AN: I am so sorry about the time it has taken and the shortness of this chapter. I had a funeral to attend as well as a myriad of different things eating at me for the past fortnight. This was all I managed and I really wanted to up date today. Here is the fallout of their hectic evening.
It had felt like days before the sun finally rose. The evening had rushed him by in a flurry of activity and then he had been locked in here and time had ground to a stop. It had only been about midnight, Dumbledore had warded the tower room and then left, instructing Harry to do the same. He'd barely had a chance to say two words to his unexpected saviour and he had so much to say. Even with dawn, the chill in his tower cell would not leave. The measly moth eaten blanket that had been left with him was doing little to fight it off.
The room itself was depressingly bare. One unyielding bed, one self-cleaning chamber pot, one blanket. The 'door' was merely metal bars, as were the high narrow windows. There was no glass to protect him from the cold February air. He guessed he shouldn't have expected better, Potter had at least told him this cell was designed for imprisonment. The idea of spending an indeterminable length of time within this one curved room was what was really getting to him.
He had cried in the night. He couldn't remember doing that before. Everything had come crashing down around him, and he'd been the one to do it.
Draco could never return home to Malfoy Manor, hell by tomorrow he was unlikely to be a Malfoy anyway. He was unlikely to ever see his mother again, even if she survived the Dark Lords punishment in his place. All his riches, his fine possessions, gone. His future, gone.
The only things left to him were this room and three visits a day by a house elf who loathed his very being. Wonderful.
He wondered vaguely who'd go mad first, him or the elf. Probably him.
The sunrise visible through his would-be door was beautiful. Draco rolled over to avoid seeing it.
.
.
Dumbledore had escorted Harry back to Gryffindor tower. They had walked in stony silence. Harry had the impression that Dumbledore was more than a little angry about this evening and his reaction despite his blank face. He also got felt that Dumbledore was disappointed, though why he couldn't fathom.
They were approaching the snores of the fat lady when Dumbledore stopped him.
"You failed to secure the memory from Horace, correct?" Harry nodded meekly. "No matter, after tonight's events it is rendered all but useless. I believe that the fiend fire destroyed the vessel of the horcrux but before destroying the bit of soul it managed to latch onto something as equally dark as itself." Again Harry simply nodded. He was exhausted and his brain ached, he wanted nothing more than to hide in his own bed.
"You will not tell Mr Weasley and Miss Granger about Draco's continued presence in the castle. If you pay him any visits I expect the upmost discretion. You will not open the door, nor will you hand him your wand, no matter what he might say. Am I clear?" If he wasn't so tired, Harry would have been angry. Did Dumbledore think him stupid? Why was he suddenly treating Harry like a naughty child?
"Am I clear Harry?"
"Yes Professor." Without intending to, Harry put extra emphasis on the last word. He then turned, uttered the password to the tower and slunk off to bed.
.
.
"You're keeping the boy in the castle? Are you quite sure that's wise Albus?"
"Of course it's not wise Severus! What on earth was I supposed to do though? Harry threatened to leave with the boy if I forced him to leave. When they got over their feud Merlin only knows. Until we can sort something else, the boy must unfortunately stay."
Dumbledore was seething. He had let his usually calm exterior slip, ranting away at Snape. More than that however, he was scared. Harry had stood before him definate, he had called him old man. In that moment he had looked into Harry's green eyes and seen Tom.
They were both in his bedchamber, knowing that the portraits would otherwise gossip. At the volume he had reached however, Snape suspected it made little difference.
He was quite pleased himself. Draco may be many things, but he was also his godson. He knew only too well the fate that would befall him should he leave. Still, this was a development he had never anticipated.
For the last six months he had being trying to break though Draco's walls. He wanted to be in on what the boy was planning so that he'd be able to protect him, not only from the Dark Lord but himself too. Severus was no idiot; he had clearly seen the signs.
Draco wasn't coping well with his task. He had stopped eating, he had forced his roommates out of the dorm, he had gained bags under his eyes that could only be achieved from weeks of poor sleep on end. There had also been that incident in the bathroom which had been kept quite quiet. But he had been there, he'd seen those scars.
The Slytherins were prideful by nature, albeit in a different way to the lions. Draco would accept no offer of help, especially not after that. It would wound his pride and ego too much. So why had he accepted Potter's help so readily? Was there more going on here than he'd originally seen?
.
.
Draco had just about dozed off when a loud CRACK had startled him out of his stupor. Before he had even managed to sit up there was another crack and the elf was gone, leaving a plate of egg on toast steaming on the floor.
He contemplated leaving it there for a moment, but then his stomach rumbled. He slipped off the bed, taking the blanket with him. The egg's warmth did little to sooth his rolling stomach. After he was done he crawled back onto the hard bed, pulling his knees to his chest.
.
.
Harry woke late due to the dreamless sleep he had taken at Madame Pomfrey's recommendation. The dormitory was warm and empty. Looking blearily at his watch however he saw that he had not only missed breakfast but half of his Defence Against the Dark Arts double too. Wonderful as it would have been to stay in his cocoon, he could not forget Dumbledore stressing that he must maintain normality. Snape would skin him alive for sure.
After the time spent running across the castle, Harry was considering if it was worth tuning up at all. Very tentatively, he stuck his head round the door. Snape zeroed in on his movement at once.
"Do tell Potter, what exactly was so important this morning that you deemed it worth missing part of my lesson?"
"I overslept, sir. It was unintentional." A flicker of a smile crossed Snape's pallid face and Harry prepared for the inevitable string of detentions that were to follow. Knowing Snape, he'd be out of Quidditch practice for weeks, exactly what he needed.
"Sit down Potter. I expect an essay covering everything you missed on my desk by tomorrow morning."
"What?" No detention? No threat of some menacing potion? Snape had been turning away from him, back to the rest of the class. He froze while Harry mentally kicked himself for his stupidity.
"I said sit down Potter. Clearly that slow brain of yours is yet to wake up." Harry rushed to his usual seat by Ron. Professor Snape did not look at him for the rest of the lesson.
During lunch, the Great Hall was abuzz with the latest rumours. Harry heard it from Seamus, and what his housemate was saying was enough to quell his appetite despite the lack of breakfast.
"Yer know those explosions on t'severnth floor last night? And t'black thing some people saw? Apparently some dark artefact had been set off up there, releasing some dark spirit. That was the flying thing. People are saying that its gonna hunt and kill everyone who saw it, wiping out the students!"
"Seamus that's a load of rubbish and you know it. People have two facts and sting them together in some crazy story just to rile others up, that's all. I'm sure the teachers would be a bit more worried if what you said was actually true." At Hermione's words, Harry looked up to the staff table. Snape and Dumbledore were both absent, and McGonagall looked paler than usual, but the other staff seemed to think nothing was out of the ordinary.
Dumbledore had said that'd he'd explain the situation to the staff in a briefing. How much had he really told them?
His thoughts turned to Draco, sitting all alone on that tower. He wasn't having fun, but he was safe at least. Harry vowed to visit him tonight.
AN2: Please review, hearing from you guys does make me really happy! Fe x