Chapter 5

It was the end of November and an early bout of snow had sought respite on the grounds of Hogwarts, delicate snowflakes falling to the ground like the frozen tears of angels; there was something very magical about snow. As Luna skipped across the blanket of white, snowflakes became momentary crystalline embellishments on her robes before melting into tiny shimmering pools. Luna giggled childishly as the freezing sensation of snow melting on her reddening cheeks took effect. "Luna!" She heard a deep voice call, and she turned around to see a lithe figure running towards her, his white-blonde hair blending in with the falling snow. An influx of snowflakes had settled on the light eyelashes that framed his stormy grey eyes. Eyes that worked as a shield against any emotion Draco felt, eyes that worked as barriers against any tears that threatened to spill; barriers that worked most of the time.

Draco flashed her a smile, something Luna had noticed has become a rare occurrence, especially when he was seated at the Slytherin table.

"Are you coming to my 'meeting' with Potter now? He said now that he's refreshed people's memories, in the little club he's got organised, I'm allowed to start showing him some of the dark arts spells my Aunt Bellatrix showed me over the summer." Draco said, flinching slightly as he remember the wild look that resided in Bellatrix's eyes, the manic laugh of unbridled glee as she towered over her quivering victims. Luna, seemingly ignoring his question, said pensively; "You really should call him Harry." Upon seeing Draco's wistful look she nodded in answer to his question and they made their way to the Room of Hidden Things where Draco had arranged they practice, because there was an abundance of disused objects they could practice spells on. Luna couldn't help but notice that whenever they passed a member of Slytherin house Draco moved away from her and looked around casually as if he were simply roaming the corridors to admire the paintings on the walls and the ancient architecture that made Hogwarts such a memorable building.

The two walked in silence for a while, when Draco stopped suddenly like a victim of Medusa's glare. He took a deep breath as if he were about to dive into the great lake for a long swim alongside the Giant Squid, "You do realise we're not friends or anything right? Just because I agreed to talk to Potter doesn't mean…" He began, thinking of how Luna often blithely greeted him in the hallways and in front of the other Slytherins. He had to maintain a Potter and friends hating look, which didn't include talking to a fifth year Ravenclaw who had fought alongside Harry at the Ministry last year.

"You seem to think it was so important for my life that you talked to Harry and told me parts of what's bothering you. I'm trying to help you; I'm not gaining anything from this, Draco." Luna interrupted, smiling but not quite reaching his eyes. She had hoped Draco felt some kind of friendship between them, more for his sake than hers, even though she hadn't really expected the arrogant pureblood to want something like that.

"I just wanted you to know because you seem to have made a habit of talking to me in front of my…friends." Draco could hear the strain in his own voice. He didn't want to say this but it was for her safety as much as for his image. If she was too friendly with him, he had a feeling it may spur Pansy into some cruel action against her. The honest truth was that he wanted to be her friend. The cheerful Ravenclaw had been the only person this year to care about him; he had seen the disappointment in his mother's eyes when he accepted the task Voldemort had set him, and Pansy had dismissed his peculiar attitude as stress. It was stress of course, but not in the way she thought.

"I'd say they're more like minions than friends, but I understand." Luna murmured.

At this point they were travelling again and Draco felt as if he were being torn apart from the inside when he saw the dejected look on Luna's face. Luna herself didn't understand why she felt so upset; she had never been affected by the things people said before. She had never experienced this feeling before.

As they came to the wall at the end of the corridor, a door began to reveal itself; an arc carving itself in the wood like the trail of a shooting star that burst towards the promising sky before falling back to the vapid ground, the only vestige of its existence a perfect asymmetrical arc, a dour frown. Draco reached to turn the spherical handle, twisting it carefully in his palm as if it were an orb of immense power. The door swung open and he gestured for Luna to enter the room first; she bounded in but had largely lost the spring in her step, and her glacial blue eyes still wouldn't reach his. He knew what he had done to upset her, but he was used to her taking whatever anyone said in her stride, without a care in the world. He had thought she would understand. One thing was for sure, Luna Lovegood was changing.

When they walked in they were greeted by a pair of startling green eyes; tiny islands covered in a vicinity of emerald in a sea of white. "Hi Luna! And Malfoy." Harry greeted them. Draco waved, and Luna brightly said her hellos.
"Should we just get started then?" Harry said, looking a little unsure of what the session would hold.

"Okay, so I thought we would start with the Unforgivable Curses." Draco began.

"Maybe we should start with something simpler, I don't really want to be using unforgivable curses on my friends." Harry interrupted, looking mildly horrified.

"And the use of an unforgivable curse gets you put straight in Azkaban." Hermione piped up. Draco spun round, what were Ron and Hermione doing here? Hadn't Harry said it would just be him and Luna? Draco was bemused but didn't say anything.

"Well we did about them in fourth year so we'll already have some knowledge on them, and also they're favourites of the death eaters so we'll need to know how to resist them or fight against them." Draco said.

"I think we should start with less dangerous spells." Harry suggested.

"No, Potter. If you're going to have any chance against the death eaters you need to know about these spells. And all dark arts spells are dangerous anyway."
"Fine." Harry sighed, pushing his glasses up. Draco positioned himself in front of Harry and pointed his wand at him.

"I want you to try and resist this. Imperio!" Draco shouted. Harry immediately went glassy eyed. Hermione gasped behind him and Ron looked fuming. Draco made him walk around the room, and he could sense Harry resisting. However it didn't work. Draco stopped using the imperius curse and started again a lot more times and finally Harry managed to resist. Draco was impressed, not many people could resist the imperius curse. Harry grinned and Ron and Hermione began to congratulate him.

"Now you just have to teach your other students it." Draco said, before yelling; "Crucio!"

Harry fell backward and began writhing around the floor. "It always comes as a surprise, you won't be prepared." Draco muttered. Momentarily a glint of delight danced feverishly in his eyes as he saw Harry's contorting figure on the ground; old resentment didn't evaporate that quickly. He quickly performed the counter curse and help Harry up, remembering that celebrating a successful dark arts spell against his antecedent enemy wouldn't be the best plan, but Ron had already seen.

"I saw that look on your face!" he shouted, rapidly turning the colour of burnt beetroot. Fury forced his voice to become louder and louder. "You never stopped hating Harry. I don't trust you. I'll never trust you."
Hermione interrupted, a flushed look on her pale face. "Ronald, he was under the influence of Veritaserum, he couldn't lie! He isn't using sophistry."

"You're intelligent Hermione, surely you know that You-Know-Who is one on the greatest masters of occulemency ever to have lived. If he gets inside Malfoy's mind he'll find out all of Harry's secrets and plans!"

"Who said I'm telling Malfoy all my secrets and plans?" Harry said defensively.

"If he's helping out with the D.A he's going to know a lot. We need something in return."

"He's helping out with the D.A and passing on information to us." Luna interrupted, feeling some responsibility for Draco being the one to bring him to Harry in the first place. Meanwhile Draco was beginning to feel more and more awkward standing in the middle of the storm of people shouting vehemently about him.
"It was meant to be just you and Luna I was teaching to, if I remember correctly." He muttered. Harry looked like he was about to say something in response but Ron shouted, "Shut up Malfoy. Helping out with the D.A isn't enough. If Voldemort looks inside his mind and sees him helping out with a few Dark Arts spells it can be easily explained, but if it's something directly against him we know Draco's really on our side. We need to know he's risking something as well. Come on Harry, you're the one who's convinced Malfoy's a death eater." Harry gave Ron a piercing look which suggested he didn't want this information out in the open.

Draco began to get the same churning feeling in his stomach, as if someone was viciously stirring a thick mixture inside it, as he had had during the eventful Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson a couple of months before.

"He's right Harry." Hermione said reluctantly. "I know how much you want to trust people but we need to know we're putting out trust in the right people." Ron looked at Hermione graciously, his gaze lingering a little too long.
"They are right Draco. What can you do so we can trust you?" Harry said quietly. Draco had an idea but the words 'death eater' had, ironically, put some kind of spell on him. He was in a daze and felt like was going to retch or faint.

Luna seemed to sense something was wrong; she put a supportive hand on his shaking arm. As she looked up at him he felt for a moment, okay, although that didn't last very long. He brought his fingers down to his stomach, his fingernails digging into his skin in an attempt to ease the sickening pain within. However he felt more like the carcass of a lion's prey, with the predator digging its claws into his sensitive skin.

He ran from the room, hearing the shouts of Harry, Ron and Hermione calling after him, but he couldn't hear what they were saying. There were only two words he could hear in his head, licking at the edges of his mind, banging against the walls of his skull. Death eater. He found himself running towards Myrtle's bathroom, hoping no-one would find him there. "Back again so soon? I like having you here; it makes me feel less depressed about my own life." Myrtle said. Draco turned around and vomited into one of the porcelain sinks, which had cracks snaking all over it like diseased veins. One of the rusty gold taps which had been charmed to look like a moving mermaid flinched backward, but of course was fixated to the sink so could only shake her metal head, which had once gleamed, in disgust.

Soft footsteps padded into the room like a cat, but Draco didn't hear. He had pulled up his sleeve to reveal an inky black tattoo on his forearm which was writhing around and hissing menacingly. Draco aimed a number of spells at it until his arm was raw and throbbing, a beacon of vermillion. "In here again? The wrackspurts are really getting to you aren't they? I'll ask my dad to put an article about how to get rid of them in next month's issue of The Quibbler." Luna said placidly. Draco hurriedly pulled down his sleeve to cover the dark mark and said, "I think my problem's a little worse than wrackspurts."
"Nargles perhaps?" Luna queried.

"Luna I appreciate you coming to find me, but leave me alone please."
"Are you going to start crying again."
Draco laughed. "I think I'm past the crying stage."
"That's good. Would you like me to leave?"
"Please."
Luna nodded and ambled from the room.

A figure outside the bathroom frowned threateningly, her brown eyes narrowing as if her eyelids were being pulled together by magnets. As Luna skipped through the doorway, the girl stepped out of her cloak of shadows and grabbed her shoulder with a strong grasp similar to that of a hawk clutching a frail dormouse. "Keep your blood traitor hands off my boyfriend, Loony." Pansy hissed, before throwing her to the ground. Luna watched Pansy with an inquisitive gaze as the older girl strutted into the bathroom, a triumphant expression paralysed to her pug-like face.

Draco looked up to see a confident figure stride purposefully into the room. He rolled his eyes when he saw it was Pansy. "Oh Draco!" She exclaimed dramatically, wrapping her arms around him protectively. When she'd strutted in her face had been marked with not only triumphance but also a drop of ire. However, when she spoke it was with no asperity. "Are you okay baby?" She squeaked, kissing him wetly on the cheek. Baby? Draco thought disgustedly, wiping the saliva from his pallid cheek. Why had he agreed to this relationship with Pansy again? Keeping up appearances, that's it.

"Just a bit stressed about the task the dark lord has set me. All I want to do is please him of course." Draco muttered, his own words sickening him. He felt like he was going throw up again. Pansy was saying something but he couldn't be bothered to listen.

"By the way. Why are you in the girls' bathroom?" Pansy asked, her thin eyebrows raised. Draco held up a finger to signal 'one minute' and ran into one of the toilet cubicle to be sick.

Harry, Ron and Hermione sat down at the Gryffindor table, hungry and sweating after a testing D.A meeting where they had taught the other members how to defend themselves from the imperius curse. Hedwig flew across the table; her snowy white wings open in graceful flight, and dropped a letter down in front of Harry. It read:

Always remember to take your wand out with you, a crabbe bit me once. And avoid the gar goyle. You're wizards so train because magic is hard. If you'd like come along on the fourth to prepare for December. There will be more instructions to follow, details can be found later.

Draco

They read the letter four times but it still made no sense. "And it's full of basic spelling errors! Crabbe only has one 'b' and no 'e', and gargoyle is not two words!" Hermione exclaimed. They all turned around to look at Draco who was laughing at something Blaise Zabini had just said, and wasn't providing any help to them at all. Suddenly Errol, the Weasley's decrepit old owl burst through the air towards Ron, before dropping into his glass of water. "Bloody wonderful." Ron muttered, plucking a letter similar to Harry's from Errol's crusty beak. All it said was:

Every fourth word.

"There are only three words in the bloody letter!" Ron blurted.

"I guess it means the other letter, Ron." Harry said, unfolding the mysterious parchment.

Once they had deciphered the strange message it said:

Take out Crabbe and Goyle, train hard. Come fourth December. More details later.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Harry moaned.
"It's Draco's way of proving himself to us! On the fourth of December we get rid of Crabbe and Goyle."
"I don't think this is a very good way of proving himself to us. I mean come on, Crabbe and Goyle are the stupidest students in the entire school! We don't exactly have to train hard; we just need some potion infused cakes like in second year." Ron muttered.

"Unless he means their dads. If they're death eaters who are pretty close to Voldemort that must mean they're pretty decent wizards. Draco's going to take out two death eaters alongside us, which he'll never be able to explain to Voldemort!" Harry said.

"I guess that'll work." Hermione said, but she looked impressed.
" But the fourth of December is in a week and Draco isn't training with us for another five days!" Ron said.

"That's why he wants us to train, so even though we're not entirely sure of the plan, we'll be ready to fight." Harry murmured.