After All TBGC
Updated: January 12, 2006
Summer 4: Part E
Dumbledore had lost the battle of whether
Dementors would be allowed at the school. Of
course, Harry said that he had more conceded than lost, but Draco refused to hear any of
it. Two days before he was scheduled to leave,
McGonagall informed them at breakfast that they were not to go outside that day or the
next, as the Dementors were walking the school grounds, trying to locate any trace of
Sirius Black. They would do the castle itself
the week before school started, at which time Harry would be going to stay at the Leaky
Cauldron, as the Weasleys were still in
Draco was secretly jealous of Harry, though
he would never have admitted it, especially when they were informed that Minister Fudge
would be personally escorting Harry. Harry,
however, did not seem in the least impressed, but in fact, looked worried, afraid that he
had done something wrong. He lightened
considerably at the reassurance that he’d done nothing and that the Minister simply
wanted to have a word with him.
After breakfast that morning, Draco thought
they would spend the day in their room, but Harry grabbed a few things out of his trunk
and told Draco that he was welcome to come if he wanted.
He didn’t even wait for Draco to ask what it was they were doing before
darting out the bedroom door.
Getting up from the bed where he had sat
while Harry rummaged, he hurried after the other boy.
Harry may have been smaller than Draco but he was damned quick when he wanted to
be. They went three flights up, climbed a
rickety ladder, and went through an old beat up door, “Careful not to close that,
Malfoy, it only opens from the inside,” before Draco found himself standing on the
top of the
There was a book called ‘Demented
Dementors’, a pair of binoculars, a thick rain cloak, and two very mashed sandwiches
that had quite obviously been made the day before. “What
are you doing, Potter?”
Harry looked up, as if surprised to see Draco
standing there. “Professor McGonagall
said the dementors were going to be walking around the school grounds today and I wanted
to get a look at them.”
Draco frowned, “Why ever for? They’re just... creatures in long black cloaks that suck out
all your happy memories.”
“I know that. I just want to see.” Sitting on the edge of the tower, Harry put the
binoculars to his face and began scanning the grounds.
“Do you expect we’ll be here all day?”
He shrugged, “Don’t know, depends
on where they start, doesn’t it?”
An hour later, Draco didn’t much care
where they started, as long as they got within view soon.
He had skimmed the whole of the book Harry brought, reading about the affects and
the visage of the Dementors, and the various statistics of how long it took people to go
insane when they were continually exposed to them. He’d
taken his turn with the binoculars, but hadn’t been able to see anything of interest,
except the tops of the trees of the
He was on the verge of demanding that Harry
at least go and get something for him to play, when an excited cry startled him. “There it is!”
Draco immediately came over, his curiosity
dampening his boredom. Harry was staring
intently at the creature, “It’s so dark and it glides, just like the book said
it would.
“Let me have a go."
Harry passed over the binoculars, but did not
stop staring. Draco looked through them at the
dark creature sweeping over the grounds. Something
about it was so innately dangerous, so terrifying, that Draco couldn’t even begin to
put it into words. Perhaps it was that he knew
what they were and being awed by the way they moved just didn’t occur to him.
He was about to pass it over and suggest that
they go inside, when the thing slowly turned its head towards them. “Um, Potter, they aren’t searching the
castle today, right?”
“Right.”
There was something wrong with Harry’s
voice, but Draco couldn’t be bothered with that now, because the Dementor seemed to
be floating up and towards them. “This is
part of the castle, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So, why is it coming this way?”
A roaring filled his own ears and cold washed over him. He looked up to see the Dementor hovering only a
few feet away, its hooded head staring at Harry. Draco
closed his eyes, but the roaring only intensified and he thought he could hear something
now. It sounded like yelling. Stumbling to his feet, he took hold of Harry’s
arm and pulled him off the wall, but the other boy didn’t standing up, only sat
there, staring at the creature, tears now running down his cheeks and his mouth moving
just slightly.
The presence of shouting grew louder and he
recognised it as his father, telling him that he was a disgrace to the Malfoy name, that
no Malfoy in their entire family line had ever embarrassed themselves as badly as he had. But he hadn’t meant to, he’d only wanted
to beat Potter at Quidditch, at a test, at anything.
His grip on Potter’s shirt tightened and
he tried to remember that he was here, at the top of the
The yelling stopped, the dampening depression
eased and he felt hands take him by the shoulder and lead him away from the tower,
whispering in a familiar clipped tone. He
looked back before going down the ladder and saw McGonagall kneeling beside Potter, who
was unconscious and Dumbledore holding his wand out, something white streaming towards the
retreating Dementor.
Snape, because he’d realised that was
who was leading him away, helped him down the ladder and he took deep breaths, acutely
aware that there was something wet on his face. He
wiped at it and looked at his hand. Tears. Had he been crying?
He was steered through the door and into the hall.
He didn’t know where they were going and he didn’t care, because all he
could think about was what he had read in that book, ‘the Dementors bring out your
worst memories’. His father had been his
worst memory and he couldn’t even begin to defend against it.
____________________
Lucius Malfoy was livid; Draco had never seen
him this upset. Snape had escorted Draco to
the dungeon, given him some chocolate and floo-ed his father immediately, reciting what
Draco was sure he had thought was a good enough excuse.
The boys hadn’t been obeying orders. They
were told to stay inside the castle and Potter had somehow convinced Draco to do otherwise
and the Dementors, sensing prey, had attacked.
It really was a good excuse and, for once, it
was the truth. Not that Draco had needed a
great deal of coaxing, but he hadn’t come up the idea to perch on the
Lucius didn’t wait for any more of an
explanation before he began bellowing at Severus in a rather undignified manner about how
it had been his responsibility to keep Draco from harm and how dare he let something like
this happen. Where had he been while the boy
was off gallivanting around the castle? For
that matter, where were any of them? How dare
they leave his child unsupervised when there were Dementors in the nearby vicinity.
Draco sat on the sofa, his face pink in
embarrassment. If he’d realised that it
would have gotten him into this much trouble, he wouldn’t have gone with Harry, or he’d
have talked him out of it.
“...will be by to pick him up tonight.”
His father’s head abruptly disappeared
and Snape was left standing in the middle of the now very silent room. After several seconds, he raked his fingers through
his hair and sighed, “Go and get your things together.”
Draco frowned, but said nothing as he left
the room. He should be happy he was going
home, shouldn’t he? It was boring at
Hogwarts with only Harry and a handful of ghosts to keep him occupied. He reached the ground floor and looked up the
stairs leading to the tower where he was supposed to be headed, but something was nagging
at him.
A momentary flash of Harry went through his
mind, his limp form lying unconscious in the
He eyed the stairs
resentfully. He wasn’t concerned about
Potter, he couldn’t be. He was supposed
to be gaining Harry’s friendship so that he could use it against him at some still
unknown date. No, actually, he wasn’t
even supposed to be doing that anymore, he was just trying to get through the summer
without killing that obnoxious, do-gooder Gryffindor.
He marched up the stairs determinedly, refusing to even look in
the direction of the infirmary, mumbling, “Absolutely not,” even though no one
was around to hear, because he thought that perhaps if he said it enough times, he could
convince himself that it was true.
____________________
By the time he was standing outside waiting
for his father, Draco had made a startling discovery.
He was concerned about Harry. Very
concerned. He’d almost managed to
convince himself otherwise, but when he’d stepped outside the door with Professor
Snape and seen Harry standing there, still very pale despite several hours of rest, all of
his carefully placed delusions had been utterly shattered.
Now however, he faced another dilemma. What if someone else found out? He glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw
Harry looking at him. What if Harry found out? How could he face him knowing that Harry knew? Draco forced a sneer on his face, “Still weak
in the knees, Potter?”
Harry’s eyes widened in anger and he
opened his mouth to say something, but Snape spoke before he could, “About time.”
Still angry, Harry looked up and saw the
Malfoy carriage approaching, as overly lavish as ever.
Harry couldn’t believe Draco could be such an absolutely prat. Well, no, he could believe it, he’d had just
hoped that maybe there was more to the other boy than that, but apparently not.
When he’d woken at the top of the
Astronomy Tower Dumbledore and McGonagall had been standing over him, speaking in hushed
tones.
“That was a vicious attack, Albus. You can’t possibly allow those things to stay. Why, if you hadn’t sent that house elf to
watch after them we might not have made it here in time.”
“I quite agree with you, Minerva.”
“Or he could have fallen. You heard the house elf, if the Malfoy boy hadn’t
grabbed him when he did, Harry could have...”
“Minerva.” Dumbledore
put a hand on her shoulder. His eyes held no
twinkle as they watched the pale woman in front of him.
Harry had never seen Professor McGonagall so upset, not even when he’d
told her that Snape had hit him. Dumbledore’s
eyes flickered to Harry for a moment and Harry thought he saw the mouth upturn just
slightly before the Headmaster looked back at Professor McGonagall.
The hand on her shoulder moved to her cheek
and she blushed just slightly under her cheeks, “Minerva, the boy is fine and I have
every intention of speaking with the Minister about this.
Now, I believe that Harry has woken up and could use some chocolate.”
It had all been very disconcerting. He didn’t remember being pulled off the
The chocolate had made him feel better
though, and all thoughts of house elves and Dumbledore touching people were washed from
his thoughts. Instead, he was left with an
unwelcome feeling of gratitude for Draco having pulled him off the tower when he did,
because if he thought really hard, he thought maybe he had been about to fall.
He’d resigned that he would thank Malfoy
and had been just about to do it when the stupid prat had opened his mouth and made fun of
him for fainting. Well that was just fine
then, wasn’t it, because Harry didn’t want to thank him anyway.
The carriage stopped in front of them and
Lucius stepped out, his shoulders a little broader than normal and his gaze more direct,
aimed at Severus. “Good evening, Severus.”
Snape nodded and, much to his credit, did not
cringe, because Harry thought he certainly would have if that tone had been aimed at him. “Lucius, as you can see, the boy is fine.”
“No thanks to you lot.”
Severus sighed deeply, obviously annoyed with
the conversation before it had even started, “I’ve told you already, Lucius,
they were being watched by a house elf and the Headmaster was informed the moment it
became clear that something was amiss.”
“You were supposed to be watching him
Severus, not a house elf.”
Snape’s eyes narrowed and his fists
clenched, “You seem to find them as fit enough substitutes in your own household.
Harry would have preferred to be anywhere but
there at the moment.
He’d even have taken lying in bed, listening to Draco masturbate over
watching Lucius and Snape glare murderously at each other.
Lucius’ face went blank, then darkened,
“Tread carefully, old friend.”
Snape waited, his hands still clenched at his
side and very suddenly, Lucius seemed to relax, “I apologise Severus, I was simply
concerned about my son.”
Snape relaxed his posture as well and nodded,
“I was concerned as well.”
Harry doubted that, but didn’t say
anything because Lucius had swept his arm out in a clear sign that Draco was to get into
the carriage. Two house elves appeared and
began lugging the hefty trunk into the back of it as he did and Lucius held his hand out
to Snape, “Contact me tonight, perhaps I can make it up to you this evening. The house that I sometimes frequent has acquired a
most unusual specimen. I do believe you will
find it fascinating.”
Lucius’ hard, grey eyes darted to Harry
significantly and Harry shifted uncomfortably. Snape
looked down at him as well for a moment, eyeing him speculatively before looking back at
Lucius and nodding, “I’ll do that.”
After they were gone, Snape’s face went
from an interested sneer to an outright frown and he looked down at Harry again for
several seconds. “Go to McGonagall, you’re to stay with her until I return
tonight.”
“But...”
“Go!”
Suddenly, it didn’t seem all that
important to argue that he didn’t know where she was.
Running inside, he took the steps up to his tower room two at a time, hoping
that Professor McGonagall was in their rooms. Harry
couldn’t help but wonder what it was that this so-called house had managed to acquire
and why it had spooked Snape. He thought about
the way Lucius had looked at him, if even for the briefest of moments. Then again, maybe he didn’t want to know.
-tbc-