Thirteen

The Room of Requirement

"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you

because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.

Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."
― Roald Dahl

Draco sat there with one crystal ball dangling in his hand. He was excluded, watching as several students came and went before him. Some of their eyes kept following his movements, suspicious as to what he was doing, but he ignored them all. He didn't know how long Hermione and Potter had been gone but then the castle trembled, the hammock underneath him swinging to the left in the motion and he had to put out a foot to keep his balance. The ball in his hand went tumbling as he fumbled to keep it upright.

Between one flash of panicked students and the sound of shutting doors, Draco was flung into a flash of murky ink and shattered glass.

Tom Riddle held a diadem in his hand. It was the fabled Ravenclaw's lost diadem and he stood in front of the doors of the Room of Requirement. He held a grin on his face and he inhaled before he strode forward. He looked older this time, taller and with a sturdier stature. He checked the ticking watch on his wrist several times as he walked and then peered around the tall shelves and cabinets that were stacked in this particular version of the room. He didn't look at them long, maybe he didn't have time to. In fact he definitely didn't have time to. He surveyed the room for moments, turning in the aisles of stacked shelves and set the tiara on top of a lone cabinet next to a pile of books.

Softly he placed his hands in front of it, recognising the tell-tale signature of the Horcrux in the remaining fragments of his soul. The peasant he had killed was a measly offering for immortality. He sighed, hummed a tune to himself before he turned on his heel.

"That Defence Against the Dark Arts position is mine," he muttered and he left the diadem there in the Room of Hidden Things where no one ever went.

Draco emerged to a panicked student standing in front of him. He didn't recognise the girl and maybe that was because of the year's difference between them, but she stood with her hands on her hips and a rushed look on her face. "We've all been summoned to the Great Hall." She waved her hand in front of his face, minding her feet on the broken glass in front of him.

"I can't go with you," he stood, and swept the glass and milky liquid to the corner of his hammock. "In fact you all need to get out of here!" He shouted to the dwindling crowd of students.

"Why should we listen to you?" the girl in front of him said.

"Because Death Eaters are coming for something in this room and you all can't be here when they do." Technically Potter would eventually be coming for the diadem in the room but Death Eater's would surely follow, either knowing to protect it or just following Harry.

"Aren't you technically a Death Eater?"

Draco smirked as he looked at the crowds of students, "Technically but I think my saving of Hermione Granger has made me a double agent."

The students flooded out and soon he was alone. He closed his eyes and remembered what first set him on the road to devastation. The Room of Hidden Things had been his project during sixth year, digging out the Vanishing Cabinet and eventually leading to killing Dumbledore. It was his first task as a Death Eater, his first step to proving his loyalty to Voldemort.

When he opened his eyes again there he was and it was almost as though he had never left. His friends had known all about his time in the Room of Hidden Things and if the Dark Lord would send anyone to the room it would be them. He didn't want to fight his friends, he didn't want to fight the people who knew exactly what he was going through.

He walked the same footsteps that Tom Riddle had, repressing the urge to shudder, and he tried not to merge both of their experiences into one. Soon enough there was the cabinet that Tom Riddle had settled the tiara and the very same pile of books on. But the Diadem was not in the middle of the congregation, no it took a turn to the left to see the tiara. It was placed precariously against a bust's head and when Draco itched his hands towards it he could almost hear it groan. He held a piece of Voldemort's soul in his hands and hatred overwhelmed him.

He shuddered at the sudden feeling and placed the diadem back down. Now all he had to do was wait. The waiting was excruciating, nearly unbearable as sounds crept in from beneath the door. It sounded like a war was pushing against the doors, a battle raging that he was kept away from.

Was that selfish of him?

He didn't like the feeling of hate and pity that came over him still and so he took out the remaining crystal ball and smashed it against the doors of the Vanishing Cabinet. It felt pleasant to see it shatter, to see the door be coated in the liquid and as the memory swept to his feet he let it come.

Abraxas Malfoy was his first follower, the first person that was marked with the skull and snake. They were freshly graduated, he already had two Horcruxes under his belt and the paranoia about his immortality had never felt greater. They were both stood around a small coffee table and he was telling Abraxas – who looked significantly like Lucius Malfoy – about the Morsmordre spell Tom had finally figured out.

"It'll hurt but then we'll be connected. We will know where the other is almost instantly."

"How on Salazar's name did you achieve this?" Abraxas scoffed, looking at the skull mark on Tom's own arm. Tom smiled and pressed his wand to Abraxas's forearm.

The other man screamed, his legs instantly buckling and all the while Tom looked giddy because he wasn't alone anymore.

Draco shuddered at the memory of getting his own dark mark and came out of the past with the sounds of Potter over the tops of the stacks. "Over here Potter!" He called and they came trotting towards him, Hermione reaching for her beaded bag when they saw the diadem now held in Draco's hand. "Is this what you were looking for?" he asked and Potter nodded, Hermione removing the dagger from her bag.

"Hold it Mudblood," the group skidded around, the diadem still in Draco's hand as they saw the trio at the end of the stack of shelves. Crabbe and Goyle stood shoulder to shoulder and in between them stood Pansy Parkinson. Draco's eyes shuttered for a moment, his hands shuffling behind his back.

"How come you aren't with You-Know-Who?" Harry asked, placing his hands closer to the diadem behind Draco's back. He didn't like the feeling of Potter's hands near his but he knew that Pansy would try to get close to him. He passed it off willingly, shaking his head in Hermione's direction for Potter to pass it off to her.

"We're being rewarded," Goyle muttered, smiling broadly as Pansy tutted.

"We've been trusted to find a Diadem after Potter alerted the Carrow's that he was searching for it. If we hand over Potter plus the tiara then we'll be heavily rewarded." Pansy sneered and took a step forward.

"You just want that pretty tiara on your head to look like a princess Pans," Draco said, gripping his wand in his hands.

She snorted, "That's only because you betrayed us all."

"And all three of you knew why I had to." It was sad that although Draco had consulted in his friends they had begged him not to betray their Dark Lord, knowing that it would only bring about disastrous consequences.

"Well, not everything is gonna go your way," Crabbe muttered and with a whip like movement casted Descendo on a tall mountain of furniture. It began to topple but Draco sprang around and steadied it with a spell, heaving a breath as he saw how close it came to falling on them.

"If you three have any collective sense then you'll stop what you're doing right now." Draco urged, noticing how they were all trigger happy with their wands.

"We don't listen to traitors Malfoy," Crabbe muttered and casted the killing curse. They all lunged, Potter skittering off with Weasley with the Horcrux in his grip and Draco moving towards Hermione.

"That Mudblood, Draco, really?" Pansy tutted and flames of abnormal size licked themselves from behind her making their way towards them. "You should have accepted the marriage contract between our families that would have saved us all of this trouble."

The flames mutated to take the form of ghastly beasts and everyone was running. Potter tried an Aguamenti. "It's Fiendfyre Potter that's not going to work!" Draco hissed and instead of throwing a look his way, Potter snatched a group of brooms from the corner and handed the Horcrux to Hermione.

"It's too dangerous Harry!" Weasley was saying as the flames and smoke billowed around them, becoming nearly unbearable.

"We have to try," Potter said as he swung his leg over one broom and gestured to Weasley to do the same. Draco cursed and dragged Hermione onto a broom.

"I know you don't like bloody brooms but you don't have a choice here," he whispered to Hermione, noticing how the Diadem was clutched close and she tucked it into her bag before the others could see. He looked behind them and saw Pansy running towards them, dragging a stunned Crabbe behind her with Goyle. He summoned the two brooms that were left their way.

"What are you doing?!" Weasley screamed at him.

"I may be cold hearted but not cold enough to let them die!" He hissed behind him and soon he was on the broom, Hermione's hands around his waist and flying through the flames. They were flying out of the disintegrating Room of Requirement, the sounds of battle raging around them instead of flames.

Draco hadn't known the seriousness of the battle until then. Death Eater's had infiltrated the castle, several of the Weasley's duelling with them in the corridor.

"By the way Minister, I'm resigning!" one of the older ones said, Hermione knew him to be Percy.

"You're joking Perce!" one of the twins cried and the duelling continued, a Death Eater being knocked down.

They unmounted their broomsticks and Draco huddled Hermione into a corner. "You have to destroy the Diadem now!" Hermione looked puzzled and confused, her hands reaching for her bag almost blindly. "You have to do it now otherwise we won't have time."

The Diadem was placed in his hands as she searched for the daggers. Potter cursing as they huddled around with them. Pansy and the others would be emerging out of the Room any minute now and they had to be quick.

"Why shouldn't you do it?" Hermione asked as she took the daggers in hand.

"Because I'm not good enough, now do it!" he cried and as she raised the dagger her eyes went cold and the battle changed into an endless sea of black, shimmering smoke and dead bodies.

Hermione stilled.

Around them lay hundreds of dead bodies; Ron's, Harry's, Pansy's, Crabbe's and Goyle's. Every one of their classmates lay dead with their eyes cold and bodies stiff.

It couldn't have been real. Potter had stood with them barely two minutes ago. But Hermione didn't register it, panic seized her, she had failed, she had failed everyone. The dreams she had back in Malfoy Manor came back full force.

"Hermione!" a voice called to her and it took her a while to realise that it was Draco, still standing in front of her with the Diadem clenched in his hands. He could hear the cry of the Horcrux and it would do anything not be killed. "This is not real! Hermione believe me this is not real!"

She snapped out of it when she realised that Draco's eyes were nothing but honest. The dagger was raised and stabbed into the Diadem between the empty space of Draco's hands and he dropped it when it shattered in his palms. Crude black oil erupted from it as it screamed and it clattered against the ground.

Hermione came to, to Draco smiling at her, the Weasley's standing gawking at her and Harry grinning.

"What have you done Draco?" Pansy said and Draco whirled around. With a shake of his hand Crabbe was free from the stunning spell. Draco took Hermione's arm as he began to walk off.

"If you know what's good for you you'll walk away from this right now," Draco called over his shoulder.

The war was on and it was far from over.