Change In A Star's Alignment
Author's Note:
Hey everyone! So it's been a while due to deciding, for whatever reason, to become a History and English major… Meaning large amounts of readings and writing whilst in University!
However, as I was checking in, I found a personal message sent my way by one of my lovely readers! They told me about a contest happening on for fanfics and they suggested I enter "Because You're Worth It". So I did!
***I'm hoping that you all might go over to and vote for it (I'll put details at the end)! In return, I will promise you that I will post another fic that will have important parts of Harry and Draco's future journeys, including stuff from during and after the war!***
Always,
CourtneyMalfoy22
Chapter 35:
It was nearing the end of the year and everyone was a little on edge, Harry especially. He knew that Ronald had been planning something by the nervous look on the red head's face. Everyone was simply waiting for something to happen.
Otherwise, nothing much had changed in the time that had passed. Harry and Draco had gotten even closer and it was a normal day for the boys. They were eating dinner as per usual when an owl landed next to Harry.
Confused because the post never arrived this late, Draco ended up taking the letter from the tawny owl.
"It's addressed to you, Raven." The blonde said, feeding the owl a treat he had in his robe pocket.
Harry took the letter from his boyfriend with a smile which quickly vanished when he read it through.
"What is it?" Draco asked.
He sighed quietly, "Not here. We'll talk later, okay?"
"Okay Harry, no problem." Draco said understandingly.
Harry ate as quickly as he could without looking suspicious and Dray followed suit. Once done, they stood and quickly made their way to their flat. There, they sat on the couch so they could talk properly.
"What's going on Harry?" the blond questioned.
"It was from Dumbledore." Harry said, handing Draco the letter. "It says I'm to meet with him late tonight, that it's to be kept secret… Even from you…"
Draco looked up at that, "So why did you tell me?"
"You're my everything Dray, I refuse to keep things from you."
"But this was Dumbledore's orders! Obviously it's incredibly important if he tells you to keep it a secret from me!"
Harry moved so he was face to face with the blond before leaning in to give him a chaste kiss.
"We're a team, Dray. We always will be, you know that."
Draco smiled brightly, giving another kiss to Harry.
"So, what? You're just not going to tell him you told me?"
"Well… Not quite." He said with a smirk.
The blonde groaned, "I know that look Harry! What are you planning this time?"
"I've decided that you'll be coming with me."
"What!?" Draco exclaimed.
"You're going to join me tonight. Dumbledore needs to see how important you are and that I'm not leaving you behind." He said passionately.
"Thank you" Dray whispered, a tear escaping his eye.
"Why are you crying?" Harry wondered aloud, wiping the tear away with his thumb.
"I've always been afraid that you'd run off to defeat Voldemort, leaving me to worry about you for Merlin knows how long."
"I won't leave you Dray, I love you." He replied, pulling the blond into a kiss.
Before it could get too heated however, it was time for them to go.
"Look Draco, before we go, I have to tell you something."
"What is it Raven?" Dray asked hesitantly.
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Draco's POV:
They sat in the Headmaster's office, waiting for Dumbledore to come in. Draco couldn't believe what Harry had told him. He was still slightly in shock from the news.
He noticed Harry was staring at him worriedly. Draco knew that his Raven was about to ask him if he was okay, but he couldn't as Dumbledore entered at that moment.
"Well Harry," the Headmaster started before stopping once seeing Draco, "Harry… I told you to tell no one of our meeting, much less bring them with you!"
"Anything you can tell me, you can tell Draco." Harry said firmly.
"Harry," Dumbledore pleaded, 'if you knew what I'm about to tell you, you would understand."
"If this is about Horcruxes Headmaster, then Draco already knows."
Draco couldn't help but laugh slightly at the look of disbelief on Dumbledore's face.
"But how did you know, Harry?" the Headmaster asked once the shock had worn off, "Did Professor Snape tell you?"
"Of course not." Harry said.
"Then who told you?" Dumbledore asked, seemingly in a state of shock.
"No one did. I found out on my own." The raven-haired teen said smugly, making Draco smirk even more than before.
"You- How?"
Draco couldn't help the feeling of pride that rushed through him as he watched his Raven speak of how he'd researched and found every book he could that even remotely spoke of Horcruxes, how he'd gone to the Room of Requirement for more books. Harry told the Headmaster that he'd put as many of the small pieces of information as he could together until he had a good enough understanding of it all.
"Of course," his boyfriend continued, "it wasn't under the title of 'Horcrux' so it took a while to gather the information. But I managed."
"You did more than simply manage.' Dumbledore said in awe as he leafed through the parchments of notes Harry had brought with him involving Horcruxes.
"Was there anything you could add to my notes, Headmaster?" Harry questioned eagerly.
"Hmm… Not on the basics, nor on its functions…" Dumbledore answered distractedly, still looking through the papers, "However, I do have something that you could never find within your books."
"What would that be, Sir?" Draco asked, speaking for the first time.
"Memories, Mr. Malfoy." Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eyes, "All pertaining to one Tom Riddle."
"Tom Riddle, Sir?" he asked.
"Voldemort." Harry answered, "Tom Riddle is his real name."
"But… It's so…"
"Boring? Normal?" Harry asked. At his nod, Harry said, "That's exactly why he changed it."
"He wanted to be special." Draco concluded, "He wanted, still wants, to be one of a kind."
"Precisely." Dumbledore stated, heading to a cabinet full of vials that Draco presumed to contain memories. "Now, shall we begin?"
With that, the three went through many memories, all involving Tom Riddle in one aspect or another. They did this for many a week, spending most of their nights with the Headmaster. As such, it became apparent to Draco that the Headmaster was hiding something from them.
He could tell by the way the older man had lost some of the light he always had lingering in the corners of his eyes; by the sad way in which Dumbledore would look upon Harry whenever he thought no one was paying him any mind. It unnerved Draco immensely to see the Headmaster act in such a way.
A few weeks before the end of the year, he and Harry were called into the Headmaster's office a little earlier than usual. They walked hand in hand into the office, neither quite prepared for what was to come.
Upon entering, Dumbledore wasted no time, immediately telling them about the place he believed to hold a Horcrux and how he wished for the two boys to join him this time.
Instantly, Harry was turning towards Draco, letting him know that he didn't have to join them, that he could stay at the school instead.
"Please Harry," Draco teased, "you'd be a mess without me. I've no choice but to join you."
He watched as his boyfriend rolled his eyes before smiling brightly at him, "Of course. What would I possibly do without you?"
"Not a whole lot, I suspect." He said, earning himself an affectionate cuff to the back of his head.
"Are we ready to go?" Dumbledore suddenly spoke, the twinkle back in his eye momentarily.
"Of course." They said at the same time, causing them both to laugh.
Soon enough however, all forms of joking were put aside as the seriousness of their journey sunk in. Even Dumbledore seemed particularly worried and slightly out of it.
Everything was running rather smoothly until they got to the potion in the cave. Both he and Harry had attempted to offer to drink it, but Dumbledore kept insisting upon being the one to drink it.
Despite his efforts to change the Headmaster's mind, eventually Harry told Draco to stop trying. This confused him more than anything because he knew how much Harry cared for Dumbledore and people in general. It was therefore odd for his boyfriend to have hardly protested at all.
He watched in dismay as Harry fed Dumbledore the potion, having to look away at a few points. He watched in silence as one of the strongest Wizards was being reduced to nothing right before his eyes. Whatever that potion was seemed to force the man to relive his worst memories and Harry was forced to feed it to him.
He looked towards his boyfriend, seeing the tears silently running down his face whilst he shakily brought the shell back up to Dumbledore's mouth. Draco offered to do it for him, but his Raven merely calmly looked at him, green eyes spilling over with tears, before saying he had to do it. He had promised Dumbledore he would.
The blond didn't question it, simply offering his silent support. Finally it was over and Harry had the locket in his hands. Before he knew it, he was in his way back to the castle, still shaking slightly from their encounter with the Inferi.
They made it to the top of the Astronomy Tower, slightly confusing him. He didn't understand why they hadn't gone to the Headmaster's office as it would have been much quicker to get to.
He didn't get much time to think about it however, as he heard footsteps coming up the Tower and he suddenly found himself to be hit with an extremely strong freezing spell before being shoved under Harry's Cloak of Invisibility along with his boyfriend.
He found himself unable to do anything but watch helplessly as Ronald Weasley showed up, disarming Dumbledore and calling to his Death Eater friends. Soon, Bellatrix, Fenrir and Severus had joined the red-head on the Tower.
"Well, well…" Severus said, "It seems you are at our mercy."
"Please Severus… Please." The Headmaster pleaded.
"Too bad for you that I do not believe in such things as mercy."
Draco watched in horror as his god father cast the killing curse at Dumbledore, sending him flying off the Astronomy Tower.
Draco tried to pretend that it hadn't happened, that Severus had not killed Dumbledore. But he eventually had to acknowledge that the freezing charm had stopped working; that it had been Dumbledore who had cast it.
He watched as the Death Eaters trailed out, laughing gleefully, leaving Severus behind. Feeling betrayed, Draco lunged at the man from underneath Harry's cloak.
Before he could reach his target, he felt someone physically restraining him. He turned to have a go at the person until he realised who it was.
"Harry? What are you doing?" Draco demanded.
"Go Sev." Harry said instead of replying, "I'll explain everything to him."
With one final, seemingly regretful look, Severus turned and left.
"You let him go…" Draco said, confused, "He killed Dumbledore… He betrayed us! And you just let. him. go.?
He turned to stare at Harry, tears forming at the thought of his godfather having done this to him.
"He killed Dumbledore." Harry acknowledged, "But he did not betray us, Dray."
"What? How could you say that Harry?" Draco questioned angrily.
"Dray, listen to me." Harry said, grabbing his arm and pulling him towards a bench so they could sit down, "This was all a back-up plan that had been created. Dumbledore wanted Snape to kill him when it came down to it."
"You lie! How would you know that?" Draco mumbled against Harry's neck, unsure of when he'd even gotten into the position of crying into Harry.
"Shh… Love, it's okay. I'm not lying, I promise." His Raven said soothingly as he ran his hands through Draco's hair affectionately, "I found out while practicing Legilimency with Sev a while back."
"Why didn't you say anything?" Draco asked accusingly, finally starting to calm down.
"I had hoped it would never have to happen." The green-eyed teen sighed, "Now, come on."
"Where are we going?"
Harry pulled him up from the bench, kissing him lightly before stating sadly, "To our room to pack."
"Pack? Why?" he asked, concerned.
"It's time to hunt some Horcruxes…"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~END~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author's Note:
Thanks so much for sticking with the story! I'll be starting the collection of mini-stories that pertain directly to this one VERY soon!
Info for the contest:
-It's at inkitt .com
-Called "Because You're Worth It" by DAvrayM (my middle name).
-Find it under "Writing Contests" (Fandom 3/Fanfics).
-It may take a bit of searching but I'd seriously appreciate it!
I seriously cannot thank you enough! I will also be continuing with my other fic, "You're Too Important To Die" which is based during the Triwizard Tournament! Again, thank you my lovely, lovely readers! I hope one day to publish my original works and that people will be as welcoming as all of you have been to me!
Always,
CourtneyMalfoy22