Chapter Six: The Vanishing Cabinet
Draco was not waiting for Harry in the Chamber of Wisdom or in the Slytherin Common Room when Harry finally managed to get away from the Gryffindor dorms. In fact, Draco wasn't waiting for him at all.
"You weren't supposed to see that," Draco muttered, when the door to his room opened and closed soundlessly, as if no one had entered at all.
"Obviously," Harry retorted as he let the invisibility cloak fall to the floor. "What was that about?"
"Snape and I had a disagreement. That's all."
"That's not what it sounded like to me." Harry crossed to the bed on which Draco was sprawled. "It sounded much more important than that to me."
"Snape has a way of making little things seem more important than they are."
Harry sighed as he nudged Draco over to slide into bed next to him. "Snape openly spoke of an Unbreakable Vow in the same sentence that he talked about protecting you. That is not normal Snape behavior. Though," Harry's voice took on a thoughtful tone, "nothing that man does could be called normal."
Draco snorted into the pillow.
Harry sighed as silence stretched between them. "Charybdis, tell me what's going on."
"I can't."
The words were muffled into the pillow, but Harry caught them all the same. "And why not?"
"I can't tell you that either."
"Seems there's an awful lot you can't speak about today." Harry's fingers slowly crept along Draco's back, and the Malfoy heir half-heartedly pushed them away. Instead, Harry entwined his fingers with Draco's own, raising the hand to his lips.
Draco shuddered as Harry's lips caressed his fingertips, each one in turn before moving to kiss his palm. "Harry-"
"What?"
"You're waiting for me to answer. Don't."
"Alright."
There was more silence as Harry slowly worked his way down the inner side of Draco's arm, before returning to the black mark that shown against alabaster skin. Draco shivered as Harry's tongue traced the black snake's path.
Slowly, Harry turned Draco over onto his back and looked at him. The slight tingling that came with his adjusted vision burned just beneath his eyelids. He held back a hiss at what he saw.
He remembered the grey band around Draco's throat, but he had not seen the other bands that also clung to Draco's skin. From the black mark, dark vines of magic coursed over Draco, growing from black to pale grey the farther from the source they got.
Alabaster skin broken by magical bonds that held Draco closer to the Dark Lord than he'd ever been to Harry.
Draco's eyes narrowed at the look on Harry's face as Harry gazed down at him. He'd just become used to the strange bird-like eyes, yet the look Harry wore was foreign to his face.
"What do you see?" he whispered.
One of Harry's fingers began to trace an invisible trail over Draco's chest. "I see the bindings of Voldemort's magic on you. When you say that you cannot speak of something… you mean that, don't you?"
Draco nodded. Jealousy - that was the look Harry wore. It looked strange on Harry's features.
"Can you show me?"
Draco paused for a moment to think. Yes, he actually thought he could. There had been nothing about showing another of the Dark Lord's followers the Cabinet, just the distinct order that he could tell no one. He nodded, and blinked as a shirt was thrown at him.
"Then get dressed. I want to know what is going on."
The room was just as messy as it had always been as Draco pushed open the door to the Room of Requirement. Harry entered after him, looking around in amazement at the clutter.
"What is this place?"
"I don't know," Draco shrugged. "A storeroom for old junk, maybe?"
"So what are you doing in here?"
Draco led Harry through the clutter wordlessly and pointed at a cloth-covered thing at the back of the room. Following where he pointed, Harry walked over to it and pulled the cloth off. He blinked in surprise.
"I've seen this before."
"What?"
"This cabinet. I've seen it before… though I wonder what anyone at Hogwarts was doing buying it. It isn't yours, is it?"
"No. It belongs to Hogwarts, as far as I know. Its twin is still at Borgin and Burkes."
"Are they connected? One could enter from Knockturn Alley and come here, I assume?"
Draco said nothing, so Harry assumed he was correct.
"So why hasn't Voldemort used it already?"
"It's broken."
"So he wants you to fix it." Harry stepped partway into the cabinet, "I don't see anything obviously broken though. Do you know what's wrong with it?"
Draco shook his head. "No, that's why it's taking so long. It's bloody trial and error."
Harry's eyes narrowed in thought as he stepped back out of the cabinet and closed the door. "So why is Snape up in arms? It doesn't seem like that dangerous of a project."
"There's a high price to pay if I fail." The smile Draco attempted failed, and Harry frowned.
"I doubt you can tell me what that is."
Draco shook his head.
"I assume you cannot ask for help either."
Draco nodded.
"Very well. We'll just make sure you have all the time you need to finish it."
The darkness of the Forbidden Forest was comforting as Harry maneuvered its paths with practiced ease. Covering for Draco would be easy – he would just continue to be as obsessed as he already was with 'finding out what Malfoy was up to' in front of Ron and Hermione. The more obsessed he was, the more they would assume he was just over-reacting.
But, it was just one more problem to add to his list.
The heavy sound of hoofs on the ground brought a smile to Harry's lips as Magorian appeared from the brush of the forest.
"Is something wrong, my Lord?"
"I am unsure," Harry leaned against a tree as he stared up at the stars visible through the leafy canopy of the forest. "But I did have something to ask you about."
"What is it, my Lord?"
"When one has been cast out of the fold, what must be done for him to return?"
"You speak of Firenze?"
"Yes."
Magorian's gaze, too, drifted upwards, and he thought for a moment. "For one cast out of the fold, there should be no return. To be cast out is to commit a crime for which there is no forgiveness. But, Firenze was cast out because he associated too much with your kind; specifically with you, my Lord. Perhaps he knew more than we did, perhaps he could see more and saw how great you would become. Perhaps the stars showed him a future they hid from us until you came to speak to us – thinking of how he had helped you in the past, I believe."
Harry nodded. It was Firenze who had shown him how much of an asset Centaurs could be. In some sense, it was Firenze who had caused him to extend his arm to the Centaur herd.
"Should he become a Fury as well, then we will accept him back, my Lord."
Harry nodded. "Good. I would not want to leave him behind when the war begins."
"War is coming," Magorian agreed. "Mars sits dormant on the horizon."