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After the Welcome Feast had been finished with, Draco made his way over to the Gryffindor Common Room. "Please, I need to get in." He told the Fat Lady.
"I'm afraid I cannot let you in without the password young man. And anyway, you're a Slytherin."
"For goodness sake, my House has never been a problem before. You let me in last year."
"That was last year. There are tighter rules this year, especially with Dumbledore's passing. I cannot let you in."
Draco sighed and rubbed his face. "Fine. Could you then, please, ask Hermione and Ron to come out? I need to speak with them as a matter of urgency."
"That I can do." She smiled at him and disappeared for a moment. She returned, and within seconds, the two people Draco needed to see stepped out.
"What's the matter Draco?" Hermione asked him.
"You'll see. Come with me, please." He turned on his heel and started on his way, back down the stairs and towards the dungeons, Hermione and Ron right behind him. He led them to his room and, once the three were in, silenced it. He turned on them. "Where's Harry?"
They looked at each other before Hermione stepped forward. "Draco…"
"Hermione please, I just want straight answers. Where is he?" Draco pushed, squeezing his eyes shut.
"Draco, mate. We can't tell you. If we could, we would. But we promised Harry that we wouldn't. It's for the best that you don't know." Ron told him.
"What do you mean, 'it's for the best'?" Draco narrowed his eyes as he sat, indicating that they could too.
Ron looked to Hermione for help, and she articulated what he wanted to say. "Draco, your father is Tom's right hand-man. Do you honestly think that, once he starts to realise what Harry's doing, he won't use your father against you to find answers? What about your mother? He'll also use Legillemency on you, it's guaranteed. The less you know, the safer the three of you will be."
"So why's he told you?"
"Because we knew from the start. He couldn't hide it from us."
"OK, I get that." Draco said, nodding. "But what I don't understand is why he's not told me, yet he's told some random girl…"
"What random girl?" Hermione asked, unsure.
"A Slytherin. She come to find me in my compartment on the train. She told me Harry had told her what he was doing and that he had asked her to be liaison between the three of us and him. I have no idea who she is. But if it's that important, why's he told her and not me?" Draco asked again, sounding upset.
"That I don't know." Hermione answered honestly, genuinely. "What did she look like?"
"It doesn't matter. She's a Slytherin, you won't know her..." Draco trailed off, staring into the fire.
Hermione and Ron took the time in his silence to look at him. Being unsure as to where Harry was, was clearly taking its toll on Draco. He was starting to look tired and the weight was starting to drop off of him. His eyes had lost their sparkle and now looked dead. His skin was starting to look grey and his overall aura was depressing. Hermione instantly reached for ward and put a hand on his shoulder. "Draco talk to us. What's the matter?"
Slowly he tore his gaze away from the fire and looked at her. "I'm worried." He answered in a small voice. "I have no idea where he is, I know he's looking for Horcruxes but I have no idea what they are. He could be getting into all sorts of trouble and I'll have no idea where he is, or how he is. All I'll know is what that girl tells us, and how can I trust somebody entirely when I don't even know their name?"
Hermione wrapped her arms around him and hugged him. "Draco, he'll be fine. The moment something goes wrong, we'll know. I'm sure of it. For now, we have to play our part. I'm glad you talked to us actually. We need to arrange a meeting in the ROR." She pulled back and looked him in the eye. "Come on. We need to do this as soon as possible." As she spoke, Ron pulled his coin out of his pocket and started typing the message. Hermione took the Slytherin's hand and pulled him up, leading him out of the room.
The trio made their way across the school and into the room, which had been set up to look like it had done the time Harry had revealed himself to the DA. Pretty quickly, the member started to arrive, either through the door as students, or via the portkey. Taking his seat with the Slytherins, Draco looked up expectantly towards the two, waiting for an explanation.
"Hello everyone. I hope you had a good break. We have a message from Harry." Hermione told them.
She was instantly bombarded with question as to his whereabouts, but Ron soon put a stop to it. "Enough! Harry is away on business and will not be coming back to Hogwarts this year."
"What's he doing?" Seamus asked.
"We can't tell you."
"Figures." The Irishman muttered.
"What was that?" Ron pushed, threateningly.
"Nothing." Seamus quickly covered.
"Good. Because be warned, now Harry's not here, Hermione, Draco and I are in charge. Harry will not tolerate misbehaviour or betrayal among us. Neither will we. If I hear any comment made against Harry's judgement I will hand out punishments. Don't think I won't."
Hermione placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Ron, enough. Now, Harry has asked that everybody plays their part. We have to pretend to be the typical Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaw and Slytherins the rest of the school expects of us. For those of you no longer students, you have to pretend to be the typical people society expects of you. We've been told to start up the DA again, and I think we will use it as a symbol of resistance, so that the younger students know that this regime will not continue. We have been asked by Harry to provide the students with a good reputation of the Assassins. The Carrows are brutal, as you all have seen. Punishments are going to be severe. Harry asked that, under the guise of the Assassins, you all help these students out. I think though, if only those here do that. Those who have left, if you provide that impression outside of the school, helping out whoever you can. If the Assassins are going to be the ones who take over, then we need to be accepted."
"Alright." Pansy said. "But how are we going to stand up against the Carrows and Snape? We are, after all, supposedly on the side of the Dark Lord. If we start to disobey Him, we could get into so much shit."
"That's the risk we need to take." Draco told her. He turned to Hermione and Ron. "The real question though, is when, where and how, the real fight is going to begin?"
"That we don't know. I don't think we'll know until the last minute. Which means all of us are going to have to be ready permanently."
"Why didn't either of you three say anything at Bill and Fleur's wedding?" Fred asked.
"Because you didn't need to know yet. Again, Harry's decision."
"Seems like everything you three do is because Harry always asks you to." Justin challenged.
"Would you question him?" Ron shot back.
"No. I just don't see why you three never seem to have a say."
"Finch-Fletchley, answer me this." Draco asked, too calmly. "How much do you know about where Harry is?"
"Not much. Just what I've been told."
"Exactly. Yet we three know. And you reckon we don't get a say?" Draco laughed slightly. "Idiot."
Hermione smiled slightly. "Anybody else got any other questions?"
"Do Mum and Dad know all this?" Ginny asked.
"No." Ron answered her. "Mum, Dad, Remus and Tonks don't know yet. Though, Fred, George, you can tell them can't you?" They nodded in perfect unison. "Thanks."
"We can ask Bill, Fleur and Charlie if they want to join too. Not Percy of course, he's too much of a dickhead." This caused a couple of laughs from those who knew the third Weasley child.
"Naa, wait. Wait until we've asked Harry first. I think he'll want to be the one who asks them. But thanks anyway."
"Alright, anybody else?" Hermione asked again. Silence. "No? OK. You can go. Those still students, spread the word about the DA. We need as many members as possible." The group nodded and left, but Draco remained. "What is it Draco?"
"I have a feeling that, as the Carrows are in charge of discipline and all the other have been asked to cause trouble, we'll soon need a place to hide out."
"That can be here." Ron instantly said.
"That's fine, but if we're hiding out, what about food and water? Clean clothes? Sanitary?"
"We can move around the school with our masks on if we have to, but I see what you're saying. We'll deal with that obstacle when we come to it." Hermione answered logically.
"One final thing. I'm going to find that girl and invite her to join the DA. If she's going to be the go-between, we need to keep her as close as possible."
"OK." Hermione agreed.
"Alright. I'm going back down to Slytherin. Good night." Draco bid them as he left.
xxxxx
In Slytherin, Draco grabbed Pansy, Astoria and Millicent as pulled them over to a secluded corner. "Who else is in the dorm with you three?"
"My God Draco. I didn't think you swung that way?" Millicent teased him, smirking.
"Bulstrode, I have no intention of swinging back that way. I just need to know."
"Well, there's us three, Demetria Vixen, and occasionally there's another girl, but she very rarely stays in the dorm, so she doesn't count." Pansy answered him.
"That fifth girl, what's her name?" Draco pushed.
"Don't know. She won't tell us, and we very rarely see her in school, so we can't ask her. When she's in lesson, no teacher picks on her, so we never even hear a surname."
"Hmmm. Describe her to me."
"Please!" Astoria rebuffed him. "She's tall, dark hair, blue eyes. Extremely pretty." She said the last bit with distaste.
"That's her. She here now?"
"Nope. Haven't seen her all day."
"She should be. She was on the train."
"Well we haven't seen her. But how do you know that anyway? How do you know she was on the train?" Millicent asked.
"Because she came to me. A couple of hours after you all left. She knows about what Harry's doing. He told her quite a bit from what I can gather. But I have no idea who she is."
"Want us to find out?" Pansy asked, excited for some spying and gossip.
"No. Thank you. I just wondered what you knew. She told me I'd know eventually." He smiled at them and got up to leave, bidding good night to his friends but giving a sly look around to see if he could spot the elusive girl.
xxxxx