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Chapter 23: Draco
I did not expect to be able to sleep that night, so it came as a surprise to me when I woke up the next day and realized that I had been out for seven hours. Draco had slipped into a coma to restore his magical reserves, which had been severely depleted by his blood loss. I expected him to wake up in about three hours, which would be sometime near sunset. I had far too much time, and nothing to do with it. I decided to think over what Lupin had said.
It had made sense, but I was unsure about how I could carry any of it out. I might be able to teach a few students, but I had never led an army. What part would I play in the war if I chose to create my own side, and how would others take it? What would I have to offer my 'followers'? War is mostly politics, so what would apeal to everyone? I considered my options for some time, and finally came up with something: Humans, Creatures, everything loves freedom. So how could I offer freedom in such away that would draw people to my 'cause'?
Before I could come up with an answer to that one, I was interrupted by a change in the reate of Draco's breathing. He was waking up.
"You're waking up early." I looked back at him, and he squinted at me, still half-asleep.
"What the bloody hell happened?" I smirked, having expected him to say something like that.
"You almost died, is what happened." I got serious. "What were you thinking?"
He groaned, and tried to sit up, failing miserably. I walked over and helped him into a more comfortable position. "It's your own fault," I said, though there was no bite to it. "Doing that to yourself. What do you expect when you don't even bother to take a blood replenisher after ripping your arm open?"
He offered me a half-hearted glare. "Shut up. My head is killing me."
I laughed, then cast a status spell to see how he was doing. "Hmm. Heart rate normal. Still could use some more blood. I'll have to ask Ron to cast that spell again."
Draco sat up, alarmed. "Weasley knows?"
I pushed him back down, and he moaned in pain. "Stop that moaning, you bloody idiot. We both know that you're in pain, you don't have to advertise it. And yes, Ron knows. He saved your life, so don't you dare be angry at him."
"He saved my life? How do you figure?"
I sighed exasperatedly. "Well, let's see, you were passed out on the floor, dying from blood loss, and he knew a blood replenishing spell. I'd call that saving your life, wouldn't you?"
He opened his mouth to say something, but gasped instead when I poked one of his arms to see how well it had healed. "What the hell was that for?"
"You're arms aren't completely healed. I wouldn't do anything strenuous for a while, if I were you."
"When did you turn into a doctor?"
"I don't know, but I can tell you pretty much anything you want to know about death, and pain, and all that stuff. Probably something to do with...well...you know."
He nodded. "Yeah." Then he lifted up his arm to look at it for himself. He winced at the angry red cuts that crisscrossed all over it from his wrist to his elbow. The freshly healed cuts were a deeper red than the others, and some of them were still oozing blood at a very slow pace. I tsked and quckly cast another healing spell. "I told you to stop. I don't know why this hasn't happened before."
He muttered something that sounded like "You weren't gone before."
I shook my head. "What, being dead doesn't count as gone?"
He glanced up at me, then back down to the floor. "That was different and you know it. Everything was different."
I snorted. "I hardly think our 'relationship' has changed that much in the time I've been back."
He looked down. "I guess not," he mumbled.
I finished checking up on him, and I got up. "You'll be okay here for a couple of days, assuming I can get you some food. After that, you can decide what to do."
He looked up. "What do you mean, 'after that'?"
"At the moment, I'm deciding the best way to recruit followers so I can create my own side in this war. I figured that since you're a Death Eater, you wouldn't want to stay once everything gets started."
"But," He stuttered. "But what-what about...us?"
I didn't know what to say. "What about us?" Then I threw his own words back at him. "What happened to that whole 'we just get together and have sex sometimes' thing?"
He was taken aback. I felt a pang of sorrow, knowing that I had been cruel for no reason. I tried to soften the blow. "I mean, there's not much we can do, is there? We've always been on different sides of the battlefield. How should this be any different?"
He looked away, and seemed to be making up his mind about something. Then he looked me square in the eye, and said, "I'll spy for you."
I was pretty hard to shock by now, but this shocked me. If there was one thing I had never expected, it was his support. I sat down next to him.
"You really want to do this?"
He nodded. "Voldemort may not be as bad as he's been made out to be, but I'd choose you over him any day."
For some reason, I was touched by the thought that he considered me preferrable to Voldemort.
"You could be killed."
"I could be killed anyway."
"You're more likely to be killed if you're working with me. I won't let anyone else die."
"Everybody dies. I almost died last night."
I grimaced at the memory. "Yes, but that was your own stupidity."
"Look, if your starting your own army, you're going to need a spy. I've volunteered. Do you know any other Death Eaters who would do it?"
I sighed, knowing that he was right. "Alright. But if I decide it's too dangerous, then you stay the hell away from him. Got it?"
He nodded, and I told him to go back to sleep.
"Trust me, I'll wake you up when Ron gets here."
"Weasley's coming back?"
I laughed at the horror-struck look on his face. "Yes, in a couple of hours. I'll wake you up before he gets here, so you won't be caught off guard, how about that?"
He nodded and mumbled something unintelligible before turning over and falling asleep.
I laughed again, softly this time, and sat down to wait. It would be a while.