Ok, before all of you kill me I just want you to know that the reason it took me so long to get this chapter up was because I was doing NaNoWriMo, sorry peeps. I solemnly promise that this story will be done before the end of the summer and...it will kick ass. Another thing, this is the last time I will reply to your reviews in the chapters, I will from here on use the little things they give you and reply just to you.
Dui: ok, when you start teaching someone something, or you start refreshing something, you always start with the basics, no matter how many times the person has done it. It's like in math, when you go from tenth to eleventh, they teach you the same things, starting with the basics and getting just a little bit more complicated.
CareBearErin: I'm trying really hard on the relationships in this thing, I'm trying not to take it too fast, but to kick back and plan it out. I'll let you in on a secret...I have the entire story planned out...! But when you think about it, if you did something, would you want to have to keep explaining why you did to so many people when it hurts to do such?
Black Triforce: is it a good or bad thing that you find it hard to describe why you like it? starts to panic
ShadowAngel26: I'm glad you love it babe, sorry but no, not the pairing you want...trying to stick to the cannon...maybe in another
Excessively perky: glad you liked it, and that's what I thought, Draco will be able to do the work now, Snape can take a load off and relax...or can he?
Chapter 4
(Draco)
Sitting in the crowded pub, I felt extremely vulnerable and exposed. What was I to do if I was caught? What if a Death Eater saw me? The second was highly improbable seeing as how I was in a Muggle pub, but whoever said that anyone ever thought rationally at times like these? Potter and his gang were coming to collect me, so I could try to negotiate becoming one of their spies. I knew not how many they had. What if they decided to just off me because I had been ordered to kill Dumbledore, even though I hadn't?
My mind was whirling with all of the questions that I was worrying over, and there were still so many more. The beer in front of me was untouched, but I really couldn't come into a pub, sit in the corner and not have anything, not without drawing unnecessary attention to myself, hence the drink. I had dressed in comfortable Muggle clothing that I had bought a week ago in preparation. Unlike other Wizards, I knew how to match my clothing; I had a pair of black jeans on with a black belt that had a silver snake with emeralds for eyes as the buckle. A turtleneck sufficiently covered my arms to hide my mark, and I had over that a black jean jacket.
The door opened, and my eyes snapped to it; three people stumbled in laughing raucously as they made their way to the bar. One of them was a busty female who was wearing an outrageously skimpy outfit; another was a skinny young man who was wearing wire-framed glasses and close fitting clothes, the last was a tall man with blond hair and he was on crutches, a cast around one of his legs.
Shaking my head minutely, I swirled some of my drink around in the glass; it was a nice bit of magic they had done on themselves, but I still knew it was them. The air shifted slightly when they came in, announcing the magic being used. One of them was using Glamour, and all three of them had a spell on, the type used on magical buildings to make Muggles not look at them too closely. After getting drinks they joked a few more minutes, making fun of the one on the crutches, saying he shouldn't be drinking when he was on medication. I waited.
"Hey! Mate!" The woman plopped down next to me and I was flashed a high voltage smile that made my stomach want to reject its contents. The other two slid into the booth across from me. The skinny one was Potter; somehow he had covered up his scar, the female was Tonks, and the one on the crutches was Moody, trying to hide his limp. I gave them all a cool smile.
"Where are we going?" I queried, and Harry's eyes glittered at me from behind his new glasses.
"Nowhere that you need to know of," he replied as Moody howled over some joke that Tonks had cracked. "In a moment or two, we are going to get up and leave; you will come with us. Any funny business and you're dead." Calmly I nodded to show my agreement.
True to their word, we stood up not too much later and exited the building; I was led down an alley where they blindfolded me. A few spells were muttered, most likely to rid them of their disguises, and then I was grasped tightly by my upper arms and transported somewhere. Wherever I landed, there was some old hag screaming and yelling. Hissed curses were spat out, and I was hauled off to somewhere else. Locks turned, and I was shoved down into a chair. The blindfold was ripped away.
In front of me was Potter, Tonks, Moody and Weasley's father. All of them were glaring at me, and I strengthened my mental defenses just a little. I didn't know if any of them knew Legilimency, but it wouldn't do to have them rifling through my mind if any of them did.
"So, Malfoy, you want to become a spy," Moody growled, and I looked at him; he had dropped his façade, and I was able to see him at his ugliest. Fear was beating at me, but I refused to let it show through; if I wanted to convince them that I could do this, I had to act tough.
"Yes," I answered his statement. I made sure to breathe easily and keep my heart rate normal. There were more ways then just magic to tell if someone was lying or scared; those would be your breathing, heart rate, whether or not you are sweating, the steadiness of your limbs and eye movement.
"You are going to have to answer a few questions," Weasley said and I nodded, I wasn't stupid. "Under the influence of Veritaserum."
"Obviously," I told them, and a cup of water was pressed into my hand. Here was the test; how well I could dance around their questions, saying the truth, but not telling too much. Snape had built up immunity to all truth potions and poisons; there hadn't been enough time for me to get started. Without any hesitation I threw back the drink and waited for it to kick in.
"Why are you doing this?" Tonks demanded, and instantly I felt an extremely strong impulse to just spill all of my guts, to tell of the horror that had gripped me when I saw Dumbledore die, speak of the unrelenting fear and hysteria that had controlled me through my entire sixth year. I reigned it all in and forced myself to be short and sweet.
"I realized almost as soon as I had joined the Death Eaters that it was the wrong thing to do," I revealed carefully. "During my year at Hogwarts it became even clearer to me until finally I decided that I needed to do something to redeem myself. I settled on becoming a spy because I know that there is a great need for them, and since I am a new member, I won't be paid too much mind. People will talk in front of me unthinkingly."
"Why should we trust you?" Potter snapped. "How do we know you won't just turn around and hand us in?"
"What do I have to gain from that?" I shot back, my eyes burning into his emerald green depths. "There is truly nothing that the Dark Lord can give me; my father has already been executed, nothing can bring him back, and it is not as though I can just go back to Hogwarts and whistle a happy tune, Potter."
"Though you say you can help us, how do we know that you have any useful information?" Moody spoke up, and I turned to make eye contact with him.
"I have my uses; I have already proven myself to the Dark Lord and as you know, Snape is my Godfather; he speaks a great deal around me, as does my Aunt Bellatrix. Since I am a Death Eater, I am allowed in on the meetings, so I know what everyone else knows." I squashed the urge to start pacing or rub my hands on my pants.
"Do you have anything to barter with now?" Moody was advancing and I had to use all of my willpower to stay in place. Ever since the man had turned me into a ferret in my fourth year I had been petrified of him. He intimidated me terribly, but I could not let that show. I kept my thoughts blank as I nodded slowly.
"I know when and where the next raid will occur, who they are targeting and who will be leading it." I felt rather than saw Harry make a movement of disbelief.
"Will you be telling us any time soon?" Weasley joined in again, and I inclined my head.
"I first need to know whether or not you will be having me. I don't want to place my life in jeopardy unless I know it will be recognized by the Order." I shrugged casually. "I don't mean that I want to be treated as a hero; I know that if I am caught, you won't do anything to set me free, but I want to know I will be brought in before I tell all."
"That's not how it works, you tell us and then we decide." Snape had said this was what would happen. Not letting anything show on my face, I made another noncommittal movement.
"They are going to be attacking the branch in the United States; they decided that because some people believe that if we win here it won't matter anywhere else, they are going to do a showing of power." I gave them part of what Snape had provided me with.
"Which one? There are a few over there," Tonks questioned and I sighed.
"They are targeting the main one, underneath the city of Washington D.C.; it's right underneath the small underground that the Muggles have that connect their government buildings. There is a small murmur of Muggle torturing that might happen afterwards, maybe a massacre or an assassination of the president. Macnair has been put in charge of it." I gave them the rest of my information and they looked at each other worriedly.
"When will this be happening?" Potter asked, his tone harsh, and I had to tamp down hard on the urge to give him a severely rude hand gesture.
"Two weeks exactly, they are planning on sending over some giants and Dementors."
I watched their faces as they digested this.
"Hell," Moody muttered. "Those damn Americans are so proud, there's no way that they'll accept any help."
"Wasn't Dumbledore friends with one of the headmasters over there?" Weasley asked and Moody nodded. "I think it was Maurice Augustine, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, he's a levelheaded chap," Moody replied. "Wife is a Selkie I do believe; maybe she'll be able to help us get some support from the water."
"We'll be back, don't you go anywhere," Tonks ordered, and I watched them leave. Sighing, I stood up and moved about the room; there was not much to look at, an unmade bed, a rickety chair and a Pensive. Withdrawing my wand I prodded the silver liquid, and the memories swirled to life beneath them. From the bowl a figure emerged from the bowl to stand on the surface, a tiny Snape. He looked much younger, and it was most disconcerting to see him as an adolescent.
"Why is he so mad, Mommy?" A childlike voice questioned. "What did I do wrong?" Stirring them again with my wand it slipped in a little too far, and I cursed as I was dragged into the Pensive that could only be Snape's.
X-X
I landed in the Owlry; it was the middle of winter, and it was absolutely freezing. I could spot no one, and I knew that had to be wrong, because if it was really my mentor's Pensive, he was supposed to be in the memory. Suddenly to my right three people appeared, one looked exactly like Potter, but his eyes were the wrong color, next to him were a younger looking Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin.
"Damn," the person who I assumed was Potter's father swore.
"I could have sworn Snivellus came up here," Black sighed in frustration. "I just learned a really good hex I wanted to use on him too."
"You guys should really leave him alone," Lupin spoke up, and Potter and Black barked with laughter at the thought.
"Please, Moony, you're killing me," Potter chuckled. "That grease bucket has no other reason to exist other than be tormented, it's his purpose."
"That and suck up to Malfoy," Black interjected, and Potter agreed.
"It's cold, why don't we head back to the Great Hall; we've been up here for a good hour!" Pettigrew whined, and the others were forced to concur and followed him out of the tower. Lounging against the wall I scowled at the ground. I wanted out, but I was unsure of the spell to get me out of here, and I knew that if I waited it out, the memory would end by itself, and I would be transported out.
The sound of someone retching caused me to snap my gaze to the side where Snape appeared. He was as white as the snow on the floor and shaking hard. Incrementally he sat back on his haunches and then leaned back against the wall. Swiping at his mouth with a trembling hand, I noted the blue tinge around his lips and the potion stains on his fingers. His robes were worn and patched, most likely not very warm and if he had been up here for an hour, it was a sure thing he was almost on the verge of hypothermia.
"I have to find a better way," he muttered under his breath as he cleaned his hands with a wave of his wand. Another flick cleaned up the vomit except for a small bright green stone in the middle. "I can't use this too much, its properties are too acidic, it'll either eat holes in my stomach, or my esophagus from bringing it back up so many time or the poison will kill me." Wearily he pocketed it and heaved himself to his feet.
Slowly shuffling toward the door, he began whispering how to make Veritaserum under his breath. Confused I made to follow him, but I didn't have far to walk, because he doubled over in pain and barfed again. Only this time, it wasn't food or stones that came up. It was blood and a thick sort of goo. His body was wracked with convulsions as he stopped bringing anything else and just experienced dry heaves. His face was contorted in agony and when he eventually stopped, he collapsed onto the ice cold floor. Two tears traced down his cheeks before he lapsed into unconsciousness, and I was pulled out.
X-X
Stumbling backwards away from the Pensive, I regarded it with a new respect. It put many things into a different light. Turning from it, I returned to my seat and was just about to submerge myself into some deep thinking when the Order returned.
"You're in, but you're on probation. If this thing in America doesn't pan out and it seems like you told someone, you're dead. Got it?" Moody growled and I nodded. "Good. You'll hear from us when you're needed."
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