Author's Notes: More 'oblivious Harry' here. Don't you just want to educate him? Or watch Draco educate him for you? ;-)
Spell Notes: Rowling's spell are often Latin translations of the English description of what the spell does. For instance, 'Nox', the spell word that extinguishes light spells, means 'darkness' in Latin. I've copied Rowling and used Latin words for my spell invention - Gelovestis. (Thank goodness for translation web pages. ;-)
oOoOoOo
The Bodyguard
Chapter 13: Gelovestis
Draco's private word with Hermione took twenty minutes, and she looked menacing as a thundercloud by the time she got back downstairs. She was muttering swear words to herself, mixed up with the word 'Ministry'. But when Ron and Harry asked her what she'd spoken about with Draco, she frowned and changed the subject. They all had plenty of other things to talk about, and before long Hermione's private conversation with Draco had slipped Harry's mind.
It took hours for Harry, Ron and Hermione to catch up on each other's news. By the time they'd finished, it was early evening and Mrs Weasley wanted the kitchen table free so she could make dinner before the other Order members arrived.
"We'll wrap this up quickly," promised Hermione, gathering maps and other papers from the table and shoving them into a bag she had borrowed from Hagrid, which had large fangs and tried to bite her as she pushed the papers in. Hermione waited until Mrs Weasley was out of earshot and then she said, "So we haven't made much progress. We still need to find and destroy V-Voldemort's four remaining Horcruxes, so that he becomes mortal and can be killed. We know the Horcruxes are: Nagini, V-Voldemort's snake, Hufflepuff's cup, Slytherin's locket and something of Gryffindor or Ravenclaw."
Harry nodded, noting that Hermione wasn't getting any better at saying the name, Voldemort, and Ron was still wincing every time he heard it. He said, "We've worked out that Ravenclaw's last known artefact, a jewelled quill, was destroyed in 1812. So the final Horcrux must be something that once belonged to Godric Gryffindor."
"The problem is, we don't still don't know what," said Hermione.
Harry drummed his fingers on the table. "This is so frustrating, Hermione. When you found out my father was the last descendant of Godric Gryffindor-"
"He wasn't," said Hermione quickly. "YOU are, Harry."
Harry gave a shrug. "Anyway, it made me think my parents might have had a Gryffindor artefact at their house, that Voldemort stole the night he murdered them. But it turns out that there were no Gryffindor artefacts at my house. My grandfather gave Gryffindor's sword to Dumbledore for safekeeping, and the Sorting Hat has always been at Hogwarts. Gryffindor left no other artefact, as far as anyone knows."
"What about Gryffindor's tomb at Godric's Hollow?" said Ron.
"There's nothing left, I checked. It was destroyed during the Reformation," said Harry. "I had an idea that pieces of marble from the tomb might have been reused to build some of the houses in Godric's Hollow-"
"And Amycus caught you while you were wandering around by yourself looking at walls. Stupid, Harry. You should have waited for backup," Hermione scolded.
Harry shivered, wondering what would have happened if Draco hadn't rescued him. "I know it was stupid, Hermione. I was so frustrated that I wasn't paying enough attention. I couldn't find a single fragment of the tomb anywhere." He got up and started pacing. "It was always a long shot. Voldemort is a vain and proud megalomaniac. He would want something more important to house a piece of his soul than a chunk of white marble from a smashed up tomb." Harry stopped pacing and looked at his friends. "But without a Ravenclaw artefact, and with the sword and hat impossible for Voldemort to reach, what is left but a piece of Gryffindor's tomb?"
"I'm more worried about the Horcruxes we DO know about," said Ron. "Who has taken them? Hufflepuff's cup - Hermione and me went into that sea cave in Cornwall. He Who Must Not Be Named loves putting things into sea caves, doesn't he Harry?"
"He was taken there on holiday by the orphanage when he was seven," said Harry. He sat down again. "The more I learn about Voldemort, the more predictable he becomes," he said thoughtfully.
"Yeah. But the cave reminded me of First Year, and the Philosopher's Stone. Remember how as we passed each task; the flying keys and the chess set, on the way to the stone, and we could tell someone had been through first? It was like that - we weren't a bit surprised when we got to the end and found the cup was gone," said Ron.
"No message from Sirius's little brother this time?" said Harry grimly, thinking about the fake Slytherin locket he and Dumbledore had found.
"No message, and it can't have been R.A.B.," said Ron. "Regulus Alphard Black took Slytherin's locket home to Grimmauld Place and died from the potion he drank in that other sea cave - and we know what happened to the locket after that."
Harry certainly did know. Mundungus Fletcher had stolen the locket from Grimmauld Place and sold it to Aberforth Dumbledore; Albus Dumbledore's goat-loving brother and the owner of the Hog's Head pub. A month ago, trio had found Aberforth face down and stunned behind his own bar. The locket had been stolen again and Aberforth hadn't seen who had taken it. It couldn't have been Mundungus this time as he was in Azkaban for impersonating an Inferius.
"At least He Who Must Not Be Named still has his snake," said Ron despondently. "So we know where one of the four Horcruxes is. Just the one. But it will be the hardest one to get to of all of them, what with Nagini living with You Know Who."
Harry sat down again and sighed. "Someone's out there who is much better at the Dark Arts than we are and is beating us to every Horcrux. It could only be Voldemort. He must know that we know about his Horcruxes and he's taking them out of their hiding spots one by one to keep them safe."
"I don't think it's HIM," said Hermione thoughtfully. "V-Voldemort wouldn't have left Dumbledore's brother alive when he took Slytherin's locket."
"Could it be an Order member?" suggested Ron. "One Dumbledore confided in about Horcruxes and who doesn't want to talk to us for some reason?"
"Why wouldn't an Order member talk to Harry? We're all on the same side," said Hermione sharply.
"I'm just making stuff up, I haven't a clue if it makes any sense," said Ron tiredly. He folded his arms on the table and leaned his head on them, in an attitude of exhaustion.
Harry ran his hands through his hair, feeling tired and hopeless. "This isn't getting us anywhere."
"Let's have a rest and talk after dinner," said Hermione. "Maybe we'll have a fresh perspective later on?"
oOoOoOo
The trio did not get much of a rest before dinner. Most of the Order was due to arrive and there was a lot of food to be cooked. Mrs Weasley immediately drafted the trio into helping her.
"Ron, what was the spell for peeling sprouts again?" asked Harry, putting down his knife and ruefully sucking his cut thumb.
"How many times has he shown you?" asked Mrs Weasley, stuffing a brace of chickens into the oven.
"About ten," said Ron, who was sitting with his feet up on the kitchen table several metres from the stove, yet was still stirring the soup thanks to a hastily muttered spell. "Harry was never that good at cutting up stuff. That's why his Potions marks sucked-"
"Ron, get your feet off the table," said Mrs Weasley. "Harry, don't forget to wash the blood off those sprouts before you put them in the saucepan."
Harry rinsed the sprouts under the tap, muttering under his breath. He set the chopping board and sprouts back down next to the stove and started peeling again, but he grinned when the sprouts suddenly floated into the air and started to peel themselves. "Thanks, Hermione," he said, turning around.
But Hermione wasn't holding her wand and she was looking intently towards the stairs. Harry followed her eyes, and saw a handsome Muggle teenage boy slouching sulkily in the stairwell. He was gorgeous - his jeans and t-shirt clung in all the right places to his slim, toned body, and his white-blond hair framed his face under his baseball cap. He was holding a wand...
It took Harry a second glance to realise the teenager was Draco Malfoy in Muggle clothes.
"Wow, Draco! You look great!" exclaimed Harry without thinking. He put down the sprout knife and walked over to the stairwell. He could see Hermione arching an eyebrow and smiling at him.
Draco looked down at himself. "How can I look great? These are Muggle clothes," he said haughtily. Then he looked embarrassed, "I'm not even sure if I've put them on right, Harry." he confided in a low voice, tugging at his t-shirt.
"You've nearly got them on right. You just need to-" Harry turned the baseball cap backwards on Draco's head. "There you go! You should wear Muggle clothes more often. Tight clothes suit you." Now that he was closer to Draco, he saw that Draco's pale face was blotchy and recently washed, as if he'd been crying upstairs alone. But Draco's grey eyes were cold and unperturbed.
"Are you all right?" said Harry softly, not knowing what to make of him.
"I'm fine," said Draco coldly. He flicked his wand again and the sprouts dived into the saucepan and started cooking themselves.
"Thanks, Draco," said Harry.
"You're welcome," said Draco unemotionally. He was like a locked door. Harry watched Draco walk past him into the kitchen with a touch of unease.
oOoOoOo
The rest of the cooking was a busy affair. Draco nodded silently in greeting to Mrs Weasley, and Ron, smiled a little at Hermione (to Harry's great surprise) and did whatever he was told without mentioning servants or house elves once. He chopped up the rest of the vegetables using magic, and Harry was surprised that Draco, the spoiled rich kid, knew any spells for chopping. But then he remembered how well Draco did in Potions, which required a lot of chopping of ingredients.
Hermione struck up a conversation with Draco right away about the Dark Arts and they talked with increasing eagerness all the way through the cooking. It was strange, Harry thought as he iced a large chocolate cake. Of all of his friends, the very LAST person he expected Draco to get on with was Hermione. He was used to seeing Draco look at Hermione with fury and hatred, and hearing him call her a Mudblood. Harry wondered what Hermione and Draco had talked about in that twenty minutes alone upstairs that had brought about such a change.
Ron gave Harry a look of bewildered jealousy and gestured in the direction of Draco and Hermione. Harry could only shrug.
The kitchen soon started to fill up with Order members who looked at Draco as they might have looked at something they had just scraped off their shoe, and Harry was glad that at least Hermione was willing to talk to him. They sat down to dinner with Hermione on one side of Draco, still chatting animatedly together about the Dark Arts, and Harry on the other, listening and saying little.
"Did you really conjure that barrier on the Astronomy Tower that only let Death Eaters pass through?" asked Hermione, cutting up her baked potato.
"I did," answered Draco. He looked a little uncomfortable about speaking about that terrible night when Dumbledore died and he and Snape had fled.
Hermione gave him a reassuring smile. "Fascinating. Semi-permeable barriers are a branch of the Dark Arts I've never read about."
Draco was clearly heartened that Hermione didn't appear to hold that night against him. He swallowed a mouthful of chicken and said: "That's because those barriers don't really count as a Dark Art." Hermione gave him a sceptical look and he added: "They can be used for anything, Hermione, depending on the kind of variables you put into the spell. Dumbledore put one around the Goblet of Fire that detected age and rejected those under seventeen."
"I remember that! So they're all the same sort of spell?" asked Hermione with great interest.
"They are," said Draco. Then he looked mischievous. "When I was still at Hogwarts, I thought about drawing a line that detected virginity across the Great Hall. Imagine sitting back and seeing all the virgins getting trapped." He chuckled wickedly.
Hermione puffed up with indignation. "What a thing to put in a school, Draco! I'm not surprised they took your prefect badge away," she scolded, but she was clearly struggling not to smile. She paused for a second and looked quite mischievous herself. "I wonder how many of the teachers would have gotten trapped?"
Draco burst out laughing and nearly choked on his pumpkin juice. Dabbling at his mouth with his napkin, he said: "Trelawney for sure..."
Hermione and Draco sniggered uncontrollably together. Professor Trelawney was Hermione's least favourite teacher. Harry felt his lips twitch and noticed that even Ron, who was sitting silently next to Hermione, picking miserably at his food and occasionally glaring at Draco, couldn't help but grin.
Mrs Weasley was also picking at her food down at the other end of the table, where she was sitting with Lupin, Tonks, Moody and Kingsley. But she had quite a different reason. Abruptly, she got up and looked out the window. "Fred and George are late," she said. "I wonder where they could be?"
Ron swallowed a mouthful of potato. "Maybe they're working back at their joke store tonight?"
Mrs Weasley wrung her hands. "Not this late, surely?" she said. Though she was trying to hide it, she sounded frightened and Harry frowned in concern.
"Sit back down, Mum. Fred and George are probably just waiting for a delivery of Instant Darkness Power or something. They'll be here soon," said Ron soothingly. But once Mrs Weasley had returned to her chair, he gave Harry and Hermione a worried look.
They were already finishing dessert - the large, rich chocolate cake Harry had iced - when the Weasley twins arrived, both bleeding but triumphant. "A couple of Death Eaters tried to jump us at the store," said Fred, as he strutted into the kitchen. His eyes were blackened and his magenta robes were torn.
"They didn't like the You Know Who U-No-Poo joke in our shop window. No sense of humour, those Death Eaters," said George. He was limping slightly.
Mrs Weasley flew across the room and flung her arms around them. "My boys! I was so worried! I thought Death Eaters had attacked you. And they did! They did!" Her voice rose, becoming almost hysterical. "What did they do to you?" she sobbed.
Fred and George tolerated her hug for a second and then wriggled out of her grip. "You should be wondering what WE did to THEM, Mum. No need to worry about us. We're fine," said Fred proudly.
"You MUST stay here tonight," said Mrs Weasley, in a voice that brooked no dissention. "You will NOT go back to that flat above your shop by yourselves, it's not properly warded. We don't have much room but we'll find you a place to sleep here."
"Your Mum's right," said Lupin quietly. "You should stay."
"Mum, it's not necessary. We know how to deal with Death Eaters - ah!" Fred had caught sight of Draco, and a predatory look came over his freckled face - the sort of expression a cat gives to a mouse it is about to pounce on and devour.
Harry saw Draco look frightened and vulnerable for a moment, before the cold, unperturbed expression came back down over his face. Unobtrusively, Harry put his fork down next to the last scrap of chocolate cake on his plate. He had a bad feeling about this.
"You're staying and that's final, even if someone has to sleep on the floor or share a bed. Sit down, boys," said Mrs Weasley, blowing her nose. "I'll get you your dinner."
She flicked her wand and two plates filled themselves with chicken and vegetables and floated over to the table. Fred and George grabbed the plates out of mid air. "Thanks, Mum," they said. Then they plonked themselves down in the empty seats in front of the trio and Draco and started shovelling baked potato and gravy into their mouths with gusto. They were grinning.
"Hi, Harry!" Fred and George chorused with their mouths full.
"How's the shop?" asked Harry. He was uncomfortably aware of the attention the twins were giving Draco.
"Lucrative!" Fred and George chorused.
"We'll be moving to larger premises soon," said George. "We're inventing new spells every day, and we're running out of room to display them all."
"Want to see our latest invention?" said Fred. He did not wait for Harry's reply. Instead, he pointed his wand at Draco. "Gelovestis!" he said.
Draco flinched, ever so slightly, and Harry heard him take a tiny, indrawn breath. But his cold, unperturbed expression didn't change in the slightest and Harry, who had been about to jump protectively in front of Draco, sank back on his seat. He was used to Draco being far from stoic about pain, even faking injury when it suited him, he decided that the spell, whatever it was, had not worked. "What was that?" he asked Fred gruffly.
"How odd," said Fred, looking at his wand as if trying to see where it was broken.
"Gelovestis!" said George.
Again, Draco gave a tiny flinch but his face remained stony.
"Stop it!" cried Hermione angrily.
"What are you doing to him?" said Harry, half rising from his chair.
"Gelovestis!" said Fred.
"It's supposed to instantly make a person's underpants chill to the temperature of ice, but it doesn't seem to be working," said George, who was clearly puzzled. "Malfoy should be running around the room screaming and tearing his clothes off, the great pansy." He pointed his wand at Draco again and, in a flash, Harry jumped up and sat protectively in Draco's lap. George's spell hit him instead.
"Yeow!" yelped Harry. He did indeed have an urge to run around the room and strip off his clothes so he could get his offending, chilly boxer shorts away from the tenderest parts of his body but he sat still and gritted his teeth instead. His bottom rested against Draco's crotch and he could feel the cold emanating from it. One Gelovestis spell was bad enough. How was Draco feeling after three?
Draco answered this unspoken question himself. His hand went protectively to his throat. "I think I've got frost bite, Harry," he said in a very quiet, very dignified and very pained voice.
Fred and George laughed horribly. "So it does work," said Fred.
"Cut it out!" shouted Hermione at the twins. She leaned in close to Harry's ear. "Harry," she whispered through gritted teeth. "Draco told me you made him Vow to obey the orders of your Order friends without question and treat them with respect, no matter how they treated him - on pain of death."
The truth hit Harry like a punch in the face. Now he knew why Draco had been so quiet that day. "Oh..."
"What are you whispering about? Speak up, we can't hear you," said George.
Hermione gave Harry an outraged glare. "Take the order off him," she hissed. "Rescind it! Or the Order could do ANYTHING to him."
Harry turned in Draco's lap to face him. "Draco," Harry said firmly. "You don't need to respect or obey my Order friends," He turned back and glared at the Weasley twins. "IF THEY'RE BEING COMPLETELY BLOODY STUPID!" he yelled.
What could only be described as a white-blond explosion followed. As if a switch had been flicked, a furious, hate-filled Draco replaced the quiet, wimpy Draco of that day. Harry was thrust forward as Draco leaped to his feet and ran around to the twins' side of the table screaming abuse at them, his wand out and gesticulating, and his pale face livid with fury. All the rage, misery, frustration and humiliation Draco had suffered was pouring out of him at last in a gigantic tantrum.
Without needing to think about it, Harry ran after Draco and held him back by his right arm before he could aim a punch or a spell at Fred. The twins were getting to their feet, their faces vicious, and they pulled out their wands with a business-like precision that made Harry's blood run cold.
"Don't touch him!" Harry shouted. "You started this!" He felt Hermione grab Draco's other arm and hold him back as well. He had no doubt that if Draco physically attacked the twins, he would die, whether by their hands or by those of the other Order members.
"You filthy COWARDS! How dare you pick on me?" Draco screamed at the twins, his pale hair flying around his face. He thrashed in Harry and Hermione's grip.
The adult members of the Order were getting to their feet. "Stop this at once!" snapped Lupin, getting out his own wand.
"What is the meaning of this?" demanded Kingsley.
"Fred and George were shooting Draco with freezing spells," said Harry, bucking in his effort to hold Draco back.
"Why not?" sneered Fred. "He's a Malfoy - a Death Eater. Don't you remember all the stuff he did to you in school, Harry?" He looked at Draco as if wondering what spell to use on him next.
"He's saved my life since then! I don't want you torturing him," shouted Harry. He looked at Hermione. "Let's get him up to my room."
Hermione nodded back, gritting her teeth as she maintained her grip on the struggling Slytherin. With difficulty, they dragged a hissing, spitting Draco towards the stairs. Ron got up and helped Hermione hold Draco's left arm.
"I KNEW that Death Eater was trouble," said Moody cheerfully.
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Author's Notes: Reviews! I'm starving for reviews! Please, please, please give 'em to me:-)
Replies to reviews:
The Earth Mystic: Thanks for your review. Draco may whine about muggle clothing but he is HOT in Harry's jeans! Katharina-B: I'm trying to copy Rowling's writing style, and she always writes from Harry's (fairly blinkered) point of view. I guess if she wrote from Hermione's point of view, the stories would be too obvious, as Hermione rarely misses a thing and everyone knows it. Your guesses about why Draco wants to speak to Hermione privately are very good! ;-) Jasmine: Thank you! Draco promised Harry Occlumency lessons so perhaps Harry will see Draco's conversation with Hermione - or if Draco's unlucky, even more incriminating things! mimifoxlove: I think Draco really needs an ally at the moment. Perhaps Hermione will fit the bill? Yes, it's ironic that the witches and wizards that are fighting against the tyranny of Voldemort are willing to use something like the Vow. It's said that you will eventually turn into your enemy if you fight them long enough... Kit turned Mighty: Thank you very much! You're a fantastic reviewer! More updates coming soon. :-) ItsaMiracle: Thank you very much! I did have Harry's age written into the story, then your previous comment reminded me that the age of consent is different in every country, but the Internet is worldwide. So to be on the safe side legally, I went back and removed all the references to Harry's age. Let's just say they're - legal in whatever country you happen to be in! ;-) HecateDeMort: Blush! Thanks. ;-) Queen Vampiress: Thanks! Draco is probably going to have nightmares about that robe now. I've only just started reading Draco fanfics and I hope I can keep my fanfic original. I refuse to refer to Draco's eyes as 'silvery'. They're grey, darn it! Though I have to admit, some of the other fanfics would be nice to steal from - mmmm, Veela Draco. Sexy! Probably a bit late for this fanfic. Maybe for future fanfics? ;-) ProperT: Thanks! Yes, Ron can be a bit unkind, but I put it down to being insensitive and inexperienced rather than being truly nasty. Crowley Black: Thanks! Nice to hear you can get hot and heavy on FF. I intend to. ;-) MNP: Thanks! I hope the update is okay. Potter's Wifey: Thanks! Hermione's a genius - enough to know what would happen if everyone else knew what the Vow meant. Yellowwolf: Thanks! Harry's an angry young man and I sense punches in the future. (Rubs Trelawney's crystal ball.) ScorpioPhoenix: Thanks! Mmm, delicious liaisons rock. ;-) ms.gringotts: Thanks! I LOVE the insults - Draco and Harry's witty, bitchy repartee is one of my favourite parts of the HP novels. Harry's mostly freed Draco and I hope I can get the Slytherin up to full silver bitch mode from now on. wizli: Thanks! Hermione's more tactful than naive. Heh, heh! The sleeping arrangement is going to be a little crowded thanks to the twins staying over. Joy. ;-) saiyan's whitelighter: Thanks. Short and frequent seems to be the way I update.