Shades of Grey
Chapter 7: Labyrinth
Disclaimer: JKR writes more often that I do.
Author's note: This is a good one.
She watched Draco's face hover above hers, his blond hair falling over his eyes. She wanted to reach up and move it aside, but the back of the couch still prevented much movement. He chuckled, and she felt his hot breath tickle her face. As he continued to lower himself closer to her, she felt the soft fabric of his shirt against her bare stomach, and wished she could feel his skin there. Another chuckle. She looked into his grey-blue eyes, flashing with something like mischief.
"Bet you regret saying no to me now, don't you?" he whispered.
Rose's eyebrow shifted upward, the question confusing her. Draco's eyes turned hard, and she felt a searing heat erupt on her skin.
She woke up screaming.
. . .
The days continued on one after the other, just as they always had, but they seemed suddenly sluggish. They were slow the way time often is when one is waiting for something. Though she wasn't sure what she was waiting for, exactly. Whatever it was, she hoped it came soon.
"Miss Martell?"
"Yes, Professor?"
"Answer the question."
She looked around at her classmates for some help on the question she hadn't heard. No one helped.
"Can you repeat the question, Professor?"
McGonagall sighed. "Pay attention, please." She turned away. "Mr. Longbottom…"
Rose shrugged and turned to Daphne. "She hates me, doesn't she?"
"Doesn't she hate everyone?" she replied with a grin.
"Good point," Rose nodded.
"Miss Martell, am I interrupting? Would you like to take your conversation outside?"
She ground her teeth against a remark, and was very close to voicing it, when McGonagall looked at the clock, and dismissed the class. Rose gathered her books up brusquely. She stormed out of the room before she said something that would get her into loads of trouble, and waited for Daphne outside the door. Students flooded out past her until Daphne finally emerged nearly last.
"One of these days…," Rose muttered.
"Yeah, yeah, you'll rid the world of Gryffindors and rule as an almighty power over Slytherins of all ages. Got it."
Rose glared.
"What's this I hear about ruling the world?" Draco said, walking up beside Rose. Crabbe and Goyle were two loyal steps behind him. Draco draped his arm over Rose's shoulder, which she shrugged off. He didn't seem to notice.
"Rose plans to eradicate the world of Gryffindors one day, and reign as supreme ruler of the wizarding world."
"Not to mention," Rose added, "I'd put the muggles to work as miners, digging my underground fortress beneath England, in which mudbloods everywhere would be my servants."
"You're not killing them? Well that's quite generous of you," Draco acknowledged.
Rose nodded. "That's what I thought, too. I'm just a generous person."
Everyone consented their agreement before bursting into laughter. As they headed toward the Great Hall, Rose glanced over at Draco to see the all-too-familiar blank stare on his face. Her brow creased. She saw that it was happening again; he was starting to fall back into his usual routine. Pretty soon he'd start ignoring his friends, sneaking off in the middle of the night, skipping class, and not sleeping. That is, if it wasn't already happening and she had a sneaking suspicion that the late-night escapades began as soon as they arrived back to school—though she may have been personally responsible for keeping him in his dorm on the first night. Rose smiled inwardly to herself, and quickly did a mental face-slap. There were more important matters at hand than her overactive hormones. Draco was up to something, and this time she really needed to know what was going on. So, she decided she would find out.
. . .
"Where are you going?" Daphne asked as Rose stood up and started walking out of the Common Room.
"Astronomy," she announced.
"That's not for another hour," Daphne said, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, right. I know. I have to use the toilet first." She rushed out before anyone caught on to that lie.
As plans go, this was a pretty stupid one. She wandered the halls aimlessly for a half hour before she realized the she might have wanted to have an inkling of an idea as to where Draco was before she tore off to search the whole bloody castle for him. By the time she reached the fourth floor, she began to simply skim the corridors, too lazy to properly look anymore. There was no chance she would ever find him at the rate she was going, but she had another 30 minutes before she needed to be in Astronomy, so she continued on her half-hearted search. Rose was on the seventh floor, with five minutes left until class, when she saw Crabbe and Goyle in the corridor. If she'd learned anything in her almost six years at Hogwarts, it's that Crabbe and Goyle never go anywhere without Draco, unless they're there on Draco's orders, in which case they'd know where he was anyway. Pleased by this sudden development, she picked up a light jog down the hallway. Crabbe and Goyle looked at her approaching and crushed themselves against the wall, probably hoping she would run right past them. When she stopped directly in front of them, they exchanged worried looks. Rose grew suspicious.
"Do you guys know where Draco is?" she asked.
"Uhhhh, nope," Crabbe answered after hesitation. She looked to Goyle, who began fidgeting.
"Don't know nothing about nothing," he muttered nervously under his breath.
"Uh-huh," she nodded. "You have five seconds, or I hex it out of you."
"No, don't do that—"
"Five…"
"Rose, we can't," Crabbe whined.
"Four…"
"We ain't supposed to!"
"Three…"
"Rose, please," Goyle pleaded.
"Two…" She took her wand from her robe pocket.
"Aw, come on!" Crabbe groaned.
"One…" She raised her wand.
"Okay, okay!" Goyle said as quickly as he could, holding his hands up. "He's in there."
He pointed over his shoulder to a blank wall. She stared at him. Both of their faces were screwed up in apparent pain. Probably imagining what would become of them when Draco found out they gave him up. Only problem is they hadn't given him up. It was a blank fucking wall.
"Do I look stupid?" she said finally.
"No, no, it's hidden," Crabbe said.
She stared at him some more. "Okay, now you're just making fun of me."
He shook his head fiercely as though afraid of having her think that, and stepped away from the wall. He walked past it a couple of times, and a door appeared. Well she'll be damned. It was hidden. That was new.
"What is this?" she asked, confused. For a moment she caught the smug look on Goyle's face. Not every day he knows something someone else doesn't.
"Secret room Draco found," Goyle said. "But no one ain't supposed to know nothing. You can't go in there. No, no, no. Can't let you."
"And I suppose you think you can stop me?"
They looked nervously at each other. She scoffed and pushed past them, throwing open the door, and walking in. When she closed the door behind her, Crabbe and Goyle's grunting protests were silenced. She looked around in amazement. It was just stuff. That's all there was. There was stuff piled upon stuff, which was piled upon more piles of more stuff. Did she mention there was a lot of stuff? She took one step toward the mountains of objects, when she heard a voice from somewhere deep within.
"What do you want?" Draco's voice called.
"Where are you?" she called back.
"Who the fuck is that?" he shouted.
Oops. "Erm, it's Rose!"
A pause. "Get out!"
"No, I won't! Where are you?" she demanded again, already following the sound of his voice.
"I'm serious, Martell, get out!"
She continued through the maze of things that piled up like skyscrapers around her. Several times, she nearly tripped at a fallen object in her path. She walked cautiously past precarious looking piles, hoping they wouldn't suddenly collapse on her. She wondered where all this stuff came from. Some of it was useless junk. Old books, broken ink bottles, dirty jars, deflated Quaffles, Bludgers, Beaters' bats, unpaired shoes, dusty robes, stained parchment, and all kinds of stupid things that would never do anyone any good. She wondered if this was where all the trash in Hogwarts went like some kind of junkyard. She called for Draco a few more times, but when he realized she was following his voice, he stopped answering. She briefly realized that she was missing class as she continued forward. Deciding this was more important, she drove the thought from her mind. After another minute or two, she found Draco sitting on the floor next to a large cabinet, head in his hands.
"Draco?" she said cautiously.
He looked up, a scowl quickly forming his lips. "What are you doing here?"
"Well," she said, stepping around a large box, and nearly tripping on a telescope, "I'm obviously not here to enjoy a relaxing evening in front of a cozy fire with some warm butterbeer. What are you doing here?"
He raised his eyebrow. "I'm busy."
"I can see that. Draco, what's going on? You need to start talking. Now."
He hesitated for a while, taking a deep breath. "You need to go."
"I'm not going anywhere," she said, planting herself down beside him to emphasize it.
"It's…complicated."
"I'm a pretty clever girl. I think I can keep up," she said acidly.
"First, why don't you tell me something."
"Go on."
"What do you think of your parents?"
"What?" she asked, confused.
"Your parents," he repeated slowly. "What do you think of them?"
"I think they're twats, but I don't see what this has to do with anything."
"And why do you think they're twats?" he continued.
"I don't really think it's any of your business, Draco!" she replied defensively.
"Alright, fair enough. What about my parents?"
"Draco, can you just come out with it? What is this all about?" She was growing impatient.
"I'm just trying to understand you, is all," he answered, eyes squinting in scrutiny.
"Understand me how?"
"Understand how you think, and what you will think of me when I tell you this. It's quite a bit to take in, and if I wasn't very aware of how stubborn you are, I wouldn't even tell you, but I know you'll never let this go." He laughed when she shrugged in agreement. "But here's the thing: you've already agreed to marry me, right? And you're not going to back out, are you? Because so help me Merlin, if I get stuck with Pansy…"
"Draco, will you please just tell me?"
"Like I said, it's complicated. Right, yeah, you're clever; I understand that. I just want you to understand that there's a lot more to this than you might think. It's a very long story."
"Give me the condensed version."
"How condensed?" he asked, looking at her.
"As condensed as it gets."
"Okay," he nodded, taking a very deep breath, and letting it out slowly. He opened his mouth to say something, hesitated, opened it again, and finally closed it. She looked at him, waiting for a response. His eyes shifted downward, and she followed his gaze to land on his arm. He had pulled his sleeve up to reveal a dark green tattoo of a snake protruding from a skull. The Dark Mark.
"Fuck, Draco!" she shouted, jumping up. "What the fuck is that?"
"What does it look like?" he replied, completely calm.
"It looks like a goddamn fucking Dark Mark. What the fuck is it doing on your skin?!"
"There's really no need to shout, Martell," he said, pulling his sleeve back down, and removing his robe altogether.
"No need—No need to shout?! You have a fucking Dark Mark on your fucking arm! Bloody hell, Draco! Are you completely mental?"
"I don't understand why you're getting so worked up about this," he sighed, getting to his feet.
"Draco, you're a bloody fool, you know that? Do you want to get yourself killed? Or thrown into Azkaban with your father? Hmm? Is that what this is about?"
"No!" he cried reproachfully.
"Then what? Enlighten me! Because I very much fail to see why you would ever sign yourself over like that."
"I guess I had you pegged completely wrong," he said, shaking his head. "Well, no, I didn't. I had a feeling you'd react this way, but I was hoping I was wrong. I thought you were for the Dark Lord, not against him. Who would have thought? Might as well just go join Potter now, eh?"
"No, Draco. I happen to be very supportive of the Dark Lord and whatever the fuck it is he's doing. He wants to go around killing mudbloods at every turn, be my fucking guest, but I would never sign my life over to him. You're a complete idiot. He'll kill you, Draco. As soon as you stop being of any use to him, he'll kill you. And he'll do it without a second thought. He doesn't give a shit about you! Do you think he does? You're just another kid with too much ambition. Merlin knows why he let you in—oh, fuck. Draco, no. Tell me this isn't about your father."
"I already told you," he said through clenched teeth, "it's complicated."
"No, it isn't. You think this'll make everything okay? It won't. Lucius got captured and thrown into Azkaban, Draco. Nothing short of his escape, capture, and personal delivery of Potter will make that okay. Certainly nothing you can do will make it okay."
"You don't know that!"
"Don't I?" she shouted. "Tell me what it is you're doing here, Draco! Because I can guarantee you it sure as fuck is not worth your time or your goddamn life!"
"I don't think you want to know," he said, turning away.
"I very much want to know. Tell me. Go on." She sat on the box she had stepped around earlier, staring straight at Draco with an expectant expression.
"He's given me a job—a mission, if you will. See this?" He pointed to the cabinet they had been sitting against. "This is a vanishing cabinet. I'm mending it. I know it doesn't sound like much, but it's pretty destroyed. There's another one just like in Borgin and Burkes, see? If I can properly mend this one, it can act as passageway. Almost like a floo network. You step into one, and come out of the other."
"Then what? I doubt he asked you to mend a cabinet, and assume that would be enough."
"Well, no. See, I'm supposed to fix it so the Death Eaters can get into the school. And then I have to…" He mumbled the rest of it, looking away.
"What was that?"
"I," he cleared his throat, "have to kill Albus Dumbledore."
She stared at him for a moment, then slapped her hands on her thighs, and stood up. "Right, well, it was nice knowing you! I'll see you again in Hell!" She turned to walk away, but Draco grabbed her arm.
"You can't tell anyone, Rose," he said, looking her directly in the eyes, conveying the seriousness of the situation.
"Don't worry, I won't. They'd cart me off to the loony bin if I said a word. No one would ever believe this." She turned again, then looked back at him. "You know, I always thought you were a little off in the head. But that you have a death wish? I never thought you were that stupid."
"You don't understand!" he shouted.
"I understand perfectly! But this won't fix anything, Draco. It won't! You're going to fail. One way or another, you're going to fail. And you know what will happen then? He'll kill you. Or, better yet, he'll make an example of you. And trust me when I say, I hope to Merlin he kills you instead. It'll be less painful."
"I will not fail!" he yelled. He stepped up to her, his face just inches from hers. "I-will-not-fail," he said through clenched teeth.
"We'll see." She sighed, and took his face into her hands, looking intently into his eyes, gaining his complete attention. When she felt him relax his jaw beneath her fingers, she finally spoke. "I just hope I don't have to see it. Don't make me see it, Draco. There's no backing out now, so you better try your damned hardest to make something work, because you will die. And when you die, then what will I do?"
She let his face go, and walked back through the towers, leaving him in the labyrinth of hidden things alone.