Three letters later, Harry hadn't found anything of use and glanced at Draco quickly. The blond boy was glaring at his papers.
"Lighten up, Draco, they're only papers."
Harry grinned as he saw Draco's face scrunch up; Harry knew Draco was trying to control an outburst. It came anyway. He started laughing. Really laughing. Harry just watched him, mesmerised. Draco Malfoy really was something. So beautiful. Harry couldn't even remember what he'd said to make Draco laugh like that. But whatever it was, it must have been funny; Draco's eyes were now starting to water slightly.
Finally Draco calmed down and looked at Harry. "Thanks, I really needed that."
"It wasn't even that funny," Harry said, grinning back at the smiling Draco.
"Yes it was. It was hilarious! I was – you – oh man that was funny."
"Whatever, Draco, I need to get back to reading these letters."
"Wait, Harry, I've found something."
"What is it?" Harry asked, dropping his stack of letters on the desk and hurrying over to Draco's.
"It's a list… Harry, this… this is a death list. Look – there's the Longbottoms… what are they doing there? And… you. Harry Potter. Lily Potter. James Potter." Draco stared, amazed at the fact that his father would have an old list of intended murders lying around with his papers.
But Harry wasn't paying attention to his family's name, or even the Longbottoms or the Weasleys. Clearly, all the known members of the original Order of the Phoenix were on here, but there was one name that stood out. Regulus Black.
"Hey… there's a code system. Look. You've all got Ps next to your names. That must mean 'Phoenix' for members of the order. And there're a few Ts there as well. What can that mean?"
"Traitor." Harry said, pointing to Regulus' name on the sheet.
"Oh. Oh!" Draco said, jumping from his seat excitedly. "Harry! We can work out whether he managed to destroy the Horcrux from this!"
"How? It doesn't have a reason for death on there, just Traitor," Harry said, frowning at Draco's enthusiasm.
"No, no. Look. Avis revelo," Draco said, tapping Regulus' name on the parchment with his wand. Suddenly, cursive letters started to spread across the bottom of the parchment.
Regulus Black: Wanted by the Dark Lord for high treason. Crime: Deserting the Dark Lord and taking with him, and daring to destroy, one of the Dark Lord's most prized possessions, Salazar Slytherin's locket – a family heirloom.
Obviously Lucius, who had written the list, had not been privy to the significance of Slytherin's locket. This did not surprise Harry, as he was quite sure that Voldemort had not told anyone of his plan. So Regulus had destroyed the locket. Well, that was good news. With Slytherin's locket, Marvolo's ring and Riddle's diary destroyed, only two more horcruxes remained to find and destroy before Harry could go after the last two pieces of Voldemort's soul – Nagini the snake and Voldemort himself.
"What spell did you just use?" Harry asked, amazed.
"It reveals what the writer was thinking about when they wrote a particular word or words," Draco said smugly, wiping the parchment clear with a tap of his wand.
"Avis revelo," Harry said shakily, pointing his wand at his own name and then repeating the spell on Neville's name. The words appeared at the bottom of the parchment, as before.
Harry Potter: Wanted dead by the Dark Lord due to a prophecy made predicting the downfall of the Dark Lord at the hands of said boy.
Harry did not react, having expected as much. What he didn't expect, however, was:
Neville Longbottom: Wanted dead by the Dark Lord's most trusted followers due to the possibility that the prophecy may also apply to said boy.
"Harry… does that mean…" Draco began, but Harry cut him off.
"It means that if Voldemort had believed that Neville, a pureblood wizard, was more of a threat to him than me, the son of a muggleborn, he would have gone after Neville instead. And before you ask, that would mean that Neville would be the parseltongue who almost got sorted into Slytherin. Neville would be the orphan. Neville would be the Boy-Who-Lived. Neville would be the boy that the prophecy applies to. But as it is, Voldemort chose me and in doing so marked me as the one who would challenge him and the one to whom the prophecy applies."
"Harry, what exactly is this prophecy?" Draco asked slowly, as if he was afraid of the answer.
"'Either must die at the hands of the other for neither may live while the other survives,'" Harry recited, without emotion. To his surprise, Draco looked as if he was about to cry.
"And… and that refers to you and V-V-Voldemort," Draco stated, obviously fighting to keep his face and voice clear of emotion. Harry nodded.
Draco stood and walked to the door. Harry noticed that Draco's hand was shaking as he reached for the door knob but before he could say anything, Draco left the room in silence.
Harry had one guess where he was heading. He waited a few minutes and then proceeded to their shared bedroom. Just as he expected, Draco was sitting on his favourite chair, in front of the window.
Harry entered the room silently, realising with a partly guilty but secretly partly pleased feeling that Draco was crying quietly.
"Draco?" Harry called softly, walking towards the window and conjuring up another chair beside Draco before sitting in it.
"I don't want you to die," Draco whispered, his sobs becoming more audible.
"I won't." Harry said firmly, trying to convince himself as much as Draco.
"I won't let you," Draco sobbed.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have told you – I – didn't want you to feel like it was…" Harry trailed off, unsure of what to say. "I don't really know what I'm trying to say here, but the point is I'm sorry for upsetting you."
"I needed to know, please don't apologise," Draco said quietly, still staring out the window with tears running down his face. His sat silently, the suppressed sobs causing his shoulders to shake.
Harry raised a hand to clasp one of Draco's then thought better of it and lowered it again. Draco did not notice. "I'm sorry I'm taking this so badly," he said, reaching up to brush a few tears from his face.
"You're not. Really. Ginny cried for days when I told her."
"You told her? I guess you would have, she is your girlfriend." Draco, to Harry's surprise and slight pleasure, sounded bitter.
"No, she isn't."
"Sorry. Easy assumption."
"That's ok. So, are you alright? I'm sorry I didn't tell you before you got into this. You probably want to back out now, and that's completely ok. I really should have told you before I let you-"
"Are you mad? Of course I don't want to back out. How am I going to protect you or help you win this battle if I back out of the deal?" Draco asked incredulously.
Harry smiled softly. "I'm glad you're staying."
"Me too."
They returned to their study, Harry closing the door behind him. When he turned around to face his desk, Draco scooped him into a tight hug. "I won't let you die, I promise," he whispered fiercely into Harry's ear. Harry suppressed a shiver at the slightly possessive tone in Draco's voice.
Draco pulled away looking rather embarrassed. "Sorry," he said, looking away, "I must be feeling pretty emotional today."
"You're telling me," Harry said, grinning.
"Prat," Draco scolded, sitting down at his desk and returning to his papers.
"You do realise we are looking in the wrong place for the information we still need," Harry said amusedly. "We've got what we need from your father's stuff. All we need now is to locate Hufflepuff's cup and work out what the last horcrux is and where to find it. I doubt your father would know any of that."
"Oh. Right. So do we get the rest of the day off?"
"I think that's a good idea," Harry said, "Race you to the back door!" Harry took off and was out the door even before Draco had shouted the first syllable of 'cheater'. Instead of running, Draco decided to take his time and make Harry wait for him.
Harry arrived at the back door, puffing, and threw it open, blinking out into the bright sunlight. Five minutes passed before Draco appeared, smirking.
"What took you so long?" Harry asked, his breathing back to normal.
"Oh, I just had a little chat to Hermione in the library about borrowing her copy of Hogwarts: A History." Draco said, smirking as Harry gaped at him.
"Are you mad? Why would you want to read that?"
"Just for a bit of light reading," Draco said.
"Oh no, you're just like Hermione," Harry groaned, rolling his eyes.
"Relax, Harry, I'm joking. I just thought it might help with finding out about the Ravenclaw Horcrux. I think there's a fair bit of information about the founders in there – it might be a good place to start. You do still think the Horcrux we don't know about is one of Ravenclaw's possessions, don't you?" Draco asked.
"Yeah. Yeah I do. Good thinking, Draco," Harry said, holding the door open so Draco could walk outside.
Seated on the grass, Harry's mind turned inevitably back to their work.
"I was thinking… we're going to need to see what Ron's found out soon – sifting through Dumbledore's memories has hopefully revealed some clues as to the whereabouts of the remaining Horcruxes."
"Mmmm," Draco said, closing his eyes and tilting his face up towards the sun, smiling softly.
Harry was silent for a few minutes, thinking about places that Voldemort would think good enough to keep a part of his soul, when Draco interrupted him.
"Harry, stop thinking about work."
"What do you propose I think about then?" Harry asked, amused.
"Something that makes you feel happy and relaxed." Draco said, without opening his eyes. Harry watched his smile grow, and wondered what he was thinking about.
Instead of asking, however, Harry found himself studying the boy, and before he knew it, his thoughts were happy ones. He felt a smile on his face as he realised, and finally accepted, that Draco made him happy, and that there was nothing wrong with that. And maybe, just maybe, Draco felt the same way about him.
At breakfast the next morning, Harry proposed a meeting in the afternoon instead of individual work to discuss their progress so far.
"I think that's a good idea, Harry. Weren't you just saying yesterday that we needed to see what Ron's got? And I'm sure Hermione will have some ideas as an outsider to this information," Draco said.
"Yeah, good idea, Harry. I've got a few ideas to toss around," Ron added.