Chapter Two:
Morning
A/N: Please read, review and enjoy! Sorry this is a short chapter - and thanks to all my reviewers thus far I love you guys!!
Hard light, take the wings of the winter
Song bird, they were strong hands that held her
Miles above the ground, we can't see you now.
It was an early morning start for the two of them. Once again they had taken shifts sleeping under starlight after they ate the tough meat Harry had caught for them. As they started Southwards, the sun was barely coming up. With their wands at the ready, each with a Dark Detector in their pocket just in case, they walked silently through the brush and the only sound was their breathing and the crackle of dry twigs beneath their feet.
Their game plan had been to make at least a few miles of progress everyday without totally wearing themselves out, always walking Southwards of course as that was the general direction of Hogwarts. At this point they didn't care where they ended up, however, even if it were London it'd be better than lost and alone. They would rest every night somewhere different, always near a source of water. They used simple 'Scourgify' charms on the water and themselves to stay clean and sanitary, both slightly fearing any sorts of disease from the wilderness.
Harry couldn't help but admit to himself that he was rather enjoying the outdoors after being cooped up constantly; Dumbledore had been afraid that people would start accosting Harry and selling him to the Dark Lord. 'Well he did have a point didn't he? Look at what that bastard Nott did...this is all his fault,' Harry snarled at the ground, causing Draco to look over bemusedly at him.
"Can't we just apparate home?" Harry grumbled suddenly.
"Potter even you cannot be that daft. Home is so far away and neither of us is that talented at apparition. We would easily splinch ourselves,"
"Fine. Can't we apparate out of here at least?"
"We have no idea how big this forest is or what is waiting for us on the other side...so once again, if we are not splinched we could be ambushed and murdered brutally. Really. Great plan," Draco drawled with amusement, ignoring Harry's low throat growl.
"So, what does Voldemort want with you anyway, Potter?" he asked, his hands in his pockets with his fingers idly stroking his wand.
Harry stiffened immediately, his face went cold and he looked forward through the trees ahead of them. "Tell me about Lucius and then I'll tell you that," he cornered sharply. 'Does he expect me to spill my guts to him just because I helped him? For all I know this could be some idiotic trap...'
"What about my Father?"
"Everything. Why he's a complete ignorant prick," Harry grumbled angrily, just thinking of the white-faced man churned his stomach.
"There is finally something we can agree upon," Draco drawled with a smirk, and Harry felt his mouth drop open in surprise but before he could ask the boy began to talk, "When I was growing up, he tended to be gone for business most of the time. Yet, when my Mother and I were graced with his presence he was always teaching us a lesson. Something vital to the Malfoy bloodline, something so utterly important to the fate of all Wizard and Witches alike. I grew up in a home where the most important thing was the survival of all purebloods, and I never quite understood why though I just accepted it naturally. You see it was so much easier to believe everything that man told me than to actually think for myself," Draco sighed and kicked the dirt.
"Lucius is a man based on pride, class and honour. But when I first saw him bow down to Voldemort last Christmas I knew instantaneously that whatever was happening was the least bit honourable. There he was, my Father, bowing down and completing every whim of a raving lunatic. I thought it to be imbocilic just like this entire War. Does Voldemort actually think he is going to wipe out all of the Muggles in the world? I am highly doubtful of that since there is many more of them than there are of us," Draco snorted now, shaking his head allowing for strands of blonde hair to fall in front of his eyes, "I honestly cannot tell you much about Lucius because I honestly don't know too much,"
Harry nodded grimly, his eyes darting around every tree they passed in attempt to cover the entire area they walked through with surveilance - just in case a rouge Death Eater (or a whole slew of them) were in the waiting. "So you've really gone and disowned yourself, haven't you?" Harry asked out loud with curiousity, without any intention of trying to be rude.
"Well when you put it like that Potter, I guess your right," Draco snapped heatedly.
"Sorry I didn't mean it...I just...er...like -"
"Potter, stop it. You sound like a common Hufflepuff," Draco teased which earned him a swift elbow in the side of his ribs, a hand shot from his pocket as he rubbed the now tender spot with a pout on his face. "Hey...that wasn't so nice!"
"Yeah well don't call me a Hufflepuff you wanker," Harry smirked playfully.
"Now will you tell me about Voldemort? Why he's got an obsession with you that has been delaying this War for Merlin knows how long?" he questioned.
Harry swallowed heavily, 'Urgh...here I am, sharing all my deepest darkest secrets with Draco Malfoy...', "There's this prophecy, you see. It says that neither Voldemort or I can live while the other survives. So that means that one of us has to kill the other, and only we have the power to kill each other. I know that sounds really messed up and muddled but yeah...that's how it goes. That's why I was kept in a safe house until I reached eleven and could goto Hogwarts," Harry sneered at thinking about this 'safe house', the one he would hopefully never have to return to again.
"So that's why Voldemort tried to kill you when you were younger?" Draco asked, a slight hint of disgust in his voice.
"Not at all. He tried to kill me because my parents refused to join him and they were quite powerful so he wanted them in his inner circle, much like your Dad. My 'rents were part of the Order of the Pheonix and Merlin First Class. Of course they denied him, and that's how they died. He wanted me dead too, considering I was their kid. Not only until last year did he know why I hadn't been able to die...because the Prophecy needed to be fufilled," Harry shrugged, trying very hard to focus on his surroundings instead of Draco's intense gaze coming from beside him.
"That is around the time Fudge admitted the awareness of Voldemort's return," Draco began slowly, hearing a positive agreement from Harry's throat, "And that means that..."
"He got ahold of the Prophecy that night, and that's how Fudge knew he'd returned..."
Draco looked at Harry with a deep calculating look. 'No wonder he's so moody all the time...Gods, and to think I was being such an arsehole to him too,' "Everybody at Hogwarts has seen your powerful. I mean, all those bratty outbursts you have had," Draco ignored the scuff from Harry, "But still...everybody just expects you to go out and kill the Darkest Lord of all time? How can you live like that, having all of that on your shoulders? I mean...if I were you, I would be so paranoid all of the time!" Draco admitted, surprising himself moreso with his words.
Harry shrugged, "You learn to live with it, really. And thanks for the vote of confidence," he clipped.
"Hey, I'm not saying you can't do it. But it seems as though Dumbledore, the old coon, expects you to do it alone,"
"No," Harry said abruptly and with finality, he had stopped walking and had a disheveled look on his face. "I expect myself to do it all alone,"
"W-why?" Draco stammered, he felt the anger radiating off of Harry and silently feared on of those tempermental tantrums of magical energy he had mentioned earlier.
"Because, Malfoy, I can't stand anybody else getting in the way again! What if somebody else dies? Do you think I could live with that?! So many people have died already and it's my fault, alright?! I have to do this alone because if I don't..." he trailed off and took a deep, shakey breath attempting to collect himself.
"Potter..."
"What?" Harry quickly snapped, he looked up with stormy emerald eyes and Draco looked back with uncertain silver ones.
"I-I just wanted to say I am sorry," he began softly, causing Harry to immediately slacken up and blush.
"What for?" he whispered.
"For everything. For you having to live with that weight, having to do all that you do, and for being a total prat all these six years ontop of that. Really, you're not a bad person or anything I just hated you because you always got what I wanted - the attention. Now I see how trivial a thing that is," Draco sneered at himself, "And I am mostly sorry for getting us bleeding lost in the middle of nowhere faraway from home,"
Harry was blushing and playing with the dirt on his shoe, his eyes averted completely from Draco now, "Er...thank you," he countered unsurely.
Draco merely tilted his head and then turned from Harry, starting to walk South once again. Harry quickly followed after him, allowing the much needed silence to wash over them.
Ron held Hermione tightly in his arms, neither cared what any of the Professor's said about their close contact at the moment because they both needed it. They were currently seated in Professor Dumbledore's office, Remus was pacing back and forth looking anxious and worried. Snape was snarling from the corner by the mantleplace, and Dumbledore was looking sadly at the two Gryffindors.
"The story as we have it from the captured Death Eaters goes like this," Dumbledore began with a strained voice, neither of his two students had ever seen him looking so distraught, "Remus, would you care to begin before your Transformation took place?"
The werewolf, looking much better than he had a couple of hours ago thanks to Madame Pomfrey, nodded slowly. "W-we were catching up, eating lunch at The Three Broomsticks. Harry wanted to go even further into advanced Defence training, and as you two know he has already been recieving extensive lessons on many subjects. I was worried he was working himself thin...well, neither here nor there," he sighed, "When we left, Theodore Nott grabbed ahold of Harry, who grabbed ahold of me, and the three of us were Portkeyed to the Nagril Forest. It's pretty far North of here, and it is the largest forest in the country. With very extensive lands, quite easy to get lost in, I must say its a wonder that..." Remus was abruptly cut off by Dumbledore's knowing cough, he nodded again and continued, "Anyway. We arrived amongst a circle of Death Eaters and Voldemort. It went blurry for me from there," he creased his eyebrows.
"It appears that Voldemort requested one of his soon-to-be-followers to torture Harry with the means of the Cruciatus Curse. The follower refused, Potter unwittingly stood up for him and dueled with Voldemort very briefly. The Dark Lord threw the Killing Curse at Potter who deflected it, and then the one who defied the Dark Lord apparated them out of there. That was the last that was heard or seen of them. There is a large search party that started at the Death Eater camp and went outward in all directions trying to find the two of them, but no such luck yet. They could have gone anywhere in the entire world," Snape finished with a small hiss of annoyance. It wasn't Potter he cared about, but the other one that was missing he cared quite a lot about. For his mother was being driven with worry and fear back at the Malfoy Manor.
Hermione was biting her lip as hard as possible, she felt tears silently flow down her cheeks and she finally broke down into a sob, flinging her head into Ron's chest and crying there. Dumbledore looked sadly on at the situation as Severus scoffed. "Sir...but who was this...other person?" Ron asked carefully, refusing to cry in front of Professor Snape.
"Ah, the one who defied the Dark Lord and very promptly saved Harry from certain death was Draco Malfoy," Dumbledore answered, watching the uneasy look come across Ron's face as Hermione immediately stopped crying and her head snapped up.
"Malfoy? He was the one that apparated away with Harry?" she asked slowly, recieving nods from all three of her Professor's the two Gryffindor's faces went blank with more fear than before.
"He's killed him. He most certainly has killed him...for Merlin's fucking sake, why did Harry stick up for him?! Malfoy's probably gone and..."
"I can assure you that Mr Malfoy most definitely denied the Dark Mark and did everything but spit in the Dark Lord's face. It seems as though he does not follow in the path of his Father and the only thing keeping him alive was Potter...Draco is not stupid enough to kill the only thing that can save him," Snape sneered hotly, his fists clenched by his side as he glared daggers at the redhead who glared back.
"What are we going to do, sir? Tell us and we'll help anyway we can," Ron said hurriedly, turning his attention back to the Headmaster who smiled sadly.
"I am afraid that the best thing for you two to do is keep this quiet for the time being, we cannot have panic. I will make a sufficient excuse as to why Harry and Mr Malfoy have disappeared mid-term, but rest assure that we are doing all we can. Actually..." Dumbledore interupted himself, a train of thought gave birth in his head, "There is a very complicated locator's spell we could perform. It takes at least one month of preperation and an object that is tied not only to the one whom we are trying to find but also the one doing the finding," he said eerily, then looked at the two students. "Do the two of you have any item that is connected to both you and Harry?"
Ron and Hermione seemed to think for a moment before they both shook their heads sadly. "Albus, they might not have something but I certainly do," Remus said as all eyes turned curiously on him as he smirked now.
"Do you? And it is tied to both you and Mr Potter?"
"The only problem is...I have no idea where it is...Hermione? Ron?" Remus turned to them with a mysterious glint in his eyes, both of the Gryffindor's immediately understood what he meant and bolted up from their chairs and towards the Gryffindor Tower.
Morning took the reins from the rider
Strong hands on the lap behind her
They tear her nightgown, we can't see you now.