hiddenscribbles (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hiddenscribbles) wrote2011-08-29 07:11 pm
hiddenscribbles) wrote2011-08-29 07:11 pm
CHAPTERED FIC (20/21, PART ONE): Immortalitas Aestas - R - H/D
Chapter Nineteen
Title: Immortalitas Aestas
Summary: There's been a heat spell cast on Hogwarts, and in between trying to counteract that, fight Voldemort and keep up in classes, Harry and Draco manage to find time to fall for each other.
Rating: R
NOTES FOR THIS CHAPTER: Because this chapter is so large, I'm going to be splitting it into three parts in order to post it to this journal. Links to the next section will be at the end, in order to make it easier to navigate.
Chapter One
Chapter Twenty
Harry was sitting in the window seat of the Gryffindor boys' dorm as dawn broke. Crookshanks had somehow gotten into the room and was lying on Harry's lap, head in the bend of his elbow. Harry absently stroked his fur as he thought over everything that had happened the past week.
There'd been Pansy's vision, and the sudden rush of panic at the thought of everything that would have to be done if they were to keep the school and its students safe from any impending battle. There'd been nightly meetings where the Adversarius members practiced their spellwork: sessions led by Blaise and Tracy, where they worked on the Contego shield; Charms sessions led by Lavender and Ron to reinforce defensive and offensive spells; meetings to discuss logistics. Then there'd been the house-led Charms drills, and even an Order meeting, although that was basically just to let everyone know what everyone else would be taking care of between then and Saturday, and what areas they'd cover during the battle. And, of course, they'd had to keep up with their classes during the day, and find time to complete their homework, so as not to cause suspicion. All of the members had been running on very little sleep the entire week which Harry was sure was a bad idea, but short of handing everyone a sleeping draught, couldn't be helped. There just simply weren't enough hours in the day.
And now it was Saturday, and Harry was already up, having slept no more than a few hours, and even those precious few hours of sleep had only been attained when Draco had unceremoniously dragged him off to his private room and basically thrown him into the bed. He scrubbed a hand over his face and stood, dislodging Crookshanks from his lap. Since he was already up, he figured he might as well get ready to face the day. He gathered up some clothes and headed for the showers.
As he reentered the dorm, Harry saw that Ron was awake, and Neville had started to stir. Ron nodded in greeting.
"Did you sleep?"
"A bit," Harry replied. "You?"
"Some."
They exchanged glances, and Ron gave a slight smile. "Give me a bit, yeah? We'll go down to breakfast together."
Harry nodded, and settled back down in the window seat to wait. The morning had dawned gray and cold, adding an even more ominous feel to the day. Harry hoped that it wouldn't rain.
Hermione joined them at the bottom of the stairs. "Did you two sleep okay?"
Harry couldn't help it. He laughed. He stole a glance at Ron, who was also fighting back laughter, and promptly dissolved into even more laughter, the two of them basically clutching at each other for support until Hermione looked at them with concern.
Harry drew in a deep breath and tried to get himself under control.
"Sorry. It's just that he already asked me that this morning, and it's really kind of a stupid question, because I doubt I got any more sleep than you did, which you know was not a lot."
Hermione looked slightly abashed. "Well, no. But I thought it polite to ask."
Ron smiled at her, still laughing, and looped an arm around her shoulders. "And we appreciate that."
Lavender was sitting on the sofa in the common room and, after exchanging greetings, she joined them as they headed to the Great Hall. The corridors were pretty much deserted, as there weren't too many early risers on Saturday, but when they entered the Great Hall they weren't surprised to see that those people who were up were members of the Adversarius and some of the staff.
They started to head to the Gryffindor table out of habit, but Blaise stopped them.
"Potter! Come over here. Everyone else, too."
There was a general noise of movement as benches scrapped backwards and people came over to the Slytherin table. Justin Finch-Fletchley was looking at Blaise curiously, so he elaborated.
"Since we're the only ones up so far, aside from the professors, who already know what I want to talk about, I thought we could hold a bit of an impromptu meeting."
There were nods and murmurs of assent, and everyone sat down.
"It's weird over here," Terry Boot said. "Completely different perspective than I'm used to."
"That's because it's better," Pansy said with a smirk, spooning some honey into her porridge.
Harry rolled his eyes. "What did you want to talk about, Blaise?"
"I'd like some details. How's Dumbledore going to do this?" he asked. "You know, this afternoon. Or evening. Or whatever. Do we even know what time this is happening?"
Morag, spreading jam on her toast, said, "Nine o'clock." Everyone turned to stare at her confusedly. She glanced up. "What?"
"How….," Blaise started to say, then shook his head. "Never mind."
"Nine o'clock," Pansy repeated. "Well. It's not like anyone's allowed outside anyway, so we won't have to worry about that. I guess we could always do the drill around seven, then, just to get everyone in their common rooms and accounted for?"
Harry nodded. "I'm pretty sure that's the plan. Not that I've heard anything definite." He was very careful to keep any bitterness out of his voice, but wasn't sure he'd succeeded, as Hermione had placed a hand on his arm, and Draco had shot him a sympathetic smile.
"How's your plant going, Macmillan?" Draco asked, changing the subject. "Have you got it set around the castle yet?"
Harry had already heard the update from Ernie, so he tuned him out. There were other questions being asked around the table about everyone else's progress, but all Harry could focus on was the fact that all of this was happening tonight and Harry wasn't sure he was ready.
But then again, could you ever be ready to kill someone? Even someone who deserved it? Harry wasn't so certain but also knew it wasn't a question anyone wanted to hear him ask.
Harry suddenly realized that everyone was staring at him expectantly and he had no idea why.
"What?" he asked blankly.
"You're ready, right?" Tracey asked irritably. "I mean, since this whole thing revolves around you, I just thought it prudent to ask."
Oh, right. They wanted assurances and platitudes. They wanted Harry to guarantee that everything would go just as they'd planned, that nothing would go wrong. Harry looked around at everyone and realized something else: they were scared. No, he corrected himself, not scared. They were terrified.
He looked at Hermione and Ron, who both gave him a small smile.
"We are all ready," he said. "All of us. There isn't anything any of us could have done better." The fear didn't recede from their faces, so Harry realized he needed to do something else. Time to be blunt, he decided, taking a quick look around to make sure their small group was still alone, and stood up with his wand out.
"Incarcerous!" he yelled, pointing his wand at Hannah.
Without even thinking about it, Hannah conjured Contego and Harry's spell bounced off harmlessly into the wall. There were surprised looks, and Harry smiled.
"See?" he asked. "You're ready."
There were bursts of laughter around the table as Harry sat back down and he could feel that the tension in the air had lessened. Not entirely, but it was certainly better.
He was just finishing his toast when Blaise stood up and threw a burning hex at him. Harry hardly had time to get his wand up, but did, and conjured a shielding spell. Blaise's hex bounced off, the glimmer of Harry's shield shimmering in the light. The hex hit the table, leaving a rather large char mark on the surface and the smell of burning wood in the air. Blaise nodded once in satisfaction and sat back down.
"He's ready, too," he added needlessly. Hermione rolled her eyes and fixed the table with a murmured spell.
"I keep forgetting you've done this before," Pansy said, looking at him over the rim of her cup.
Harry smiled slightly but didn't respond.
Let's hope this is the last time, he thought.
***
As the Great Hall had started to fill with the other students, there were several curious looks cast at the group of students at the Slytherin table, all of which the Slytherins ignored in their typical style. The members of the Adversarius dispersed to their usual spots as more students came in, the Hufflepuffs moving with great speed after a particularly nasty look from Nott.
Once everyone was settled, Draco realized that Harry had skipped out completely, and felt a slight flare of annoyance at his disappearance. He'd also snuck out before Draco had woken up that morning, and had hardly looked at him at all during breakfast, either. Something was obviously bothering him, and Draco wanted to know what it was. He got up from the table, ignoring Daphne's question about where he was going, and headed over to Hermione.
"Do you have a minute, Granger?" he asked, aware that all eyes were on him the instant he appeared behind her.
"I suppose," she said, closing her Transfigurations book. She looked at him curiously and he rolled his eyes.
"Privately?"
A look of recognition flared across her face and she gave a huff of laughter, nodding once. "Sure."
Draco resisted the urge to haul her up off the bench, standing impatiently as she gathered up her things and stood.
"Where to?" she asked.
Draco shook his head. "Doesn't matter. Just … not here."
She nodded again and led him out of the Hall, stopping at the foot of the stairs. There were still some stragglers coming down for breakfast, most of whom stared bemusedly at the duo at the bottom of the stairs; even though Draco and Hermione were getting along much better than previously, it was still odd for them to be spending any sort of time together.
"You're looking for Harry, right?" she asked quietly after a group of Ravenclaws passed.
Draco nodded. Lord, he must be really transparent.
She gave a slight grin and gestured for him to follow her up the stairs. "I don't know exactly where he is, but I can find out for you. Follow me."
Hermione was walking at a rather brisk pace and Draco realized he was one step short of running. "Is there a reason we're walking so fast?" he asked irritably.
"Oh, sorry," she said. "I didn't realize. I was thinking about something else." Draco rolled his eyes but noticed that she did slow down a bit.
They reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, who looked at Hermione, aghast. "Surely you're not letting him in, dear?"
"No, ma'am, he's waiting out here."
The Fat Lady gave a nod, then leaned forward. "Password?" she whispered, and Draco let out a snort of laughter.
Hermione whispered something and the portrait hole opened up. "I'll be right back," she told Draco.
As she disappeared Draco leaned against the wall, rubbing slightly at his temples with his fingertips. He could feel a slight headache coming on and wondered if he ought to visit Pomfrey to get a pain-relieving potion from her. The Fat Lady was looking at him with open curiosity written on her face, but he turned his back, ignoring her. He'd moved on to doing Arithmancy calculations in his head – honestly, what was taking her so long? – when the portrait swung open again and Hermione climbed out into the corridor.
"He's in the Owlery," she said without preamble.
Draco dropped his hands and tilted his head slightly. "How do you know that?"
"Um," she said, flushing pink. "Well, there's this thing that Harry has…." She trailed off, then shook her head. "You know what? I'm not going to tell you. Ask Harry."
Draco remembered his conversation with Lupin the day Harry and Pansy had gotten thrown out of the library, and said, "Is it the map Lupin mentioned?"
Hermione blinked. "Professor Lupin told you about the map?"
"Not exactly. He told me Harry had a map, and that I should ask him about it." He noticed that Hermione was holding a rather old bit of parchment, although she was trying to keep it out of sight behind her. He gestured at it and said, "Is that the map?"
Hermione bit her bottom lip, then nodded. "Yes. I'm not really supposed to have it, I don't think. It belongs to Harry. I just … borrowed it."
"Tell you what," Draco said, "you give it to me, and I'll not mention how I got it. I want to know what it's all about anyway, and since I'm going to see Harry I might as well ask him."
"I don't care if you tell him," Hermione said. "He'll probably guess anyway. But it won't work for you," she cautioned. "You have to have the password."
Draco raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Sounds complex."
"Yes," she murmured, then seemed to make up her mind. "Okay. Here it is."
Draco took the parchment from her hand, turning it over to examine it. "It's completely blank."
She grinned at him then and gave a laugh. "As far as you know, yes."
He tilted his head in acknowledgement then tucked it into his pocket. "Thanks, Hermione."
She waved at him as he turned and headed toward the Owlery. He decided that his headache wasn't as bad as he'd originally thought and decided to bypass the Hospital Wing. Besides, Pomfrey would just fuss at him and he really could do without that.
He climbed the stairs to the Owlery, pausing in the doorway when he heard Harry's voice, although he couldn't make out exactly what he was saying until he stepped into the room.
"… if I can do this," Harry was murmuring to Hedwig, who was standing on his arm, nuzzling her face against his hair.
Harry was seated on the window ledge, looking outside onto the castle grounds. He was stroking Hedwig's feathers softly, and she was hooting at him in response.
"I can't even cast the Cruciatus curse," Harry continued softly. "How am I supposed to cast the killing curse when I can't even summon enough hate to cast Crucio?"
Ah. So that's what was bothering him. Draco should have realized it was something like that and felt rather stupid that he hadn't figured it out. Harry had always gotten twitchy when anyone would mention the Unforgivables.
Hedwig obviously didn't have any response for him, and Harry sighed. "Fate of the world resting on my shoulders, indeed," Harry muttered.
Draco decided that was quite enough self-pity, and cleared his throat. Harry jumped at the sound, startling Hedwig, who hooted indignantly and flew up to her perch. Harry spun toward the sound, wand already held aloft, then relaxed slightly as he saw who it was.
"Draco," he murmured, tucking his wand away before scrubbing his hands across his face, briefly dislodging his glasses. "You scared me."
"Sorry," Draco said.
"No you're not," Harry said with a ghost of a smile. "How'd you find me?"
He pulled the tattered parchment out of his pocket in response and held it out to Harry. Harry took it, surprise written on his face. "How did you get this? It was in my trunk."
"I didn't," Draco said. "Hermione got it for me when she realized I was looking for you. I don't know exactly what this old piece of parchment is, but Lupin mentioned you had a map."
Harry blinked. "Um. Okay." He looked down at the parchment in his hands, then shook his head. "No. Wait. What?"
Draco laughed slightly, then reached to wrap his fingers around Harry's wrist, pulling him into a hug. "Lupin mentioned that you had a map, that day when you and Pansy got thrown out of the library. He told me to ask you about it. Hermione had this in her hands when she told me where you were, and I just sort of put two and two together."
"Oh," Harry said, returning the hug after a moment of hesitation. He sighed, resting his forehead against Draco's. "Want to see how it works, then?"
Draco nodded, curiosity overruling anything else. "Show me." It came out more like a demand than a request, causing Harry to give a small laugh.
Harry pulled back and drew out his wand. He held it over the parchment, saying, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
Draco watched in amazement as a map unfolded before his eyes. The whole of Hogwarts was laid out on the parchment, and he realized that you could actually see everyone in the school. His eyes focused on the Slytherin common room, seeing dots for Daphne and Millicent, and a bit further away a dot labeled "Pansy Parkinson" pacing back and forth in what was probably her room. He saw Professor Snape in his classroom, Filch patrolling the halls on the second floor, and Dumbledore in his office. He scanned the parchment before finding the Owlery, and seeing his and Harry's dots standing nearly on top of each other, looked up wide-eyed and said, "Wow."
Harry smiled slightly. "Yeah."
"How did you get this?" Draco asked, taking the parchment out of Harry's hands for a closer look.
"Fred and George gave it to me third year. I wasn't allowed to go to Hogsmeade because my uncle refused to sign my permission slip after I blew up my aunt, and I guess they thought it was a bit unfair or something. Or they just wanted to cause trouble."
"Hmm," Draco said, still looking avidly at the map. A dot labeled "Zacharias Smith" was standing quite close to one labeled "Anthony Goldstein", and Draco smirked. This map could be lots of fun, he thought, and he watched as the dots moved even closer. He then realized what Harry had said, and looked up from the map. "You blew up your aunt?"
Harry shrugged noncommittally. "It was an accident."
Draco filed that away to discuss another time, and handed the map back to Harry. "How do you turn it off?"
"Mischief managed," was Harry's reply, and the map went blank.
"Wow," Draco said again. "That map is amazing, Harry." Remembering the names he'd seen along the top of the map he asked, "Who were Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs? Do you know?"
That got a real smile out of Harry, who said, "Moony is Professor Lupin. Padfoot is Sirius, Wormtail is Peter Pettigrew, and Prongs, well, Prongs was my dad."
"Your dad made this?" Draco knew he sounded incredulous, but the magic and ingenuity that had to have gone into the map was crazy to think about. He'd seen a lot of astonishing things in his seventeen years in the magical world, but this map definitely topped nearly all of them.
"Yep. They called it the Marauder's Map. That's why Lupin knew about it. He took it from me third year when everyone thought Sirius was out to kill me, but gave it back when he resigned. He told me he could do it in good conscience because he was no longer my professor. And now, well, I guess he knows I'll keep it safe, so doesn't feel bad about letting me have it, even if it has allowed me to roam the halls without being detected, and gotten me into various bits of trouble over the years."
Deciding that this was yet another conversation to save for a later time, Draco nodded. "Okay, so Lupin's pretty brilliant after all."
Harry grinned. "I told you he was."
Loathe as he was to change Harry's mood, Draco knew they needed to talk about what he'd overheard, and the reason Harry had disappeared twice this morning. He lightly grasped Harry's wrist again, tugging him back toward the window seat to sit. He cast a quick cleaning charm before sitting down, pulling Harry to sit next to him. Realizing that it was nearly freezing in the Owlery, he also cast a quick warming charm and sighed in relief as the temperature rose. Harry seemed to know what he wanted to talk about, and the smile disappeared from his face.
"How much did you overhear, then?" he asked.
"Enough," Draco replied. "If something's bothering you, you should talk to me about it. I can offer an opinion, whereas your owl is rather limited in her response."
Harry gave a slight laugh. "I suppose so."
Draco folded his hands in his lap, unsure if Harry wanted to be touched. Harry was fiddling with the map, picking nervously at one corner, but Draco just waited him out. He knew Harry would eventually get up the nerve to say what was on his mind.
"Have you ever cast the killing curse?"
Draco blinked. That hadn't been what he was expecting. "No. I've cast the other two, but not that one. You have to really mean it."
"You have to really mean it for all of them, Draco."
"True. But the killing curse is sort of in a league of its own, as Pansy would say."
Harry sighed. "I know. I can't do it. I can't cast any of them, but I really can't cast that one."
Draco decided that he didn't care if Harry wanted to be touched or not, and reached out a hand, stilling the one that had still been plucking at the map. Harry's hand was cold, and Draco covered it completely with his own. "There are other ways to kill someone besides the killing curse, Harry. I'm sure you know that. I can think of a whole list of spells that would serve this purpose. But I don't think your inability to cast the Unforgivables – which is a good thing, Harry, make no mistake – is really the issue. So what's this really about?"
Harry turned his hand so that their fingers entwined. "I was thinking about what Tracey said at breakfast. How this whole battle tonight revolves around me. It's not like I needed her reminding me, or anything, but she has a point. Everyone expects me to kill him, Draco. And…." Harry trailed off, looking up, fingers tightening against Draco's own. "And I'm just not sure I can," he finally said, voice very quiet. "He deserves it, God knows, but when it comes down to it, I'm not sure I can stand there and take another person's life. Even a person like Voldemort."
Draco leaned back against the window frame and thought for a moment. He'd thought this might have been an issue and was kicking himself for not talking to Harry about it sooner. But he was at as much of a loss now as he had been when the thought had first crossed his mind, still unsure of what to say. Although he did have one question.
"What makes you think you have to kill him?"
Harry released a breath and slumped down, looking perplexed. "I don't know. I guess it's just the way Dumbledore's been talking, and all the extra training I've been having to do. I just … assumed."
"But he's never actually said that you're the one, right?" Draco pressed.
"No," Harry said, and Draco could see that he was thinking back over anything and everything that had ever been said to him on the subject of Voldemort. "No, he never said anything like that, now that I think about it."
Draco nodded like that solved everything. Harry saw him and rolled his eyes. "Tonight still has quite a bit to do with me, Draco, even if I don't have to be the one to cast the final curse."
"Sure. He's quite obsessed with you, if you ask me. Do you think you'll have to duel him?"
Harry released Draco's hand and pulled his glasses off, rubbing at his eyes. "I don't know. The last time he tried that it didn't work so well."
"Right, Priori Incantatem. I remember hearing my father mention that."
"You remember hearing your father mention that," Harry repeated. "I wasn't aware that my duel with Voldemort was a subject you'd discussed with your father."
Draco rolled his eyes. "He wasn't talking to me, you prat. He was talking to Snape. They were in the drawing room and I may have been hiding in the fireplace at the time and accidentally overheard them. Snape wasn't at the graveyard that night, so my father was filling him in, as this was prior to his spy status being discovered."
"What were you doing in your fireplace?" Harry asked.
"Oh. Well, there was this sticking charm that I'd read about in a book in my father's library, that was supposed to allow you to stick to surfaces like walls and whatnot and let you climb up or down them. It was hot in the house, so the fireplaces weren't lit, and I figured it might be a good place to try the spell out. Of course, I don't think I got it quite right, because I ended up stuck fast to the stone. It took two house-elves plus my mother to get me down." Draco realized that Harry was fighting back a smile and gave a half-smile of his own. "Don't even say anything, Harry. It wasn't funny."
Harry's mouth quivered with suppressed laughter. "I'm sure it wasn't," he finally managed, his voice tinged with humor.
Wanting to get the subject off his past humiliations (his father had been most unimpressed with Draco's attempt at the sticking charm), he returned the topic to that evening's upcoming events. "So. You don't think you'll have to duel, and you don't have to kill him yourself. But something is still bothering you, Harry, so let's have it."
The humor disappeared from Harry's face completely, and he stood up quickly, tucking the map into his robe pocket. He didn't say anything, instead walking over to the other window and leaning his elbows against the sill. Draco stayed seated, guessing that Harry needed some distance.
"Do you know how many times I've put my friends in danger?" Harry finally asked, voice very soft.
"Not an exact number, no," Draco said. "Double-digits?"
Harry huffed in annoyance, turning his head to look at Draco. When he spoke his voice was sharp. "This isn't a joke, Draco." He had his hands folded together and Draco could see that his fingers were turning white from the pressure. "The point is that I've put them into situations they shouldn't have had to be involved in countless times, and I'm about to do it again. Only this time, it's not just my friends. It's every single bloody person I care about. Forgive me if I'm unable to laugh it off or pretend like today is just another normal day. Because it's not."
Draco bowed his head briefly in acknowledgement. It had been stupid to try to be humorous about all this when it was obviously worrying Harry. "I'm sorry, Harry."
Harry sighed and put his face in his hands. "Forget it."
Draco stood, fidgeting with the edge of his robe. He didn't often have to comfort people and wasn't always sure what to do. Usually a hug and kiss would fix Harry's mood, but this was rather extenuating circumstances. Still, he supposed he could try.
"Come here," Draco murmured.
Harry sighed again as he straightened up. "There isn't really anything you can say, Draco, although I appreciate the effort."
"Harry," Draco said patiently. "Shut up for a minute and just come here."
Harry did, albeit rather slowly, like he was going to face an inquisition. He stopped directly in front of Draco and just stared at him. Draco looked him over closely, from the shadows beneath his eyes to the tension in his jaw, and the tiredness and fear he was trying to hide in his eyes. Not knowing what to say, and realizing there was little he could say that would help, he simply pulled Harry close and wrapped his arms around him. Harry sighed into the side of his neck, resting his face in the area where Draco's neck met his shoulder, and finally returned the embrace, arms coming up to wrap around Draco, hands fisting in the material of his robe.
They stood that way for a moment before Draco spoke.
"It will all be fine, Harry," he finally said. Harry made a noise of disagreement, but Draco shushed him. "It will. I'll be right there beside you, and you'll have Hermione and Weasley, both of whom are quite good at their charms, at your back. The adults all know what they're doing. We're as prepared as we possibly can be, you said so yourself at breakfast.
"And besides," he added. "I told you once before that this wasn't just your fight, that all of us – all of us, Harry – chose this. We wanted to be involved, and we're ready. For anything. And while Tracey may have had a point that this evening has quite a bit to do with you personally, she was wrong to insinuate that it had everything to do with you. We're fighting for our freedom, and our lives. And as a Slytherin who is quite concerned with the idea of self-preservation, I certainly am not leaving my life in the hands of others. After all, if you want something done right, you should do it yourself."
That got another slight laugh from Harry, who brought his head up so he could look Draco in the face. "Is that another line from Pansy?"
"Yes. I'm afraid my vocabulary is quite full of Muggle phrases, thanks to her."
Harry gave him a half-smile before he turned pensive. "You mentioned that you'd be there. To be honest, that's one of the things I'm worried about. Pansy told me about her vision, Draco. She told me that Lucius had a knife to your throat."
"I do believe it was a dagger, actually."
Harry rolled his eyes, the action speaking louder than any words, and Draco laughed. "Sorry. Anyway, it's not a concern. I've been brewing huge batches of the invincibility potion, as you know. I'll make sure I take some before anything starts, and have an extra bottle on me just in case. I'll be fine, Harry. I promise."
"Don't make promises you can't keep, Draco."
Draco tsked and said rather imperiously, "I'll have you know that I usually refrain from making promises unless I know for certain that I can keep them."
"Good to know," Harry murmured, leaning forward to kiss Draco. The gentle kiss grew stronger and they were snogging quite heatedly when the ring around Draco's finger warmed up, signaling a message via the Protean charm that Hermione had put on them. Harry's had obviously done the same, as he pulled back and looked at his right hand, eyes focusing on the words that had appeared on the ring.
"It's Hermione," Harry said. "Dumbledore's called a meeting."
They disentangled themselves from each other and Draco used his wand to straighten out their robes. Harry gave a last caress to Hedwig's feathers before they headed out the door, down to the meeting.
***
Dinner that night was a rather tense, stilted affair, at least for Pansy. She forced herself to put food in her mouth and swallow, not tasting anything and hoping it wouldn't all just come right back up. Next to her sat Blaise, who was uncharacteristically fiddling with his juice goblet with one hand while the fingers of the other tapped out a rhythm known only to him. Draco was meticulously cutting his roast beef into smaller and smaller pieces and then decidedly not eating them, and Tracey was pushing her carrots back and forth across her plate like a small child who hadn't yet learned proper table manners. Their behavior was completely un-Slytherin-like, but she supposed that really couldn't be helped.
The meeting that afternoon had been nerve-wracking. Dumbledore had told them that they would, indeed, be performing the lockdown drill directly after dinner, and would be going through the usual drill of charming the students into their common rooms and then searching down those who had tried to hide. Once everyone was found and safely returned to their dormitories, they would pull any students of majority age who wanted to participate in the battle – as they'd been doing in the drills the entire week – and come down to the Great Hall, where it would be revealed that this was not, in fact, a drill at all. Any students who had a sudden change of heart would be secluded in the Charms classroom, as the knowledge of the battle wasn't to be revealed to the rest of the students until it was absolutely necessary.
Pansy had to admit that the idea of hiding in the school was tempting. She knew she'd most likely find her father on the battlefield and wasn't really looking forward to having to face him down. She knew the other Slytherins were thinking along the same lines – nearly all of them had given up their families for their beliefs – but knew that, like herself, they'd all be out there when the time came.
Pansy glanced up, pulled from her thoughts as Blaise nearly knocked his juice over onto her plate. A bit farther down the table, sandwiched between Goyle and Millicent, sat Theo Nott. He looked like he was having trouble staying seated; he kept bouncing up slightly in his seat before sitting back down gingerly. Pansy decided to focus on his strange behavior instead of the increasing fear that kept bubbling up inside her; better to focus on someone else's problems, after all.
"What's the matter, Theo, did someone hex you in the arse with Acer Postulo?"
That got Draco's attention. He snorted with laughter as he set down his knife and looked along the table to Theo, who flushed bright red. His response got a chuckle from Blaise, who finally put his goblet down and smirked in Theo's direction.
"Sticking your arse in somewhere it wasn't wanted, Theo?" Blaise asked suggestively.
Even Tracey let out a snort at that, eyes sparkling with mirth as she looked across the table at Blaise, who winked.
"I can't imagine that anyone would want an arse like that, can you?" Draco asked snidely.
"I certainly wouldn't," Pansy said bluntly. "I prefer a man with more … substance."
At that Tracey lost the control she'd had on her laughter and cracked up, causing the entire group of seventh years to erupt in hilarity. And oh, it felt good to laugh like this after the seriousness that had been following her around all day and weighing her down. There were tears running down her face and she realized that she wasn't even laughing at Theo any longer, who was shooting them all absolutely murderous looks; it had nothing to do with Theo at all.
Mandy and Terry were twisted entirely around in their seats to look at the Slytherin table, eyes wide. In fact, Pansy realized as she hauled air into her lungs, trying to curb her giggles, the entire Hall had fallen silent, and everyone had turned to try to see what was going on.
Draco was still chuckling with mirth, hand over his mouth to stifle his amusement, and Blaise had practically fallen off the bench next to her, a hand on her arm the only thing keeping him in his seat.
"We'll see who has the last laugh," Theo hissed, elbowing a chortling Millicent as he stood up from his seat.
Pansy tilted her head back and stared at the ceiling, trying in vain to get her laughter under control. The laughter was finally mostly curtailed by Dumbledore, who chose that moment to speak.
"Mr. Nott, if you would please return to your seat, I'm afraid I can't have anyone leaving the Great Hall just yet."
Theo shot a dark look at Dumbledore, who returned the look with a serene expression. Realizing he couldn't very well ignore a direct request from the Headmaster, he sullenly sat back down. However, this time he chose a seat at the very end of the table, next to a first year girl named Clara, who looked at him curiously.
"Thank you, Mr. Nott," Dumbledore said. "If everyone would please finish eating quickly, we need to practice our emergency lockdown drill again. I realize that we've been having these drills quite often this past week, but the prefects and staff have been ironing out a few kinks in the process. We're fairly certain that we've finally figured out how to execute it perfectly, though, so need your help just one more time. Hopefully after this evening we can put the drill away until it is absolutely needed."
That effectively ended any remaining laughter and Pansy felt herself tense. She glanced at her watch: 6:45. Two hours and fifteen minutes until her vision became a reality.
"You all know the drill by now," Dumbledore said with a smile. "Prefects, please escort your housemates to their common rooms."
Pansy stood along with Draco, who gave her a tight nod. The fifth and sixth year prefects also stood. Pansy made a point to erase all emotion from her face; as this was supposedly only a drill it wouldn't do to show her nerves.
"You heard the Headmaster," Pansy said, slightly more sharp than she'd meant to. "Let's go."
She caught Draco's eye and jerked her chin in Theo's direction; he was trying to slip out while they weren't looking.
"Nott, don't even think about it," Draco said clearly. "You're going to be in the front of the bunch."
Theo's jaw clenched but he finally shrugged, moving along the table to stand next to Pansy. "Whatever."
Draco looked at him sharply. "Don't try anything funny."
Theo didn't reply, but there was a smirk on his lips. "Sure, Draco."
Pansy finally got the group of Slytherins moving with a few well-placed elbows and they made their way to the dungeons and finally into the common room. The younger students disappeared to their dorms as usual, the seventh years settling themselves on the sofas. Those sixth years that were old enough to participate in a hypothetical battle also stayed in the common room.
Only one sixth year prefect, Marcel Harper, was old enough to participate, so he joined Pansy and Draco out in the corridor. Draco muttered the charm to seal the entrance to the common room; a flash of blue light told them he'd done it correctly. Pansy then completed the final step, casting Invenio Desideror. Just as she finished, Professor Snape appeared from the opposite end of the corridor, a parchment popping into his hands with the names of any missing Slytherins.
"Only three," he said, glancing over the list. "Astoria Greengrass, Anastasia Vaisey and Graham Pritchard."
"Graham was at dinner," Marcel said. "He was sitting right next to me."
Snape gave a curt nod. "Let's take the list to the Great Hall."
When they reentered the Hall they saw Potter and Granger standing over a piece of old parchment. Potter was scanning the parchment while Granger read off the names from the list in her hand.
"Scarlett Fawcett," Granger said, glancing over Potter's shoulder.
"Kitchens," Potter replied after a moment.
"Orla Quirke?"
"Same. Ingrid Carmichael's in there, too. And so is Alfred Chambers."
"Okay, that takes care of the Ravenclaws," Granger said, returning the list to Professor Flitwick, who headed off to gather up his missing students.
"Needed a bit of after-dinner dinner?" Draco asked, amused.
Potter straightened with a slight grin. "Who knows?"
"How do you know where they are?" Pansy demanded.
Potter shrugged easily. "It's a secret."
Pansy tried to climb up on the dais to see what they'd been looking at, but Granger scooped the parchment up into her arms, and Draco further halted her progress by grabbing her around the elbow.
"Here's the Slytherin list," Snape said sourly, pushing past them. "Do find them in due haste."
Potter rolled his eyes but acquiesced, turning back to the parchment that Granger had placed back on the table.
"Pritchard's outside your common room," Potter said after another minute. "Looks like Astoria and Anastasia are in the loo outside the Charms classroom."
Snape nodded once. "Come," he said to Marcel, and the two of them headed out.
Potter turned around so that he was resting against the edge of the table. "Just waiting for the Hufflepuffs, then we can move on."
Pansy sat on the dais, hands folded together in her lap. Professor Sprout finally appeared with a list; there were two Hufflepuff second years missing, but Potter located them in yet another toilet, and Sprout set out to get them.
Pansy glanced at her watch again: 7:35. Draco saw her looking at it and caught one of her hands, squeezing it slightly before releasing it.
"Breathe, Pansy," he murmured. "It'll be all right."
Pansy rested her head on his shoulder for a moment, breathing once deeply. She continued to lean against Draco until the Hall started to fill with those students who said they wanted to fight – hypothetically speaking, of course – before finally standing as Professor Snape returned with the Slytherins. She was slightly surprised to see Nott among them, and was again distracted by the shifty look on his face.
"Something's up with Theo," she whispered to Draco, who pulled his gaze away from Potter to look.
"Hmm," he said. "We'll need to watch him, I think."
"You think he's on the Dark Lord's side, then?" Pansy asked quietly.
"Wouldn't surprise me one bit," Draco replied, just as softly.
Pansy sighed. "I really hope he's not. I've known him since we were little."
Draco made a sound of acknowledgement, but didn't say anything. They were all distracted by the appearance of Dumbledore, who was leading in the members of the Order of the Phoenix. The students that had volunteered to fight sat up a little straighter; it looked like they'd finally cottoned on that this wasn't another instance of "just in case", as the Order members had never been present for any of their previous drills.
"If I can have your attention, we have a rather serious matter to discuss," Dumbledore said, motioning for everyone to be seated. "I'm afraid that this is not a drill."
***
(part two)
Title: Immortalitas Aestas
Summary: There's been a heat spell cast on Hogwarts, and in between trying to counteract that, fight Voldemort and keep up in classes, Harry and Draco manage to find time to fall for each other.
Rating: R
NOTES FOR THIS CHAPTER: Because this chapter is so large, I'm going to be splitting it into three parts in order to post it to this journal. Links to the next section will be at the end, in order to make it easier to navigate.
Chapter One
Harry was sitting in the window seat of the Gryffindor boys' dorm as dawn broke. Crookshanks had somehow gotten into the room and was lying on Harry's lap, head in the bend of his elbow. Harry absently stroked his fur as he thought over everything that had happened the past week.
There'd been Pansy's vision, and the sudden rush of panic at the thought of everything that would have to be done if they were to keep the school and its students safe from any impending battle. There'd been nightly meetings where the Adversarius members practiced their spellwork: sessions led by Blaise and Tracy, where they worked on the Contego shield; Charms sessions led by Lavender and Ron to reinforce defensive and offensive spells; meetings to discuss logistics. Then there'd been the house-led Charms drills, and even an Order meeting, although that was basically just to let everyone know what everyone else would be taking care of between then and Saturday, and what areas they'd cover during the battle. And, of course, they'd had to keep up with their classes during the day, and find time to complete their homework, so as not to cause suspicion. All of the members had been running on very little sleep the entire week which Harry was sure was a bad idea, but short of handing everyone a sleeping draught, couldn't be helped. There just simply weren't enough hours in the day.
And now it was Saturday, and Harry was already up, having slept no more than a few hours, and even those precious few hours of sleep had only been attained when Draco had unceremoniously dragged him off to his private room and basically thrown him into the bed. He scrubbed a hand over his face and stood, dislodging Crookshanks from his lap. Since he was already up, he figured he might as well get ready to face the day. He gathered up some clothes and headed for the showers.
As he reentered the dorm, Harry saw that Ron was awake, and Neville had started to stir. Ron nodded in greeting.
"Did you sleep?"
"A bit," Harry replied. "You?"
"Some."
They exchanged glances, and Ron gave a slight smile. "Give me a bit, yeah? We'll go down to breakfast together."
Harry nodded, and settled back down in the window seat to wait. The morning had dawned gray and cold, adding an even more ominous feel to the day. Harry hoped that it wouldn't rain.
Hermione joined them at the bottom of the stairs. "Did you two sleep okay?"
Harry couldn't help it. He laughed. He stole a glance at Ron, who was also fighting back laughter, and promptly dissolved into even more laughter, the two of them basically clutching at each other for support until Hermione looked at them with concern.
Harry drew in a deep breath and tried to get himself under control.
"Sorry. It's just that he already asked me that this morning, and it's really kind of a stupid question, because I doubt I got any more sleep than you did, which you know was not a lot."
Hermione looked slightly abashed. "Well, no. But I thought it polite to ask."
Ron smiled at her, still laughing, and looped an arm around her shoulders. "And we appreciate that."
Lavender was sitting on the sofa in the common room and, after exchanging greetings, she joined them as they headed to the Great Hall. The corridors were pretty much deserted, as there weren't too many early risers on Saturday, but when they entered the Great Hall they weren't surprised to see that those people who were up were members of the Adversarius and some of the staff.
They started to head to the Gryffindor table out of habit, but Blaise stopped them.
"Potter! Come over here. Everyone else, too."
There was a general noise of movement as benches scrapped backwards and people came over to the Slytherin table. Justin Finch-Fletchley was looking at Blaise curiously, so he elaborated.
"Since we're the only ones up so far, aside from the professors, who already know what I want to talk about, I thought we could hold a bit of an impromptu meeting."
There were nods and murmurs of assent, and everyone sat down.
"It's weird over here," Terry Boot said. "Completely different perspective than I'm used to."
"That's because it's better," Pansy said with a smirk, spooning some honey into her porridge.
Harry rolled his eyes. "What did you want to talk about, Blaise?"
"I'd like some details. How's Dumbledore going to do this?" he asked. "You know, this afternoon. Or evening. Or whatever. Do we even know what time this is happening?"
Morag, spreading jam on her toast, said, "Nine o'clock." Everyone turned to stare at her confusedly. She glanced up. "What?"
"How….," Blaise started to say, then shook his head. "Never mind."
"Nine o'clock," Pansy repeated. "Well. It's not like anyone's allowed outside anyway, so we won't have to worry about that. I guess we could always do the drill around seven, then, just to get everyone in their common rooms and accounted for?"
Harry nodded. "I'm pretty sure that's the plan. Not that I've heard anything definite." He was very careful to keep any bitterness out of his voice, but wasn't sure he'd succeeded, as Hermione had placed a hand on his arm, and Draco had shot him a sympathetic smile.
"How's your plant going, Macmillan?" Draco asked, changing the subject. "Have you got it set around the castle yet?"
Harry had already heard the update from Ernie, so he tuned him out. There were other questions being asked around the table about everyone else's progress, but all Harry could focus on was the fact that all of this was happening tonight and Harry wasn't sure he was ready.
But then again, could you ever be ready to kill someone? Even someone who deserved it? Harry wasn't so certain but also knew it wasn't a question anyone wanted to hear him ask.
Harry suddenly realized that everyone was staring at him expectantly and he had no idea why.
"What?" he asked blankly.
"You're ready, right?" Tracey asked irritably. "I mean, since this whole thing revolves around you, I just thought it prudent to ask."
Oh, right. They wanted assurances and platitudes. They wanted Harry to guarantee that everything would go just as they'd planned, that nothing would go wrong. Harry looked around at everyone and realized something else: they were scared. No, he corrected himself, not scared. They were terrified.
He looked at Hermione and Ron, who both gave him a small smile.
"We are all ready," he said. "All of us. There isn't anything any of us could have done better." The fear didn't recede from their faces, so Harry realized he needed to do something else. Time to be blunt, he decided, taking a quick look around to make sure their small group was still alone, and stood up with his wand out.
"Incarcerous!" he yelled, pointing his wand at Hannah.
Without even thinking about it, Hannah conjured Contego and Harry's spell bounced off harmlessly into the wall. There were surprised looks, and Harry smiled.
"See?" he asked. "You're ready."
There were bursts of laughter around the table as Harry sat back down and he could feel that the tension in the air had lessened. Not entirely, but it was certainly better.
He was just finishing his toast when Blaise stood up and threw a burning hex at him. Harry hardly had time to get his wand up, but did, and conjured a shielding spell. Blaise's hex bounced off, the glimmer of Harry's shield shimmering in the light. The hex hit the table, leaving a rather large char mark on the surface and the smell of burning wood in the air. Blaise nodded once in satisfaction and sat back down.
"He's ready, too," he added needlessly. Hermione rolled her eyes and fixed the table with a murmured spell.
"I keep forgetting you've done this before," Pansy said, looking at him over the rim of her cup.
Harry smiled slightly but didn't respond.
Let's hope this is the last time, he thought.
***
As the Great Hall had started to fill with the other students, there were several curious looks cast at the group of students at the Slytherin table, all of which the Slytherins ignored in their typical style. The members of the Adversarius dispersed to their usual spots as more students came in, the Hufflepuffs moving with great speed after a particularly nasty look from Nott.
Once everyone was settled, Draco realized that Harry had skipped out completely, and felt a slight flare of annoyance at his disappearance. He'd also snuck out before Draco had woken up that morning, and had hardly looked at him at all during breakfast, either. Something was obviously bothering him, and Draco wanted to know what it was. He got up from the table, ignoring Daphne's question about where he was going, and headed over to Hermione.
"Do you have a minute, Granger?" he asked, aware that all eyes were on him the instant he appeared behind her.
"I suppose," she said, closing her Transfigurations book. She looked at him curiously and he rolled his eyes.
"Privately?"
A look of recognition flared across her face and she gave a huff of laughter, nodding once. "Sure."
Draco resisted the urge to haul her up off the bench, standing impatiently as she gathered up her things and stood.
"Where to?" she asked.
Draco shook his head. "Doesn't matter. Just … not here."
She nodded again and led him out of the Hall, stopping at the foot of the stairs. There were still some stragglers coming down for breakfast, most of whom stared bemusedly at the duo at the bottom of the stairs; even though Draco and Hermione were getting along much better than previously, it was still odd for them to be spending any sort of time together.
"You're looking for Harry, right?" she asked quietly after a group of Ravenclaws passed.
Draco nodded. Lord, he must be really transparent.
She gave a slight grin and gestured for him to follow her up the stairs. "I don't know exactly where he is, but I can find out for you. Follow me."
Hermione was walking at a rather brisk pace and Draco realized he was one step short of running. "Is there a reason we're walking so fast?" he asked irritably.
"Oh, sorry," she said. "I didn't realize. I was thinking about something else." Draco rolled his eyes but noticed that she did slow down a bit.
They reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, who looked at Hermione, aghast. "Surely you're not letting him in, dear?"
"No, ma'am, he's waiting out here."
The Fat Lady gave a nod, then leaned forward. "Password?" she whispered, and Draco let out a snort of laughter.
Hermione whispered something and the portrait hole opened up. "I'll be right back," she told Draco.
As she disappeared Draco leaned against the wall, rubbing slightly at his temples with his fingertips. He could feel a slight headache coming on and wondered if he ought to visit Pomfrey to get a pain-relieving potion from her. The Fat Lady was looking at him with open curiosity written on her face, but he turned his back, ignoring her. He'd moved on to doing Arithmancy calculations in his head – honestly, what was taking her so long? – when the portrait swung open again and Hermione climbed out into the corridor.
"He's in the Owlery," she said without preamble.
Draco dropped his hands and tilted his head slightly. "How do you know that?"
"Um," she said, flushing pink. "Well, there's this thing that Harry has…." She trailed off, then shook her head. "You know what? I'm not going to tell you. Ask Harry."
Draco remembered his conversation with Lupin the day Harry and Pansy had gotten thrown out of the library, and said, "Is it the map Lupin mentioned?"
Hermione blinked. "Professor Lupin told you about the map?"
"Not exactly. He told me Harry had a map, and that I should ask him about it." He noticed that Hermione was holding a rather old bit of parchment, although she was trying to keep it out of sight behind her. He gestured at it and said, "Is that the map?"
Hermione bit her bottom lip, then nodded. "Yes. I'm not really supposed to have it, I don't think. It belongs to Harry. I just … borrowed it."
"Tell you what," Draco said, "you give it to me, and I'll not mention how I got it. I want to know what it's all about anyway, and since I'm going to see Harry I might as well ask him."
"I don't care if you tell him," Hermione said. "He'll probably guess anyway. But it won't work for you," she cautioned. "You have to have the password."
Draco raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Sounds complex."
"Yes," she murmured, then seemed to make up her mind. "Okay. Here it is."
Draco took the parchment from her hand, turning it over to examine it. "It's completely blank."
She grinned at him then and gave a laugh. "As far as you know, yes."
He tilted his head in acknowledgement then tucked it into his pocket. "Thanks, Hermione."
She waved at him as he turned and headed toward the Owlery. He decided that his headache wasn't as bad as he'd originally thought and decided to bypass the Hospital Wing. Besides, Pomfrey would just fuss at him and he really could do without that.
He climbed the stairs to the Owlery, pausing in the doorway when he heard Harry's voice, although he couldn't make out exactly what he was saying until he stepped into the room.
"… if I can do this," Harry was murmuring to Hedwig, who was standing on his arm, nuzzling her face against his hair.
Harry was seated on the window ledge, looking outside onto the castle grounds. He was stroking Hedwig's feathers softly, and she was hooting at him in response.
"I can't even cast the Cruciatus curse," Harry continued softly. "How am I supposed to cast the killing curse when I can't even summon enough hate to cast Crucio?"
Ah. So that's what was bothering him. Draco should have realized it was something like that and felt rather stupid that he hadn't figured it out. Harry had always gotten twitchy when anyone would mention the Unforgivables.
Hedwig obviously didn't have any response for him, and Harry sighed. "Fate of the world resting on my shoulders, indeed," Harry muttered.
Draco decided that was quite enough self-pity, and cleared his throat. Harry jumped at the sound, startling Hedwig, who hooted indignantly and flew up to her perch. Harry spun toward the sound, wand already held aloft, then relaxed slightly as he saw who it was.
"Draco," he murmured, tucking his wand away before scrubbing his hands across his face, briefly dislodging his glasses. "You scared me."
"Sorry," Draco said.
"No you're not," Harry said with a ghost of a smile. "How'd you find me?"
He pulled the tattered parchment out of his pocket in response and held it out to Harry. Harry took it, surprise written on his face. "How did you get this? It was in my trunk."
"I didn't," Draco said. "Hermione got it for me when she realized I was looking for you. I don't know exactly what this old piece of parchment is, but Lupin mentioned you had a map."
Harry blinked. "Um. Okay." He looked down at the parchment in his hands, then shook his head. "No. Wait. What?"
Draco laughed slightly, then reached to wrap his fingers around Harry's wrist, pulling him into a hug. "Lupin mentioned that you had a map, that day when you and Pansy got thrown out of the library. He told me to ask you about it. Hermione had this in her hands when she told me where you were, and I just sort of put two and two together."
"Oh," Harry said, returning the hug after a moment of hesitation. He sighed, resting his forehead against Draco's. "Want to see how it works, then?"
Draco nodded, curiosity overruling anything else. "Show me." It came out more like a demand than a request, causing Harry to give a small laugh.
Harry pulled back and drew out his wand. He held it over the parchment, saying, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
Draco watched in amazement as a map unfolded before his eyes. The whole of Hogwarts was laid out on the parchment, and he realized that you could actually see everyone in the school. His eyes focused on the Slytherin common room, seeing dots for Daphne and Millicent, and a bit further away a dot labeled "Pansy Parkinson" pacing back and forth in what was probably her room. He saw Professor Snape in his classroom, Filch patrolling the halls on the second floor, and Dumbledore in his office. He scanned the parchment before finding the Owlery, and seeing his and Harry's dots standing nearly on top of each other, looked up wide-eyed and said, "Wow."
Harry smiled slightly. "Yeah."
"How did you get this?" Draco asked, taking the parchment out of Harry's hands for a closer look.
"Fred and George gave it to me third year. I wasn't allowed to go to Hogsmeade because my uncle refused to sign my permission slip after I blew up my aunt, and I guess they thought it was a bit unfair or something. Or they just wanted to cause trouble."
"Hmm," Draco said, still looking avidly at the map. A dot labeled "Zacharias Smith" was standing quite close to one labeled "Anthony Goldstein", and Draco smirked. This map could be lots of fun, he thought, and he watched as the dots moved even closer. He then realized what Harry had said, and looked up from the map. "You blew up your aunt?"
Harry shrugged noncommittally. "It was an accident."
Draco filed that away to discuss another time, and handed the map back to Harry. "How do you turn it off?"
"Mischief managed," was Harry's reply, and the map went blank.
"Wow," Draco said again. "That map is amazing, Harry." Remembering the names he'd seen along the top of the map he asked, "Who were Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs? Do you know?"
That got a real smile out of Harry, who said, "Moony is Professor Lupin. Padfoot is Sirius, Wormtail is Peter Pettigrew, and Prongs, well, Prongs was my dad."
"Your dad made this?" Draco knew he sounded incredulous, but the magic and ingenuity that had to have gone into the map was crazy to think about. He'd seen a lot of astonishing things in his seventeen years in the magical world, but this map definitely topped nearly all of them.
"Yep. They called it the Marauder's Map. That's why Lupin knew about it. He took it from me third year when everyone thought Sirius was out to kill me, but gave it back when he resigned. He told me he could do it in good conscience because he was no longer my professor. And now, well, I guess he knows I'll keep it safe, so doesn't feel bad about letting me have it, even if it has allowed me to roam the halls without being detected, and gotten me into various bits of trouble over the years."
Deciding that this was yet another conversation to save for a later time, Draco nodded. "Okay, so Lupin's pretty brilliant after all."
Harry grinned. "I told you he was."
Loathe as he was to change Harry's mood, Draco knew they needed to talk about what he'd overheard, and the reason Harry had disappeared twice this morning. He lightly grasped Harry's wrist again, tugging him back toward the window seat to sit. He cast a quick cleaning charm before sitting down, pulling Harry to sit next to him. Realizing that it was nearly freezing in the Owlery, he also cast a quick warming charm and sighed in relief as the temperature rose. Harry seemed to know what he wanted to talk about, and the smile disappeared from his face.
"How much did you overhear, then?" he asked.
"Enough," Draco replied. "If something's bothering you, you should talk to me about it. I can offer an opinion, whereas your owl is rather limited in her response."
Harry gave a slight laugh. "I suppose so."
Draco folded his hands in his lap, unsure if Harry wanted to be touched. Harry was fiddling with the map, picking nervously at one corner, but Draco just waited him out. He knew Harry would eventually get up the nerve to say what was on his mind.
"Have you ever cast the killing curse?"
Draco blinked. That hadn't been what he was expecting. "No. I've cast the other two, but not that one. You have to really mean it."
"You have to really mean it for all of them, Draco."
"True. But the killing curse is sort of in a league of its own, as Pansy would say."
Harry sighed. "I know. I can't do it. I can't cast any of them, but I really can't cast that one."
Draco decided that he didn't care if Harry wanted to be touched or not, and reached out a hand, stilling the one that had still been plucking at the map. Harry's hand was cold, and Draco covered it completely with his own. "There are other ways to kill someone besides the killing curse, Harry. I'm sure you know that. I can think of a whole list of spells that would serve this purpose. But I don't think your inability to cast the Unforgivables – which is a good thing, Harry, make no mistake – is really the issue. So what's this really about?"
Harry turned his hand so that their fingers entwined. "I was thinking about what Tracey said at breakfast. How this whole battle tonight revolves around me. It's not like I needed her reminding me, or anything, but she has a point. Everyone expects me to kill him, Draco. And…." Harry trailed off, looking up, fingers tightening against Draco's own. "And I'm just not sure I can," he finally said, voice very quiet. "He deserves it, God knows, but when it comes down to it, I'm not sure I can stand there and take another person's life. Even a person like Voldemort."
Draco leaned back against the window frame and thought for a moment. He'd thought this might have been an issue and was kicking himself for not talking to Harry about it sooner. But he was at as much of a loss now as he had been when the thought had first crossed his mind, still unsure of what to say. Although he did have one question.
"What makes you think you have to kill him?"
Harry released a breath and slumped down, looking perplexed. "I don't know. I guess it's just the way Dumbledore's been talking, and all the extra training I've been having to do. I just … assumed."
"But he's never actually said that you're the one, right?" Draco pressed.
"No," Harry said, and Draco could see that he was thinking back over anything and everything that had ever been said to him on the subject of Voldemort. "No, he never said anything like that, now that I think about it."
Draco nodded like that solved everything. Harry saw him and rolled his eyes. "Tonight still has quite a bit to do with me, Draco, even if I don't have to be the one to cast the final curse."
"Sure. He's quite obsessed with you, if you ask me. Do you think you'll have to duel him?"
Harry released Draco's hand and pulled his glasses off, rubbing at his eyes. "I don't know. The last time he tried that it didn't work so well."
"Right, Priori Incantatem. I remember hearing my father mention that."
"You remember hearing your father mention that," Harry repeated. "I wasn't aware that my duel with Voldemort was a subject you'd discussed with your father."
Draco rolled his eyes. "He wasn't talking to me, you prat. He was talking to Snape. They were in the drawing room and I may have been hiding in the fireplace at the time and accidentally overheard them. Snape wasn't at the graveyard that night, so my father was filling him in, as this was prior to his spy status being discovered."
"What were you doing in your fireplace?" Harry asked.
"Oh. Well, there was this sticking charm that I'd read about in a book in my father's library, that was supposed to allow you to stick to surfaces like walls and whatnot and let you climb up or down them. It was hot in the house, so the fireplaces weren't lit, and I figured it might be a good place to try the spell out. Of course, I don't think I got it quite right, because I ended up stuck fast to the stone. It took two house-elves plus my mother to get me down." Draco realized that Harry was fighting back a smile and gave a half-smile of his own. "Don't even say anything, Harry. It wasn't funny."
Harry's mouth quivered with suppressed laughter. "I'm sure it wasn't," he finally managed, his voice tinged with humor.
Wanting to get the subject off his past humiliations (his father had been most unimpressed with Draco's attempt at the sticking charm), he returned the topic to that evening's upcoming events. "So. You don't think you'll have to duel, and you don't have to kill him yourself. But something is still bothering you, Harry, so let's have it."
The humor disappeared from Harry's face completely, and he stood up quickly, tucking the map into his robe pocket. He didn't say anything, instead walking over to the other window and leaning his elbows against the sill. Draco stayed seated, guessing that Harry needed some distance.
"Do you know how many times I've put my friends in danger?" Harry finally asked, voice very soft.
"Not an exact number, no," Draco said. "Double-digits?"
Harry huffed in annoyance, turning his head to look at Draco. When he spoke his voice was sharp. "This isn't a joke, Draco." He had his hands folded together and Draco could see that his fingers were turning white from the pressure. "The point is that I've put them into situations they shouldn't have had to be involved in countless times, and I'm about to do it again. Only this time, it's not just my friends. It's every single bloody person I care about. Forgive me if I'm unable to laugh it off or pretend like today is just another normal day. Because it's not."
Draco bowed his head briefly in acknowledgement. It had been stupid to try to be humorous about all this when it was obviously worrying Harry. "I'm sorry, Harry."
Harry sighed and put his face in his hands. "Forget it."
Draco stood, fidgeting with the edge of his robe. He didn't often have to comfort people and wasn't always sure what to do. Usually a hug and kiss would fix Harry's mood, but this was rather extenuating circumstances. Still, he supposed he could try.
"Come here," Draco murmured.
Harry sighed again as he straightened up. "There isn't really anything you can say, Draco, although I appreciate the effort."
"Harry," Draco said patiently. "Shut up for a minute and just come here."
Harry did, albeit rather slowly, like he was going to face an inquisition. He stopped directly in front of Draco and just stared at him. Draco looked him over closely, from the shadows beneath his eyes to the tension in his jaw, and the tiredness and fear he was trying to hide in his eyes. Not knowing what to say, and realizing there was little he could say that would help, he simply pulled Harry close and wrapped his arms around him. Harry sighed into the side of his neck, resting his face in the area where Draco's neck met his shoulder, and finally returned the embrace, arms coming up to wrap around Draco, hands fisting in the material of his robe.
They stood that way for a moment before Draco spoke.
"It will all be fine, Harry," he finally said. Harry made a noise of disagreement, but Draco shushed him. "It will. I'll be right there beside you, and you'll have Hermione and Weasley, both of whom are quite good at their charms, at your back. The adults all know what they're doing. We're as prepared as we possibly can be, you said so yourself at breakfast.
"And besides," he added. "I told you once before that this wasn't just your fight, that all of us – all of us, Harry – chose this. We wanted to be involved, and we're ready. For anything. And while Tracey may have had a point that this evening has quite a bit to do with you personally, she was wrong to insinuate that it had everything to do with you. We're fighting for our freedom, and our lives. And as a Slytherin who is quite concerned with the idea of self-preservation, I certainly am not leaving my life in the hands of others. After all, if you want something done right, you should do it yourself."
That got another slight laugh from Harry, who brought his head up so he could look Draco in the face. "Is that another line from Pansy?"
"Yes. I'm afraid my vocabulary is quite full of Muggle phrases, thanks to her."
Harry gave him a half-smile before he turned pensive. "You mentioned that you'd be there. To be honest, that's one of the things I'm worried about. Pansy told me about her vision, Draco. She told me that Lucius had a knife to your throat."
"I do believe it was a dagger, actually."
Harry rolled his eyes, the action speaking louder than any words, and Draco laughed. "Sorry. Anyway, it's not a concern. I've been brewing huge batches of the invincibility potion, as you know. I'll make sure I take some before anything starts, and have an extra bottle on me just in case. I'll be fine, Harry. I promise."
"Don't make promises you can't keep, Draco."
Draco tsked and said rather imperiously, "I'll have you know that I usually refrain from making promises unless I know for certain that I can keep them."
"Good to know," Harry murmured, leaning forward to kiss Draco. The gentle kiss grew stronger and they were snogging quite heatedly when the ring around Draco's finger warmed up, signaling a message via the Protean charm that Hermione had put on them. Harry's had obviously done the same, as he pulled back and looked at his right hand, eyes focusing on the words that had appeared on the ring.
"It's Hermione," Harry said. "Dumbledore's called a meeting."
They disentangled themselves from each other and Draco used his wand to straighten out their robes. Harry gave a last caress to Hedwig's feathers before they headed out the door, down to the meeting.
***
Dinner that night was a rather tense, stilted affair, at least for Pansy. She forced herself to put food in her mouth and swallow, not tasting anything and hoping it wouldn't all just come right back up. Next to her sat Blaise, who was uncharacteristically fiddling with his juice goblet with one hand while the fingers of the other tapped out a rhythm known only to him. Draco was meticulously cutting his roast beef into smaller and smaller pieces and then decidedly not eating them, and Tracey was pushing her carrots back and forth across her plate like a small child who hadn't yet learned proper table manners. Their behavior was completely un-Slytherin-like, but she supposed that really couldn't be helped.
The meeting that afternoon had been nerve-wracking. Dumbledore had told them that they would, indeed, be performing the lockdown drill directly after dinner, and would be going through the usual drill of charming the students into their common rooms and then searching down those who had tried to hide. Once everyone was found and safely returned to their dormitories, they would pull any students of majority age who wanted to participate in the battle – as they'd been doing in the drills the entire week – and come down to the Great Hall, where it would be revealed that this was not, in fact, a drill at all. Any students who had a sudden change of heart would be secluded in the Charms classroom, as the knowledge of the battle wasn't to be revealed to the rest of the students until it was absolutely necessary.
Pansy had to admit that the idea of hiding in the school was tempting. She knew she'd most likely find her father on the battlefield and wasn't really looking forward to having to face him down. She knew the other Slytherins were thinking along the same lines – nearly all of them had given up their families for their beliefs – but knew that, like herself, they'd all be out there when the time came.
Pansy glanced up, pulled from her thoughts as Blaise nearly knocked his juice over onto her plate. A bit farther down the table, sandwiched between Goyle and Millicent, sat Theo Nott. He looked like he was having trouble staying seated; he kept bouncing up slightly in his seat before sitting back down gingerly. Pansy decided to focus on his strange behavior instead of the increasing fear that kept bubbling up inside her; better to focus on someone else's problems, after all.
"What's the matter, Theo, did someone hex you in the arse with Acer Postulo?"
That got Draco's attention. He snorted with laughter as he set down his knife and looked along the table to Theo, who flushed bright red. His response got a chuckle from Blaise, who finally put his goblet down and smirked in Theo's direction.
"Sticking your arse in somewhere it wasn't wanted, Theo?" Blaise asked suggestively.
Even Tracey let out a snort at that, eyes sparkling with mirth as she looked across the table at Blaise, who winked.
"I can't imagine that anyone would want an arse like that, can you?" Draco asked snidely.
"I certainly wouldn't," Pansy said bluntly. "I prefer a man with more … substance."
At that Tracey lost the control she'd had on her laughter and cracked up, causing the entire group of seventh years to erupt in hilarity. And oh, it felt good to laugh like this after the seriousness that had been following her around all day and weighing her down. There were tears running down her face and she realized that she wasn't even laughing at Theo any longer, who was shooting them all absolutely murderous looks; it had nothing to do with Theo at all.
Mandy and Terry were twisted entirely around in their seats to look at the Slytherin table, eyes wide. In fact, Pansy realized as she hauled air into her lungs, trying to curb her giggles, the entire Hall had fallen silent, and everyone had turned to try to see what was going on.
Draco was still chuckling with mirth, hand over his mouth to stifle his amusement, and Blaise had practically fallen off the bench next to her, a hand on her arm the only thing keeping him in his seat.
"We'll see who has the last laugh," Theo hissed, elbowing a chortling Millicent as he stood up from his seat.
Pansy tilted her head back and stared at the ceiling, trying in vain to get her laughter under control. The laughter was finally mostly curtailed by Dumbledore, who chose that moment to speak.
"Mr. Nott, if you would please return to your seat, I'm afraid I can't have anyone leaving the Great Hall just yet."
Theo shot a dark look at Dumbledore, who returned the look with a serene expression. Realizing he couldn't very well ignore a direct request from the Headmaster, he sullenly sat back down. However, this time he chose a seat at the very end of the table, next to a first year girl named Clara, who looked at him curiously.
"Thank you, Mr. Nott," Dumbledore said. "If everyone would please finish eating quickly, we need to practice our emergency lockdown drill again. I realize that we've been having these drills quite often this past week, but the prefects and staff have been ironing out a few kinks in the process. We're fairly certain that we've finally figured out how to execute it perfectly, though, so need your help just one more time. Hopefully after this evening we can put the drill away until it is absolutely needed."
That effectively ended any remaining laughter and Pansy felt herself tense. She glanced at her watch: 6:45. Two hours and fifteen minutes until her vision became a reality.
"You all know the drill by now," Dumbledore said with a smile. "Prefects, please escort your housemates to their common rooms."
Pansy stood along with Draco, who gave her a tight nod. The fifth and sixth year prefects also stood. Pansy made a point to erase all emotion from her face; as this was supposedly only a drill it wouldn't do to show her nerves.
"You heard the Headmaster," Pansy said, slightly more sharp than she'd meant to. "Let's go."
She caught Draco's eye and jerked her chin in Theo's direction; he was trying to slip out while they weren't looking.
"Nott, don't even think about it," Draco said clearly. "You're going to be in the front of the bunch."
Theo's jaw clenched but he finally shrugged, moving along the table to stand next to Pansy. "Whatever."
Draco looked at him sharply. "Don't try anything funny."
Theo didn't reply, but there was a smirk on his lips. "Sure, Draco."
Pansy finally got the group of Slytherins moving with a few well-placed elbows and they made their way to the dungeons and finally into the common room. The younger students disappeared to their dorms as usual, the seventh years settling themselves on the sofas. Those sixth years that were old enough to participate in a hypothetical battle also stayed in the common room.
Only one sixth year prefect, Marcel Harper, was old enough to participate, so he joined Pansy and Draco out in the corridor. Draco muttered the charm to seal the entrance to the common room; a flash of blue light told them he'd done it correctly. Pansy then completed the final step, casting Invenio Desideror. Just as she finished, Professor Snape appeared from the opposite end of the corridor, a parchment popping into his hands with the names of any missing Slytherins.
"Only three," he said, glancing over the list. "Astoria Greengrass, Anastasia Vaisey and Graham Pritchard."
"Graham was at dinner," Marcel said. "He was sitting right next to me."
Snape gave a curt nod. "Let's take the list to the Great Hall."
When they reentered the Hall they saw Potter and Granger standing over a piece of old parchment. Potter was scanning the parchment while Granger read off the names from the list in her hand.
"Scarlett Fawcett," Granger said, glancing over Potter's shoulder.
"Kitchens," Potter replied after a moment.
"Orla Quirke?"
"Same. Ingrid Carmichael's in there, too. And so is Alfred Chambers."
"Okay, that takes care of the Ravenclaws," Granger said, returning the list to Professor Flitwick, who headed off to gather up his missing students.
"Needed a bit of after-dinner dinner?" Draco asked, amused.
Potter straightened with a slight grin. "Who knows?"
"How do you know where they are?" Pansy demanded.
Potter shrugged easily. "It's a secret."
Pansy tried to climb up on the dais to see what they'd been looking at, but Granger scooped the parchment up into her arms, and Draco further halted her progress by grabbing her around the elbow.
"Here's the Slytherin list," Snape said sourly, pushing past them. "Do find them in due haste."
Potter rolled his eyes but acquiesced, turning back to the parchment that Granger had placed back on the table.
"Pritchard's outside your common room," Potter said after another minute. "Looks like Astoria and Anastasia are in the loo outside the Charms classroom."
Snape nodded once. "Come," he said to Marcel, and the two of them headed out.
Potter turned around so that he was resting against the edge of the table. "Just waiting for the Hufflepuffs, then we can move on."
Pansy sat on the dais, hands folded together in her lap. Professor Sprout finally appeared with a list; there were two Hufflepuff second years missing, but Potter located them in yet another toilet, and Sprout set out to get them.
Pansy glanced at her watch again: 7:35. Draco saw her looking at it and caught one of her hands, squeezing it slightly before releasing it.
"Breathe, Pansy," he murmured. "It'll be all right."
Pansy rested her head on his shoulder for a moment, breathing once deeply. She continued to lean against Draco until the Hall started to fill with those students who said they wanted to fight – hypothetically speaking, of course – before finally standing as Professor Snape returned with the Slytherins. She was slightly surprised to see Nott among them, and was again distracted by the shifty look on his face.
"Something's up with Theo," she whispered to Draco, who pulled his gaze away from Potter to look.
"Hmm," he said. "We'll need to watch him, I think."
"You think he's on the Dark Lord's side, then?" Pansy asked quietly.
"Wouldn't surprise me one bit," Draco replied, just as softly.
Pansy sighed. "I really hope he's not. I've known him since we were little."
Draco made a sound of acknowledgement, but didn't say anything. They were all distracted by the appearance of Dumbledore, who was leading in the members of the Order of the Phoenix. The students that had volunteered to fight sat up a little straighter; it looked like they'd finally cottoned on that this wasn't another instance of "just in case", as the Order members had never been present for any of their previous drills.
"If I can have your attention, we have a rather serious matter to discuss," Dumbledore said, motioning for everyone to be seated. "I'm afraid that this is not a drill."
***
(part two)