A/N - The last chapter I originally wrote, after this I'll be writing them as I go. I'm already half way through the next chapter. I hope you enjoy the bit of drama that's coming.
Disclaimer - The themes and most characters belong to my queen, JK Rowling, author of the true Harry Potter books.
Harry had seen a flash of blonde and dived into an alcove.
He'd avoided Malfoy for a week now, of course that meant he'd avoided Malfoy seeing him. He'd been seeing plenty of the blonde from afar.
The perfect hide out had been the eighth year quarters. The rooms were a new extension to Hogwarts. A circular junction in the old astronomy tower. It was Harry's delight to learn that the new astronomy tower was even taller and situated above a wing closer to the forest.
There he and Hermione meandered on about nonsense. She never pestered him about anything serious and she was a great contributor to the game schedules Harry had neglected.
He was scared of Malfoy, mainly because the Slytherin in him had run out and he hadn't a clue how to seduce him, or whether he still wanted to seduce him. Draco had said the potion would wear off and the feelings would go. Harry's mind rushed over what they'd done in Draco's office, jolting a little he confirmed that he definitely still wanted to seduce Malfoy, emotionally and physically.
Malfoy was walking past the alcove and Harry smoothly stepped in front of him. Of course he wasn't facing the blonde, he acted as if he didn't know he was there and walked in the same direction as if nothing was the matter.
To Harry's absolute delight the footsteps behind him faltered a little.
"Potter! Do you mind hurrying up?"
"Forcing me to acknowledge you Malfoy? Your tactics are a little cliché."
"Don't flatter yourself."
"Heading to the dungeons?"
"Stupid question. Of course I am."
"Then I assume you wanted to take those stairs."
Harry stopped, turning around to point at the stairs that lead directly to the dungeons.
Draco pinked, glaring at the wizard who continued to best him.
"Where were you going then?" He spat.
"No where, I just wanted you to follow me."
At this remark Draco became genuinely angry and leant in, not in a nice way.
"Look, you think you can get what ever you want, well not this time Potter, I am a Malfoy and way out of your league."
A few seconds of being taken aback was all Harry needed to become serious.
"Do you honestly think anything I've gone through is what I wanted?"
"Please you can't say you're not happy."
"I'm fresh out of bloody Mungo's in McGonagall's care Malfoy. I can tell you I'm far from happy. What do you think makes me happy? My friends who are dead? The ones still here that I get to see dosed up on potions? Denis Creevey who I had to show how to use the memorial pensieve this morning because he wanted to add memories of his dead brother? Any of that? I suppose you'll say my Gringotts vault, well sod it, it can go to charity or something I don't want a Knut of it."
Draco looked a little pained.
"My friends are dead too." He stated, looking like he immediately regretted it.
"Are you saying I wanted that?" Harry whispered back.
Malfoy shook his head.
"But he fell and I didn't. If you'd just tried harder…"
Harry blinked, was he talking about Crabbe.
"Try and remember him before then, I know what he said to you wasn't nice."
"Shut the fuck up, you have no idea Potter."
"Oh come off it Draco, you know if anyone has some idea it's me."
"The Granger and Weasel are alright aren't they?"
"They're just the Weasels now and it's not like they were my only friends. You don't understand but I had responsibility over everyone who died that night, and beforehand. All the family I've ever known Draco, you still have your parents don't you?"
"You can't bring out the orphan card, you barely knew them."
"Yes you're right, I barely knew my parents. I should be grateful. Sarcasm aside I lost my Godfather. I lost Remus and Tonks, Dumbledore. Fred Weasley who was like a brother to me, and a business partner. Look you just don't know the extent of it."
Harry looked at Draco's saddened face.
"I was with Snape at the end you know?"
"He wouldn't have wanted that." Draco said frowning.
"He planned it actually, he was in love with my mother."
"The mudblood?"
"You really have to stop that."
"Stop what?"
"Using that word." Harry shuddered, he'd recently seen Hermione's arm and it turned out she'd decided to keep the scar, Harry didn't actually know why but seeing the word etched into her like that resurfaced the seriousness behind it.
"You're mother was a muggle-born I just don't see my godfather…"
"Want the Pensieve memory?"
Harry didn't need to retrieve Snape's memories from wherever they were kept now; he put his wand to his head and pulled out his own. An enigma, a Pensieve memory inside a Pensieve memory.
"Here, I don't want it anymore anyway."
Draco looked as if he would argue but then changed his mind.
"Thank you." He said, taking the silver wisp with his own wand.
A look overcame Harry's face, an electric look that meant nothing good to Draco.
"What?" The blonde asked suspiciously.
"Nothing, I've just got an idea, I have to go and see McGonagall."
And with that he was off.
"You want to invite who into the school?"
"The families of death eaters, so they can add their memories to the memorial…"
"I think not."
"Please, they won't come unless you invite them, we need to dissolve the lines now Minerva."
"I thought I told you not to call me that!"
"I'm sorry. At least you should invite Crabbe's family, Collin had Denis to put in memories for him, but who does Crabbe have?"
McGonagall looked alarmed.
"Didn't the boy try to kill you?"
"If I held grudges against everyone who's tried to kill me I'd just be keeping the Wizarding world divided. You should invite the Diggorys too and the Burbages, the Browns, the Sanguinas"
"I'm not sure if Professor Sanguina had any family."
"Well if she did, invite them."
"And when will we arrange this event?"
"We won't make an event of it, we'll just request the students to wear black and be quiet and respectful as the families pay their respects."
"Well I'm not opposed to the idea, organize it all and I won't stop you."
Harry grinned, leaving the room.
"Oh and Potter."
Harry paused.
"Don't you dare let me hear of Mrs. Weasley doing the work."
Harry had a confused moment where he thought of asking Molly to quill the letters, then he realized the headmistress meant Hermione.
He grinned and headed off, Hermione could check his notes for the first Honeybees v Badgers (The team of various Hufflepuff houses), he had letters to write and owl out and he had no misconceptions on how delicate the wording would be, he was sure he'd need to write a personal letter to each family, unable to see how he could send the same words to Crabbe and Lavender's parents.
Hermione reprimanded him as he sat on the floor of the eighth year common room, surrounded by parchment.
"I can't keep doing your job for you Harry!" She stated.
"You're not, I've already done all the work, it's just you've helped me out so much I wanted you to check it."
Hermione sighed.
"Okay but only because I've already finished all my charms home work."
Harry had no idea who to write to in regards to most of the battle of Hogwarts' casualties. Lavender Brown's parents were an obvious choice, and he'd found out she also had an older brother who'd graduated Hogwarts. Crabbe's father was in Azkaban but his mother wasn't, she was in Norway with her cousin. The only living relative of Charity Burbage was her elderly Grandmother who resided at the Salem Witch asylum. Professor Sanguina had left a husband behind and three brothers, and Diggory's parents were another obvious choice.
"How did you get all of their family's details?" Hermione asked leaning over Harry's shoulder.
"I had a little help." Harry told her, re-arranging some of the parchment.
"Elaborate please." She demanded, adding some furious scribbles to Harry's notes.
"I went into the library because there's a section now on the war, I told Madam Prince what I was after and well, she obliged."
"She had all this on file?" Hermione asked, raising an eyebrow.
"If listed in a book locked in her desk is 'on file' then yes."
"Creepy." The witch commented, adding even more scribbles.
Harry decided to arrange it for Sunday, If they put the first Quidditch matches on Friday after classes then the second junior and senior match on Saturday then Sunday could be used for mourning, as long as McGonagall agreed to cancel Hogsmeade. They'd need to somehow light the Quidditch pitch but that shouldn't be too much of a problem, there was bound to be a spell, probably lumos maxima or something similar.
He was still having difficulty wording the letter, he'd begun with Lavender's parents and keeping it remarkably short had finished it, Diggory's were a bit more complicated, he hadn't died in the battle, no, but he was a casualty of war, his name was on the stone.
The door burst open to the common room as Harry was giving up to write to the elderly Mrs. Burbage.
"HARRY!" And eighth year stood panting in the door frame, looking around frantically, she was a Ravenclaw as nearly all the eighth years except Hermione were.
"Morag, whatever's the matter?" Hermione asked the girl, getting to her feet.
The other Ravenclaws in the room, Terry Boot, Su Li, Padma Patil and Michael Corner rushed over too, from their various reading corners.
"Morag, Morag calm down, you need to tell us what's the matter."
"Harry's right here, do you need to speak with him?"
Someone shoved Harry toward the young witch on the brink of hysterics.
"Draco Malfoy's dying!" She told him, tears streaming down her face.
"He collapsed in the staff rooms! I was th-there t-t-trying to ask professor a question when I heard the noise, I saw him, he'd gone into convulsions, they need to take him to Mungo's but he's resistant to magic!"
Harry's stomach had long since dropped away leaving him with a giant cavity.
"Is he still there?"
"Y-y-yes, I told McGonagall I knew where you were and she said to come and get you immediately."
Morag burst into wailing at this point.
"Oh it's so dreadful Harry, he was bleeding, I'm sure he's dead now!"
Morag's wails stopped as Harry knocked her over by pushing past her. The wizard was off up the stairs, his office was nearby, only up one flight and he'd be in the staff lounge in seconds.
Harry yanked open his door, simultaneously bellowing "Pegasus!"
Inside he spun around to face the door again, this time opening it to the commotion that was the teacher's lounge. He'd become angry that the professors had sent a student for him instead of coming themselves, which would have been quicker. However now he saw it was a joint effort of every professor available to try to keep the blonde sedated.
"Stand aside!" Pomfrey bellowed.
Harry ignored his onlookers as he rushed to Draco and took hold of his stiff body.
"Bleeding hell Malfoy, you have to wake up now and tell us who did this to you." Harry yelled at him. "I'm going to kill them." He added determinedly.
Malfoy continued to convulse, his eyes flickering and rolling backward.
"Wake up, please wake up, you can't give into this, Malfoy's don't submit to anyone's will."
The body slackened and for a heart wrenching moment Harry wondered if Draco had died as the Ravenclaw witch had predicted. Looking now, Harry saw Draco was bleeding, his face was badly burnt along the side and down the neck, slashes crossed his body, only half healed, Harry realized, with unsteady Episkey.
Quickly Harry cast Anapneo, making sure the blonde could breath, seeing he had vomited not too far away.
Then he cast Ferula, the summoned bandage and splint wrapped expertly around Draco's crooked arm.
As he cask Episkey along the cuts that were still open and Tergeo to clean up the blood, Pomfrey came over to him.
"I really should be doing that."
"Quiet witch!"
No one was more shocked than Harry to hear the wizard in his arms talk.
The Episkey wasn't working, the wounds just re-opened immediately, spilling more blood. Looking at Draco's pale face, horrible memories resurfaced in Harry's mind, he knew this spell.
"Vulnera Sanentur, Vulnera Sanentur, Vulnera Sanentur." He kept his wand close to Malfoy's skin, casting the spell with all his efforts.
Harry almost began to cry as the skin knitted back together.
"Who in Morgana's name did this to you?" He demanded, drawing the blonde closer.
"It wasn't you?" Came the half-mocking reply.
"Don't joke about this!"
"Mr. Potter if you could let go of him, he needs to be taken to Mungo's"
Harry glared at the medi-witch. Standing he picked Draco up.
"I'll take him myself." He declared.
"Potter, put me down at once!" Draco demanded weakly.
"No, I'm taking you to Mungo's and I'll be damned if they don't treat you."
He marched Draco to the nearest door.
"Could someone open this?"
Professor Flitwick obliged and Harry stepped through it, immediately spotting a fireplace.
"Does it go to Mungo's?" Harry asked the dwarf.
"Do I look like a moron to you?" Flitwick asked, grabbing some Floo powder and throwing it in. Harry stepped the two of them into the green flames, seeing the rest of the staff standing at Flitwick's door, looking in.
"St Mungo's, fourth floor!" Harry demanded and the fire whipped him and Draco away up the chimney.
Harry stumbled into the halls of healers and patients, he was aware now that Draco had fainted.
A medi-wizard gasped as Harry approached him.
"I demand to see a healer now!"
He ground out.
"You're Harry Potter."
"NOW!"
The green-robed wizard shot off and Harry followed him until they came to a healer.
"Healer Dawn!"
The witch turned around.
"This wizard needs help."
The witch looked at Draco.
"I know of this wizard, we don't help his kind, even if he is brought in by Harry Potter." The witch proclaimed.
"Oh I'm joking." She said toward Harry's scandalized look and the crackling of angered magic in the air.
"He'll be alright by the looks of him, I'm not aware of the spell that slashed him but it looks as if you countered it, we'll put him on a blood-replenishing potion and some essence of Dittany. NOW JEFFREY!"
The Medi-wizard headed off with a squeak.
"Quickly, let's get him on a bed."
"When I got to him he was going into spellshock."
Harry informed her helpfully.
"That's more serious than I thought, Harry." She shut the curtain.
The healer released a memo from her pocket and sent it to Everglade, and then she cast Impurturate.
"Harry, lift his sleeve."
Harry did and gasped. Blacker and clearer than ever before was the dark mark, branding Draco's white skin.
"He's back." Harry whispered, feeling for where his wand was.
'You think so?" The witch asked alarmed.
Harry thought again. No, he couldn't feel Voldemort's presence, but how else would the tattoo have reappeared?
"Who did this to him then?"
"You haven't heard?" The healer smiled as the medi-wizard reappeared and she begun to apply the Dittany.
"Give him this."
She passed the potion to Harry.
"It's been kept out of the prophet but if you read Lumos then you'll know all about it, this is the seventh attack like this we've seen on purebloods and ex-death eaters, your friend here's one of the lucky ones."
"This was organized?" Harry demanded to know, tipping Draco's potion a little too quickly down the blonde's throat, making him splutter. The healer took over.
"Yes." She stood up straight. "And our supervisors and some of our investors aren't to...supportive of us treating the casualties. It's well known that Narcissa was turned away. You'll have to take him back to the school with you. Giving him a bed will mean my job."
Everglade came through the curtain and looked over the scene sadly.
"What's going on?" Harry asked him. "How could this be organized? He was in school."
"There is indeed an organized group, they're calling themselves the Mudblood Army." Dante confirmed, not really answering Harry's questions.
Fury seemed to ignite within Harry, so they weren't letting the war end?
"So why attack Draco?"
Everglade shook his head.
"No you misunderstand, the Mudblood Army is attacking purebloods and ex-death eaters."
Harry's stomach twisted, but that was so wrong, and calling themselves that. The scar on Hermione's arm resurfaced in his mind.
"Will he be okay?" He looked back at Draco.
"You can take him back to the school now."
Draco was awake and looking off into space, there was an expression on his face Harry didn't know what to make of.
"Come on." He prompted, pulling Draco off the bed. They made it to the fireplace, this time they Flood in the correct method, one at a time, Draco going first and then Harry.
Getting back to the staff room Pomfrey immediately took over, whisking Draco out of sight, McGonagall approached Harry.
"That was a wonderfully brave thing you did Harry, Malfoy owes you his life."
"He doesn't owe me anything, if you'll excuse me I'll get back to the letters."
Harry found Hermione where he'd left her, she obviously wanted to know what had happened but he had questions of his own.
"Hermione, have you heard of a new group."
His friend pulled a face.
"You mean the Mudblood Army?"
Harry nodded uncomfortably.
"Well nothing's been written about it in the Prophet. The ministry think it's pureblood propaganda to spike another anti-muggleborn movement, since we're so fresh from the war and purists are still at large."
The witch sighed.
"But it's all over Lumos, they print an article every other week. The magazine's quite popular, not being controlled by the ministry you know? No one trusts them anymore, not even with Kingsley."
"What about your department?" Harry asked. He was rather deflated over attitude toward the ministry; he'd been hoping that under the Auror's leadership magical Britain would automatically become a better place.
Hermione grinned bashfully.
"Well it isn't my department yet…maybe one day, I don't know, you'll have to read about the MA yourself, they don't seem very big, just some rebels going too far in the wake of the war, if anything they're just prolonging all the hurt and violence."
"I hope they don't take things further." Harry commented. Hermione nodded solemnly, they both knew what it would mean for her and other muggleborns if they were brought back into the spotlight so soon.
Harry picked up one of his pieces of parchment to find it oddly not-blank.
"Hermione did you write this?"
The witch shrugged.
"You left me here with nothing to do. You spelled memorial wrong anyway, you forgot the 'i'. At least now you have time to subscribe to Lumos."
Harry nodded, skimming the letters over. She'd done a brilliant job, better than he would have done.
"I think I should re-subscribe to the Prophet too then."
"Well then do the Quibbler as well, it's become popular with Luna's new editor."
"Luna's editor?"
"She owns the magazine now, Xenophilius has retired to Sweden."
"Oh that makes sense." Harry replied with a smile.
"It does?"
"Yeah, that's where the crumple-horned Snorlack is." He told her, Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Allegedly. Well after you send off what will have to be a flock of owls, you need to fix up your game schedules for this weekend, you've made a few errors."
"And I have to see Draco." Harry added, mostly to himself.
"Oh it's Draco now is it? And he's back at the school? I thought he was dying?"
Harry nodded darkly.
"He was, that's why I was asking you about this "M.A" some one or ones attacked him and left him for dead."
"In the school?"
Harry wrinkled his brow, he didn't suppose the attack could have happened in the school, it was very possible it happened outside the grounds and Draco had just managed to get to the staff lounge before the spellshock took hold. He couldn't tell Hermione about the spellshock, it seemed too private.
On those thoughts Harry remembered he had a firecall with Everglade that night and groaned, he only remembered because he'd had his First years for flying earlier in the day, which now seemed like a lifetime ago. His Tuesday classes were his favorite, Thursday was too quiet and Monday too much trouble. Just yesterday Cepheus and Leo had managed to bring along some Muggle brooms and without them noticing replaced Lucy's and Mathew's brooms, causing the flying enthusiasts to break down as they thought they'd forgotten how to fly.
Cepheus had wasted no breath convincing them his uncle had caught a mysterious affliction known as 'Grounditis' where brooms had refused to respond to him.
Harry had found the real brooms behind the shed; he then proceeded to blast the muggle brooms with Confringo and deducted twenty points from Slytherdor.
His display of rage and intolerance was supposed to get the class to respect him but unfortunately it awarded him a cheer.
Coming into reality Harry excused himself from Hermione's presence. She looked at him as if he was truly deranged and she was struggling to accept that.
Harry returned from Hogsmeade windswept, it was dark now and he had thirty minutes to get to his healer's firecall. That meant less than thirty minutes to see Draco in the hospital wing. That's why he was running and students were staring as Peeves followed him shouting "You can do it POTTY!"
Harry reached the infirmary and slammed the door in the poltergeist's face, if that was possible. Inside it seemed empty, he walked along the length of the room until he came to a curtained off section. Of course, Draco was a professor and was kept separate.
"Draco." Harry whispered through the cloth hangings.
A moan and weak "Go away Potter." Told him he could enter. The blonde wizard looked extremely small, pale and weak. Harry's heart panged.
Suddenly he felt new surges of anger for whoever did this to Draco.
"How did you make it all the way back to the school?" Harry asked, approaching the bed.
"I knew it." Draco croaked. "You did do this to me."
"No, I just know no one would have done this to you on school grounds. Besides I think I know who really did this, well the organization they're a part of."
"There's an organization now?"
Harry nodded; feeling nervous that the blonde didn't remember Mungo's much at all.
"They called themselves the Mudblood Army."
Draco cringed.
"Oh yeah I think I remember it now."
Harry watched as he reached for his left arm. Slowly he pulled it out from under the covers and looked at it.
"Why me?"
"Draco-"
"Just shut up!"
The blonde just lay there, staring at the mark on his skin with absolute hatred.
"The mudblood army huh?" He asked eventually.
"Apparently they're not very big, just a group of rebels."
"Out for revenge." Draco added. "Well they got it. Nothing's much worse for me than this, they should've just killed me and got it over with, behold Potter, my permanent target!"
Draco held his arm up with disdain. Harry caught the wrist and looked deep into the gray eyes.
"You don't show your arms as it is, only those close to you will know it's there."
Draco scoffed. "Don't lie bloody Gryffindor, you know it's disgusting."
To Draco's shock Harry leant over and pressed his lips against the horrid skull.
"We both have our marks." He whispered against the skin, and then he let go.
"They may have their revenge on you but by the time I've had my revenge on them it won't seem worth it."
"You have no right to avenge me Potter." Draco tried to sound cross.
"They'll rot in Azkaban. But not before they have to name the new unforgivable I'll use on them."
"Stop trying to sound Slytherin, it's embarrassing."
"Who's trying, they used Sectumsempra on you, how many know of that spell? You, me, and George Weasley, someone we've spoken to about it must have connections to the MA, they'll lead me to them."
"Leave it to the Auror's Harry."
Harry grinned at the use of his name.
"The Aurors have rules Draco, I don't."
He ran a soothing hand through the blonde hair and left. Draco badly wanted to punch something.
"Oh and by the way, I'm not Gryffindor!" Harry shouted from the door before it clicked shut.
He was a Moon Frog.