Usual Disclaimer: Unfortunately this world and its wonderful inhabitants do not belong to me, they belong to J. K. Rowling, I'm just borrowing them. I am making no money from this it is purely for the enjoyment of those few who choose to read it. Thanks J. K. for lending me your ready made world of magic.
Extra Disclaimer: The song words belong to Rufus King. Not me. Obviously.
A/N: As usual thank you to everyone who reviewed namely: superstar09, Siriusly Black2, Blondy, Demitria Miriam, tamachan444, La Muerta Roja (laughs), Fallen Angel, Moonstardust, Jadewitch, Jesonte, Tarshil and Leaky Cauldron anno1985 (Smiles)- Thank you all so much for taking the time to review, I cant tell you how much motivation it give me!
"You're just what I need; yeah you're just what I need.
Not everything is as it seems.
Is that so hard to believe?"
Chapter 12 - Exploration At Last
"Baby you're right kind of wrong." Harry sang to himself as he cooked dinner for himself and Draco that evening.
"You know, your voice isn't half bad." Draco commented as he snaked his arms around Harry's waist from behind and nibbling on his ear.
"Wait for your dinner!" Harry joked, swatting him away.
"Oh but you're so much more tasty." Draco shot back. "What were you singing anyway?"
"One of the songs from that movie we watched. I can't get it out of my head."
"Sing it to me." Draco said pinching a cherry tomato from the salad Harry had prepared.
"No way!" Harry replied.
"Why not?"
"I can't sing... it's embarrassing."
"After what we done today, you're embarrassed about singing?" Draco raised a perfectly defined eyebrow teasingly. Harry blushed beetroot.
"Fine." Harry caved under a smile from Draco. "But don't complain when you realise I sound like a cat in a tumble-dryer." He warned as he began to sing whilst cooking their steaks.
"Know all about, bout your reputation, and how it's bound to be a heartbreak situation." Draco listened intently to the lyrics while he watched Harry's graceful form move easily about the kitchen.
"I know I should go but I need your touch just too damn much, and loving you, isn't really something I should do. Shouldn't wanna spend my time with you, I should try to be strong. But baby you're the right kind of wrong."
Draco's eyes followed Harry's every move. His perfect form moved fluidly and elegantly and Draco wondered how it was possible for someone to be so beautiful.
"They say you're something I should do without. They don't know what goes on when the lights go out. There's no way to explain. All the pleasure is worth all the pain and loving you, isn't really something I should do. Shouldn't wanna spend my time with you, I should try to be strong. But baby you're the right kind of wrong." Harry finished, laying the dinner plates on the table with a flourish. Draco smiled and Harry gave a bow before sitting directly opposite Draco.
"Beautiful."
"Thank you but what did you think of my singing?" Harry's eyes sparkled teasingly.
"It is just as brilliant as your cooking." Draco told him, tucking in hungrily.
"It's a good song." Harry said, for lack of anything better to say.
"Very... fitting." Draco said, seeming to read Harry's mind.
"It's like... " Harry wasn't sure if what he had been about to say would sound too soppy but he didn't have to worry as Draco finished his sentence for him.
" ... Our song."
"Yeah." Harry blushed, feeling as if he might melt when Draco flashed him that breathtaking smile of his.
"Hey Tonks!" Harry greeted their visitor with a smile.
"Hey Harry, Draco." She nodded to each in turn as Draco made his way down the hall towards them after having calmed Mrs Black yet again. "How do you do that?" Tonks wondered out loud hearing the unusual absence of Mrs Black's screaming.
"I'm a Malfoy, it's simple." Draco said arrogantly.
"Yeah, that and the fact I think she fancies you." Harry contributed, deflating him somewhat.
"Eugh! Gross!" Tonks screwed up her face.
"Hey!" Draco protested.
"Not you." Tonks made herself clearer. "That old witch!"
"Better." Draco sniffed.
They made their way through to the lounge and sat down.
"So Remus said you were supposed to be exploring this place. Find anything good?"
"Erm... no we forgot." Harry said rather unconvincingly, not wanting to divulge the distractions they had encountered.
"You forgot to explore?! You forgot?!" Tonks exclaimed incredulously. "Don't tell me you spent all this time watching movies? I told Remus it was a bad idea."
"Well... mostly." Harry replied a little too hesitantly.
"We'll do it tomorrow." Draco promised, deciding to help Harry out of the hole he was digging.
"I would offer to help but you know how clumsy I am. I'd probably set off every trap ever set by the Marauders!" She grinned.
"Don't I know it!" Harry agreed. "Tea or Coffee?"
"Not thanks. I'm supposed to be working, just popping in to check you're both still alive. She looked at Harry and them Draco. There was something different about them but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She stayed for another couple of minutes before leaving. Once she had left, Harry and Draco settled back on the couch. Harry leaning back on to Draco's chest.
"Maybe we should get around to exploring at some point." Draco suggested lazily, twirling some of Harry's hair around his finger. "We wouldn't want you to be a disappointing Marauder now would we." Draco teased.
"I suppose we could do it now." Harry said idly stroking the length of Draco's arm with his fingertips.
"We could." Draco agreed but neither attempted to move. There was idle silence for a few moments before Harry spoke.
"Could you ever have imagined we would be sitting together like this?"
"No. It's strange isn't it?"
"To say the least. But now it's hard to imagine not being like this."
"Hmm." Draco agreed and Harry turned his head to look at Draco. Draco silenced him with a swift kiss. "Come on. We should get up. Having to stay here has turned us into lazy slobs." Draco still made no action to match his words.
"I don't know. It was quite an energetic race to the bathroom this morning." Harry teased but he began to get up. "Come on." He took Draco's hand to pull him to his feet.
"Urgh." Draco groaned.
"Come on." Harry urged again. "Unless you want to turn out like my cousin Dudley." Draco looked horrified at the very thought and Harry had to laugh. " Didn't think so."
"So where do we start?" Draco asked, stretching himself.
"I think it's safe to say there's nothing in the kitchen, the Order meeting room, the bathroom, my room or the junk room on the third floor."
"What about the two locked rooms at the end of the hall upstairs?"
"No. Not in there." Harry's face darkened slightly as Draco mentioned what had been Sirius and Buckbeak's rooms. Harry had insisted that they had been left intact and the doors locked after Sirius' death.
"Okay." Draco seen the anguish in Harry's eyes and let the subject drop. "Probably rule out my room too. I haven't noticed anything so far."
Harry smiled, grateful to Draco for not asking questions. "Right, then logically thinking, our best bets are: the drawing room, the library and the lounge."
"There's a library?"
"Yep, upstairs next to the drawing room."
"Bloody hell we really have done bugger all for five days haven't we?"
"Yep, now let's get started. I'll start in the library, you go back in the lounge. Shout if you find anything, if not then I'll meet you in the drawing room."
"Right okay." Draco agreed but as Harry was about to turn away he said "wait. What are we looking for?"
Harry shrugged. "We'll know when we find it."
Draco shook his head to himself as Harry left the lounge, leaving him to stare at the walls helplessly.
Half an hour later, Draco grew bored of running his hands over the walls and stomping on the floor. Plus there was the added feeling of stupidity. He didn't even know what he was looking for and so he gave up and decided to go find Harry.
"Harry?" He called as he reached the third floor, not knowing exactly where the library was.
"I'm in here. In the library." Draco followed the sound of Harry's voice and found him standing in small room in which three of the walls were covered with bookshelves. There were also three armchairs, a coffee table and some lamps for reading by. Harry was methodically looking behind large volumes of book. At one side of the room, he had set aside a pile of fifteen or so books.
"How you getting on?" He asked, joining the search.
"Well, there's a switch on that wall over there, but as far as I can see it doesn't do anything. There's a hatch in the floor under that armchair which either leads to the bedrooms or to the meeting room downstairs. Oh, and the wall has been repainted at some point in that corner." Harry pointed to the corner to the right of the door. "The skirting has been replaced there too."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning we're going to need a crowbar at some point." He grinned mischievously.
"Well... definitely not a disappointing Marauder!"
"Did you think I would be? Harry raised an eyebrow in his usual teasing way.
"Not really but hell I didn't expect you to be this good! You were only in here for just over half an hour and without your wand!"
"What can I say? I'm a Marauder through and through!"
"Never mind a Marauder, you should have been a Slytherin!"
"Almost was." Harry grinned.
"Well that's a turn up for the books!"
"Don't get too excited, I was put in Gryffindor for a reason. Now come on, let's try the drawing room. I already know there's a hatch under the table with the chess set on it, I think it links up with the other one in the library. Actually I think there are tunnels linking all the rooms on this floor in the space between this floor and the first floor ceiling." Harry banged his heel on the floor. "See, it sounds hollow."
Draco whistled in amazement, Harry just grinned and they began their search of the drawing room.
After another half an hour, they hadn't found anything.
"Urgh. This is pointless, there's nothing here. Let's go back to the library." Draco complained.
"No. We're missing something. I know it. I can sense it."
"Sense it? Don't be creepy."
Harry laughed and punched Draco playfully on the arm. He stood in the centre of the room, analysing his surroundings. It took him a moment but his eyes eventually came to rest on a gold wall lamp and he moved towards it. On closer inspection, Harry found that the screws fixing it to the wall were loose and he could, with only a little difficulty, twist them out with his fingers. Once he had done that, the light fixture came away from the wall, revealing a perfectly round circular hole in the wall behind it. A hole, through which, along with some dust, was another switch. He was full of excitement and anticipation as he grinned at Draco and flicked the switch.
Nothing happened.
Draco looked disappointed while Harry frowned and looked thoughtful. He flicked the switch a few times, leaving it in the off position as he said.
"Go flick the switch in the library back to the on position."
"What's the magic word?"
"Please." Harry said with his most charming smile and Draco left the drawing room only to return a few moments later.
"You ready?"
"As ever." Draco rolled his eyes.
"Here we go." Harry murmured with anticipation as he reached forward and flicked the hidden switch yet again.
Nothing happened. Again.
Harry frowned in utter disappointment and confusion. He was sure that was going to work. Then it hit him.
"Of course. How can I be so stupid?" He turned and grabbed Draco's hand and the recovered the distance back to the library. Both of them gasped as the realised, upon entering the room, that one of the walls of books had disappeared and in its place stood the entrance to a completely empty room, with white walls, floor and ceiling.
"All that, for that?!"
"No. Something's not right." Harry scrutinised. "That's not what's on the other side." Draco looked at him incredulously. "What? What are you on about?"
"It's an illusion. That room isn't actually there. There must be a way to get past it."
"Now you cannot tell me that you aren't one highly creepy person!"
"Stop calling me that. You're giving me a complex!"
"Can you blame me?" Harry just smiled as the wandered forward and reached out to touch where the wall would have been. He seemed to touch liquid and he withdrew his hand quickly as the image of the room before them rippled and flushed red for a moment, before returning to its original clinical white.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Harry murmured and tried again. This time his hand disappeared and he stepped through the illusion to the other side.
