Disclaimer: I don't own any characters.
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Chapter 32
"What if I told you that most of what you just said was wrong?"
"I would ask you to explain," Draco said looking at Hermione quizzically.
"Sirius didn't kill those muggles. Pettigrew did when he blasted the wall behind him to make it look like Sirius had killed him. Then he cut his own finger off, transformed into his animagus state and ran away to let Sirius to take the blame."
"The biggest piece they found of him was his finger," Draco recalled out loud.
"Yes. He faked his own death and framed Sirius for it."
Draco noticed the sadness in her voice as well as the fact that she was calling Sirius by his first name.
"How do you know all this?"
"It gets worse. Pettigrew's animagus form is a rat. When Sirius escaped in our third year, he wasn't after Harry…he was after Pettigrew…Ron's rat."
Draco's eyes widened at what he was hearing. Tears started to spill from Hermione's eyes as she continued.
"He had been hiding with Ron's family the entire time! And Sirius didn't betray Harry's parents either, that was Pettigrew too! Sirius was Harry's godfather, he would never have done that. He was supposed to be their secret keeper but he switched with Pettigrew at the last minute because he knew Voldemort wouldn't suspect him. What he didn't know is that Pettigrew was already working for the other side."
It was getting harder for her to continue but now that she had started she wanted to get it all out.
"We had him. In third year…we had him. We were going to be able to prove that Sirius was innocent. Then he got away."
"How?"
"Lupin transformed and he used that as a distraction."
He patted her back awkwardly and neither of them spoke for a few minutes.
"Wait. How did you know Sirius was dead?" Hermione asked, sniffling and wiping away some stray tears.
"My father. One of the few things he did tell me. He practically bragged about what happened between Black and my psychotic aunt."
"Did he tell you how Dumbledore came and rounded them all up like dogs?" she said fiercely.
"No. He actually left that part out. Can't imagine why though," he said smiling slightly.
"What else did he -"
She was cut off by a trail of blue orbs as Ron materialized in front of them. He immediately noticed that Hermione had been crying and also noticed how close the two were sitting.
"What the bloody hell is going on? Why are you crying? What did you do?" He spat at Draco.
"Wormtail," was all Hermione whispered.
"Where, here? Now?" Ron asked looking around wildly.
"No, he got away."
Before anything else could be explained, Ron's owl Pigwideon flew wildly into the room carrying a small letter.
"It's from Ginny," Ron said reading quickly. With every word he read, his face grew more pale.
"What is it?" Draco asked anxiously.
"Luna's dad's been murdered. And so have Blaise's parents."
"What?!" Draco yelled, immediately jumping to his feet.
"They're staying at the Burrow."
Without another word, Draco apparated out of the manor.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Draco found himself staring at the structure that lay before him in sheer amazement…that it wasn't falling over. As he got closer, he smelled something so good, it nearly made him drool. He smelled a home cooked meal. As he got closer to the side door, he heard voices from inside.
"Ginny, Blaise, Luna! Come on, food's done. Don't let it get cold."
"Coming!"
Many footsteps followed the answer and soon, the clanking of plates and utensils could be heard. He finally decided to knock. Everything went quiet inside.
"Who is it? What's your business here?" Mrs. Weasley's worried voice called through the door.
"Er. It's Draco. I'm here to see Blaise."
A chair could be heard scraping across the floor and footsteps walked toward the door. Draco was surprised to hear Blaise's voice.
"Tell me something only Draco would know."
Draco thought for a second then smirked as he said, "You fancy Ginny. Now let me in."
The door opened to reveal Blaise with a slight but detectable blush visible on his dark skin.
Draco gave him a brotherly hug.
"I'm sorry about your mum and dad."
"Me too."
"Draco, dear. Come in and pull up a chair. There's plenty to go around. Help yourself," Mrs. Weasley offered from inside the kitchen.
"Thank you," he said, stepping in and sitting down next to Blaise.
He could hardly contain himself with all the food despite the fact that he had eaten breakfast not too long ago. He also couldn't stop looking at the sheer volume of things inside the house. The Malfoy manor had always felt so empty and cold to him, but the Burrow was the exact opposite, warm and lived in.
He felt a small pang of guilt as he remembered every cruel thing he had ever said about the Weasleys, while he sat there comfortably in their home, eating their food.
"How's everything at the manor?" Ginny asked. "Ron's not very good at sharing information."
"As well he shouldn't," said Mrs. Weasley bustling about the kitchen. "I have enough children in danger already without adding you to the lot."
Draco hesitated a minute before answering. He had heard of the wrath of Mrs. Weasley and didn't want any part of it.
"It's fine. Everything's ok," he said finally.
Ginny looked at him skeptically but asked no more. Once everyone had finished eating, they headed out into the living room and sat down on various chairs and poufs.
"Alright, so back to what happened," Ginny began.
"So we got back from Diagon Alley, the Knight Bus dropped us off down the street, and that's when we saw it. The Dark Mark above my house," Blaise finished.
"We didn't want to go in obviously, but we knew we had to," Luna said looking off into the distance.
"We found them inside and there was a note on the floor."
Blaise looked at Luna and she pulled a piece of crumpled parchment out of her pocket.
After the Mudbloods and Muggles, Blood Traitors and Half Bloods Beware.
Ginny scoffed, "Not if we get them first. And who are they playing at. According to them everyone that's not a Death Eater is a Blood Traitor," she finished angrily.
Blaise looked at her admiringly and she smiled back.
"Slightly off topic here, but what were you two doing in Diagon Alley…together?" Draco asked looking from Blaise to Luna and back again.
"Well after that quidditch match we played against each other, I was kind of impressed with all the rules Luna knew, so we kept in touch after that," Blaise explained.
"And you're ok with that?" Draco asked Ginny.
She smirked, "I'm very understanding."
"Yes, and I knew there was a new quidditch shop opening in Diagon Alley so I told Blaise and we decided to go," Luna continued as if there had been no interruption.
"And your dad went to Blaise's house to pick you up?" Ginny asked and Luna and Blaise nodded.
Ginny then looked at Draco expectantly. "I know you were lying earlier. What's going on?"
"I'd tell you but I don't want your mother to kill me," Draco said looking over his shoulder.
"No one's going to tell her," said Blaise.
"Yeah, we don't want to die either," Ginny said smiling.
Against his better judgment, Draco launched into the story. He started from the night him and Harry found Dawn and Spike fighting and ended with that morning leaving out, leaving out the Pettigrew bit, partly because he didn't want to divulge too much and partly because he didn't know how much they knew, and if they did know, he didn't want to worry them.
"A real vampire slayer…and a vampire?" Ginny asked.
"I've heard stories but I never thought they were true," Blaise added.
"Of course they are. I have a distant cousin who's a vampire. He's over two hundred years old so the relation is very distant as you can imagine," Luna mused.
Ginny and Blaise held back snickers and were surprised when Draco took her seriously.
"Is he evil?" he asked.
"Oh not at all. He used to be, but he has a soul now. It all has to do with a very complicated spell but-"
"Can we trust him? Do you think he'd be willing to help fight," Draco cut her off.
"I can ask him. I don't see why not. He does owe my father a favor. But you'd be better off asking him yourself. He lives in California."
"Can you owl him and tell him to meet me somewhere later tonight?"
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
They spent the rest of the day catching up. At one point Paige orbed in to check up and make sure everything was alright and Draco told her he would be home later.
"Right. Well I better get going. I'm meeting your cousin in five minutes. I'll try to keep you updated but I'll sign the letters with Harry's name in case your Mum finds them," he smirked.
He apparated to the park where him and Harry had first met Dawn and Spike. Standing in front of him was a tall, dark-haired man dressed in all black. The hem of his long black coat flirted with the grass below.
"So you're Luna's cousin?" Draco asked hesitantly.
"A couple hundred years removed, but yeah. She's a cute kid."
"You're American?"
"Irish, actually. Accents tend to fade with time."
"Right," Draco said somewhat awkwardly. He was slightly frightened despite the fact that the man in front of him gave him nothing but good vibes. However, he did have a good foot and a half on Draco and he was a vampire. "So…impending doom and almost certain death. You interested?"
"Why not. Just one more apocalypse I can put on my resume. I'll need a few details first though."
"Sure. Walk with me." Draco took some time to admire his great business skills as he launched into the basic history of Voldemort and what he planned to do with the Hellmouth. He held back on all the personal details involving everyone because after all, he had just met the man.
"Ya gotta love those prophecies," was the only response that he received when he finished.
"Well here we are," Draco announced as the reached the Manor.
"You have to invite me in."
"That's actually true," Draco asked amused.
"Yes, it's hilarious," his brooding companion said sarcastically.
Draco felt a pang of annoyance aimed him way. "Fine. You're invited. No need to get your knickers in a twist," Draco said, pushing the door open.
"My knickers are not twisted. You just remind me of someone I don't particularly like," he said stepping into the manor.
"Really? Who?" Draco asked as they walked into the living room where Spike sat watching T.V.
"Bloody hell!" he yelled, immediately leaping off of the couch.
"Him," the man said pointing at Spike.
"You two know each other?" Draco asked.
"Know and loathe," Spike clarified.
Just then, Piper walked in, "Where have you been? And who the hell are you?"
"Angel," Buffy said, shock etched in every line of her face.
"You look good," he said.
"You too." They almost forgot they weren't alone. "Everyone, this is Angel. We're lucky to have him here."
There were various murmurs of hello before Spike loudly and rudely interrupted.
"Speak for yourself. We don't need this wanker."
"We need all the help we can get," said Piper. "Welcome aboard. Harry can answer any of your questions in the kitchen."
Draco and Angel walked into the kitchen while Piper tried to calm Spike down.
"What is your problem? Voldemort has an army. We have almost nothing. We need him, and anyone else we can get for that matter."
"Fine. But don't come crying to me when you find him feasting on the kiddies in the middle of the night."
"That's not fair," Buffy said furiously to Spike.
"What is he talking about?" Piper asked looking from one blonde to the other.
"Come on. I'll explain everything," Buffy sighed and her and Piper left the house.
One hour and several interesting slays later, Buffy had finished her story and they were headed back to the manor.
"So he can never be happy?" Piper asked.
"Never truly happy. No."
"That doesn't seem fair."
"Well, in the gypsies defense, he did do a lot of damage, not gonna lie. But in Angel's defense…he's done a lot of good since then. Like a whole lot. But when he's bad…it's bad. It's like a parade of badness," Buffy finished, slightly afraid of Piper's reaction.
"What if we can fix it?"
This was the last thing Buffy expected to hear. Which is why a very audible "Huh?" escaped her mouth.
"Well, from what you told me, it sounds like the gypsies only gave Angel part of his soul back. The part that doesn't want him to be happy, the bad part. If they had given him his whole soul back, his conscience, or the good part, would have been able to trump the bad but without the consequence of him being all fangy and grrr," Piper reasoned.
"But his soul was his conscience. That's why he stopped killing, because his soul made him feel all the pain he had caused."
"But Spike has his soul and he can be happy."
"Spike wasn't cursed," Buffy explained, "He wanted his soul back."
"Ok. So what if we uncurse Angel, then we just give him his soul back, minus the curse."
"You can do that?" Buffy asked.
"I'm not exactly positive, but I'm pretty sure."
"You do realize that when you uncurse him, he'll be -"
"Very dangerous. I know. I think I have an idea on how to deal with that."
