After breakfast there was a tense silence as the five teenagers sat at the table, avoiding each other's eyes. Finally, Ginny suggested a trip to the orchard, and perhaps a friendly game of Quidditch. Relieved, the others followed her outside.
The situation in the orchard was no less awkward. Considering Ron's earlier outburst Harry was not eager to play Quidditch, and no one else had any ideas of how to spend their day. Eventually they stretched out in the sun, Harry, Ron and Ginny chatting lazily while Draco and Hermione read books. The hours passed slowly.
The sun was dipping down in the sky when Draco sighed and sat up.
"Listen," he said, his voice shattering the silence, "I owe all of you an explanation."
Ron sat up immediately, moving closer to Hermione's side. Ginny blinked once and then rolled over, her head in her hands. Harry moved to sit beside Draco.
"I know you all saw my arm this morning." Though Draco's voice sounded confident, he was shaking. "You need to know, I'm not one of them. Or at least- I don't want to be." He stopped and blinked back tears.
"Are you saying you don't believe all that stuff about purebloods anymore?" Ron asked suspiciously.
Draco looked down at his hands. "I don't know what I believe," he muttered. "I ran away, because I was scared. All I know is that I don't want to hurt anyone, and I don't want to answer to Him." He scratched at his arm absently.
Ron scowled. "How do we know you're telling the truth, Malfoy?"
"Because I believe him," Harry cut in. "And so does Dumbledore."
Ron's scowl deepened. Before he could say anything more Ginny cut in.
"Did it hurt? Getting the Mark?" she shrugged away the questioning glances. "I've always been curious."
Draco sighed and rubbed at his arm again. "Yeah," he answered, "more than anything I've ever felt. Even more than the Cruciatus curse. It hurts now too. Every time someone uses theirs it turns black and it burns." He glanced around the group and then pulled his sleeve up to show the bottom part of the grotesque mark. "Like this. Its supposed to summon me. The more I try to ignore it the more it hurts."
Silently Ginny stood up and paced away. Draco's arm fell to his side, hopelessness written across his face.
A moment later Harry heard footsteps behind him. He turned around to see Ginny, now with a handful of brooms, emerging from a small shed behind them. She walked back to the group.
"There's five of us," the red-haired girl observed. "How should we divide the teams?"
The next week was spent mostly in the orchard playing Quidditch. Harry and Draco were both quite good, and Ron and Ginny were coming along nicely. Hermione, however, was dreadful, and often watched the games with a book in hand. On the occasions that she was convinced to join in she warbled around the field gracelessly, generally missing the quaffle altogether.
It would almost have been a relaxing summer holiday if it hadn't been for the constant reports of disappearances and deaths. As Death Eaters wreaked havoc on the muggle world, those living in the Burrow quickly began to scan the papers anxiously every time the Dark Mark engraved on Draco's arm burned.
It was Thursday morning when Harry woke up with tears streaming down his face. With a shock he noticed Draco sitting up in bed, his knees pulled up to his chest. He also seemed to be crying.
"Draco-" Harry began softly.
"You were screaming." Draco's voice was muffled by his knees. "I didn't know if I should wake you or not." He looked up. "Was- was it Sirius?"
Harry nodded. "You?"
"My mother. And the Dark Lord. I dream about him most nights. It's the ones with her that..." his voice trailed off.
"I dream about him too," Harry whispered. "I think I usually sleep through it. But Sirius..."
Draco nodded in understanding. Both boys collapsed onto their beds and stared up at the ceiling.
The morning dawned cloudy and wet, squelching any hope of playing Quidditch. Instead the group settled around the living room to play one of the card games that Harry had taught to Draco. Ginny disappeared to her room, muttering something about writing a letter to Dean Thomas.
Ron slapped his card down.
"Uno." Draco called out from across the table. He smirked at Ron. "You have to pick up four cards."
"Not fair!" Ron protested. "I was going to say it!"
Draco's smirk widened. "That's the rule of the game."
Harry chuckled at Ron's frustrated face. "Sorry Ron, he's right."
Ron huffed as he picked up the cards. "You've all played this before, I'm still just learning!"
Hermione set down her card. "Uno!"
Harry shuffled the cards in his hand. He snuck a glance towards Draco. "Pick up two!"
Draco grinned as he pulled cards from the pile. "You're going to regret that," he quipped.
Just then they heard a knock on the door. Mrs. Weasley bustled past as Harry and Ron stood to see who it was.
"Remus, it's a pleasure to see you!"
"You as well, Molly," a soft voice replied. The figure at the door leaned in to whisper something that Harry couldn't hear.
Remus Lupin stepped into the living room dripping wet, his face more gaunt and his clothes more patched than ever. Smiling, he held out a hand.
"Harry! Ron, Hermione, it's good to see you all again. How has your summer been?" He turned towards the corner of the room, where a sudden movement had caught his eye. "Draco, it's a pleasure to see you. How have my brightest students been faring?"
Harry stepped up to shake his former professor's hand. "Professor Lupin! We've all been having a great time here."
Before anyone else could speak Mrs. Weasley had returned to the room and was ushering them upstairs. "Now, now, we're having a meeting of the Order down here in just a few minutes," she tutted as she rapped on Ginny's door. "I don't want any of you listening in. That means no extendable ears, Ginevra!"
Ginny glared at her mother from the open doorway and followed the others to Fred and George's room. Mrs. Weasley shut the door tightly on them just as another knock sounded from the front door.
"I hate to seem uninformed, but what's going on?" drawled Draco.
Hermione perched on the edge of an unopened box marked WWW. "The Order of the Phoenix, the group that fights Voldemort." Ron and Draco both winced at the name. "They're using this as their base, and they have a meeting today. Fred and George joined this year, but we're not allowed to yet because we're underage." There was a hint of remorse in her voice.
Draco frowned as he rubbed at his forearm. "Those are lovely principles." he said sarcastically. "I wish the Dark Lord thought the same way."
Harry pressed his ear to the door, motioning the others to be quiet. He frowned. "What is Snape still doing in the Order after everything that happened last year?"
Draco inhaled sharply. "Professor Snape?"
"Harry, we've been over this a thousand times. Dumbledore trusts him," Hermione answered.
Everyone's attention was drawn to Draco as he punched the wall. "Well, the Dark Lord trusts him too, so one of them is wrong!"
"He is a Death Eater?" Harry asked eagerly. Draco nodded. "I told you Hermione! We should go down there right now and-"
"Harry! We already knew that he goes to the meetings with the Death Eaters! He's spying for Dumbledore!"
"Hermione, what if he's spying for the Death Eaters?" Ron asked hotly. "He could be-"
Ron was interrupted by a sharp knock on the door. Mrs. Weasley's voice came from the other side.
"We're trying to have a meeting downstairs! Stop shouting or I will have to send you all to your rooms!"
"Sorry," Ginny mumbled back. The scowl on her face grew as her mother's footsteps faded away.
"I still say we can't trust him," Harry hissed.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Oh give it a break Harry. Come on, let's find something better to do."
Ginny pulled a cardboard box towards her. "I've been curious about these for a while. Fred and George are storing them here until they're ready for the shop. Let's see what's inside!" Harry noticed the mischievous smile playing at the edges of her lips and pulled a box toward himself.
"C'mon Draco, take a box," Ron goaded. "It's not like they're going to bite!"
Just at that moment there was a loud pop! And Hermione let out a muffled screech. She pulled something that looked like a telescope away from her face. A tiny fist hung from the end of it, bouncing wildly on a spring.
"It punched me!" She exclaimed, her hand moving up to cover her eye. "I squeezed it and it punched me!" As she pulled back her hand a large purple welt was forming.
"Let me see that," Draco said, pulling out his wand. "I'm pretty good at fixing bruises." He leaned towards Hermione's face.
"Draco!" Harry and Ron shouted at the same moment. Draco turned towards them with a confused expression.
"You can't do magic outside school!" Ron exclaimed. "Not unless you've been lying about your age!"
"Don't tell me your parents take that bit about underage magic seriously?" Draco scoffed.
"Don't yours?" Ginny asked incredulously.
"Of course not! The trace only really works for mu-" he glanced back towards Hermione and choked over his next word. "For muggleborns. It tracks location, not the person actually doing the magic. Harry would get caught at his house. Here no one would notice."
Ron had a glazed look in his eyes. "You mean, I could've been doing magic all this time and no one would've known?"
Hermione poked him in the side. "Don't even think about it! Your dad works for the ministry!"
"Besides," Harry said, "It's not exactly fun to sit in a trial wondering if they're going to let you go back to Hogwarts or not. Trust me."
"Still though..." Ginny said, a greedy look in her eye. "It would be fun to hex Fred and George. Or Phlegm." She grimaced at the name.
"Can I fix your eye or not?" Draco asked gruffly.
Hermione sighed. "I would love that Draco, but you really shouldn't. I'll wait until dinner time and ask Mrs. Weasley."
