AN/ I am sticking to the basic timeline of things and hitting the paramount cannon markers within the books. With the addition of the character Grace it will naturally change some of the events in different ways. Additionally this chapter was inspired by Wye oaks song Civilian.
Chapter.3 The puzzle
My Dearest Draco,
It was lovely to have you home at Christmas. I trust the fun you had on holiday will not have any impact on your grades. The end of this term is approaching rather quickly. I do hope you are focused on the tasks at hand, it is imperative you do well. Please owl me if you require any assistance or any materials not already at your disposal. Included you'll find your fathers school watch. He asked that i give it to you when i last visited him, i apologize for letting it slip my mind at Christmas. Do take care my love, and i will eagerly await your return at the manor.
Mother
Mother's owl cracked me over the head with the parcel when she swooped down. It was good luck she found me out here walking the castle grounds, it would've been worse to have received the letter over my eggs and toast at breakfast. Mother is subtle. A clever woman. Fun on holiday? More like death eater initiations. End of term approaching quickly? More like hurry up and complete your mission so you can come home. Then there's the watch, tik tok times running out anyone? As i turn the watch over in my palm i know there's more. Nothing slips mothers mind. Ever.
"Aparecium." I say and tap the watch with the tip of my wand.
The face of the wristwatch pops off. The scrawl of handwriting not belonging to mother, but familiar to me peeks out on a tiny piece of paper. "You've been given until May- BL." So i have a deadline quite literally. I pinch the bridge of my nose hoping to stave off the headache that's coming. The post is being watched i assume, no surprise with as many death eaters in the family as we have.
When i had returned to the manor for Christmas, i'm not sure what i expected. I suppose in naivety i thought perhaps my holiday could be spent with Mother. That hope was quickly dashed. The dark lord had moved his death eaters into my families home. I was fortunate that the dark lord was not at the manor during my any of my stay. The lot of the death eaters use the manor for their dark meetings, and our cellar has become their jail. If i'm not mistaken the man who sold me my wand is their current prisoner, i can't be sure i had only been forced to go down there once. My mother has become their slave. She feeds them, houses them, and who knows what other horrors she's been exposed to. I can't help her now, not unless i finish things up here.
Mother hugged me briefly when i first arrived and that was the entirety of the interaction i had been allowed. The rest of my "holiday" had been a blur of hunting muggles, and witnessing executions. They kept busy, the death eaters.. It seemed there was an endless supply of people to kill for what i could tell, was no reason. The first hunt i attended i had made the mistake of vomiting. Aunt Bellatrix saw fit to educate me, i had embarrassed her i suppose. What they fail to mention in defense against the dark arts class is that after you've been repeatedly Crucio'd it can take days for the pain to finally stop. My muscles are atrophied, and moving my neck to much is extremely painful.
How am i going to kill my headmaster when i don't even have the stones to watch someone kill a complete stranger?
The threat of the dark lord is perhaps my best motivation. I know this mission he gave me is a set up. He expects, he wants me to fail. To punish my father for his failure at the ministry. The same failure that landed him in Azkaban, where he's of no use to the dark lord's cause.
I have people depending on me, i have to see them through this, i can't give up i remind myself, and so i head to the place i've been avoiding for some time.
I have been working on this blasted cabinet for weeks, without success. Sometimes i spend entire afternoons just staring at it. When i got it from Borgin and Burkes i did not imagine it would be this difficult to repair.
I have an hour at best before i'm due for Potions class, so i hurry along the bustling corridors until i've reached the "Secret room", as i have taken to calling it. I've become quite at home here. The place looks like a hoarder house, but after looking at the same piles of garbage day after day they start to look like distinct piles of garbage.
I shove a rack of gaudy looking costume jewelry out of my way and it crashes to the floor with a "Bang"! I glance down for a moment when i realize somethings caught on my shoe. A ball of metal has formed from the chains and metalwork of the pieces tangled together. I bend down irritated to be wasting time and begin the process of disentanglement. Most of the pieces are chained necklaces, but then at the center, a tiara of some kind. It has sapphires and what appear to be diamonds encrusted across it and it fits in the center of my hand as i inspect it. I think the stones are real, and i entertain the thought of putting it in my pocket to give to Grace. But i realize the unicorn hair coat i had gifted her for Christmas was much finer than this, and so i toss the tiara to the side with a "meh".
Time to get to work. Gently i pull away the dusty old sheet i had been using to hide the vanishing cabinet. When i had found it, the cabinet had been in pieces and smashed to oblivion. It had taken me 3 trips around the room, and 3 hours to gather all the pieces.
However Grace had managed to get herself into the restricted section was still stumping me. Information from the restricted section would be extremely useful right now. No doubt the restricted section would have exactly what i need. I had tried at least half a dozen times to get to those books, and every way i had went about it had ended up failing. I am doing something wrong here i'm sure of it.
"Harmonia Nectare Passus." I glide my hand against the cool metal as it glimmers, and pulses with my magic. "Harmonia Nectare Passus." Just like it's been for weeks, it's not changing, it's not repairing anymore. I've reached a standstill.
After i'd put Madame Rosmerta under my spell, i'd asked for some advice and she gave me plenty of useful tidbits. She had eagerly told me about the old vanishing cabinet she had owned as a young girl. Her mum was constantly having to fix the thing, they hadn't had the money to buy a new one. She remembered the spell Harmonia Nectare Passus vividly. She Instructed me on proper wand technique and for a bit of time it seemed it was working. The metal had begun to shift, and the warped edges were becoming smooth. I thought the cabinet nearly fixed. Why wasn't it working anymore? What was i doing wrong now?
I spare a glance at my watch. Shit. Out of time already. I toss the sheet back on, and curse who ever the devil created it.
As i walk away from my latest failure i am halted once more, something is caught on my shoe again. Damn this bloody tiara, is it cursed? I wonder. I pull it free and decide to rest it carefully atop a mannequin head, near a vanity in the back. "There!" I tell it hoping it will be satisfied enough to leave me be and head on my way.
When i reach Professor Slughorn's classroom i am the last to arrive. No one is in their usual seat, in fact no one is near their usual spots. Grace catches my eye and grimaces as if in sympathy, and i stall at the door because the only seat open is next to Potter. No God No! So today's gonna be like this is it? Lovely.
Slughorn can tell i'm apprehensive, "Today i thought we might switch it up, and partner up the different houses with one another for a bit of fun." Yes what fun indeed, he motions to the seat next to Potter.
My legs feel like lead, i sink slowly and low into the seat my neck feels warm, and i can feel the flush on my cheeks. Potter's refused to look at me until i start rummaging for a quill in my bag. He peers at me without moving his head or body it's unsettling. His eyes follow me like those dreadful muggle portraits where only the eyes roam around. Creep. I swear could he be any more obsessed with me?
Normally i would pity Grace on her partner, but having Potter next to me makes Weasley look like a shiny new wand.
Slughorn calls the room to order but it was not at all necessary. The room is deathly quiet. The only pair who had been interacting if that's what you want to call it were Pansy, and Granger. Granger had been floating a feather around the room, and Pansy had set it aflame. No one said a word but we all watched as it dissolved mid air. I'll give it to Slughorn, that was kind of fun.
"Now," he says in the tone of utmost seriousness "today we're going to work on brewing Amortentia. As we all more commonly know it the love potion. I understand a few of you are taking Professor Hagrids class on magical creatures this term. He's got a unicorn soon to give birth, and i also understand the tenula charm has been performed by Mr.Malfoy and Ms.Lordon?" He waits for us both to confirm. Let it go old man. This was becoming a constant, and i did not like that Grace and i were being associated with one another so casually. I had put us in dangerous territory.
"Excellent!" Slughorn says. "Once the unicorn gives birth the Tenula charm will have already worked it's way through the placenta, and be ready for us to harvest." He smiles at us all. Grangers taking notes, Pansy looks annoyed, Weasley is either drooling or asleep, and Grace is dialed in for sure. She has a thing for unicorns after all. "I had to agree to take over Professor Snapes patrol duty for the rest of the year so he'd let me have it you know. We'll be needing it. Once our Amortentia has fermented we'll be using the placenta to turn it into Amortenula. Who here can tell me what Amortenula is?" He scans the room, not even Granger seems to have a clue. "Amortenula much like amortentia is a powerful potion. Amortentia can cause extreme infatuation or fascination, where as Amortenula will cause the taker to experience an extreme bout of lust that can't be stopped until it's satiated." There are simultaneous gags heard around the room. We might be upper class men, but no one said this bunch was mature. I'd bet all the money in Malfoy manor that at least one of those gags came from Crabbe or Goyle.
Slughorns not the least bit deterred, we must not be the first class to have acted thus. "Today you and your partner are going to brew the Amortentia potion together, and then the both of you will dissect what exactly you're smelling in the cauldron, what attracts you most in the world? This will be great fun if you only let it children." Slughorn passes out prearranged cauldrons, one for each table, as he talks. "I want a two page report on your findings due by Monday. Once you have finished brewing your potion put it into a vial and leave it for fermentation, and then you're free to go for the day."
We are free to start working. I reach over potter, and pull the cauldron to me. I can finish this for us quickly, and we won't have to say more than 5 words to each other. He's given us rose petals, pearl dust, rose thorns, what might be peppermint, and some other ingredients. I dump everything out at once.
"What are you doing?" Potter hisses at me.
"Brewing a potion Potter, it's kind of why we're in the potion room."
"I know what you're doing, i meant why are you trying to do it alone? I'm meant to help."
"No thank you." I say.
"I'm sorry what?" Potter asks.
"No thank you. You are one God awful potioneer Potter, if memory serves me correctly. Just sit there and be quiet and we won't need to exchange more than 5 words for our papers."
Trying to be a prat about it he says, "What if i wanted to talk Draco?" Mockingly.
"Okay sure let's talk. Harry." I mock back. I put the ingredients down and turn at him fully, but lower my voice so he's the only one who can hear it. "How about you start by telling me how exactly it is that you've been able to follow me round the castle?"
He looks horror stricken. "I don't know what y-" he starts.
"Don't play dumb Potter. What is it a charm? A jinx? Or do you just walking around aimlessly until you find me? I've seen you hiding in the shadows, around corners, every-time i leave my dorm to blow my nose you seem to be there. You've been following me all year just admit it."
"You can't prove anything." He says like there's also a threat in there.
"Neither can you." That has Potter lost for words, and it's quiet at our table for a while.
There seems to be a learning curve with this potion. The recipe were using seems dodgy, and i know i'm not the only one struggling. The room is tense, and Grangers hair looks like it might sprout legs and run away from her. Pansy has given up completely her head laid down on their table. Potter seems to realize the same thing his glasses have fogged up when he looks down into our cauldron, and he slides his book across the table.
"I've got my own book open. Potter." I attempt to sneer nastily, but it doesn't come out half as rudely as i wanted. Our potion currently smells like sewage.
"Your book won't do any more good than it's doing for anyone else in here." He jerks his thumb toward Goyle who just got his eyebrows to start growing back, and now seems to be balding at the top of his head. Potter taps his finger down onto the same page in his book, except in Potter's book he's scribbled his own notes in the margins. Replace this with that, and stir clockwise not counterclockwise. I'm hesitant but what have i got to lose at this point. I'll give it a go.
A few minutes in and i know it's beginning to work because it's turned from a rancid yellow to a lovely shade of magenta. Potter's notes are phenomenal. How did that brain dead loser come up with this. Some of these words he has written down i can't even pronounce. If i were saying this out-loud i would tell Grace to kill me, but these notes really seem like he knows what he's doing. Could this mean he's not an complete idiot? I shudder at the thought.
"When exactly did you get this good at potions? Granger's not even this good." I ask him with genuine curiosity. He shrugs his shoulder.
I'm stirring the potion and mutter under my breath about the "The crazy old fool having a bunch of 6th years brew him aphrodisiacs."
I hadn't asked it like a question, but Potter answers me like i had. "He erm, he likes to sell stuff like this on the black market." Like he's admitting to some deadly secret.
"Really?"
"Yeah, i caught him stealing tentacula leaves from the greenhouse, and then he asked Hagrid for a vial of his Acromantula's venom when it died." Nodding grimly. "So yeah i'd say this lot is headed for the black market very soon."
"Damn Potter. Shouldn't you have ran off and told someone by now?" I ask.
"What's there to tell really?"
"It just feels a bit scummy knowing that i'm brewing a potion to help some bloke get his rocks off." I say.
He smirks, and chuckles once at the notion. Then i laugh, and before i even know it Potter and i are laughing together uncontrollably.
Soon though i feel the looks we're being given from around the room. We must look like 2 madmen. Grace looks pleased from across the room watching us. Our laughter fades, and the moment is over. "Never thought of it like that." Potter says with amusement still in his voice.
Potter is someone i can't like. Someone i don't like, he's been stalking me for merlin's sake. So i put venom into it when i say "That's because you don't really think much at all Potter." His face is reminiscent of disappointment, and he goes back to waiting silently as i continue the brew.
When i smell the sweet notes from inside the cauldron i know it's ready to be put in the vial. Potter hands it over wordlessly, then holds up 3 fingers on one hand. "Quidditch broom, Treacle tart, flowers." He says as i stopper the vial.
I respond with my own 5 words. "Butterbeer, fresh mown grass, shampoo." And i can't help the way my eyes instinctively look up to watch her from across the room. She and Weasley are no where near done. Potter glances between us like he disapproves, i sneer and it finally drives him out. He can't possibly know anything i remind myself, i've been careful.
Once he's gone i'm glad that i've not been given the task of killing Potter. No the dark lord will want to do that himself. I just don't think i could. Kill Potter. When it came down to it, i'm not sure i could bring myself to raise my wand against him. He's actually rather entertaining, dare i say funny?
Another little tidbit i got off Madame Rosmerta was the fact that Slughorn saw fit to give the same present to our Headmaster every christmas. A bottle of oak matured mead. This year the bottle had been on backorder though, and it had only recently come into Slughorn's possession.
I'm hovering at Slughorn's desk making it look like i'm turning our vial in. Without Potter's watchful eyes i can get this done without issue. No one else pays me that much attention. Next to the rack of vials sits Slughorn's bottle of mead with a red bow on top. He still intends to give the gift all-though, belated. I slide my vial in the rack with one hand and then unstopper the mead with my other. It takes less than 3 seconds to pour in the ready made poison, i place the stopper back on and turn to go back to gather my things.
But there on the wall a frame stops me. A muggle puzzle. It's a scene that looks like it belongs in a fairy tale. There's a waterfall, a tiny little cottage in the distance, and flowers blooming for miles. There's something wrong about it though, so i go closer to have a better look. That's when Slughorn comes up.
"Finished already. Well done to you and Harry then!" He motions to the wall. "Taken a fancy to my puzzle have you? It's muggle made you know. One of my students gifted it to me many years back."
"There's something wrong with it." I point out.
"Oh yes." He agrees. "It was meant to have 1000 pieces but it was only when i'd put in 999 of them that i realized i was missing one last piece." He touches a small point in the middle where i now realize it's obviously missing a piece. "Could not bring myself to throw it out though. Sentimental reasons you understand." I do.
My brains itching, some thought i can't quite connect yet is trying to claw it's way to the surface.
I wait at the end of the hall for Grace. Hoping to spend a few minutes with her. I'm still turning the puzzle over in my head, and as she's walking out of the classroom door next to the Weasel, it hits me like a battering ram. A missing piece in the puzzle. The vanishing cabinet, is missing a piece! That has to be it. Some tiny sliver i had failed to collect on my initial gathering of pieces. Son of a-
Grace has shaken Weasley's company but i shake my head, and mouth my apology to her from across the hall. There's not a second to waste.
For what i hope to be one of the last times, i head to my secret room.
