Centre of Twilight

It was, Harry thought, ridiculously easy for Draco and himself to slip out of the castle. All right, so the school was almost empty but there should still have been someone patrolling the corridors.

‘That would be Sev, though,’ Draco supplied, hearing his thoughts as they crept down the stone steps from the front entrance.

‘Okay,’ Harry thought back, taking the other young man’s hand in the darkness, ‘but where was Filch? Or Mrs Norris?’

‘Don’t knock it,’ Draco gave his hand a squeeze. ‘After all, we don’t want to get caught, do we?’

They hurried across the school grounds, finding that there was no need to look for shadows as, with almost no moon, everywhere was plunged into almost total darkness.

‘Ssh!’ Harry cautioned silently a moment later, though, as they drew near Hagrid’s cabin. ‘We don’t want Fang to hear us.’

So they slowed to a walk until the darkened cabin was well behind them and then they picked up their pace once more.

The plan, such as they’d made, was to get to Hogsmeade and then see if Draco could pick up Severus’ emotions and determine his rough location. Then, it would be a simple case of catching either the train from Hogsmeade station or summoning the Knightbus.

‘Anything?’ Harry asked as soon as they were on the lane leading in to Hogsmeade. He looked at the blond Slytherin and then glanced around, feeling exposed and vulnerable.

Draco frowned and shook his head, ‘Not much except a pull to the south. Let’s go down to London and start from Diagon Alley – see if we can pick up a trail there.’

They opted for the train, in the end, as hardly anyone would be using it to reach platform nine and three-quarters from Hogsmeade at this time of night. The Knightbus, however, could be used by anyone from anywhere and the risk for both of them was simply too great.

The carriages were almost completely empty, save for one containing an elderly wizard who was snoring gently. A soft-looking black Labrador lifted its head from its master’s knee and watched Harry and Draco as they made their way past.

“Here will do,” Harry murmured softly, opening the door of a compartment further along.

They slipped inside, closed the door and settled into their seats just as the train started to pull away once more.

‘Maybe we should have flown,’ Draco fretted, looking towards the door and thinking about the old man and his dog.

‘We’d freeze though,’ Harry countered, ‘and besides, that old bloke wouldn’t bother us – even if he was awake.’

He turned then and peered out of the window at the dark countryside slipping past at increasing speed. It was hard to make out because his reflection just seemed to be in the way all the time, but Harry thought he could see Hogwarts on the cliff above the lake.

There came then, another ripple from Severus and Harry shivered, glancing over at Draco. The blond youth was pale suddenly and was biting his lip as if to keep from crying out, even silently.

‘What is it? What’s wrong with him?’ Harry demanded, turning around and taking Draco’s hands.

‘Sev…he’s in such a state…I can’t make any sense of it…’ Draco replied haltingly.

‘Is he in pain?’ Harry asked but Draco was looking straight through him and didn’t appear to have heard. “Draco,” Harry whispered, giving the other man’s fingers a squeeze, “tell me. Is he in pain?”

But before Draco could respond, Snape’s voice filled Harry’s head; the timbre sending shivers down his spine, even in this situation.

‘Harry, listen to me. I can’t talk for long. Their attention is elsewhere right now and I don’t think they’re aware of our unique communication.’

‘Who?’ Harry demanded immediately, ‘Who isn’t aware?’

‘Where are you?’ Draco demanded, cutting in.

‘Draco?’ Severus’ voice sounded shocked for a moment and then, with a bite of irritation, he demanded, ‘Tell me you haven’t joined forces to look for me.’

The pair exchanged a look and then Draco repeated, ‘Where are you?’

‘London.’ Snape said shortly, ‘But they’re going to move me soon – some talk of a public…Never mind! Listen to me! Go to Dumbledore – or wake up McGonagall – and tell them what I’ve told you. I’m in the cellar beneath Hillary Encendra’s Jewellery store. Remind them to be careful – she’s part Siren.’ There was then a moment where Harry heard Snape chastising himself for forgetting that himself.

‘Some talk of a public what?’ he asked then, not sure he wanted an answer.

‘Never mind that!’ Snape responded sharply, ‘Just get to Dumbledore and tell him to hurry. I think they’re going to move me soon.’

‘Who, though?’ Harry demanded, quite unable to move past this detail – or the nagging question of what Sev’s fate was to be if they didn’t reach him. Before Severus could respond, though, Harry caught the man’s memory and saw the unforgettable countenance of Lucius Malfoy.

‘Harry,’ Draco began, noting that his former lover was beginning to shake, ‘Harry, get a grip. He won’t hurt you. I won’t let him.’

‘LISTEN TO ME!’ Snape’s voice then bellowed, ‘He isn’t going to hurt either of you because you’re not coming for me. You’re not -!”

With an awful finality, the connection broke and they received no more communication from the Potions master.

For a long moment, Harry and Draco stared straight into each other’s eyes. In that moment, their quarrel was long forgotten and they shared the same thoughts and, though Harry wasn’t aware, the same emotions.

‘Even if we were still at Hogwarts, we wouldn’t be able to alert Dumbledore,’ Draco stated. ‘The man simply isn’t there and we have no means of contacting him.’

‘And Professor McGonagall would just tell me to stop making a fuss again,’ Harry nodded slowly.

Draco sighed and glanced out of the window, his eyes distant and unseeing as he fumed silently over the desperation of their situation.

‘Could you use Caramon?’ he asked finally, looking thoughtfully at Harry, ‘Can you make the train go faster?’

Just the idea frightened him but Harry nodded, promising to try. He sat up a bit, releasing Draco’s hands for the moment as he concentrated on the magic that dwelled within him, as well as that which he’d given to Draco and Severus.

‘Pull it to you,’ Draco urged, watching him. ‘Build it slowly so that you can keep hold of it.”

Carefully, feeling beads of sweat on his face, Harry turned his attention inward and pulled the magical energy towards him. Something that had been so easy when he had been upset was now extremely hard work.

‘Here,’ Draco’s hand slipped into his once more.

Immediately, Harry felt himself to be flooded with magic! It sang along his nerve endings and served to make the process of drawing on Severus that much easier. The magic from Severus was a dark, heavy red still but with it, came an impression of disorientation and an image of people’s feet.

‘They’re kicking him.’ Draco growled, having received the image as well. ‘The bastards are just beating him up – not even bothering with magic.’

‘We’ll pay them back,’ Harry retorted with seething anger as he opened his eyes to look round at him. “What do you think he was talking about? A public what?”

But Draco didn’t reply. Instead, he urged Harry to use the magic that was currently forming itself into the tall, heavy-set creature called Caramon.

“Quet u onvey,” Harry breathed, asking the magic to find a way to do his bidding. It was a risky way of conjuring, he knew, but there wasn’t a spell for making a train go faster – not without an in-depth knowledge of the steam engine, anyway.

He was about to finish his request when the compartment door abruptly slid open and they spun in their seats to see the old man’s Labrador staring at them with large brown eyes.

‘That’s not -’ Draco started to say.

But the dog was changing before their eyes – stretching upwards and altering its shape until, in its place, stood a tall, willowy witch with shining black hair and the same large, dark eyes.

There was a second when Harry felt Draco recoil slightly and he instinctively moved to redirect Caramon towards this stranger, but then Draco squeezed his hand and said silently, ‘No, it’s okay. She won’t hurt us.’

“Please cancel the spell,” the witch requested politely, her voice soft and velvety.

“Who are you?” Harry returned warily.

The witch, however, didn’t respond but simply smiled at Draco and nodded.

‘She’s my great-aunt, Harry,’ he explained. ‘Do as she asks.’

So, very reluctantly, Harry dispersed the magic, reduced Caramon’s size and then gave the witch a little nod to indicate that he’d finished.

“Right,” she said, suddenly sounding quite business-like. “Now that we’ve avoided disaster, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Alicia Malfoy, and I’ve been sent to keep an eye on you. And, Draco? Your mother sends her love.”

*~*~*

Following Alicia’s unexpected arrival, the two young men sat in a sort of stunned silence while the woman closed the door, took a seat and carefully arranged her cloak around her shoulders.

“Well, you’re certainly quiet for teenage boys,” she noted and then smiled, her eyes sparkling with warm humour. “You were just a little boy, last time I saw you, Draco.” She added.

Draco nodded slightly and then drew his wand to write in the air, ‘My father didn’t appreciate it when you and mother prevented him from sending me to Durmstrang.’

“No,” Alicia smiled again, “he told me I was an interfering old hag! Which was quite brave of him, really – to insult the wife of a senior member of his own family.” She frowned then and leaned forward slightly in her seat. “But why are you writing, child?”

‘She doesn’t know,’ Draco said to Harry, sounding horrified. ‘How the hell am I supposed to explain?’

But Harry took care of the situation by clearing his throat and extending his hand to Draco’s great-aunt.

“Good evening,” he began courteously, “my name is Harry Potter,”

“As if I wouldn’t recognise you,” Alicia interjected, sounding vaguely amused.

“I think I should explain something before we go any further,” Harry went on. And so he described the events since September that year and finally lifted Draco’s chin to show the faint scar that ran across his throat.

“He really meant to hurt you, didn’t he?” Alicia whispered with tears filling her eyes. “Draco, you have to understand – your mother knows nothing of this. She simply believes that Lucius disowned you – not that he’d attempted to kill you. Oh, my boy!” She reached out as if to take him in her arms but Draco leaned back, pressing himself into the back of the seat.

‘If you’ll excuse my lack of trust,’ he wrote then, ‘would you mind explaining what you’re doing here?’

Alicia blinked at him a couple of times and then fought to regain her composure; fidgeting once more with her cloak before answering. “Some…items of interest…have come to light,” she began slowly. “Narcissa contacted me just a couple of hours ago and told me that Lucius was up to something.”

“What sort of thing?” Harry asked cautiously. Despite the fact that this was the first time he’d ever met this lady, he was inclined, for some reason, to trust her. Draco, however, was almost quivering like a tightly wound spring.

‘She’s a Malfoy,’ Draco answered his unspoken query, ‘we’re bred to be sneaky, devious and wily. Even if,’ he added, ‘she’s not a true Malfoy and she’s the black sheep of the family.’

‘What do you mean: she’s not a true Malfoy? And what’s she done?’ Harry asked, even as Alicia was explaining that Lucius had left Malfoy Manor in something of a hurry and had only been in contact with Narcissa to say that he wouldn’t be home tonight.

‘She’s my great-uncle’s second wife,’ Draco explained, ‘and while she loved my great-uncle, she never loved any of the family values or traditions.’

“And while Narcissa was talking to him,” Alicia continued, unaware of the silent conversation that was going on, “she cast a Scrying spell to determine whether Lucius was with a mistress.”

‘More likely a rent boy,’ Draco sniffed derisively, startling Harry.

“And, at first, it seemed to her that he was with a mistress,” Alicia said. “as Lucius was in the company of Angel Serufi – or Hillary Encendra, as she likes to be known. But then,” she lowered her voice and leaned towards Harry and Draco, “she saw Severus Snape with them and -”

“We know this!” Harry interrupted. “That’s where we were going when you interrupted.”

Alicia nodded, “That’s why I’m here. Narcissa sent me to keep an eye on you. She seemed to think that you would try to save Severus.”

“So,” Harry continued, “why did you stop me from speeding up the train? We need to reach London as quickly as possible.”

“It would have been suicide to simply make the train go faster,” Draco’s great-aunt shrugged. “Unless you were able to drive it at such a speed, you’d surely plough the thing straight into a mountain or a loch! Fortunately for you,” she favoured them with a smile, “I can Apparate you both straight to London.”

‘Hang on,’ Draco wrote, frowning, ‘you haven’t yet explained how you came to find us? Or why?’

For a moment, Alicia opened her mouth and looked slightly annoyed – perhaps at being prevented from whisking them away to certain doom, Draco wondered. Then, however, she gave a self-deprecating little smile and shrugged again.

“You’re right,” she said a little sadly. “Given all that you’ve been through, it would be wrong to expect you to follow me on trust alone. When your mother realised that Lucius was holding Snape, she immediately guessed that it wouldn’t be long before you tried to reach him. Therefore, she asked me to track and follow you. If you’d stayed at Hogwarts, I would have kept my distance. But you didn’t; you made straight for the station and so I picked up the train at Dovetown. She still cares very much for you, Draco!”

‘Makes a good story,’ Draco remarked silently, glancing briefly at Harry.

‘Do you believe her?’ Harry responded.

‘Don’t know.’ The blond youth replied slowly. ‘Maybe. But as she’s still a Malfoy in my book, I wouldn’t trust her any more than I had to.’

‘But if your mother sent her -!’ Harry started but was cut off immediately.

‘Even more reason not to trust her! However, we don’t have much choice. Can you build up Caramon again for when she Apparates us away? Then, if we end up in hell, we’ll at least have a beastie on our side!’

In response, Harry drew the magic towards himself again and felt it build into the bulk of Caramon. If Alicia felt the sudden charge of magic, she made no comment but simply extended her hands towards them.

“Ready?” she asked, “We’re going to Diagon Alley, yes?”

Harry nodded and tightened his hold on the magic; imagining himself to be pulling hard on Caramon’s leash. With a shivery little thrill, he then felt Draco joining him in the task.

‘Be ready for anything,’ Draco’s voice whispered within his mind.

And then, taking Alicia’s hands, they Disapparated with a sudden crack.

*~*~*

Harry had only ever been carried by Apparation once before and that had been the night when Severus had whisked him away from Malfoy Manor. In the intervening time, he’d forgotten just how instantaneous it was; to go in less that a second from one place to another. Scotland to London between heartbeats was something he really wasn’t sure he wanted to get used to, he thought.

‘At least we’re not in hell,’ Draco quipped, peering up and down the deserted streets of both Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley. They had Apparated right onto the corner.

“So,” Alicia said briskly, “we’re here, which is about as close as we can get to Encendra’s without detection, I think.”

“Good, thank you,” Harry offered her a smile.

She returned it and then her expression turned wary as she shook her head. “But you’re not really going to just walk in there with the intent of rescuing him, are you?”

‘Got a better idea?’ Draco wrote with a flick of his wand.

“Yes, actually. I think we should call for help – get Dumbledore down here, the Ministry, even!”

“What?” Harry exploded furiously, “What was the point of carrying us here if you’re then going to announce that we should call for back-up? And, for your information, Dumbledore’s gone off somewhere – don’t know where! The Minister thinks I’m a basket-case – especially after all that happened over the summer – so I doubt if he’ll be leaving his dressing gown and slippers for us!”

Alicia stood in tense silence before this tirade and then, when Harry was just drawing breath to add more, she held up one hand. “I think I get the message,” she smiled, “and just for the record, I didn’t really have much option other than bringing you here. Be honest, you would have cast Dark magic to do the job yourself – and that, as I explained, would have been catastrophic.” She sighed, “Very well – let me come with you, at least. I’d give quite a lot to see the expression on my step-son’s face when he sees me, anyway!”

There was a moment when Draco appeared to be considering his great-aunt’s suggestion. Then, however, moving with a speed to rival even Harry’s movements, he cast, ‘Est ynaria sima crinawi,’ and Alicia crumpled to the ground in a magical sleep.

“Er,” Harry muttered softly, “are you going to explain that idea?”

‘I don’t trust her,’ Draco retorted briefly, looking up and down both streets to check that he hadn’t drawn anyone’s attention. It was still quiet, though; at this late hour, even the Leaky Cauldron was dark and silent.

“But she brought us here,” Harry began, looking pityingly at the woman lying at his feet.

‘Possibly with the intention of handing us over to my father,’ Draco finished and then moved to pull Alicia’s body into the shadows of the Apothecary’s.

‘Right,’ he straightened up and levelled his pale grey gaze upon Harry, ‘are we doing this or what?’

*~*~*

As it turned out, Harry thought bitterly, they were already too late - Severus had already been removed. The short, hopelessly sparse information they received from Sev as they crept cautiously down Knockturn Alley was of Apparation, confusion and sudden, loud music. Aside from that, Draco remarked that the Potions master was angry with them for disobeying; but Harry wasn’t about to start worrying about that now.

So they took the jewellers by storm with the intent of forcing Sev’s new location out of the owner. There was only one small hiccup.

In the middle of his demands for answers, Harry made the mistake of catching Hillary Encendra’s eyes…and time abruptly came to a standstill. She gazed at him, almost smiling, and her eyes widened a little, as if in recognition.

The colour of her irises, he thought, were like…

…like sunlight through a leafy canopy. The colours shifted and merged and it seemed to him, all of a sudden, that he was being unforgivably rude. How dare he barge in here and demand answers?

Dimly, as if from a considerable distance, Harry thought he could hear Draco’s voice but it couldn’t be anything more important than apologising to this lady –

‘HARRY! For fuck sake, will you wake up and smell the evil bitch’s perfume!’ Draco shouted, the words resounding through his mind.

With a start, Harry turned from Hillary’s face and the spell abruptly broke.

‘Draco?’

With a silent growl, Draco cast a simple Conjunctivitis curse at Hillary and stopped her siren’s wail with a vicious curse to seal her mouth closed; effectively rendering her blind and mute in a matter of seconds.

‘Bloody hell, Potter, if you’re this easy, we’re not going to stand a chance!’ he snarled then.

Harry flushed and scowled, muttering something about ‘magical creatures’.

‘Yeah, all right,’ Draco conceded then, ‘maybe you’re right. An ordinary witch wouldn’t be able to trick you like that.’ He jerked his head at the woman then, ‘Search her memory – see if she knows where Severus is.’

As it happened, the one thing that Hillary Encendra was trying most to avoid thinking about was Severus’ new location and, consequently, Harry was able to pluck it easily from her subconscious.

“North,” he murmured, “towards Yorkshire. She keeps trying not to think about the ‘Dark Mark’ but Sev’s already got one of those. Does it mean anything to you?” he glanced at Draco.

‘The ‘Dark Mark’?’ Draco nodded, ‘Yeah, my father used to talk about it. He said he’d take me there when I’m older.’

Harry frowned, ‘I don’t understand…’

‘There’s a village in West Yorkshire - large Death Eater community there and a club called the Dark Mark.’ Draco shrugged, ‘I think he had it in mind for some kind of eighteenth birthday, initiation party.’

‘Initiation into what?’ Harry wondered and then realised his mistake. ‘You mean you were going to be made a full Death Eater on your eighteenth birthday?’

‘With eighteen candles on my cake, a stripper and then the ceremonial burning on my forearm.’ Draco sneered.

“Jesus, Draco,” Harry breathed, shaking his head. It was so hard to think that Draco - who had, until very recently, been his best friend and his lover – had once been in line for the full Death Eater membership.

Draco shrugged, looking faintly abashed. ‘Maybe you have a thing for bad boys,’ he said dismissively, thinking of Severus.

Harry started, catching the thought if none of the emotion. ‘Draco, about Sev -”

But the blond young man shook his head and gave him a rueful smile. ‘Now isn’t the time. We’ll talk – about everything – but later.’

*~*~*

Leaving Hillary to wait for the spells to slowly fade, Harry and Draco then moved away from the shop. To the casual observer, they would have looked like two old friends simply strolling along the street together. What the casual observer couldn’t know, however, was that they were silently arguing, back and forth, about the merits of Apparation.

‘We can’t do it!’ Harry insisted with a minute shake of his head, ‘You haven’t taken your test, I’ve never done it before in my life…this really isn’t the time to start practising!’

‘I know how to do it, though.’ Draco responded, ‘And you’ve been Apparated by other people, twice now. If you gave me control of Caramon, I could Apparate you like that!’ he snapped his fingers under Harry’s nose.

Harry caught the offending hand and shook his head again, ‘And what if we got splinched? Who’d help Sev then?’

‘We wouldn’t get splinched! Just give me Caramon and I’ll show you. I’ll do a short hop, from here to that street lamp, and then you’ll see. Or,’ he looked at Harry, ‘don’t you trust me with Caramon?’

‘Draco, pack it in,’ Harry sighed. ‘You know I trust you. I’d trust you with my life but this…’

He made a hopeless little gesture with his hands and stopped, dropping his head to stare down at his shoes. Since Sev’s last hasty communication, there had been nothing except for a very slight ripple and Draco wouldn’t tell him what he’d felt from the Potions master. The man was angry, though; Harry knew that much.

‘Look,’ Draco tugged at his hand, ‘just let me try it. Let me prove to you that I can do this. It isn’t the first time for me – my father started teaching me over the summer…’

“Okay,” Harry heaved a sigh, “Go on then.”

Draco flashed him the bright, full grin that he gave whenever he got his own way and then drew the magic about him like a cloak. A second later and he’d vanished – only to reappear, whole and healthy, a hundred yards up the street. The street lamp shone down upon him, casting his platinum blond hair into fluorescent yellow.

‘Don’t you give me that know-it-all grin,’ Harry shook his head, fighting a grin of his own.

‘So are we going or what?’ Draco demanded, leaning nonchalantly against the lamppost.

Harry opened his mouth to reply, to say that yes, they were going, when from the shadows behind Draco, two heavyset men appeared and lunged for the Slytherin youth.

Responding to Harry’s own sense of sudden alarm, Draco leapt forward and spun, the magic still shrouded around him. It was of little surprise then, when Draco reacted in surprise by hurling enough energy to stun a mountain troll. The two thugs crashed to the cobbles with a sound to wake the dead and then there was no time to consider the dangers of Apparation.

‘Come here!’ Draco shouted, hurrying towards Harry, even as Harry hurried towards him. In a second, they linked hands and Disapparated in the blink of an eye and were gone.

At the far end of the street, sitting in shadows and blinking sleep filled eyes, a black Labrador looked out at the suddenly empty street and sighed.