There Is A Thin Line Between Hate And Love

Disclaimer: Not mine. Please don‘t sue I don‘t have any money
Pairing: (Eventually) Harry/Draco
Author: Catium
Beta: No one, I read it over my self
Rating: PG – 13.
Word Count: 4822
Genre: Romance/ Drama.
Status: In Progress.
Warnings: Can been seen elsewhere.
Summary: What happens when that thin line between hate and love starts to disappear? Starts in the Half Blood Prince then moves on to year 7. The Deathly Hallows never happened.
Draco and Snape go to Voldemort to tell him about Dumbledore‘s death. What will happen read and find out.
Author‘s note: Thanks to the 149 people who have read and special thanks to paigeey07 and thrnbrooke who reviewed chapter 1.

There Is a Thin Line Between Hate and Love
Chapter 2. Raising the Alarm

The next thing Draco knew, he was standing in a middle of a clearing. The clearing was surrounded by trees and in the edge of it stood an old house in the Victorian error style. This was the place The Dark Lord had told the Death Eaters to come too when the mission was over. Although the house looked like it was in the middle of a forest somewhere, Draco knew it was a park in one of the suburban in London and it was in a muggle area. Draco hoped that no one had seen them. Although he doubted it, it was the middle of the night and all the muggles probably asleep.

Draco took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down and started to walk slowly towards the house. He knew that if he was going to come alive out of this house again, then he was going to have to calm his mind. But it wasn’t easy. He just couldn’t believe Dumbledore was dead. And what was even more unbelievable was that it hadn’t been him who killed Dumbledore, but Snape. The Dark Lord would not be pleased with that. The Dark Lord would punish him and Snape, for disobeying orders. The Dark Lord had made it perfectly clear that Dumbledore would die tonight and it should be Draco how killed him. It was possible that since Dumbledore was dead, he and Snape would survive disobeying The Dark Lord but not without punishment. Unfortunately there was no way telling how the Dark Lord responses would be. That was the reason why Draco was trying to calm himself down. He wouldn’t be able to resist The Dark Lord Legilimency without his mind being completely calm. Empty of emotions. He wouldn’t be able to lie right in The Dark Lord’s face, that he killed Dumbledore, if the pictures of Snape killing him would be in the top of his mind. He would have to rearrange the pictures so The Dark Lord would see what Draco wanted Him to see.

Draco knew that Snape would participle in the lie with him. Snape would know that despite Dumbledore being dead, they would be punished for the disobeying The Dark Lord’s orders and that was something that Snape would try to avoid as much as possible. So Snape would participle in the lie. It was no doubt about that.

Draco came to the door of the old house and knocked. The door was opened. Draco saw a small man, much smaller than himself, with watery eyes and a nose that reminded him of a rat nose and a bold spot in the mud brown hair, who stared at him with suspicion in his eyes. After a moment he seemed to recognize Draco, although Draco knew that they had never met before, and yanked him inside. When the rat like man had dragged Draco inside and behind himself, he looked out the door, like he was making sure no one had been watching and closed the door after doing so.

Draco couldn’t hold himself back and said,
“No one was following me, if you thing so and I sincerely doubt that any muggle is around now, in the middle of the night.”

“The muggles are around in the most unlikely times and places”, the rat like man said and his voice reminded Draco at a mouse squeaking.

“Only yesterday”, he continued, “we had to kill one of the muggles, he saw one of us Apparate over here, and that was at four o’clock in the night. The muggles are always running through this park, dressed in really weird clothing, when doing so. I don’t have a clue what they are doing or what is the purpose of this running around and frankly I don’t care. As long as they are not around when we are Apparating and see everything, then I don’t care a bit.”

Draco didn’t have a respond to this little speech and instead he said.

“I’ve come to let The Dark Lord know how the mission went, is he here?”

“Yes of course,” the man answered. “He is upstairs right now waiting for news of the mission. So how did it go?” The man asked.

“Now, now Wormstail, you know better than be asking that question.” An ice-cold voice said.

Wormstail turned around and saw Voldemort coming down the stair, bowed and mumbled

“My Lord, I’m sorry, I was inpatient to hear about how the mission went and curiosity got the better of my. Of course you are supposed to now first how the mission went. I’m sorry.” He said again and withdrew himself into the corner.

“This little incident is forgotten, Wormstail, for now. You will get your punishment for the curiosity later. You know very well that I want the words of the mission first, and no one is going to take that pleasure away from me”.

“So…”, Voldemort said, who had stopped right in front of Draco and now turned his attention towards Draco.

“How did it go?”

Draco forced himself to look up and into that deadly white face of Voldemort and into this piercing read eyes. He thought very hard of the image of himself holding his wand and of Dumbledore, getting hit by that green flash, lifting up in the air and falling over the battlements.

Draco opened his mouth and starting to say, “He…”

“Is dead”, a voice cut in front of him.

Draco turned around and saw Snape walking in from the next room. A doubt crept up on Draco and he felt like he was going to throw up.

Snape was going to face punishment and take the credit of Dubledore’s death to himself. Draco all of sudden just knew that he was dead. The Dark Lord would not want a Death Eater in his service that couldn’t follow orders and it would be of no purpose for Him to keep Draco alive.

“Draco…”

Snape said and Draco paled visibly and watched Snape with terror.

“..did a incredible job killing the old fool. Dumbledore believed until the very end that Draco was not going to do it. He even offered Draco and his family a protection, if Draco would join the Order.”

Draco could not believe what he was hearing. Snape hadn’t taken the credit for Dumbledore’s murder. Snape was lying at the Dark Lord without blinking an eye and risking being killed if he was caught. Then the relief poured over Draco, if he could just keep his thoughts calms for a while longer and show Him what He wanted to see, then he, Draco, would be safe.

Voldemort looked Snape in the eyes and Draco saw that He was using Legilemency on Snape. For the longest time they looked each other in the eyes. After, what Draco thought was eternity, but was really just two minutes, Voldemort broke the eye contact.

Voldemort looked at Draco and Draco tried to stay calm, knowing what was coming. But it seemed that He had gotten all the evidence that He needed from Snape, because He just simply looked at Draco, but did not look him in the eyes. Then, to Draco’s amazement, He smiled, a smile that made Draco feel as if everything inside of him had frozen, and made him feel even worse.

“Well done, Draco.”

“Th...tha...thank, you my Lord.”

Draco managed to stutter and deep inside he didn’t really feel bad anymore, rather he was jumping up and down in joy and not believing his luck. The Dark Lord had believed everything that Snape had shown Him and He wasn’t even going to interrogate Draco anymore, Draco was safe.

“Snape…”Voldemort said and turned his attention back on Snape, “when the others arrives I want you and them to come up to my room immediately, there I’m going to hear their version of tonight’s events and then I’m going to make a decision whet ever young Malfoy here is ready to join us.”

Snape bowed in agreement and said

“Yes my Lord, immediately.”

Voldemort turned around and went up the stair, without uttering another word at Wormstail or mentioning his punishment, but Draco had a feeling that Wormstail would be punished sooner or later. Then Draco realized what Voldemort had said. He wanted the others version of tonight’s events. They would of course tell Him that it had been Snape not Draco that had killed Dumbledore and then Draco would be dead. Draco’s relive turned into a pure panic one more time.

It seemed that Snape hadn’t realized that possibility, Draco de sited to risk it all and said up loud to Snape.

“Snape I need to have a word with you, ehhmmm… in private.”

He added and saw how Wormstail, who was still in the room looked at them, curiosity showing in his eyes.

Snape realizing what this was about, said to Wormtail.

“Wormtail I suggest that you go up to our Lord now, I’m sure that he would like to use this spare moment that he’s got know to punish you for your curiosity. It looks like to me that He might have forgotten about it or else He would have done it already. You know how angry He gets when He remembers about a punishment that He has forgotten about and no one has reminded him of it. So if you do not wish for a harder punishment than the one already waiting for you, then I suggest that you go and get your punishment now.”

Wormstail looked utterly unpleased and wondering how Snape had known about the punishment, but he seemed to realize the truth in Snapes words and went up the stairs without another word.

When Wormstail was gone, Snape turned around at Draco. Draco opened the mouth but before he could say anything Snape said.

“I know what you’re thinking Draco and I’ve thought up a way to pass this little problem”.
“Little”, Draco managed to say and couldn’t hide how upset he was, “Little”, he repeated and his voice was both horse from the long silence and high pitched.

“The others are going to tell The Dark Lord the truth and there is nothing you can do about it and He’s going to kill us both for lying to him.”

“No”, Snape said, “I’ll take care of this Draco, don’t you worry, now shut up the others are coming”.

As soon as Snape went silent, the air was filled with the sound of robes and the Death Eaters that had been in Hogwarts earlier that night appeared, all accept for one, how Draco knew had died in the fight.

“Well”, Snape said to the other Death Eaters, who all as one looked at him and Draco how were standing in the middle of the room.

“Your Lord wishes to see you all and me. In his room in the upper floor to hear what you have to say of tonight’s events and make a decision about young Draco’s…”, Snape put his hand on Draco’s shoulder, “future here in our organizations.”

The other were going to go up the stair but Snape stopped them.

“Wait a minute Amycus, Alecto, Fenrir and Richer, can I have a few words with you.”

“The Dark Lord does not like being kept waiting.”, said Alecto and sounded a bit irritated.

“This won’t take but a moment.” Snape answered him. “This is about tonight’s
events, which our Lord is going to be asking you about”. Snape stopped there and took a deep breath. “When he asks you about what happened at the top of the Astronomy tower, then I want you to lie and tell him Draco killed Dumbledore and he did a fine job doing so”.

“What”, Richer almost shouted but then he lowered his voice, “lie…to our Lord, what makes you possibly thing we would do such a thing. If he found out that we were lying, he would kill us all.”

“You’re all very gifted at Occulmency and can without any trouble show Him what He considers the truth, if you wish so. Draco killing Dumbledore”.

“We…we can’t….he’ll kill….”, Richer stuttered. The siblings and Greyback seemed too surprised about what Snape was asking of them to speak.

“On the other hand…”, Snape interrupted, “if you tell him the truth…”

Now Snape voice got dangerously low and a tiny smirk crept on Draco’s lips hearing Snape doing that. This was the same method Snape used all the time in Hogwarts and which all the students were terrified of. That much lowering of the voice always meant something really bad was about to happen, like threats or what the students considered even worse, detention or drawing points.

“If you decide to ignore my request” Snape continued and his voice was not above a whisper. The siblings and Richer clearly knowing the danger of that tone of voice with Snape, paled. Greyback seemed oblivious to what it meant.

“Then my death and Draco’s is almost sure to happen. But I’ll not go quietly. I will tell Him about what I saw when I came up the stairs and on top of the tower and decided to take matters in my own hands and kill Dumbledore. But that was Draco with his wand in his hand not looking at all likely to be killing Dumbledore any time soon and you lot with your wands but not looking at all like you were about to help him fulfilling the Dark Lord’s mission. I thing that He is not going to be pleased with you then and possibly he will de side to get rid of more than two un-loyal Death Eaters at ones.

After what speech Greyback had also gone pale and managed to say.

“You…you…wouldn’t…wouldn’t….”, he stuttered , stopped, swallowed and seemed to calm himself down enough to say in one word, “You’rejustbluffing”.

“Maybe, maybe not”, Snape said and his well know smirk was on his face.
“But I’m not bluffing with the fact that Lucius and Narcissa will not be pleased with someone they considered friends, playing that big of a part in their child’s death, and they are going to be seeking revenge. I would not be surprised if Lucius would break out of Azkaban to seek it.”

Threatening them with Lucius and Narcissa on top of Voldemort seemed to do the trick. Greyback, Richer and the siblings looked at each other with defeat. Then they nodded .

“All right Snape, you win”, Richer said quietly and weakly, “we will participate in the lie with you. But”, he added and his voice got louder and stronger, “if he finds out that we are lying to him, then we will tell him the whole truth and that…and that you threatened us”, he said at last weakly.

Snape laughed and said, “Don’t worry, if you keep your thoughts calm and focus on what you want Him to see then He is not going to find out anything. Well lets go then”, he said and they started going up the stair.

“Draco, stay here”, Snape ordered Draco before he disappeared up the stair.
Draco watched Snape and the others going up the stairs and knew that after the meeting his fate would be sealed.

After about a minute or so he heard a footstep, for a moment Draco panicked and thought that He had seen through the lies and was coming to kill him. But when the person responsible for the noise appeared it was just the man the Dark Lord had called Wormstail.

Wormstail was mumbling something too himself, something that Draco couldn’t here and he seemed rather irritated. Wormstail looked at Draco with a nasty glare like he wished nothing more than Draco disappearing from the face of the earth.
Draco thought it rather obvious from that attitude that Wormstail had been sent downstairs after his punishment too look after him and Wormstail thought that assignment beneath him.


Now a waiting started that Draco considered twice as worse as the one he had, had to suffer earlier that night and didn’t seem to be taken an end. After about half an hour according to Draco’s clock, although he thought it was much longer, nothing had been heard from above and Draco how had been trying to look calm because of Wormtail’s presence, gave up all act of pretense and started to pace back and forth across the room.

After about another half an hour, Draco could finally hear what he had been waiting for half between hope and fear. A footstep. Going along the hallway and down the stair. By the upper end of the stair a man appeared, who’s face Draco couldn’t see.

“Come”, he said, “Our Lord is waiting for you”.

Draco almost ran up the stair and when he came up, the man, who Draco couldn’t still recognize because he had put the Death Eater mask on, started to walk down the hallway towards the door at the end of it.

When they came to the door the man opened it and pointed Draco to walk inside, the man followed and closed the door behind him.

The sight that greeted Draco made him feel better already, because it showed without a shadow of a doubt that Draco’s fait had been sealed and that he would live.

The room was big and at the moment there were no furniture in it, although Draco knew from his father’s stories that a moment ago there must have been a big table there and chairs alongside it. The windows had been drawn over with black curtains and the room had been pitch black if it hadn’t been for the fire in the furthest part of the room. Around 30-40 Death Eaters, all of them wearing the black cloaks with the hood up and with the white mask over their faces, stood on the floor but had left a open round space in the middle. There in the middle of the circle, stood Voldemort, also wearing the black cloak and with the hood up, but not wearing the white mask, probably because it would have been difficult finding a mask whiter than his face, by his feet lay a big snake.

Draco’s father had told him about this, he had been through the exactly the same thing 24 years ago. This was the Death Eaters entrance ceremony.

Now Voldemort started to speak, “Draco Malfoy”, he said, “come here”.

Draco walked towards him in slow steps through the Death Eaters crowd, who had made a passage from the door so he could get inside the circle.

When Draco was in the middle of the circle he walked right up to Voldemort, where he stood and stopped only when the snake made it impossible to go any further.

Now Voldemort started to speak again, “Draco Malfoy…”, he said, “…you have gotten through the test that everyone has to face who wants to join me. You have killed.” Voldemort paused and then said.

“Now I ask you, Draco Malfoy. Do you join this guild with our own free will?”

“Yes”, Draco answered and knew that if anyone were stupid enough to answer that question or any other questions that were to follow with a No, that person would be dead in an instant.

“Do you solemnly swear to follow my every order and always see too that my orders are followed?”

“Yes”

“And do you swear to always come to me meeting when I call”?
“Yes”

“And do you swear to never tell anyone about what goes on, on these meetings, not even Death Eaters how are not present”?

“Yes”, Draco repeated knowing what would come next.

“Good,” Voldemort said, “very good. Bring forth the outfit”, he said to the crowd.

Within seconds a bundle was handed forth ward which Voldemort took. He unfolded the bundle and inside it was a full-length cloak with a rather large hood and a snow-white mask with slots for the eyes and nose and a thin mouth. There wasn’t any slot for the mouth, but that had a purpose. A Death Eaters voice, with the mask on and no slot to make talking easier, would make others more difficult to tell who the Death Eater was by recognizing his voice.

“Now Draco Malfoy…”, Voldemort continued, “…get dressed”.

Draco did what he was ordered to and put the cloak on, put on the mask and finally pulled the hood over his head.

When he had finished this he looked back at Voldemort. Voldemort smiled and turned around towards the fireplace. The crowd scattered so Voldemort could walk unhindered and slowly towards the fireplace, he bent over the fireplace and took something out of it that looked like an iron shaft. When he took the iron shaft out of the fire there was something on the other end of it, which Draco couldn’t see what was since Voldemort had his back to him. Voldemort raised himself up, turned around and walked back in the same slow pace.

Draco saw what Voldemort was holding and could now understand why his father had never told him exactly about this part of the entrance ceremony, the part when the Dark Mark was put on the soon-to-be Death Eater. His father had not wanted to scare him from becoming a Death Eater himself. Because this was going to hurt. A lot.

Voldemort was holding a brand, the long iron shaft was the place where the person in charge of the branding held it, on the other end was the iron white-hot and obviously forming the Dark Mark, the disgusting scull with snake instead of the tongue.

Now Voldemort was at his side, “hold out your left arm and fold up the sleeve”, he ordered.

Remembering the wows he had just sworn, Draco put out his left arm and folded the sleeve. He was just glad he was wearing the mask because then no one would be able to see the looks of suffering that would surely mark his face.
Voldmort grabbed his wrist with one hand and held the brand with the other.

Draco closed his eyes, he simply couldn’t watch. He felt when the white-hot brand was pressed on his middle upper arm. The pain was more he had ever felt before (except perhaps when he had been banged in the floor of the Entrance hall looking like a ferret by Mad-Eye during forth year). The extreme pain took over and he closed his eyes and gnashed as hard has he could, to prevent himself from screaming. After a while the heat, pressure and pain diminished. Draco opened his eyes and saw the Dark Mark, which was already black, on his upper left arm.

Draco looked around and saw that everyone was staring at him and Voldemort with great anticipation.

“He is now one of us”, Voldemort said and cheering busted out. All as one the Death Eaters took of their masks and came to Draco, shook his hand and welcomed him to the group. A few of them even said to congratulations. Draco thought that was rather ironic considering that being a Death Eater would probably not bring him any happiness in life. Draco was already starting to wish he had said no to the first question Voldemort asked him and allowed himself to be killed.

After a while of more congratulations and “Welcome to the group”, Voldemort said “Well that’s enough. I SAID THAT’S ENOUGH!” Everyone went dead silence when they heard him.

“Now everyone should leave this room except for Serverus and Draco, I need to talk to them in private.”

The room was filled with zips of cloaks when most of the Death Eaters Apparated away but some of them walked out through the door.


When everyone was gone Voldemort made the big table and the chairs reappear. Voldemort took a seat at the end of the table in a chair that looked like a throne. Draco and Snape took a seat on both sides of him.
“This concerns”, Voldemort began, “my next plan, which I’m now going to tell you about.”

This awoke Draco’s interest despite the pain in his arm, and he stared as Voldemort started to let them in on his plan. Draco stared at him in awe the whole time with his mouth more and more open. When Voldemort had finished letting them in on the plan, Draco most resembled a goldfish with his mouth so much open that he almost looked jawless.

“I wanted you to know this first, although there is a long way until the plan is perfect or carried forward…”, Voldemort continued and broke the silence that had followed his relation, “…because you two are not going to be around me or the others a lot during the following months. There will be a search after you, it has already started. It’s best you go into hiding. Malfoy manor should do the trick. The rest of your family is not Death Eaters and no one is going to think you two stupid enough to hide there. There is still going to be made a search there. Of course. But there are many places in the Malfoy manor nobody knows about, Am I not correct?” He asked Draco.

“Yes there are many more places to hide”, Draco said, “although Weasley thinks he has found all of the hiding places just because he discovered the secret room under the drawing room the other year”, Draco added.

Voldemort laughed, “Then it’s decided. You will go into hiding at the Malfoy manor and you will stay there. When it’s time to activate my plane you will be informed and then you are to come to my immediately and help. Is that understood?”

“Yes my Lord”, both Draco and Snape said as one.

They both stood up and were making to leave when…

“Wait a minute…”, Voldemort said, “…there is one more thing. Despite a perfect hideaway and complete loyalty, I’m still going to make sure you don’t snitch if you are caught or forced to take Veritaserum… or something worse. I’m going to use Obliviation charm on you so you will forget everything I’ve told you about the plan. But when it’s time to carry it out you will remember everything and will be able to help, that is if you will still be free men. “

Voldemort pointed his wand towards them and uttered some spell. A flash of light came out of the wand and the plan Draco had just gotten to know was completely forgotten to him. The only thing he and Snape thought Voldemort had discussed was about where he and Snape were to hide and how the arrangement would be around that.

_____________________________________________________________________

They Apparated to Malfoy manor. It was already morning when they Apparated themselves at the limits of the grounds that belonged to the Malfoy family. They walked along the path towards the manor and it took them about ten minutes to make it to the manor. Someone had clearly raised the alarm about their arrival. When they came to the double cherry tree wood doors, two persons were standing in the doorway. The first one was a grown up women, tall and thin, with long facial features, rather pale skin, silver-blond straight long hair and silver-gray eyes and she was smiling with relief that her only son was alive. The other person was as different from Draco’s mother and him self in appearance as one could think. She was just barely in her teens, in her 11’th age year, she was tall considering age and thin, with the same long facial features like everyone in the Malfoy family. But what resembled the Malfoy family in her ended there. Her skin was light brown, her hair raven black with light curls in it and her eyes were dark brown and sometimes they looked black, especially when she was angry.

The later of the two persons came running down the stairs that lay from the front doors and the pallet in front of the manor. She ran to Draco full speed and threw herself on him and hugged him with force most resembling Hagrid. The girl looked up at Draco smiling broadly and said with sincerity, “Welcome home Draco, it’s so good to see you.”

“It’s good to be home”, Draco replied and even managed to bring forth a smile. “But it’s even better seeing you and mother.”

Draco bent down so he could hug the little one better.

“It’s so good finally seeing you again after almost a whole year…” Draco said, “…gosh, what you have grown Claudia.”

Claudia looked at him and smiled her sweetest smile. “Thanks”, she said and hugged him again, even tighter than before.

And there they were on the front pavement in the morning sun, Draco Malfoy kneeling and hugging his baby sister, Claudia Malfoy, who stood there hugging him back.

TBC

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