Chapter Twenty-Nine
Draco was sitting in Alchemy class – surprisingly a class that wasn't shared with Taryn – tapping his quill against the table in front of him when the door opened and a student came in, interrupting Professor Laurel's rather dry lecture on the history of the early alchemist Zosimos of Panopolis,to hand the teacher a summons for Draco to report to the Headmaster"s office immediately.
Draco was surprised that it had taken the old man this long to call for him. Both he and Taryn had been very closemouthed about just what had happened in the Hospital wing, and Draco was sure that both the Headmaster and Professor Snape were more than frustrated with their lack of knowledge on the subject.
"Make sure that you take your things with you Mr. Malfoy, as there isn't much class time left," Laurel said, his annoyance at having his lecture interrupted clear on his face.
Swinging his bookbag strap onto his shoulder, Draco headed directly to Dumbledore's corridor, where the lone gargoyle stood guarding the entrance to the headmaster's office. Reading the ridiculous password – Jelly Belly – he waited for the gargoyle to move, revealing the spiral staircase. He mounted the steps and knocked at Dumbledore's door.
"Enter," Dumbledore called.
Draco strode into the room, turning the chair that stood before Dumbledore's desk backward, before settling into the hard seat. His lazy expression, but for his slight sneer, completely masked his irritation.
Surely Dumbledore could afford better chairs for his guests, Draco thought. The chair in which the Headmaster sat certainly looked comfortable enough. The man could have at least conjured a bloody cushion. Draco felt that it showed disrespect, or definite a lack of common courtesy that the man hadn't done so.
"I felt that it was time that we discussed things privately. I'd like you to feel that you talk to me if you feel the need to," Dumbledore said, his gaze even on Draco over the top of his half-moon glasses.
Draco scoffed. "Really? You never seemed to be interested in my welfare before. Why are you so concerned now? I assure you sir, that I will hold up my end of the bargain we made."
Dumbledore frowned. "It was never my intention to lead you to believe that I don't care about what happens to you Draco. Even though you did intend to kill me."
"We both know that I probably wouldn't have been able to accomplish that," Draco said bluntly. "The Dark Lord fully intended that I die in the process to atone for my father's mistake. If, by some stroke of luck, I had managed to kill you it would have merely been a fortuitous event."
Dumbledore's eyes hardened at Draco's dismissal of his "death" as a fortuitous event. "I would like to know what happened in the Hospital wing."
"I'd like to know how my mother is doing," Draco countered.
"I receive regular reports," Dumbledore said. "By all accounts she is doing quite well. She is living simply, keeping to herself, and working at a boutique."
Draco's brow rose a bit at the thought of his mother working, but he had to admit if his mother had to work, there wouldn't be anywhere more perfect than a clothing store. At least she was safe, and hopefully happy. Draco felt a small prick of sadness. This was the first year he'd had while at school that a care package - including a perfectly baked and preserved cake and a present - hadn't arrived promptly on the day of his birth. Instead he'd had a quiet night in his rooms with Taryn, eating the small cake she'd baked him. They both agreed that calling attention to themselves by having a birthday celebration was the last thing that they wanted to do at the moment, though he wished he could have all of the people he loved the most around him on the birthday that signaled the end of his adolescence. He cleared his throat, pushing back his resentment for the whole situation. "A muggle establishment, I presume?" He finally asked.
"Of course. It would hardly be worth hiding her if I placed her in a Wizarding position," Dumbledore said, steepling his hands together. "Now, I believe an exchange of information is in order. I've told you what I can about your mother's welfare. What occurred on your last night in the Hospital wing?"
"I wouldn't know," Draco evaded. "I was insensible for most of my stay. What I remember is colored with delusions."
Draco felt the subtle, the oh so subtle, prick of Dumbledore's mind trying to invade his. Once he wouldn't have had a chance of keeping his thoughts private, indeed he wouldn't have even felt the touch of the headmaster's magic, but it seemed that with the emergence of his true nature many actions were far easier.
If he hadn't been looking for it, Draco wouldn't have seen the slight widening of the headmaster's eyes at his failure.
"Something happened in that hospital wing," Dumbledore said. "Something that rocked the castle on his magical foundations. My position as headmaster here comes with certain responsibilities. When events occur that could effect the school and its students the castle will inform me, and so I know that a powerful influx of raw, potent magic was released that night. A force that rippled throughout the castle, with the hospital wing as it's nexus. It dissipated before the castle could identify its source. Only the castle's ancient wards prevented the power from gaining outside notice. Usually, a power this strong and unaligned with the castle would have difficulty building inside these walls without the express permission of the current headmaster. The only thing I can glean from the castle is that it recognized this power and that harm was not it's intention. As soon as the power faded you were miraculously healed. You and Miss Granger, excuse me Miss Davis, are both powerful children, but I doubt both of your talents combined could have equaled what the castle reported. You know the identity of the individual who was here that night and you need to tell me who it was."
"I have no idea what you're talking about sir," Draco lied. "Maybe you should question Madame Pomfrey. She was there the entire night."
"I have done so. Poppy tells me that she came to check on you and found you and Miss Davis calmly talking, and that your vitals were normal. She is baffled as to how that is so. From all accounts you were very near death, and yet you sit before me now with no ill effects from your condition. Believe me, some magical maladies have no cure," Dumbledore said glancing down at his blackened fingers, half hidden by his sleeve before, looking Draco over evenly.
Silence thrummed between them, as Dumbledore eyed him.
"I don't have any answers for you sir. May I be excused?" Draco asked when the silence became uncomfortable.
"You may," Dumbledore said, "I have an appointment that will be arriving shortly."
Draco stood and made his way to the door in time to answer a knock that sounded against the heavy wood.
Harry Potter stood on the other side of the door, and Draco moved to allow the other boy to pass him.
Potter paused for a moment, looking at Draco. His mouth opened to say something when Dumbledore interrupted.
"You were leaving Mr. Malfoy," Dumbledore pointedly reminded him.
Whatever Potter was going to say was forgotten as Draco was ushered out the door, and the door shut firmly behind him.
Draco bit his lip as he contemplated something that he'd have never tried before the events that occurred in the hospital wing.
"Me vident non. Non audieritis me. Animadverto mihi," he said quietly. The spell was a small one, one that children learned even before they were school age because it wasn't very strong and was easily detected. Since it was such a common spell, and Draco now had more power to push behind it, he didn't think that Dumbledore and certainly Potter would notice it. At least as long it didn't last long. He was counting on Dumbledore's arrogance and Potters ignorance to lend time to his endeavor.
The voices beyond the door sounded crystal clear as Draco spied.
"You've found a Horcrux?" Draco heard Potter say.
Horcrux? What the hell is a horcrux, Draco silently wondered.
"I believe so," Dumbledore said.
Silence.
"It is natural to be afraid," said Dumbledore.
"I'm not scared!" said Potter. "Which Horcrux is it? Where is it?"
"I am not sure which it is - though I think we can rule out the snake - but I believe it to be hidden in a cave on the coast many miles from here, a cave I have been trying to locate for a very long time: the cave in which Tom Riddle once terrorized two children from his orphanage on their annual trip; you remember?" Dumbledore said.
"Yes," said Potter. "How is it protected?"
"I do not know; I have suspicions that may be entirely wrong." Dumbledore was quiet for a moment, "Harry, I promised you that you could come with me, and I stand by that promise, but it would be very wrong of me not to warn you that this will be exceedingly dangerous."
"I'm coming," Draco heard Potter say tersely.
"What has happened to you?"
"Nothing," Potter replied.
"What has upset you?" Dumbledore asked.
"I'm not upset."
"Harry, you were never a good Occlumens -" Draco almost snickered at this, remembering Dumbledore's failed attempt to invade his mind.
Potter seemed to erupt at this. "Snape! Snape's what's happened! He told Voldemort about the prophecy, it was him, he listened outside the door, Trelawney told me!"
"When did you find out about this?" Dumbledore asked.
"Just now!" said Potter, his voice getting louder with each word. "AND YOU LET HIM TEACH HERE AND HE TOLD VOLDEMORT TO GO AFTER MY MUM AND DAD!"
"Harry," said Dumbledore quietly. "Please listen to me. Professor Snape made a terrible-"
"Don't tell me it was a mistake, sir, he was listening at the door!" Potter screamed.
"Please let me finish," Dumbledore said. "Professor Snape made a terrible mistake. He was still in Lord Voldemort's employ on the night he heard the first half of Professor Trelawney's prophecy. Naturally, he hastened to tell his master what he had heard, for it concerned his master most deeply. But he did not know - he had no possible way of knowing - which boy Voldemort would hunt from then onwards, or that the parents he would destroy in his murderous quest were people that Professor Snape knew, that they were your mother and father-"
Potter let out a yell of mirthless laughter.
"He hated my dad like he hated Sirius! Haven't you noticed, Professor, how the people Snape hates tend to end up dead?"
"You have no idea of the remorse Professor Snape felt when he realized how Lord Voldemort had interpreted the prophecy, Harry. I believe it to be the greatest regret of his life and the reason that he returned-"
"But he's a very good Occlumens, isn't he, sir?' said Potter. "And isn't Voldemort convinced that Snape's on his side, even now? Professor ... how can you be sure Snape's on our side?"
Dumbledore was quiet for a moment. "I am sure. I trust Severus Snape completely."
"Well, I don't!" Potter said, loudly. "He's up to something with Draco Malfoy right now, right under your nose, and you still-"
Draco scowled. Wasn't almost killing him enough? Potter would have him in Azkaban rotting alongside his father with a Dementor ready and willing to administer the kiss if it was up to him.
"We have discussed this, Harry. I have told you my views." said Dumbledore, bringing Draco's attention back to the conversation occurring in the room.
"You're leaving the school tonight and I'll bet you haven't even considered that Snape and Malfoy might decide to-"
"To what?" asked Dumbledore, "What is it that you suspect them of doing, precisely?"
"I ... they're up to something!" said Potter. "I know it! Professor Trelawney was just in the Room of Requirement, trying to hide her sherry bottles, and she heard Malfoy whooping, celebrating! He's trying to mend something dangerous in there and if you ask me he's fixed it at last and you're about to just walk out of school without-"
What the hell? Draco thought. Someone in the Room of Requirement? Whoever it was doing something in there certainly wasn't Draco, but he did wonder. Draco wasn't naive enough to think that he and Snape were the only people working for the Dark Lord within the castle. Who else could it be? And what could they be mending?
"Enough," said Dumbledore. "Do you think that I have once left the school unprotected during my absences this year? I have not. Tonight, when I leave, there will again be additional protection in place. Please do not suggest that I do not take the safety of my students seriously, Harry."
The ones that you favor, Draco added silently. He wondered what other "protections" and measures the old coot had up his sleeves.
"I didn't-" Potter began.
"I do not wish to discuss the matter any further," Dumbledore interrupted. "Do you still wish to come with me tonight?"
"Yes," said Potter.
"Very well, then. I will take you with me on one condition: that you obey any command I might give you at once, and without question."
"Of course."
"Be sure to understand me, Harry," Dumbledore said. "I mean that you must follow even such orders as 'run', 'hide' or 'go back'. Do I have your word?"
"I - yes, of course," Potter stammered.
"If I tell you to hide, you will do so?"
"Yes."
"If I tell you to flee, you will obey?"
"Yes."
"If I tell you to leave me, and save yourself, you will do as I tell you?"
"I -"
Draco took that as his cue to leave before his luck ran out. He rushed down the stairs and away from corridor heading directly to his rooms to wait until he could tell Taryn what he'd just learned.
0o0
The Hogwarts library had failed Taryn for the first time in living memory. When Draco told her about the conversation that he had overheard, she had immediately pulled out a piece of parchment, writing down all the pertinent information while it was still fresh on Draco's mind.
"I haven't found one single explanation of what Horcruxes do!" she told him, her eyes wide with shock, "Not a single one! I've been right through the restricted section and even in the most horrible books, where they tell you how to brew the most gruesome potions -nothing! All I could find was an introduction in Magick Moste Evile. All it said was 'of the Horcrux, wickedest of magical inventions, we shall not speak nor give direction' … How the hell is that supposed to help? I mean, why mention it, then?" She sighed sitting back into their couch, her feet on the coffee table.
"There would probably be something about them in the Malfoy family library," Draco said, "but it kind of defeats the purpose if we go there. We don't want anyone to know that we are even looking into Horcruxes," Draco said bitterly. He was a little pissed that Harry knew something that he didn't and that if his family wasn't so fucked up that whatever Harry knew was something he could have easily found out for himself.
"Damn, it really burns me that I can't just go up and ask him about it," Taryn said quietly.
"Well if you weren't with me–" Draco began.
"Stop. If Harry wasn't so damn rigid–," Taryn sighed, "he just refuses to believe anything but the worse of you. What did he say about the Room of requirement again?"
"He thinks someone is fixing something in there, and I don't know what it could be. Shit, it could be anything. We're talking about thousands of years of lost objects, some complete junk and some that should never be found," Draco said.
"I think that we should let Chase know about us," Taryn said suddenly.
"Well, that was random," Draco said half-jokingly.
Taryn turned to him. "You know I've been wanting to tell him for awhile. Do you think we ought to keep it a secret? I think we'd be better off by telling him. Chase is trustworthy. I think that he deserves to know."
0o0
Taryn paced from one side of the living area to the other, her socks making a soft scuffing sound against the chilled stone with each tread. She struggled to throw off the tension knotting her muscles, her hand absently tracing the thin silver torque around her neck – the torque that only she and Draco could see.
"Will you sit down. You're starting to make me nervous," Draco said, his silver eyes training on her as she continued to pace.
Taryn was still getting used to those eyes. Draco easily hid them during the day, but once inside the privacy of their rooms he allowed the Glamour that masked their shine to fall away.
It wasn't that she didn't like them – she wouldn't care if Draco's skin turned bright green and his hair bubblegum pink, she would love him anyway – it was just that when she wasn't staring into the reality of those eyes she could forget the fact that Draco had almost died. That she had almost lost the person that she loved most in the world.
She knew that Draco was still upset that she had risked her life by agreeing to Kieve's rather unorthodox medical treatment, but still she would never regret her decision. Now, at least he was healthy. One could almost forget that he had been knocking on death's door.
Draco had told her that he felt fine, but for a feeling almost like static electricity that seemed to play across his skin randomly. The instrument of his welfare, the torque, retained a strange warmth of its own. It wasn't unpleasant, but it certainly was a curiosity that both Draco and Taryn felt needed to be hidden at all times.
The small charm they used to conceal the magical items, as well as the Glamour that Draco used to hide his mark and eyes came easier than ever. Draco barely had to exert himself when he used his magic. He'd always had a talent for wandless spellwork, but he found that he needed his wand less and less.
Taryn was simply fascinated by his heritage, and had already gone through several books on Angelic lore.
"I doubt that any of that is accurate," Draco had remarked.
"It doesn't hurt to read up on any information we can find. I'd like to be as prepared as I can. Its not everyday that a girl is presented with the opportunity to travel to a different realm," she'd replied.
"Maybe we should have paid more attention while Twycross yammered on and on about inter-dimensional travel," Draco had joked.
Taryn's mind ran through random facts about angels before her anxiety broke through once more."What if he doesn't believe us?" Taryn asked worriedly. "Chase didn't really know me when I was myself. I don't think I ever spoke a word to him when I was Hermione."
"You're still Hermione," Draco said soothingly, rubbing a hand down her back. "Inside where it counts, you're still the same person. The only thing that's different is the packaging."
A small smile graced Taryn's mouth briefly. "I just don't want him to think we're both nut jobs. At least when I told you we had shared memories to fall back on to substantiate my claims. Draco, what if he doesn't want to be our friend anymore?"
"I don't think that will happen, but I guess we'll just have to see," Draco said.
Taryn jumped a bit when a knock sounded on their portrait door. It will be okay, Taryn silently told herself.
Finally telling Chase who she was would be nerve wracking, but measured against the events of the past few weeks it would be a cake walk.
0o0
"...so, let me get this straight. You think that she's Hermione Granger reborn," Chase asked, eyes wide with disbelief as he stared at Draco.
"I don't think she is. I know that she is," Draco replied calmly.
Chase looked back and forth between Draco and Taryn blankly. "So where is it?"
Taryn's face crinkled in confusion. "Where is what?"
"The kool-aid you both have been drinking," Chase said. "I know that you both have some secret conspiracy thing going on, but don't have to lie about if you don't want to tell me what's going on," he said with a small laugh, but Taryn could see the hurt that he was trying to conceal.
"We are telling you the truth. I would have told you myself, but it violates the bargain I made. You can't imagine how frustrating it has been to talk myself in circles around what I really want to say. I see Harry, Ron, and everyone else from my former house and I can't even walk up and speak with them without everyone thinking I have an ulterior motive. I haven't spoken to my parents in months, and it's killing me. I want to go to the top of the astronomy tower and scream out exactly who I really am, but I can't. It's actually really risky even talking to you in this way. Please believe that I'm telling you the truth. I'll even invoke Veracitas if you need further proof," Taryn said, wringing her hands.
"You're serious aren't you," Chase said slowly. "You really aren't shitting me."
"Not even a little," Draco said.
"So are you a Deatheater too then?" Chase asked bluntly. He turned to look at Taryn when he heard her gasp. "Oh come on, Taryn. I'm far from stupid. There are rumors all over the school, but no one has proof. I figure that if you're willing to invoke a truth spell, and that if you value me as a friend then it shouldn't be a problem to just tell me everything."
"This is about me, not Dra–" Taryn began.
"He's right," Draco said, interrupting her. He pushed up his sleeve and allowed the mark to fade into view. He considered letting everything show, and thought what the hell, letting his eyes and the torque fade into view as well.
Taryn felt the torque pulse against her neck as the charm that concealed it broke.
Chase was staring at mark, and so it took him a minute to notice the metallic gleam of Draco's eyes.
"What the–!" Chase said, standing suddenly. "Your eyes! What's wrong with your eyes?!"
Taryn sighed, looking over to Draco. "Maybe we should just start from the beginning..."