Chapter 34
Draco saw his life flash before his eyes. Not because of Potter, he wasn't afraid of the wunderkind. But his parents were definitely going to kill him.
If it was up to his father he might at least make it quick, but his mother was going to slowly torture him to death for being so reckless. Narcissa Malfoy had not raised her only son to be indiscreet.
Thankfully, his reflexes kicked in and even though Potter already had his wand in his hand, Draco had him disarmed before he could even raise it. After he bound and silenced him Hermione came back to life.
"What are you doing!" She practically shrieked.
"Mia," he said as calmly as possible but with a concerted attempt not to sound patronizing, "we can't just let him run off screaming to the whole castle about this."
"Well we can't just keep him tied up either!" Now she was shrieking.
"Of course not, but this will at least give us the opportunity to explain without him alerting anybody."
She narrowed her eyes in his direction but made no attempt to counteract his spells. "Fine, yes, you're right," she huffed.
Draco licked his lips as a plan quickly came together in his mind. He knew it was possible to alter memories, but he didn't have any idea how to go about it, and he was pretty sure Hermione would never consent to him trying that on anyone, let alone Potter. Discounting that, the situation was still salvageable, if barely. His and Hermione's secret was out, but they could still try and keep his parents' until they had permission, and knew for certain that it was safe to share it with Potter. However, he was going to have to play upon the other wizard's love for his friend to do it, and he could only hope that Hermione went along with his hastily formed plan, because they wouldn't be able to discuss it. If he stunned Potter in order to buy time to talk to her, he was sure that he'd ruin any willingness Potter might have to listen to explanations.
Hermione turned back to her friend. "I can explain," she pleaded, and Draco's heart clenched at the small, desperate quality to her voice, and then she looked back at him. "I'm not sure how to explain," she begged him.
Keeping in mind that Potter was a Gryffindor and would probably respond best to as much raw honesty as Draco could manage, he took a deep breath. "I love her."
Hermione whipped her head around and stared at him in shock.
He reached out and touched her cheek. "I told you that not twenty minutes ago, why are you looking at me like I've never said it before?"
"I didn't expect you to say it in front of Harry."
"You think I'm ashamed?"
"I think you're private." Her eyes automatically went to where Potter was struggling against his bonds, turning red with the effort.
He immediately drew her against his side. "Time to come clean, about us," he said, emphasizing the last part. He watched her process this and she gave a sharp nod even as she wiped frantically at her eyes.
"We should unsilence him." She held up a hand to stop him when he started to object. "You have his wand, we can lock and silence the room, that's enough, and it's really not fair to force him to listen to us when he can't even talk back."
"Okay," Draco sighed, though he really would have preferred to keep the other wizard silent for as long as possible, he went about doing as she suggested.
"What the fuck, Hermione? Malfoy?!" Potter spat in her direction when he was able to speak again.
She slowly began to move so that she was between him and her friend. Draco didn't like it, but he didn't argue, just pulled her against his chest, confident in his spell work and that Potter wasn't going anywhere.
"I know how this must look to you but-"
"I'm not stupid," Potter interrupted with a hiss, his expression almost malevolent, "I knew there was something going on with you. You've been sneaking off every chance you've gotten for months, so I finally decided to follow you, and I don't know what I thought I'd find but this-" he stopped speaking abruptly and the look on his face morphed from anger to something like horror and he turned his attention to Draco. "Do you have her under some kind of spell or something- a love potion to satisfy whatever sick interest you have in her?"
Draco's entire being recoiled at the very notion even as he felt a kind of stupid admiration for the other wizard who was trying to stand up for his friend even as his position was utterly helpless.
Hermione gasped. "I'm not under a spell or a potion, Harry, Draco would never do that. He would never do anything to hurt me." She reached out for her friend, but then stopped, and with obvious effort resisted the urge to go to him.
Potter's face screwed into an ugly impression of his usual visage. "Oh, so all those times he called you filthy, sneered at you, and looked at you like you were lower than dirt, that was just his way of romancing you?" He sneered.
"That was a long time ago, I apologized for all of that," Draco protested automatically, clenching one fist at his side as he held Hermione with the other arm- he would not make things worse for her by being overly confrontational.
"And you believed him!" He scoffed. "Come on Hermione, you know his family's reputation, and how they feel about people like you. His father is a Death Eater, for Merlin's sake!"
Draco heard her inhale sharply and couldn't hold his tongue.
"People like her?" Draco growled beginning to lose his temper at the very implication that he would believe Hermione wasn't good enough for him. "You mean a brilliant, beautiful witch, whom I fully intend to make the next Lady Malfoy?"
Potter let out a sardonic laugh. "Don't tell me you believe this!" He directed his question to Hermione. "He's tricked you somehow, done something to you. You have a boyfriend! And I never thought you were the kind of person to cheat, or to lie to your friends."
"Harry, this relationship is for real. This is Leo," she turned slightly in his arms to place on hand on his chest.
"What?'
"You know the Black family tradition of naming children after stars and constellations- Draco, Sirius...Leo. It was too dangerous to tell you about Draco, too big of a secret to ask you to keep, but he means so much to me, I did want to be able to talk about him, so I gave him a code name."
Potter just stared at her. "Dangerous? Why on earth would it be dangerous to tell me who you were really dating?"
"Merlin Potter," Draco couldn't imagine how he'd remained so naive. "As you so kindly pointed out, my father is a Death Eater, and my family is firmly aligned with the Dark Lord. Our relationship can't be publicly known until he is gone for good. Do you have any idea the kind of target that would make Hermione? Which is why you won't be saying anything to anybody," he said in a voice that made it clear this was an order and not a question. "But make no mistake, I'm not my father. My love and respect for Hermione is genuine, and the moment I'm able, I'll be shouting our relationship from the rooftops."
Draco felt badly about what he was implying about his father, his father who adored Hermione. But it was one thing for Potter to know about their relationship, and another for him to discover that Lucius planned to spy for the light and that his mother intended to help. That was a whole other level of secrecy, and frankly, not his to tell.
Potter opened his mouth, closed it, and finally collapsed against the chair to which he was bound and in turn Hermione relaxed against Draco's chest.
"If he's Leo, how long has this been going on?! Fuck Hermione, how long have you been lying to me and sneaking around behind my back!" Potter hissed after a few minutes spent processing the situation.
Part of Draco wanted to roll his eyes at the other wizard's dramatics, it's not as if she'd been cheating on Potter, and when it came down to it, their relationship wasn't really any of his business. But another (much smaller) part sympathized with the betrayal he was surely feeling at the moment- after all, he too considered Hermione to be his best friend and he'd be devastated to find out she'd kept such a big secret from him.
"We became friends at the end of first year, and I don't have an excuse for why I didn't tell you about that except that I knew how you and Ron, especially, felt about him and about Slytherins in general and I didn't want to lose you as friends." She paused and took a breath, lacing her fingers with his. "We became a couple at the beginning of last year."
"But all those times you said you were visiting Leo, did you just make that up?" Potter frowned.
"We can go out together in the muggle world, Potter," Draco said, once again skirting the truth so that Hermione wouldn't have to he couldn't very well tell him they actually spent most of their time together at Malfoy Manor- and they did go out in the muggle world.
"And what changed?" Potter demanded of Draco. "How did you go from thinking she was scum, to becoming her friend, to being her boyfriend?"
"Hermione," he shrugged, "I was drawn to her from the first time I met her, who wouldn't be? She was pretty and smart and powerful. And eventually I just got tired of being mean to her. I got up the nerve to go talk to her, and it just went from there." Draco wished that was the whole truth, that he'd been strong enough to follow his instincts and befriend her right from the beginning rather than parroting his father's beliefs and trying to force himself to hate her. He wished he hadn't needed a push from his mother. But there was nothing to be done about that, he could only support her as best he could now and that included helping her friend come around to the idea of the two of them in a relationship.
He watched Potter process this and nod to himself. And then suddenly his head shot up again. "Does Sirius know about this? Did he see you two together when he was sneaking around the castle as Padfoot? Did Malfoy help you take care of him, is that why he won't hear a bad word spoken about Malfoy even though he clearly hates his father?"
Draco sighed. Potter was quicker and more clever than he'd given him credit for, and Draco knew he didn't school his features quickly enough at his question, worse yet, when he looked down at Hermione he could see the truth written all over her face. Potter's face fell and now Draco really felt sorry for him. Sirius was the closest thing he had to a parent, and considering how much he valued the open and honest relationship he had with his own parents he knew this had to hurt.
"He didn't want to keep secrets from you, Harry," Hermione immediately started to plead, 'but we asked him to and he felt like he owed us for helping him. Also, I think he feels like it wasn't his secret to tell anyway."
"Whatever Hermione, I'm sure the two of you had a good laugh behind my back over how clueless I've been."
"What, no!"
"Listen, could you untie me? I'll keep your dirty little secret," Potter said, a nasty curl to his lips as he spoke, clearly denoting his disgust, "but I'd like to go talk to my godfather now."
Draco didn't look at Hermione- he wasn't foolish enough to think that she was going to like what he was about to do, but it felt necessary. "Before I let you go I'm going to need you to take a vow on your magic that you won't speak of this to anybody."
"And if I refuse?" Potter bit back.
"I'll erase your memories of tonight," he answered as calmly as possible.
Hermione gasped but said nothing.
"Why didn't you just do that in the first place?" Potter challenged.
"Because it's been killing Hermione to keep this from you. I certainly didn't intend for you to find out, but now that you know it'll make things a lot easier for her. And from what she's told me your occlumency is sufficient enough to keep somebody from just picking this out of your head. But I don't trust you enough to let you walk out of this room without some guarantee that you won't lose your temper and blurt it out, you did just come bursting in here in a rage with no discernable plan," he never looked away as he spoke. "Hate me all you want for demanding this, but Hermione's safety is too important to leave to chance."
Draco then held his breath, hoping that last little bit of emotional manipulation would keep Potter from calling his bluff. He might be angry right now, but Draco believed that the other wizard truly cared about Hermione, and he was hopeful he would agree to this as another layer of protection for her. After a few tense moments Potter gave a sharp nod.
"Wait a minute," Draco said as he recalled something, "why did you come bursting in here when you did?"
"What do you mean?" Potter asked.
"You said that you followed Hermione, which means that you were close enough to see her the whole way here, so you must have arrived just after her. We were in here for at least five minutes before you came in, so why did you choose that moment?"
Potter went bright red. "I thought you were hurting her."
"What?"
"I wasn't going to come in here at all, I was just trying to figure out what was going on and had planned to confront Hermione later. I could hear you talking, I could tell she was in here with a wizard, but not well enough to make out what you were saying or who you were exactly. But then she-" he looked away, "moaned. I thought you were hurting her and that she needed help."
"Oh gods!" Hermione cried, covering her face with her hands, Draco could practically feel the heat radiating off of her cheeks.
He had to fight the urge to smirk and tell Potter that he felt quite sorry for any witch he might get involved with in the future if he couldn't tell the difference between a moan of pain and pleasure. He wouldn't add to Hermione's embarrassment like that. But he allowed himself to feel smug.
"Okay, let's just do the vow."
Hermione acted as their binder, and then as soon as Draco released the spell tying Potter to the chair and tossed him his wand, he was up and running for the door, pausing only briefly to pick up his invisibility cloak from the place it had fallen when he first entered the room.
"I'm sorry, Harry," Hermione called out.
He stopped in his tracks but didn't turn around. "Yeah well, maybe you should have thought of that before you spent three years lying to me and then asking my godfather to do the same."
Draco almost drew his wand again. "Don't be like Weasley, Potter," he hissed instead.
That got him to turn around. "Excuse me?"
"I get that you're upset right now and that you need some time. But Hermione's been a good friend to you, don't turn your back on her the minute things get a little bit hard."
That actually seemed to give him pause, but he didn't say anything, just spun on his heel and continued out the door. And then Hermione was back in Draco's arms, sobbing into his neck.
"It'll be okay, it'll all be okay," he soothed.
"You don't know that!"
"Yes I do," he insisted, hoping he wasn't lying to her.
"How?"
"Because he's been your friend for years now. And I was telling the truth earlier, once somebody gets to know you, they can't help but love you. You even broke Father down. Once Potter calms down he'll remember that and he won't want to lose you."
She huffed out a laugh against his neck. "I'm not even going to argue with you, I just want you to be right."
"Merlin, that's a first."
She giggled. "Thank you Draco, I love you."
"I love you too. But what are you thanking me for?"
"I know it must have been hard for you to keep your temper, but you mostly did. That could have gone much worse."
He nodded. "Thanks for not arguing with me about the vow," he said in return.
"I almost did," she admitted, '"but then I realized that you were right; Harry has a temper, it's best that he has the warning the vow will give him to keep him from just blurting something out in anger. Your safety is important too, I know you didn't say it to Harry because he doesn't care much about that, but it would be dangerous for you if our relationship went public as well- at the very least you'd have to publicly distance yourself from your parents."
"Hmmmm," he said noncommittally- because truthfully, while she was right, the thought hadn't crossed his mind- and hugged her close. "Something Potter said is bothering me though."
"Lots of things he said are bothering me," she responded wryly.
"Well, I can only assume his opinion means more to you than it does to me," he chuckled. "But he was definitely right about one thing."
"What's that?"
"I was terrible to you when we first met and the way I acted paled in comparison to the things I thought about you. I know that I told him I'd apologized for that, but I'm not sure that I ever actually did, do you know how sorry I am?"
"Oh Draco, I haven't thought about any of that in years."
"That doesn't make it okay though, and I should have said something before now," he insisted.
"Well, no, you're right, it's not okay. The way that you and Lucius and Narcissa used to feel about muggles and muggleborns is frankly abhorrent, but if I continued to hold it against you what would that say about me? You show me everyday how much you love and respect me, and that's what I care about. Plus," she shrugged, "I was a rather bratty first year too."
"You were cute," he laughed.
"And now I know how absolutely biased you are."
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Lucius was having an enjoyable breakfast with his wife. He was in quite the upbeat mood; they'd gotten to visit with Draco the day before, albeit shortly, following the second task, and had been able to at least set eyes on Hermione and reassure themselves that she was safe. And for today they'd decided to take some time to relax and just spend together- but then Narcissa's cousin came strolling into the room.
He was really going to have to limit the man's floo access- his own elves had stopped bothering to announce Lord Black, they adored the dog-man and just automatically made him welcome at anytime.
"Oh good, Black's here," he drawled with obvious sarcasm.
"Always a pleasure to see you Malfoy," the other man responded with a roll of his eyes, throwing himself into a chair, bumping the table and rattling the china in the process.
Lucius was just thankful that Narcissa had taken to using what he knew to be her least favorite set on the off chance that Black stopped by and ended up destroying something. She'd bemoaned for weeks the loss of the apparently irreplaceable teapot he'd shattered the morning they'd discovered that the Dark Lord had created horcruxes.
"Unfortunately this isn't a social call. Narcissa I hope you have that ritual ready to go because we have a problem," Black said, as an elf placed a plate of food in front of him.
Lucius exchanged a glance with his wife. "What's that?" He asked with a sigh- they'd just gotten Potter through the second task, surely they'd earned a few days until the next crisis hit.
"Harry caught Hermione and Draco together last night."
Lucius winced.
"What do you mean by 'together?'" Narcissa asked.
"Cissa!" He hissed. He thought she'd learned her lesson about interfering too much in that aspect of their relationship.
She flushed slightly and looked at him, a plea for understanding in her eyes. "I didn't mean it like that, I was just wondering if there was some way to explain what he saw, aside from the truth."
He reached over and took one of her hands.
"Well I didn't ask for details," Sirius chuckled, "but Harry definitely knows they're in a relationship." Then his face darkened. "And I'm pretty sure he hates my guts, it didn't help that he had so many questions which I couldn't answer because of the vows the pair of you have me under. He only knows about Draco and Hermione for now, but I think it's only a matter of time before he starts putting the pieces of the larger puzzle together. We need to get that thing out of his head, like, yesterday."
Lucius braced himself to shield himself and Narcissa against the other wizard's rage. Rage which had been nearly cataclysmic in the wake of the confession that they had made to him just after the new year that they believed Harry Potter was a horcrux, and which he fully expected to reemerge at the very mention of the topic. But apparently he had finally come to the realization that he was more helpful to Potter when he was under control, because he just took a few deep breaths, in through his nose, and out through his mouth.
"How did he even discover them?" Narcissa asked eventually, and Lucius knew she was trying to decide how to handle this as a disciplinary matter as- technically- Draco and Hermione seemed to have been caught doing something against school rules.
Black took one final deep breath. "It seems that Harry has noticed that Hermione has been sneaking away when she thinks he's distracted. He's started carrying his invisibility cloak around with him and was just looking for an opportunity to follow her."
"I can't believe you let him keep that thing," retorted Lucius- the last thing, in his opinion, that a fourteen year old wizard needed, was an invisibility cloak.
Black huffed and stuffed a rasher of bacon into his mouth. "It's a Potter family heirloom, one his father and at least his grandfather before him brought with them to Hogwarts. I can justify keeping the map from him given that I'm a co-creator and therefore have at least as much right to it as he does, and because I've actually been using it, but it would just be wrong to take the cloak from him."
"It just seems like a lot of power to place in the hands of a fourteen year old wizard," Lucius snorted.
"Don't you see the hypocrisy in that argument, given how much responsibility you've placed on Draco's shoulders?"
"I would give anything to remove the burdens Draco faces, for the only thing he need worry about when he got caught snogging his betrothed to be embarrassment. But I can't," Lucius answered through a clenched jaw.
"And how do you suggest I remove the burdens Harry is also sure to face? That cloak is one of the few links Harry feels like he truly has to his father, and frankly I sleep better at night knowing that he has the ability to literally disappear given the trouble he seems to attract. I actually encouraged him to start carrying it on him at all times, I just didn't realize he'd use it to spy on his friend."
This was not the first time they'd had this argument and it annoyed Lucius that he'd yet to come up with a counter- he'd gift Draco with the same advantage in an instant.
"And you're just going to leave him in Hogwarts, now that he has this knowledge?" He asked instead.
"Don't you think it would look a little suspicious if I just randomly pulled him out of school the morning after he successfully completed the second task?"
"I don't care, better that than risk him running off at the mouth!"
"Oh, your kid took care of that," Black laughed, "I should probably be angry, but I actually sort of admire his ruthlessness in protecting Kitten. Anyway, he placed Harry under his own vow forbidding him from talking about anything he saw last night other than with him, myself, or Hermione. Threatened to alter his memories if he wouldn't agree to the vow."
"Draco doesn't know how to do that," Narcissa interjected.
"Yes, but Potter doesn't know that," Lucius said, "he was protecting his witch the best way he could," he explained, intuitively understanding his son's actions.
"So, Narcissa, the ritual?" Black prompted. "You still think it will work? I'd like to do it over the Easter holidays."
"I have no reason to believe that it won't," she responded.
"Not exactly instilling me with confidence here," he growled, stirring his tea forcefully, his spoon clanking against the teacup.
She took a deep breath. "I'm confident that it won't hurt him, so there's no reason not to try."
"And if it doesn't work?"
"Draco might not yet be capable, but we could always alter his memories," Lucius provided.
"I'd really rather not do that- when I spoke to her this morning Hermione actually begged me not to- or rather begged me to beg you on her behalf not to." Black ran a hand over his face. "And in fact, if it does work, I'd like to tell him everything, at least as much as Hermione and Draco know. I hate keeping secrets from him and he could really benefit from doing some training with them both."
Lucius met his wife's eyes and he knew they'd be discussing that proposition later.
"How is Hermione?" Narcissa asked.
"Upset, but determined."
"And Mr. Potter?
"Upset, but he won't give up on her this easily. I'm confident he'll come around in time."
"Okay then," said Narcissa.
"I need you to start prepping me on the ritual now, please Cissy. I always avoided ritual magic as a child."
"Of course, you must be comfortable in order to do it properly."
"I'll meet you in the library?"
"Yes," she agreed easily.
Lucius looked at his wife as Black left the room.
"So it begins," she said on a long exhale and nodded at him, "may the gods help us."
"Indeed."
Author's note: Thank you all so much for the fabulous response to the last chapter, I just adored reading your reactions to Harry discovering them. And I really appreciate your patience waiting for this one when I left you with such a cliffhanger!
Okay, I prefer not to explain things in my author's notes, I like the story to speak for itself. But I know that this story is long and complicated and there seems to be a lot of confusion about a certain issue, and as that issue re-emerges in this chapter I've decided to address it. Harry does not have the Marauder's Map, he only ever had it for a day or two right after the twins gave it to him. Hermione- with Draco's help, plotted to steal it as soon as she figured out what it did, she justified herself by saying she thought it was too dangerous for Harry to have, but let's face it, it would have been a disaster for her personally if he had kept it. They took it to Malfoy Manor. Lucius had it until Harry's name came out of the Goblet when he gave it to Sirius so that he could use it to search for suspicious activity in Hogwarts. Long story short: Sirius now has the map and, amongst other reasons he didn't give it to Harry as a favor to Hermione. He continues to us it to keep an eye on things at Hogwarts.
And as this author's note is already epically long I might as well keep going. A few months ago I was nominated for some awards hosted by the Beyond the Book FanFiction Nook Facebook group. Last month I found out this story won in the Hogwarts-era category and was a runner up in the Best Overall category. In addition, I was runner up for best new author. I know many of you out there voted, some even reached out to congratulate me and I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you. And to thank you all, really, for taking time out of your busy lives to read this thing that comes out of my imagination, to leave me your thoughts and just for generally being wonderful and supportive. Occasionally I get on Facebook or Tumblr and see my writing mentioned and I'm blown away everytime. And basically, I just can't say it enough, thank you!
Thank you Weestarmeggie for you alpha/beta skills- she's so invested in this story and I'm incredibly grateful. This is probably my last update this year, so love to you all this holiday season, be safe, see you soon!