Chapter Sixteen

"The one time in your life you don't want to confront someone is the one time I'm advising you to. Are you kidding me?"

"Hermione, it's not like any of this information actually affects us. Harry's being smart."

"So...what? You're just going to sit around until this becomes an actual problem?"

"How can it become a problem?"

"What if they're scoping us out? What if they want to attack us? What if-"

Ron held his hands up placatingly. "Okay, okay, I get it, you win. Could be a potential problem. You're right, as always."

Hermione nodded victoriously. "Good. Now all we have to do is convince Harry."

"You know," Harry said. "Even if you're wrong and this turns out to be harmless, I do want to know more about that cult-thing. It sounds quite interesting."

"Don't agree with her if you're gonna say that!" Ron groaned. "There are going to be spiders involved. So many spiders. And potions and dungeons." He shivered. "If Snape turns up I promise I will climb into a hole and never speak to anyone ever again."

"And wouldn't that just be doing the world a favour," drawled an elegant voice from behind where the three of them sat alone in the Great Hall.

"What do you want Malfoy?" Snapped Harry without turning around. "Because you can bugger off."

The blonde took a deep breath. "Listen, Potter. I just want to apologise."

That drew Harry's attention, and Ron's disbelief.

"Apologise, Malfoy?" Ron asked, face slowly going red. "Why the hell would you of all people do that."

Malfoy's face twitched. "Not all of us are so uncivilised as to think that people don't change."

Malfoy took up the seat next to Harry, across from Ron and Hermione, slightly awkwardly and with caution, as if the three of them could lash out at him at any time.

"What would a Death Eater possibly want to change for?" Ron sneered.

Malfoy bit his lip. "Okay. I'm not gonna pretend like I haven't done some pretty horrible things in the past, and that something other than your and Professor McGonagall's statements at my trial saved me from going to Azkaban for life like my father."

Harry winced. He had stood up for Malfoy at the trial, but hadn't stayed long enough to see more than his astonished expression before leaving and not speaking more than a few words in the corridors. So it was a bit tense.

"-And if I'm honest, I am really, really thankful for that."

"You're welcome," replied Harry, surprised.

"But I've got to tell you to stop investigating Professor Jackson and his friends."

Harry tensed up immediately. "How do you know about that?"

Malfoy smiled a shattered smile masked by a sneer. "I lived with the Dark Lord in my home for more than a year. I know what it looks like to be hiding something. And I know what being curious looks like. Although in my experience it's mostly greed for power."

"How do you know him?" Hermione asked. "The professor, not Voldemort."

"Muggleborn," Malfoy carelessly said, but Harry - and he was sure Hermione also - could see how he'd completely tensed up and his hands were clenching and unclenching.

"Oi!" Ron exclaimed. "Don't speak to her like that!"

Hermione calmly placed a hand on his arm to calm him down. "Answer the question, Malfoy,"

Malfoy glanced around nervously. "Listen, I will get in loads of trouble for this, and the Roman punishments are not nice, but look."

He slowly held out his left arm and pulled up the sleeve. Ron and Hermione almost imperceptibly flinched back as the ugly mess of the Dark Mark was revealed seared onto Malfoy's skin, and Harry and to work hard not to move away.

"It's just your Dark Mark," Harry said, trying to keep his voice even and not sound disgusted.

Malfoy took a breath. "No, it's actually not a Dark Mark."

He held his hand over the tattoo and it writhed for a second, before fading away and twisting into a new shape. SPQR and a sent of scales with one line underneath. Curiously though, there was still a snake, but rather than inside a skull, it was twining it's way around Malfoy's wrist, it's tail in it's mouth and lit by two crossed flaming torches.

"What?" Hermione said. "That SPQR tattoo is the same one Percy has, except with an owl."

"Mate," Ron said, disgust leaking into his voice. "Why would you make it look like you still have the Dark Mark when you don't?"

"I do still have the Mark," Malfoy said coldly, tucking his arm back into his shirtsleeve. "It's just altered."

"Explain," Hermione ordered.

Malfoy smiled slightly. "Well, over the summer, I went the US, to my old summer camp. I'd been about to get the SPQR tattoo a few years ago, but had to return early because of...reasons."

Harry sympathised. That must have been the sixth year, when he had been forced to allow the Death Eaters into Hogwarts and kill Dumbledore. Thank Merlin that hadn't worked out.

"Except, this is a curse mark, and it drove away anyone who came near. Within a week I was ready to quit. I almost tried some...drastic measures to get rid of it. Luckily, Percy was there and he stopped me. He put me in touch with Hazel who had just returned from a... travelling, and she put me in touch with someone who could help."

"What's your point, ferret-face?" Ron asked, though his tough exterior seemed to have cracked somewhat.

"My point is," Draco said. "These are good people. Give them a chance. Stop asking about them. The more you ask, the less it'll make sense."

Draco - and sweet Merlin, when had Harry stopped referring to him as Malfoy and started to call him Draco? - got up and walked out of the Great Hall, casting only one look back over his shoulder.

"You know how vague that story was, right?" Hermione said. "He never said who removed his mark, and actually said he still had it, so why was the SPQR glamoured to look like it?"

"Okay, perhaps I wasn't motivated before," Harry said. "But if I wasn't then, I definitely am now."

"Slimy git," Ron muttered. "Y'know he never actually apologised to me. And he called Hermione a muggleborn."

"At least it wasn't mudblood," Hermione said. "And I don't think he really meant it anyway."

Harry creased his eyebrows. "He seems really...mellowed out. What do you think happened to him over the summer?"

"Other than evidently having his father thrown in Azkaban, his tattoo seared off by probably some more than painful means and replaced with a new one? Gee I don't know?"

Harry smiled. "Hermione, I never thought you would become a speaker of the obvious."

And the two boys laughed as she spluttered in outrage.

—

Draco left the Great Hall cautiously, glancing around as if someone would jump from the walls and attack him.

With good reason, because just as the door banged shut behind him, someone did jump - seemingly - out of the wall behind him and slammed him against the opposite wall in front, his arm pinned behind his back.

"What did you tell them?"

Draco let out a sigh of relief. It was only Hazel. "I didn't tell them anything. I promise."

"Really? Then why were you showing them your arm?"

Draco groaned again. "I was showing them how I'd got rid of my Dark Mark and also told them to stop investigating you guys."

"You were telling them you got rid of it?"

Draco sighed. "You know I never wanted the Dark Mark, Hazel. I never really wanted to serve the Dark Lord or let them into Hogwarts or anything. I was just telling them I got rid of it at the first opportunity I got so that they could see I've changed."

"Can I see it?"

Draco shrugged awkwardly, surprised. "Sure, but you've seen it before."

"May I see it again."

Draco shifted uncomfortably. "Can you let me go first? You've never been one for being this rough, and besides you know I can't run from you anyway."

There was no reply as the sleeve of his robe was rolled back and and cold fingers skittered over the two tattoos, tracing the letters of SPQR and then the snake wrapped around his wrist.

"Hazel? Draco called, unsure now. "Are you okay?"

"I am not your Hazel."

"What- oomph!" All the breath was slammed out of his lungs as he was spun around and slammed back against the wall. His vision went blurry, and he collapsed onto the ground.

"Hello godling," Hazel's voice said again.

Draco shook his head again, trying to get rid of the mugginess.

"I am not your Hazel," the not-Hazel standing over him hissed. From behind her a creature came out, padding on all fours.

"I am not Hazel either," it said in Hazel's voice. "I could be though." The voice changed to Lucius Malfoy. "And you're such a disappointment. Couldn't be loyal, couldn't impress me, just a spoiled brat."

Draco shot to his feet, reaching for his wand in his pocket.

"Don't reach for your wand," the not-Hazel said. "Don't move."

Draco froze, horrified. "Who the hell are you?"

"Don't speak," not-Hazel said.

"Don't speak," the dog parroted in Dumbledore's voice.

Draco didn't speak, heart racing, going over all the possible outcomes of this encounter; none of which ended well.

The woman-who-was-not-Hazel ran her fingers over the snake around Draco's wrist. "Such a beautiful curse," she whispered, before reverting back to a commanding voice. "Walk out through the Great Hall to the Hogwarts grounds. Go straight to the Forbidden Forest until you find the camp. Tell no-one where you're going."

Draco didn't answer, but started to move, stiffly and robotically, out the door he just came through.

Potter's head turned as he walked back through the Great Hall. "What are you doing Malfoy?" He asked. "Where are you going?"

Draco didn't stop. He couldn't stop. All he do was turn his head to the side. "Hecate's Curse," he said simply, desperately hoping that at least Granger would figure it out, or at least figure out enough to tell one of the demigods- but before he could elaborate, he snapped his head back to the task at had and walked straight out the double doors to the Forbidden Forest.

"Well that was rude," Ron said. "He didn't even slow down."

"Really?" Harry asked. "For Malfoy that's heavenly."

"What's Hecate's Curse?" Ron asked.

"Hecate was the goddess of magic in Greco-Roman mythology, but I don't know what the curse is," Hermione said. "Have you finished lunch? Let's go to the library."

"Holidays," was the only thing Harry said. "Please can we leave this until after Christmas? It's Christmas Eve! Just one more day won't hurt anybody."

Hermione faintly protested, but Harry could see she was just as tired of all this research as they two were. It didn't take much to convince her to relax.

—

Christmas morning dawned bright and early as Ron woke with great cheer at about five. In true childlike spirit, he jumped onto Harry's bed and gave him the 'wake-up-it's-Christmas-morning,-no-would-be-conquerors-to-hide-from-this-year-and-you-better-get-your-face-out-of-that-pillow-before-I-tip-cold-water-on-it' speech.

"Where's Neville?" Harry asked.

"Must've gone down to breakfast early," Ron replied. The two of them hopped out of bed and gave the same speech to Hermione via Patronus and told her to meet in the Gryffindor common room to exchange presents.

Hermione gave Ron a book about spiders with actual spiders that came out of the pages disguised as a book about butterflies (and after she had finished laughing showed him his real present - a snow globe with a tiny version of the Burrow inside and being snowed on.

"It'll change with the seasons," Hermione said. "And it will always show what the Burrow looks like at the present moment. I charmed it myself."

Ron hugged her. "Thanks 'Mione!"

Hermione smiled happily and handed over Harry's present to him. Harry unwrapped it eagerly. It was a small, dull and dented snitch.

"Okay, so you give me a snow globe you charmed yourself and you give Harry a used snitch?" Ron said. "I think you're playing favourites here."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "It's not just any snitch. That is the very first snitch you trained with Harry."

Harry's eyes popped. "What? No way! How did you get this?"

She shrugged. "It was easier than you'd think. All I had to do was find the exact time you were training with Oliver Wood and merge the results with tracking charms so I could locate the snitch. At first all I found were a load of golf balls, but then I realised that this snitch must've been used since then so I also had to add-"

She was interrupted by a hug. "Thank you so much Hermione," Harry said. "This means a lot to me."

She blushed slightly. "You're welcome."

"Here," Harry offered out a rectangular package, which she opened quickly.

"The Complete Guide and History of Indian Wizarding Culture. Oh Merlin! Thank you so much Harry!"

Ron held out his present sheepishly. "Here," he said. "I got you the complete works and biography of Agatha Christie. Since you liked mysteries so much!"

Hermione laughed. "You'll have to put up with me reading a lot over the next few months."

"Months?" Harry asked. "I'd have thought this would only have take you weeks."

"Weeks? Days," Ron disagreed. "At most."

Hermione smiled. "I think you're greatly overestimating my abilities."

"We would never dare!" Harry said. "Come on, let's go see what the house elves prepared for breakfast!"

They happily walked down to the Great Hall, stopping to wrap tinsel around the neck of a suit of armour along the way and laugh as it tried to figure out firstly what it was, and secondly how to get it off.

All in all, they arrived to the doors to the Great Hall in a joyous mood. Ron ran to the double doors and threw his shoulder against it, expecting it to swing merrily open and snowflakes to fall all around him.

All that happened was that he got a sore shoulder.

"OW! Wha—?"

Hermione ran a quick diagnostic charm on the door. "It's locked."

"No shit, Sherlock," Ron said, clutching his injured shoulder.

Hermione rolled her eyes and cast a healing charm, then raised her wand to the door. "Alohomora!"

Something inside the door clicked and it cracked open a fraction. People were shouting and... crying? Yes, that was definitely crying.

"Leo, get here with those!" Will was shouting from inside the crowd.

"Stay awake, stay awake," Piper was saying forcefully.

Will let out a growl of frustration. "Clara help me with the healing!"

"I'm primarily an archer not a healer!" A high-pitched tired sounding female voice shouted back. "And I've already used up too much power. Any more and you'll have to heal me too!"

"Ahhh! It's been too long! Why didn't you come back to the castle immediately!?"

"We couldn't, there were patrols all around!" Another of the girls said. "We gave her nectar and ambrosia and Clara did everything she could and it's lasted her this long."

"But only just," Will said grimly. "After five hours she should be dead, but because of the healing it looks like she was stung twenty minutes ago."

"That's good, right?"

"NO! By all rights she should be dead but she's nothing if not stubborn. Percy! Wet cloths! Hazel, try your spell again and for gods' sakes get those three away from the door!"

The three of them stumbled backwards as a huntress glided towards them and slammed the door in their face. It opened again quickly to reveal Leo.

"Sorry guys, Hall's out of action," he said. "House elves have laid your breakfast in History classroom 4A, all remaining students are to go there, no exceptions, and stay there until one of the teachers comes to get you. DO NOT follow a teacher unless they prove it is really them. Neville has a register, he's in charge."

Leo's head popped back inside and the door shut again.

"Ok, what?"

Harry thought that was appropriate.

—

And another chapter, whuh-hey! And no, I don't know what that means either.

Anyway, the muse has finally come to me, I have finally got off my lazy arse and done some writing (ironically while sitting on my lazy arse), and I have already started writing the next chapter! Thinking of a flashback scene involving Draco...who knows?

Please, please, please give me some feedback (even though I know that no-one reads these author's notes (I certainly don't) and leave a comment with a cookie at the end if you have read this), I love when I have people who are knowledgeable enough to correct my mistakes start reviewing (it makes me all tingly inside!)

ALSO I NEED A PAIRING FOR HARRY! WHO IS IT? I mean, Ginny has barely been in the story, it can't be Ron or Hermione because they have been flirting this entire fanfic, it can't be a Percy Jackson demigod because I like their canon ships, I dislike the Snape/Harry ship, I can't disrespect Linny by shipping Luna with someone else, I thought Neville or McGonagall...but I am not going there (even if they're both pretty hot), and if I start with Drarry I am going to get WAAAY to emotionally invested...

WHAT SHOULD I DO!?

Anyway, enjoy Halloween in two days (two days where I am now...not sure about how long away it is for you...). Star, out!