Darkness Shadows Light 2

Chapter Eleven – The Early Bird May Get The Worm, But The Second Mouse Gets The Cheese

Harry and Snape were enjoying a romantic evening in front of the fire after Snape’s parents had gone to bed, when Draco’s face suddenly appeared in the flames.

‘Hello,’ said Draco, looking rather embarrassed at having interrupted what was clearly an intimate moment.

‘Draco,’ Snape acknowledged, straightening his clothes and trying to look as dignified as his pregnant stomach and the situation would let him. ‘I take it you have a good reason for disturbing us at this time of night?’ His tone implied that the younger wizard better have a *bloody* good reason.

‘I have, actually,’ Draco assured, his confidence coming back. ‘I’ve just had a rather interesting owl.’

Both Harry and Snape’s interest perceptibly increased.

‘Who from?’ Snape asked tersely.

‘I don’t know,’ Draco replied, looking slightly annoyed. ‘Whoever it is, he’s a damn good wizard. There was no magical trail whatsoever.’

‘I’m assuming the note wasn’t signed?’ Harry asked.

‘Draco gave the green-eyed wizard a scornful look. ‘Potter, this is a dark wizard,’ he drawled. ‘Of *course* he didn’t sign the damn letter!’

‘Enough!’ Snape commanded, before his two ex-pupils could decrease into one of the many arguments they’d had at school. ‘Draco, if you would kindly tell us what the note said…?’

Draco looked chastised. Harry merely scowled at his husband. It had been a long time since the older wizard had been able to scare him.

‘It simply gives some apparition coordinates and says “I have something you might be interested in”,’ Draco said. ‘Hardly the most original message in the world, but I think it’s worth taking seriously.’

‘Will you go?’ asked Snape, solemnly.

‘I’m going with him!’ Harry instantly interrupted, as Draco began to nod his head and reply.

‘No you’re not!’ both Draco and Snape replied.

‘That would totally wreck my cover,’ Draco replied, rolling his eyes at the blatant Gryffindorness that Harry was displaying. ‘The whole idea is to get them to *trust* me. Turning up with Harry-bloody-Potter would kind of give the game away.

‘Draco’s right,’ Snape agreed, before Harry could get a word in. ‘Even if you wore that blasted invisibility cloak of yours, there’s no guarantee that they won’t have magic wards set to detect you.’

‘Plus, I doubt that where I’ve been asked to apparate to is the final destination,’ Draco added with authority born from experience. ‘They’ll either be someone to lead me somewhere else or, more likely, a Portkey.’

Harry involuntarily shivered at the last word. Thanks to Voldemort, he had a distinct phobia for the things. Thankfully, as soon as he’d got back to full health after the birth of Matthew, Harry had learnt to apparate. Since then, he’d sworn he would never use a Portkey again.

Little was said after this. Snape gave Draco some useful advice that Harry was sure would not be heeded by the arrogant Slytherin. Draco assured them that he was a composite actor and they had nothing to worry about.

As soon as Draco had said his goodbye’s, Snape had turned to his husband and looked him straight in the eye.

‘Promise me you will not follow Draco,’ he said.

Harry shook his head stubbornly. ‘I won’t.’

‘Do you want to leave me on my own?’ Snape demanded, his dark eyes strangely passionate. ‘Do you want me to have to bring up our daughter alone?’

‘I want to make sure my daughter *is* born!’ Harry replied angrily. I don’t want you or her to be in danger. If that means I have to put my own life at risk…well that’s a risk I’m more than willing to take.’

‘But I am not,’ Snape replied, strangely calm. ‘Draco is here so that you *won’t* have to risk your life unnecessarily. You’re a husband and a father. Let Draco take the risks for us.’

‘If you weren’t pregnant, I bet you wouldn’t be saying the same thing!’ Harry challenged.

‘Yes, I would,’ the older wizard replied, his voice calm and thoughtful. ‘My inclination these days is to keep you, me and Matthew as far away from trouble as possible. As I said, let others take risks for us. We’ve done more than our fair share in the past.’

‘Perhaps you’re right,’ Harry agreed grudgingly. ‘Though I don’t have to like it!’

************

Draco apparated to the co-ordinates he had been given, not without a little apprehension. Yet he couldn’t help feeling an adrenaline rush that this sort of situation gave him. The co-ordinates had brought him to the middle of a forest. One that looked untouched by human hands. This made it even more incongruous that there would be a Hogwarts’ tie hanging from a nearby branch. Taking a deep breath, Draco reached for the item, not surprised when he felt the pull of a Portkey.

Draco swayed slightly as the land around him resettled. He looked around. He appeared to be at an old, abandoned farmyard. ‘Well at least it’s not a graveyard,’ he murmured to himself.

‘That’s rather a cliché, I thought.’

Draco jumped at the unexpected male voice behind him. He turned around to face the unknown wizard. His first thought was that he had the most ordinary face he had ever seen. His second was that he didn’t know him. The third was that by the amount of magic he could feel, this wizard had on some seriously heavy glamours.

‘You know,’ the wizard continued smoothly, ‘the spooky graveyard, the dead of night? All very unnecessary, I thought. That’s why I chose this spot.’ He gestured to the farmhouse. ‘Shall we?’

Draco couldn’t held but admire the style of the other wizard. A mix of confidence and arrogance that he found very attractive… Sharply, he reminded himself what he was here for. It was definitely not the time to let his libido take over.

The inside of the farmhouse was as tumbledown as the outside. There was, however, a conspicuously new-looking table and two chairs. Draco mused that the other wizard was obviously competent when it came to transfiguration.

‘So,’ said Draco sitting down on one chair as the mysterious wizard took the other. ‘Why exactly have you brought me here?’

‘Because you’re working at Hogwarts.’ Ron said straightforwardly. Of course, it was none other than Ron, though Draco had no idea. ‘The word is that you’re close to Matthew Potter-Snape.’ It was immediately clear to Draco that the other wizard was not going to beat around the bush about his intentions.

‘Matthew is one of my best students,’ Draco replied. ‘Naturally we get on very well.’

‘Question is; why are you there? Why are you making nice with the kid?’ Ron asked shrewdly.

Draco gave his best sneer. ‘Isn’t it obvious? The way to get to the parents is through the son. Matthew is very powerful and very easy to manipulate.’

Ron narrowed his eyes, looking at Draco suspiciously.

‘So what exactly do you expect to get out of this?’

‘Revenge,’ Draco replied simply, his cold blue eyes set in a frozen face. ‘Potter and Snape were the cause of my father being sent to Azkaban. I’ve been involved in many plots before now to exact my revenge, but they’ve all failed.’ Draco obviously neglected to mention that all the other plots had failed *because* of him.

‘I thought you had a thing for Snape at school. Now you’re trying to make me believe you hate him?’ Ron said in disbelief.

Draco registered this remark without letting any surprise show on his face. How did this wizard know about his adolescent crush on Snape? ‘I admit I lusted after him rather a lot during my final year,’ Draco admitted with a look of faint disgust at his own misjudgement. ‘But believe me, it’s damn easy to turn love to hate when you find out the object of your affections is shagging Harry-bloody-Potter!’

Ron shook his head slightly in disagreement. ‘Then it was never love,’ he said with certainty. His own love for Harry would never let him intentionally hurt him. No matter what Harry did or to whom he chose to love. ‘You can’t kill someone you love.’

‘Kill?’ Draco asked. ‘You actually plan to kill Potter and Snape?’

‘Just Snape,’ Ron replied emphatically.

‘What about the kid he’s carrying?’

‘That will have to die as well. I don’t have a choice. Matthew is ripe for the picking now. We can’t wait for the child to be born and Matthew to possibly change his mind.’

Draco nodded, as if he had no problem with killing an innocent child. He didn’t dare show how the idea revolted him. Still, he was curious as to why this wizard only wanted to kill Snape.

‘Why not Potter as well?’ he asked casually. ‘Surely as long as he’s alive he’ll be a threat?’

Draco didn’t even see the fist that smashed into his jaw and knocked him to the ground. What he did see was the anger in the other’s eyes as he stood over him, practically trembling with anger.

‘No one touches Harry,’ he hissed. ‘If you harm one hair on his head…’

Draco was extremely puzzled as he tenderly felt his aching jaw. This wizard obviously hated Snape – which was to be expected from any supporter of Voldemort. Yet, he didn’t seem to care one way or the other for the new magical child Snape was carrying (which Draco had assumed was one of the reasons the attack was being planned for now). He was also obviously vehemently opposed to one hair on Harry’s head being hurt – which did not add up to your standard Death Eater. Ignoring Ron, he carefully stood up again and righted his chair that had been knocked over with him. He sat back down and waved for Ron to do the same.

‘So what exactly is the plan?’ Draco drawled casually, ignoring the threat

Ron’s eyes narrowed, immediately suspicious, his anger still only just below the surface. ‘Do you honestly expect me to trust you with that? For all I know, you might go straight to Dumbledore with the information.’

‘True,’ Draco agreed. He leaned back in his chair, not at all offended. It was no less than he had expected. After all, it would be a pretty poor villain who gave his plan away to someone he had no reason to trust.

The rest of the meeting involved Ron instructing Draco to keep doing what he was doing in getting close to Matthew. So, when the time was right, the young wizard would follow him without question.

It was only afterwards that Draco realised that the other wizard had not even given a name…

*******

Draco related as much to Harry and Snape on his return to Hogwarts as he thought acceptable. He *definitely* left out the unwanted attraction he had felt towards the mysterious wizard. He had intended to get Snape alone. Unfortunately, Harry was having none of it. He knew where Draco had been and insisted on hearing first hand what had happened. Not the watered down version he knew Snape would have given him.

‘So you have no idea who he is?’ Harry asked, disbelievingly, after Draco had recounted his tale. Harry had got very pale when he heard that the threat to them was mainly interested in killing his husband, including their unborn child. He was now standing half in front of Snape as if he could protect him that way.

‘He had all manner of glamours on him,’ Draco shrugged. ‘Somehow I doubt a “Finite Incantatum” would have enhanced my life expectancy very much.’

‘Why do you think he had all those glamours?’ Harry asked.

‘Two reasons. Either I know him, or he doesn’t trust me. Possibly both.’

‘You think he knows you?’ queried Snape, looking worried.

‘Yes, the way he talks, it’s like he *knows* both of you,’ Draco explained. ‘And I get the feeling he knows me too.’

‘Well, it’s fairly likely,’ Harry said, somewhat impatient with the other wizard. ‘None of us have exactly lived in the shadows.’

‘No.’ Draco shook his head, exasperated. ‘It felt like he really knew us. I can’t explain it. It wasn’t anything specific, just a general familiarity.’

Harry didn’t look convinced and neither did Snape.

‘I admit it’s possible that this man might know me from my Death Eater days,’ Snape said gravely. ‘Especially considering his particular animosity towards me, as Draco tells it. However, I find it hard to believe he would know Harry. After all, he rarely leaves Hogwarts.’

Harry nodded at the truth of this even though it made him sound like a recluse. The reality was, between his husband, their son, his job and his writing, he’d had little time for anyone else. In fact, he’d not had enough for those four things which had caused a lot of the problems in his marriage.

As Draco left the other two discussing what he had told them, he wryly thought of what he hadn’t told them. This wizard was arrogant, bitter and devious – all the qualities that most attracted him. In fact, they were the very same qualities that had attracted him to Snape in his schooldays.

At the same time, Ron was wondering what was happening to him. For so many years, he had been fixated on one thing and one thing only…Harry. Suddenly, there was something else to take his attention. It was even more disturbing that the distraction came in the form of Draco Malfoy. He had never liked him at school, but the years had dulled his memory. Now, all he saw was a sexy blond wizard with clear grey eyes and a tempestuous personality that drew him like a magnet. When he had fallen for Hermione, it had been sweet and natural; when he had fallen for Harry, it had been slow, deep and enduring; now, he felt like he had been he had been struck by lightening.