PissedOffEskimo
Pairing: HP/DM (graphic); HP/GW (mild); HP/LM (non-con); HP/SS (implied)
Rating: R (Finally)
Author's Note: Summer 6 finished, just have to get it beta'd, which means... only two left to go, maybe one and a half. I can not wait for this to be over. Not to say I'm not pleased with where it's been and where it's going. I just really want to be free to dedicate myself to another project fully. Any other project really. I'm hoping to have this done before Easter. Wish me luck!
Summer 4: Part E
Dumbledore had lost the battle of whether Dementors would be allowed at the school. Of course, Harry said that he had more conceded than lost, but Draco refused to hear any of it. Two days before he was scheduled to leave, McGonagall informed them at breakfast that they were not to go outside that day or the next, as the Dementors were walking the school grounds, trying to locate any trace of Sirius Black. They would do the castle itself the week before school started, at which time Harry would be going to stay at the Leaky Cauldron, as the Weasleys were still in Egypt.
Draco was secretly jealous of Harry, though he would never have admitted it, especially when they were informed that Minister Fudge would be personally escorting Harry. Harry, however, did not seem in the least impressed, but in fact, looked worried, afraid that he had done something wrong. He lightened considerably at the reassurance that he'd done nothing and that the Minister simply wanted to have a word with him.
After breakfast that morning, Draco thought they would spend the day in their room, but Harry grabbed a few things out of his trunk and told Draco that he was welcome to come if he wanted. He didn't even wait for Draco to ask what it was they were doing before darting out the bedroom door.
Getting up from the bed where he had sat while Harry rummaged, he hurried after the other boy. Harry may have been smaller than Draco but he was damned quick when he wanted to be. They went three flights up, climbed a rickety ladder, and went through an old beat up door, "Careful not to close that, Malfoy, it only opens from the inside," before Draco found himself standing on the top of the Astronomy Tower while Harry went through his bag, pulling out things.
There was a book called 'Demented Dementors', a pair of binoculars, a thick rain cloak, and two very mashed sandwiches that had quite obviously been made the day before. "What are you doing, Potter?"
Harry looked up, as if surprised to see Draco standing there. "Professor McGonagall said the dementors were going to be walking around the school grounds today and I wanted to get a look at them."
Draco frowned, "Why ever for? They're just... creatures in long black cloaks that suck out all your happy memories."
"I know that. I just want to see." Sitting on the edge of the tower, Harry put the binoculars to his face and began scanning the grounds.
"Do you expect we'll be here all day?"
He shrugged, "Don't know, depends on where they start, doesn't it?"
An hour later, Draco didn't much care where they started, as long as they got within view soon. He had skimmed the whole of the book Harry brought, reading about the affects and the visage of the Dementors, and the various statistics of how long it took people to go insane when they were continually exposed to them. He'd taken his turn with the binoculars, but hadn't been able to see anything of interest, except the tops of the trees of the Forbidden Forest, where an occasional glimpse of something might be visible. He'd even forced down half a sandwich, which turned out to be the most disgusting mix of peanut butter and celery.
He was on the verge of demanding that Harry at least go and get something for him to play, when an excited cry startled him. "There it is!"
Draco immediately came over, his curiosity dampening his boredom. Harry was staring intently at the creature, "It's so dark and it glides, just like the book said it would.
"Let me have a go."
Harry passed over the binoculars, but did not stop staring. Draco looked through them at the dark creature sweeping over the grounds. Something about it was so innately dangerous, so terrifying, that Draco couldn't even begin to put it into words. Perhaps it was that he knew what they were and being awed by the way they moved just didn't occur to him.
He was about to pass it over and suggest that they go inside, when the thing slowly turned its head towards them. "Um, Potter, they aren't searching the castle today, right?"
"Right."
There was something wrong with Harry's voice, but Draco couldn't be bothered with that now, because the Dementor seemed to be floating up and towards them. "This is part of the castle, right?"
"Yeah."
"So, why is it coming this way?"
Harry didn't respond and Draco put the binoculars down and looked over, now ready to full out demand that they go back in. He was stopped when he saw Harry. His face was white as a sheet and getting whiter if that were possible. His eyes were glassy and his mouth was hanging slightly open. "Potter?"
A roaring filled his own ears and cold washed over him. He looked up to see the Dementor hovering only a few feet away, its hooded head staring at Harry. Draco closed his eyes, but the roaring only intensified and he thought he could hear something now. It sounded like yelling. Stumbling to his feet, he took hold of Harry's arm and pulled him off the wall, but the other boy didn't standing up, only sat there, staring at the creature, tears now running down his cheeks and his mouth moving just slightly.
The presence of shouting grew louder and he recognised it as his father, telling him that he was a disgrace to the Malfoy name, that no Malfoy in their entire family line had ever embarrassed themselves as badly as he had. But he hadn't meant to, he'd only wanted to beat Potter at Quidditch, at a test, at anything.
His grip on Potter's shirt tightened and he tried to remember that he was here, at the top of the Astronomy Tower and that it was the Dementor doing this, but he just couldn't. A loud banging caught his attention and he looked up to the see Professor Dumbledore, followed by McGonagall, storming out of the castle, looked murderous.
The yelling stopped, the dampening depression eased and he felt hands take him by the shoulder and lead him away from the tower, whispering in a familiar clipped tone. He looked back before going down the ladder and saw McGonagall kneeling beside Potter, who was unconscious and Dumbledore holding his wand out, something white streaming towards the retreating Dementor.
Snape, because he'd realised that was who was leading him away, helped him down the ladder and he took deep breaths, acutely aware that there was something wet on his face. He wiped at it and looked at his hand. Tears. Had he been crying? He was steered through the door and into the hall. He didn't know where they were going and he didn't care, because all he could think about was what he had read in that book, 'the Dementors bring out your worst memories'. His father had been his worst memory and he couldn't even begin to defend against it.
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Lucius Malfoy was livid; Draco had never seen him this upset. Snape had escorted Draco to the dungeon, given him some chocolate and floo-ed his father immediately, reciting what Draco was sure he had thought was a good enough excuse. The boys hadn't been obeying orders. They were told to stay inside the castle and Potter had somehow convinced Draco to do otherwise and the Dementors, sensing prey, had attacked.
It really was a good excuse and, for once, it was the truth. Not that Draco had needed a great deal of coaxing, but he hadn't come up the idea to perch on the Astronomy Tower and look out for dangerous creatures on the grounds bellow. Did Harry know they could fly like that? Draco had never seen anything about Dementors flying.
Lucius didn't wait for any more of an explanation before he began bellowing at Severus in a rather undignified manner about how it had been his responsibility to keep Draco from harm and how dare he let something like this happen. Where had he been while the boy was off gallivanting around the castle? For that matter, where were any of them? How dare they leave his child unsupervised when there were Dementors in the nearby vicinity.
Draco sat on the sofa, his face pink in embarrassment. If he'd realised that it would have gotten him into this much trouble, he wouldn't have gone with Harry, or he'd have talked him out of it.
"...will be by to pick him up tonight."
His father's head abruptly disappeared and Snape was left standing in the middle of the now very silent room. After several seconds, he raked his fingers through his hair and sighed, "Go and get your things together."
Draco frowned, but said nothing as he left the room. He should be happy he was going home, shouldn't he? It was boring at Hogwarts with only Harry and a handful of ghosts to keep him occupied. He reached the ground floor and looked up the stairs leading to the tower where he was supposed to be headed, but something was nagging at him.
A momentary flash of Harry went through his mind, his limp form lying unconscious in the Astronomy Tower with Professor McGonagall holding a hand to his cheek, trying to pry open one of his eyes. The image was unaccompanied by an unfamiliar pang in the bowels of his stomach, not entirely unlike the first time he fell off his broom.
He eyed the stairs resentfully. He wasn't concerned about Potter, he couldn't be. He was supposed to be gaining Harry's friendship so that he could use it against him at some still unknown date. No, actually, he wasn't even supposed to be doing that anymore, he was just trying to get through the summer without killing that obnoxious, do-gooder Gryffindor.
He marched up the stairs determinedly, refusing to even look in the direction of the infirmary, mumbling, "Absolutely not," even though no one was around to hear, because he thought that perhaps if he said it enough times, he could convince himself that it was true.
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By the time he was standing outside waiting for his father, Draco had made a startling discovery. He was concerned about Harry. Very concerned. He'd almost managed to convince himself otherwise, but when he'd stepped outside the door with Professor Snape and seen Harry standing there, still very pale despite several hours of rest, all of his carefully placed delusions had been utterly shattered.
Now however, he faced another dilemma. What if someone else found out? He glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw Harry looking at him. What if Harry found out? How could he face him knowing that Harry knew? Draco forced a sneer on his face, "Still weak in the knees, Potter?"
Harry's eyes widened in anger and he opened his mouth to say something, but Snape spoke before he could, "About time."
Still angry, Harry looked up and saw the Malfoy carriage approaching, as overly lavish as ever. Harry couldn't believe Draco could be such an absolutely prat. Well, no, he could believe it, he'd had just hoped that maybe there was more to the other boy than that, but apparently not.
When he'd woken at the top of the Astronomy Tower Dumbledore and McGonagall had been standing over him, speaking in hushed tones.
"That was a vicious attack, Albus. You can't possibly allow those things to stay. Why, if you hadn't sent that house elf to watch after them we might not have made it here in time."
"I quite agree with you, Minerva."
"Or he could have fallen. You heard the house elf, if the Malfoy boy hadn't grabbed him when he did, Harry could have..."
"Minerva." Dumbledore put a hand on her shoulder. His eyes held no twinkle as they watched the pale woman in front of him. Harry had never seen Professor McGonagall so upset, not even when he'd told her that Snape had hit him. Dumbledore's eyes flickered to Harry for a moment and Harry thought he saw the mouth upturn just slightly before the Headmaster looked back at Professor McGonagall.
The hand on her shoulder moved to her cheek and she blushed just slightly under her cheeks, "Minerva, the boy is fine and I have every intention of speaking with the Minister about this. Now, I believe that Harry has woken up and could use some chocolate."
It had all been very disconcerting. He didn't remember being pulled off the Astronomy Tower by Draco, all he'd been aware of was someone screaming and an eerie maniacal laughter, then everything had gone black. Wait, had Professor McGonagall just blushed when the Headmaster touch her cheek? Why was Dumbledore touching her cheek, anyway? He'd never seen him do that with any of the other teachers. Wait a minute, there had been a house elf watching after them!
The chocolate had made him feel better though, and all thoughts of house elves and Dumbledore touching people were washed from his thoughts. Instead, he was left with an unwelcome feeling of gratitude for Draco having pulled him off the tower when he did, because if he thought really hard, he thought maybe he had been about to fall.
He'd resigned that he would thank Malfoy and had been just about to do it when the stupid prat had opened his mouth and made fun of him for fainting. Well that was just fine then, wasn't it, because Harry didn't want to thank him anyway.
The carriage stopped in front of them and Lucius stepped out, his shoulders a little broader than normal and his gaze more direct, aimed at Severus. "Good evening, Severus."
Snape nodded and, much to his credit, did not cringe, because Harry thought he certainly would have if that tone had been aimed at him. "Lucius, as you can see, the boy is fine."
"No thanks to you lot."
Severus sighed deeply, obviously annoyed with the conversation before it had even started, "I've told you already, Lucius, they were being watched by a house elf and the Headmaster was informed the moment it became clear that something was amiss."
"You were supposed to be watching him Severus, not a house elf."
Snape's eyes narrowed and his fists clenched, "You seem to find them as fit enough substitutes in your own household.
Harry would have preferred to be anywhere but there at the moment. He'd even have taken lying in bed, listening to Draco masturbate over watching Lucius and Snape glare murderously at each other.
Lucius' face went blank, then darkened, "Tread carefully, old friend."
Snape waited, his hands still clenched at his side and very suddenly, Lucius seemed to relax, "I apologise Severus, I was simply concerned about my son."
Snape relaxed his posture as well and nodded, "I was concerned as well."
Harry doubted that, but didn't say anything because Lucius had swept his arm out in a clear sign that Draco was to get into the carriage. Two house elves appeared and began lugging the hefty trunk into the back of it as he did and Lucius held his hand out to Snape, "Contact me tonight, perhaps I can make it up to you this evening. The house that I sometimes frequent has acquired a most unusual specimen. I do believe you will find it fascinating."
Lucius' hard, grey eyes darted to Harry significantly and Harry shifted uncomfortably. Snape looked down at him as well for a moment, eyeing him speculatively before looking back at Lucius and nodding, "I'll do that."
After they were gone, Snape's face went from an interested sneer to an outright frown and he looked down at Harry again for several seconds. "Go to McGonagall, you're to stay with her until I return tonight."
"But..."
"Go!"
Suddenly, it didn't seem all that important to argue that he didn't know where she was. Running inside, he took the steps up to his tower room two at a time, hoping that Professor McGonagall was in their rooms. Harry couldn't help but wonder what it was that this so-called house had managed to acquire and why it had spooked Snape. He thought about the way Lucius had looked at him, if even for the briefest of moments. Then again, maybe he didn't want to know.
-tbc-