Draco couldn't sleep that night. His plan to stay out of everything had become next to impossible with the discovery of Sirius Black. For all he knew, the discovery alone could have changed the future in ways that he could never predict, even if he had taken divination. Who knew what important things Sirius might do or not do because of Draco? Who knew how far off his original path he had already steered Neville?

He had told Neville and Sirius that he would help them capture the rat and that he would not tell anyone about Sirius - but now he was second-guessing that decision. Sirius seemed a bit unstable, if Draco was perfectly honest. And Neville was only a boy, caught in a situation that was more than just dangerous all because of Draco. But who could he tell? Potter? He had managed to deal with Sirius before. Or Snape? He was his head of house after all. Dumbledore was an option as well.

But Draco knew that none of these ideas were feasible. He had known it the moment he had found Sirius in the forest. Potter was out of question - he would probably do something rash, Gryffindorish. And on second thought, so would Snape. He hated Black with a passion. Draco wasn't even sure he would be able to finish his story before Snape would go ballistic. That left Dumbledore. But he wasn't too sure about him either. The man had a way of knowing things and Draco worried Dumbledore would notice something off about him immediately. Maybe as a last resort. For now he would try to avoid the headmaster if he could. So, he was left to deal with the situation alone - or at least as the only sane adult involved. But it had been nice to imagine, even if only for a minute, that someone else could be responsible for salvaging this mess.

Once he had come to terms with his fate, his thoughts turned more rational. They needed to get the rat. How he was supposed to manage that, however, was beyond him. Even hours of thinking only resulted in half baked ideas that were doomed to fail from the get-go. It was hours before he managed to drift of into a restless sleep.

In the morning, he made his way to the library where he had told Neville to meet him before breakfast.

"Where does the Weasel keep his rat?" he asked instead of a greeting.

"Well, good morning to you, too, Draco," Neville yawned.

"No time for pleasantries, where does he keep it? Does he take it with him or does he leave it in his room?"

Neville gave this some thought. "His room, I think. I really think we should tell a teacher about this, though."

"Alright," Draco said. "Let's tell Snape about it. I'm sure he'll know what to do."

"S- Snape?" Neville whispered.

"Yeah. Why not? He's my head of house and my godfather. I'm sure he'll help," Draco had a hard time keeping his face straight.

"Ehm- err… Can… Can't we tell someone else?" Neville asked.

"Why? I think Snape is perfect for this."

Neville didn't say anything.

"Let's leave that for a plan B, alright?" Draco finally said. He had known right away that suggesting Snape would stop Neville from further pursuing the topic. "We'll try on our own first."

"Okay," Neville finally relented. "What is the plan?"

"What do you have first period?"

"Herbology," Neville answered.

"Ok, I have a free period there. Are there any Gryffindors in your common room during the first period, you think?"

"No," Neville thought about it some more, "No, all of them have something in their first period."

"Perfect. You'll tell Sprout that you felt sick this morning. She likes you, so she'll believe it. Then we sneak into your room and catch the stupid rat. Piece of cake."

"What?!" Neville shrieked.

"You tell Sprout you are sick and skip the first period. Then we break into the Gryffindor tower – which wouldn't be much breaking in for you since you live there anyway, but never mind. We catch the rat and get it to Sirius or Dumbledore," Draco repeated. It wasn't a perfect plan. It wasn't even a good plan. But it was the best his sleep deprived mind could come up with.

"You want to lie to our teachers and break into my dorm?"

"Well, technically you'd be the one lying, and I'd be the one breaking in but… yeah, pretty much."

"We can't do this!" Neville said indignantly.

"Why not? Do you have a better plan?" Draco asked.

"N-No. But you're a Slytherin! If anyone finds out I let a Slytherin in, they'll kill me!"

"You don't trust me?" Draco asked mock-hurt.

"Well- I- ehm…"

"It took me another ten minutes to convince him," Draco whined.

"It was a stupid plan to begin with," Neville complained.

Sirius stared at them both, open mouthed. "You are a Slytherin?" he finally asked.

"Yeah," Draco huffed, "got a problem with that?"

"Wait- You are a Malfoy!"

"Yes," Draco took a deep breath, trying to ignore the irritation he felt at the way Sirius had said Malfoy.

"Your parents are followers of Voldemort!"

"Well, so were yours," Draco muttered. "You of all people should know one shouldn't judge people on their parents!"

"We can trust him," Neville tried to help, "I think."

"Well thanks, Nev, that's helping," Draco glanced at Neville before his gaze returned to Sirius. "It doesn't matter whether you trust us or not, we're the only help you have. Also, I brought you food, but if you think I poisoned it or something, I'll eat it myself."

"Wait!" Sirius seemed to be thinking. "You're talking about real food?"

Draco nodded his head. "Real pumpkin pie and real- hey!"

Draco didn't get to finish his sentence as Sirius had grabbed his bag and was already eating.

"And by the way," Draco continued, "I think we're related. You are my uncle or something. So, nice to meet you or whatever."

"Ok, ok, fine," Sirius muttered while eating. "I'll ignore this obvious miss-sorting for now. Now, do you have the rat?"

"You should slow down a bit," Neville interrupted. "I don't think eating – if you can call what you're doing eating – like that is healthy."

"That's the first real meal I had in… 13 years, come to think of it. Excuse me if my table manners are lacking."

"Fine," Neville sighed. "So, we snuck into Gryffindor-"

"He has the passwords on a sheet of paper," Draco interrupted, "can you believe that?"

"Draco!"

Draco was showing the piece of paper to Sirius.

"Sorry, sorry," Draco muttered. "Go on."

"So we went into our – well mine and Ron's - dormitory – Ron is the guy who the rat belongs to, by the way-"

"Oh my god, Neville. Let me finish the story," Draco interrupted again.

"Fine! I'll never finish it anyways if all you two do is interrupt me!"

"So, we went in and the rat was sitting on the bed. Unfortunately, we had also let that fat orange cat in which immediately jumped on the bed and tried to eat the stupid rat! So I sent a stunner the cat's way but it jumped aside so I only hit a pillow and then there were feathers everywhere. The cat had the rat in its mouth and ran around the room-"

"Draco completely destroyed our dorm with those stunners of his!" groaned Neville.

"Well, at least I did something! You were just standing around."

"I was trying to stop you from destroying everything!"

"I wasn't destroying anything!"

"Oh yeah? What about my bed? And that cupboard? And-"

"Boys! Boys! Calm down. What happened next?"

"One of my stunners hit the cat and it dropped the rat," Draco said.

"That sounds good," Sirius commented carefully.

"Well," Neville continued, "not so much. The rat then hid in a hole in the wall where we couldn't get it out! And we heard a voice coming so we hid under the beds. Someone came in and noticed how trashed everything was. Whoever it was, he immediately went for a professor and we fled while that person was gone."

Sirius lowered the food he had in his hands and his expression turned blank.

"But don't worry," Draco hastily said, "we'll get the rat. We won't give up."

Sirius gaze wandered to Draco and then to Neville. Then he sighed. "Thanks guys. I know you tried. And I'm sorry I doubted you, Draco," Sirius said, but it was obvious that he was devastated.

"We'll get him," Neville said. "We'll get him and clear your name."

Neville and Draco snuck back into the castle and parted ways. As he walked back to his dorm, Draco worried about Sirius. The man had little left but hope, and some of that hope must have died with the news of the failed attempt to capture the rat. And Draco knew to what desperate measures perceived hopelessness could lead.

It was late at night and Draco was almost back in his dorm, when someone grabbed him by the shoulder and he spun around.

He came face to face with...

"Snape!"

TBC

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