
"It was the Death Eaters of course. Aunt Bellatrix planned it."
"Yes, but what was the wording. Why would a host of Death Eater's show up unguarded in the middle of nowhere?"
Draco shrugged and he answered dismissively, "It was something very vague. A rumour, that the Death Eaters were searching for something; something precious to the dark lord. Personally, I thought the aurors were half wits to have fallen for it."
Something precious to the dark lord, Potter must have thought it was one of the…
He said suddenly to Draco, "I believe a letter to the two of them would put matters at rest, for a while at least."
"A letter from… Potter?" Draco asked slowly. Draco could see the sense in it, if it were properly worded and seemed genuinely from Potter.
"I was hoping you would write it. You must have some idea as to how he would phrase it." Snape knew that he would have to let Draco word it; he was too old to attempt a seventeen year olds letter.
Draco seemed surprised at being asked and then said with a wicked laugh, "I would love to."
"You realize that he would never start the letter with 'dear mudblood and weasel,'" Snape said reproachfully.
"Yeah, but I was hoping that I could sign it off as 'the biggest arse that ever lived…Harry Potter," laughed Draco. Then seeing that Snape was serious he sobered up to say, "but what about Potter's handwriting and surely Granger would scry to make sure the letter is genuinely from Potter."
Snape sneered as he said, "Do you think I could not fool a mere school girl, Draco?"
Malfoy's could display good manners at rare occasions. He was still not very comfortable with the idea of shifting Potter to Snape's house, but he did want to smooth out their differences.
"I am sorry I doubted you."
"You should be. It's the cause of all this mess."
Draco was surprised by the amount of spite the words carried and there was something offensive about the wording. He racked his brains even as Snape busied himself in removing the wards, and other traces of magic from the muggle barn. Soon the bed that Potter had been lying on was back to being just another haystack.
Snape hoisted up Potter as he pushed another dose of strengthening potion down Harry's throat. Hopefully, it would counteract the weakening that was sure to come from apparating.
It was only after Snape had disapparated, along with Potter, that Draco caught on to Snape's meaning. He must have been referring to last year, when I would not tell him my plans. Feeling severely chastened, Draco Malfoy apparated out of the muggle barn.
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First off, I want to thank Oldoverholt, my extroadinary beta reader.
This story is very experimental, and I really value each and every one of your reviews.
So thanks to Rebell (your review made me laugh!) duj, Flame Dancer077, The Fuzy Llama (Draco is different from the way I normally write him. I want him to be shit scared of what he is getting into. give him a chance…he may surprise you yet.)
So keep those reviews coming. Even if it is only to tell me how bad it is!
To the people who read NQTKSA, I know you guys must be completely peeved, but I haven't really abandoned it. I will finish it soon, if only for my own satisfaction, and anyone still interested can kick me for spoiling it.
Kshetra