Chapter Four: Actions Speak Louder Than Words

"MALFOY! What the hell are you doing here!" Hermione and Ron ran to the front door to find Harry holding his wand to Malfoy's face, only they would never have recognized him if it was not for his expensive robes and put it together with his hair, which fell flat over his pale, sickly looking face. His eyes were red and he looked like he had not slept or eaten properly for days, weeks even, let alone groomed himself. He was shaking slightly, looking as though he would collapse at any moment. His expensive robes were ratted and torn. They looked like he had been wearing them for some time now.

Harry was giving Malfoy the dirtiest death glare imaginable. Hermione ran over and stood beside Harry, followed by Ron.

"P-Potter," Malfoy said in a weak voice. His voice was raspy and shaken. "P-please. I-I heard I could find you here." His weak eyes were pleading. "Th-the D-dark Lord, he killed my mother. Snape, he just watched. Her sister, my aunt, Bellatrix, she was holding me back. She was smiling! She was smiling while she was watching her sister was being killed and holding her son, her sister's son, her own nefew, while it happened." Hermione noticed that his eyes began to fill with tears, but gave it not a second thought as she whipped out her wand and allowed it to join Harry's.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" She demanded. Her voice shook even Harry and Ron on the inside.

"The Dark Lord, he was going to kill me. Everyone told him that I hesitated! They told him that I almost didn't do it. He wanted me to kill him, but I couldn't-didn't! I didn't! I was unable to complete a task that he himself gave me and he tried to kill me, He said he was going to use the Cruciatious curse instead of the Avada, make me know the severity of what I had done, but my mother jumped in front of me. She was crying!" Malfoy turned to Hermione. "SHE WAS CRYING!"

"WHAT IN TH-" Ron put a silencing charm on the door and walls before Vernon could finish what he was saying.

"Why would we care about this? Would you care if we showed up your doorstep and told you that our parents had been killed?" Ron demanded. "In case you forgot, it is because of your Dark Lord that Harry can't even do that!"

"MY MOTHER DIED TRYING TO GET HIM TO FORGIVE ME! TO SAVE MY LIFE! MY AUNT JUST HELD ME THERE! SHE FORCED ME TO WATCH! SHE HELD MY HEAD AND WOULD NOT LET ME CLOSE MY EYES!" Malfoy looked from one of the teenagers in from of him to the other. "My father was sent to jail fighting for him. My mother was killed trying to save me from him. The only teacher who would have given me a chance, offer protection, anything, was killed by his orders. Potter," Malfoy looked Harry straight in the eye, "I want it to be his turn."

"We can't possibly trust him!" Ron yelled. He and Harry were waiting in Harry's room while Hermione was checking Malfoy for any detection charms, dark objects, potions or anything magical in aunt Marge's room, which is where she was staying.

"I know Ron! Don't you think I wanted to kill him when I saw him at the door! " Harry replied even louder.

"THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU?"

Harry looked away from his best friend. "I froze."

"Well, I checked him out and he doesn't seem to be carrying or under anything, well, other than his robe and his wand, which he allowed me to check, and the last spell he did was a self-cloaking spell, and it wasn't fresh. If he's telling thetruth, he probably did that to stay off their radar and didn't use magic since then so they couldn't track him" Hermione said as she walked into the room.

"Then why not discard it?" Ron asked.

"A wizard's wand is able to track its owner. Plus, probably in case he needed to protect himself or something." Hermione sounded nervous.

"Where is he now?" Harry asked almost as quietly as the last thing he had said.

"I left him in the room I'm staying in. I didnt see any need to bind or silence him. He seems weak. But there's something I think you guys want to hear." She twisted a strand of hair that had fallen over her shoulder. "He asked me what is was like to fight on the right side." She refused to make eye contact with either of the boys in the room.

Ron punched the wall. He could not believe Malfoy was doing this! Harry, on the other hand, stood still, He did not even blink for what seemed to be a long while.

"Harry?" Hermione waved her hand in front of her friend's eyes.

"What else?" he hissed.

"HARRY!" Hermione gasped. "You're speaking parseltongue!"

"I'm pissed!" He hissed once again.

"Maybe you should try to calm down a little. I think that this is coming from your anger." Hermione was terrified at the look in Harry's eyes.

"I AM CALM!" He finally mustered out in English.

"Thank you, now what did you say first?"

"I said what else did he say?" Harry said through his teeth.

"Oh, um, well, when he said that, I looked at him and he was looking at me and then he looked away and said that he would only talk after he spoke to you." She whispered. "But Harry, he said that he would tell us anything we needed to know! Anything."

"Oh, so we're going to go and believe him?" Ron finally ended his silence in the back of the room.

"He said we could use a truth spell, or a potion! He was weak, but seemed serious. He apologized."

"HOW THICKHEADED COULD YOU BE HERMIONE? HE'S TRYING TO USE YOU TO GET TO HARRY! HE'S ONLY DOING THIS AND BEING OPEN AND SHIT BECAUSE HE KNOWS IT WILL GET TO YOU!" Ron could barely contain himself.

"Ron you idiot! Do you think I wasn't smart enough to use a lie -detecting spell on my wand? I was expecting what you just said and used it to our advantage! If he lies, and we know about it, we can use it against him!" Hermione glared at Ron for thinking she was so naïve. "But do you want to hear something? My wand tip didn't glow once! Not even the tiniest bit!"

"Well maybe he just went around the truth!" Ron hoped.

"No, the spell picks up anything untrustworthy, even thoughts. I was hoping that I had said the spell wrong and did it again before I came into the room, but when I said that my name was Anne Granger, instead of Hermione Anne, it glowed a bright red." Hermione turned to the silent Harry. "I'm so sorry. I wanted him to be lying just as much as you did, but he was just truthful."

"But you said he used a self-cloaking charm" Ron asked quietly, trying to find some way to incriminate Malfoy.

"It was for location, nothing more." Hermione sighed.

There was a long silence in the room, until Harry finally said, "I'm going in."