"The trouble you're in, the pain you're going through. No matter what, I'll be here by your side".
-Stephanie White
Passion Burns Deep Chapter Seven
Harry looked shocked, but none the less, he didn't say anything as his old teacher stepped around and stood beside him. Hermione couldn't possibly come up with an explanation for McGonagall's weird behavior. Whatever was going on, it was evidently something very serious.
Making sure Remus was in a good spot, McGonagall yelled into the other room, "Moody, bring in the prisoner!"
Mad-eye came into the room, levitating a young man behind him.
'So that's why!' Hermione thought, looking over at Harry. A noise escaped from his throat; it was the sound of an angered animal, his fist clenched tightly into a ball. Even so, he stood were he was, not making any movement at all, watching the still form like a hawk over it's pray.
The boy's skin was pale and peeked, looking as if he had not had a good meal for some time now. Shaggy blonde hair hung around his face, only long enough to hang in his eyes; which were closed as if he were sleeping peacefully
Moody lowered the body to the floor in front of Hermione. She couldn't help but notice that Malfoy looked different somehow, he didn't look so snobbish when he was asleep and it seemed like he had grew a few inches since she last saw him. However, there was no mistaking that this was none other than the infamous Draco Malfoy himself.
"Where did you find him at," Harry snarled out between clenched teeth.
Looking at Harry cautiously, McGonagall answered, "We have had several members keeping watch on the Malfoy Manor ever since the boy had disappeared. He was caught returning to his home last night under the cover of darkness".
"What are you going to do with him, Professor?" Hermione felt like slapping herself as she noticed that the way she had said it seemed as if she cared.
"We are going to find out what he knows".
"All you have to do is threaten the piece of filth with his life and he'll spill his guts," growled Moody.
Hermione flinched at his words. Why, she wondered, was she acting this way? Suddenly she remembered the dream she had had and shivered even more. 'What's wrong with me?'
"Alastar! We are not like them. We do not jump to brutal force without first giving the person a chance!" McGonagall was shocked to here the Auror say that.
"It always worked for me," he muttered to her back.
"Moving on," she continued pretending not to hear him, "we will be using the truth potion instead".
"I suppose that works, he's been this way the whole time, so he has no way of fooling the truth potion". Moody's eye was spinning around with excitement.
A wizard Hermione didn't recognize with short brown hair and silver eyes stepped over to the stiff body and forced his mouth open, pouring pure liquid out of a vile in.
They waited for the potion to start working then McGonagall removed the silencing charm on him and allowed only his lips to move. She leaned over him, speaking clearly. "Are you Draco Malfoy, son of the Death Eater; Lucius Malfoy?"
Malfoy groggily replied, "I'm not proud of it, but yes I am".
"Where is your father and the other Death Eaters?"
"I don't know anything about the others, but my father is dead," he sounded proud to be able to say this.
There was a gasp from everyone in the room.
'But how,' Hermione began to wonder.
"Would you please explain to me how and when this happened," it was more of a command than a request.
"I always hated him. He never treated me or my mother right, always pushing us around and forcing us to accept the ways of the Dark Lord. I was finally pushed over the edge. Two nights ago he and my mother were arguing about some new instructions the Dark Lord had given him. I woke up to my mother screaming at him and telling him that she would not allow such a thing to happen and my father was arguing back with her saying that they didn't have a choice and that he would be killed otherwise. By the time I got down stairs he had started shaking her and slapping her across the face trying to calm her down. I couldn't bear to see my mother being treated as such yet again and I lost it. All the anger I have ever felt toward my father came surging out of me through my wand and the next thing I knew he was lying on the floor at my feet completely lifeless".
Shock fell over the assembly as they all stared dumbstruck at the boy.
Surprised, McGonagall lost her usual composure. "You mean to tell me that you killed him yourself!"
He nodded happily. "I was tired of ordering me around like I was his own personal slave. Just last week he was ordered me to do something that I absolutely refused to do".
"What was the order?" Moody growled.
"He told me that I had to capture the young Weasel girl and bring her to the Dark Lord".
"But you hate the Weasley's. Why would you get mad over something like her capture?" It was Lupin who spoke this time.
"Yes, I do hate them, but that's not the point. I told myself along time ago that I would never do anything just so my father could get on the Dark Lord's good side. I despise the way he clings to him like a pet. It's disgraceful and I wanted nothing to do with it. When I told him that I wouldn't do it, he got furious and tried to kill me, he was already mad that I didn't kill Dumbledore. We argued, and finally I lost my temper. I stayed locked in my room for several days after that and didn't come to eat or anything until the night I heard my mother screaming".
"Why did you join the Death Eaters and later help them into the castle that night?" Lupin was still talking. Apparently McGonagall had lost her voice all together.
"I was forced to do it. He told me that if I didn't, he would kill my mother, the only person that ever really cared for me. But in the end I was too weak. Potter even caught me crying one day at school; I don't remember anything after that, until I woke up in the hospital wing. But I still had a mission to fulfill and there was no backing down," his voice was shaking.
"What about Dumbledore? Why didn't you kill him when you had the chance?" Lupin was finding all of this very interesting.
"The night I let the Death Eaters into the school, was the night I realized that my father had no more control over me and I could always run from the Dark Lord".
He paused as recent memories came flowing back to him, then continued wearily.
"I wasn't going to kill Dumbledore that was never my intention. It shocked me when he told me that he knew it was me who was trying to kill him all year. Yet, even though he knew it was me, he didn't do anything about it because he knew the trouble that I would be in if I was caught. Towards the end of the year, I practically gave up trying to hide my attempts. I was hoping he would realize it was me and put a stop to it. I never wanted to be like my father".
Hermione couldn't believe what she was hearing. For as long as she knew Malfoy, she could only remember the arrogant, snotty, prat; who was so much like his father. Now, after hearing this, she began to wonder what really drove a person to become a Death Eater.
"What about Snape?" It was Moody's turn to speak again.
"The stupid git! He kept getting in my way. Acting as if he were trying to help me, when in fact I knew he was only helping me because of a stupid oath he made with my mother!"
"An Unbreakable Vow?" This was apparently big news for everyone.
"After my father was sent to Azkaban, the Dark Lord forced me into his ranks, threatening to kill me and my mother. When he ordered me to kill Dumbledore, my mother feared for my life. She cared nothing of herself; she only wanted me to stay safe. Snape made a Vow with my mother stating that he would protect me to his best abilities and help me with my task".
It was then that Hermione realized that Snape had killed Dumbledore to save his own skin. Being bond by a Vow meant that he either carry out the oath or die at failed attempt. If possible, this made Hermione hate Snape even more.
Malfoy's eyelids began to sag, all his energy seemingly gone.
"Where did you and Snape go the night you fled from the castle?"
"We ran for our lives. He said that I must get far away from the Dark Lord because if I was caught, I would surely be killed for not completing my task. We stopped at an inn somewhere in the mountains. It was there we received word that my father had escaped from Azkaban. That night while Snape was asleep, I left and returned to my house, hoping that my mother was ok and that father hadn't done anything rash in his delirious state of mind".
His head began to fall forward. The past weeks journey finally catching up with him.
"That will be all for now, Alastor. Lock him in one of the bedrooms and put a charm on his door so that he may not hear anything. Make sure that he can't escape," McGonagall whispered.
Before he finally fell asleep, Malfoy muttered, "I wouldn't try to escape from here. I'm safe here".
Hermione's head was pounding with all the excitement of the day. She couldn't believe what Malfoy had just told them. Yet he had taken Veritaserum and everything he had said was the truth.
"I think that will be enough for our meeting today. Let's all go home and think everything over. We'll have another meeting tomorrow and we will discuss everything then," McGonagall concluded in a tired voice.