The Secret of the Malfoy Name

Chapter XXX: The Hourglass

09/26/1996
‘Fire of Phoenix’, Harry said to the Fat Lady, and the three of them walked into an empty common room. Peace and quiet, that was just what they needed. Draco stretched and looked at a large sofa far too fondly. He felt Harry’s warm hand going around his waist and his chin settling down comfortably on his shoulder. ‘Everybody must be in class by now… what do you say…’, he whispered suggestively planting small kisses on his neck, ‘…if we go to that lovely sofa… and take a nap?’

Draco smiled and closed his eyes. ‘That’s the best idea I’ve heard all day’, he said turning his head around to kiss him on the lips. He leaded the way to the centre of the room and they laid down back to chest with their heads on a puffy cushion.

‘Mmmh…’, escaped Draco’s throat on Harry’s neck, sending him shivers all over his body. ‘It’s been such a long time since I’ve been this relaxed’, he whispered as he surrounded Harry with his right arm and pulled him closer.

‘Draco… do you think we should tell people…?’

‘About us? There’s no need for that’, he laughed. ‘The Slytherins already know, so I doubt we’ll last a day without being inquired by the whole school.’

‘Oh…’, Harry said uncertainly. ‘And, are you okay with that? With people knowing?’

‘Honestly? I wasn’t in the mood to be hiding around’, the blonde said truthfully and fell silent. ‘The other Gryffindors love you, right?’

‘What?’, Harry laughed and turned his head around to look at him.

‘They won’t mind if you’re with me, because they care about you.’

‘Of course they won’t… most of them, I think. Ron will probably have an epileptic fit, but he’ll be alright’, Harry laughed at the thought of his best friend’s face. ‘In fact, I might even lure him into actually liking you.’

‘You have no idea how lucky you are’, Draco smiled as he begun to doze off. ‘Do you think there’s a chance me and Hera can move in here? I really don’t want to go back to Slytherin. Besides, I think I would marry this sofa right now.’

Harry smiled fondly and kissed him on the cheek. ‘It’ll be an honour to have you around.’

‘Good. I would expect no less…’

They fell silent and closed their eyes.

‘Harry… could you lift your head and see what’s Hera doing?’, he asked lazily in a whisper.

‘She’s your sister… you do it…’, Harry replied in the same tone.

‘Please…’, Draco begged nudging the back of his head with his nose.

‘Fine’, he said cantankerously but repressing a smile. He put a hand on the armrest and pushed himself up. ‘She’s still playing with the wands.’

‘Playing… pff! Hera never plays… she’s a grown-up trapped in the body of a little girl. Hera, love? What are you doing?’

‘Nothing…’, her voice came from the place where they had left the pile of wands.

Draco opened his eyes and carefully slid over Harry’s limp body to go and take a look for himself. After pulling a human parabolic, he finally put a foot on the carpet and tripped. He looked over his shoulder to find a beaming Harry tightly gripping his left ankle.

‘Damn you’, Draco smirked and stood up. He walked by the fire and kneeled next to his sister. ‘Once again… what are you doing?’, Draco said intrigued as he took in the new sight.

Laid out on the floor were 35 wands forming a perfect, uniform line, except for a larger space almost at the end.

‘Just playing… could you ask Harry for his parent’s wands?’, she asked.

‘Here you go’, Harry, who had just gotten up, said and gave her the wands. ‘What do you need them for?’

She placed them together to fill the empty space and got on her feet to look at her creation.

‘Is something wrong?’, Draco asked curiously.

‘I don’t think so… I just found a really strange pattern in the Dark Lord’s killings. First, I ordered them chronologically’, she explained and Harry looked at Draco amused by the sort of entertainment his sister liked. ‘And then, I noticed that the wands have things in common in this order. This weren’t just random murders… even though He probably didn’t know so.’

‘What do you mean?’, Draco asked, every second more absorbed and shocked by Hera’s words.

‘You see…’, she said as she kneeled down again. ‘This first four wands were made with phoenix feathers, the next four have a core of dragon heartstring, the following three have unicorn hair, the next two have Veela hair and the one in the middle has Ashwinder dust. And it’s perfectly symmetrical, because when it reaches the centre, the pattern repeats backwards.’ She looked up at the two boys who didn’t seem to have anything to comment about it. ‘Nervermind.’

She shook her head and begun reorganizing the wands from the centre to the ends in different levels, forming two filled triangles as she followed the cores pattern. But there was something wrong to her… the fifth level ought to have had five wands instead of four… Her eyes opened widely as she took two more wands from her pocket. Those belonged to the first and last murder… Voldemort’s and the girl who had broken his heart.

She stretched and made room for the remaining wands; lowering the first four and rising the preceding ones. Slowly she put them in the correct place. A thunder broke the silence as the figure shone a rose in the air. Hera stood up and took a few step backwards whilst Harry and Draco stared at the shining wands unblinkingly in awe.

‘Hera… what have you done?’, Draco asked frightened, but she didn’t answer.

The wands floated higher above the floor, they lifted themselves until the figure was facing them vertically, and both sides closed, taking the shape of a strange hourglass. And it begun to swirl… faster and faster. Draco couldn’t take his eyes off of it, it was hypnotizing. Hera was standing motionless in front of him. The Slytherin put a hand on her shoulder and she turned around violently with her eyes fixed on nothing in particular, and when she opened her mouth to speak, but the voice that came out wasn’t hers. Draco had only heard it once, many years ago… Hera’s first prediction…

‘As time ticks by, grains of sand
Falling one after the other
Take the life of son and mother
Like water slips from a hand.

Does death put an end to life?
Does life prepare us for death?
Each ticking takes from the sheath
What becomes a bleeding knife.

But no life is lost in vane,
Nor it happens for no reason,
Since the ending of a season
Leaves the next an open lane.

And the hourglass keeps turning,
And as time keeps ticking by,
Those who live up in the sky
Back to Earth will be returning.’

She fell to her knees, gasping for air. Draco kneeled in front of her and lifted her chin to look at her. Her expression was fearful and her eyes full of tears suddenly turned emerald green.

‘Harry?’, she asked, her voice trembling. She walked past her brother and stood in front of the brunette. She looked up at him and smiled fondly. ‘Just look at you… you’ve turned into a man already…’

The Gryffindor fell to his knees before her, unable to breathe. He outstretched a hand to caress her face and wipe the new born tears off her cheek.

‘Your father and I are so proud of you, Harry. We would’ve loved to have been there for you when you most needed us, but you’ve managed to grow all by yourself and that makes you even more wonderful. Remember that, no matter what you do, you’ll never let us down, Harry… never…’, she cried and closed her eyes to keep more tears from falling. ‘And remember that… I’ll come back for you’, she opened her eyelids to show a pair of snaky eyes.

Harry got up quickly and walked away from his nemesis until his path was closed by the sofa. Hera walked towards him menacingly, grinning in the same manner Voldemort did and Harry took a hand to his burning scar.

‘You can’t get rid of me, Potter… I will always be watching you… plotting your downfall’, she spoke and laughed insanely. Draco grabbed her from behind and her eyes went back to normal, her usual light grey that distinguished the Malfoys. ‘Traitor…’ she whispered, her voice full of rage. ‘You’ve let that girl destroy everything… you’ve destroyed everything! Don’t you realize how much damage your actions have created? You should’ve let me kill her when I could…’

‘Shut up, Father! And leave Hera alone!’, Draco yelled. He turned around, ran towards the swirling hourglass enraged and begun tearing it apart, taking a bunch of wands out. The shining disappeared, and the other wands fell to the floor. He heard Hera taking a big breath and sob. He went running to her, but she dismissed him. ‘Are you alright, love?’

She looked up at him and her eyes went blank as she lost her consciousness.

***

Hera woke up in Harry’s bed. She was surrounded by people who, even though they didn’t know her, they looked happy to see her open her eyes.

‘Draco?’, she asked, and her brother sat on the bed beside her.

‘I’m right here. How are you feeling?’

‘Better. A bit dizzy, though’, she smirked, but her smile didn’t reach her eyes. ‘Don’t worry about me, I’ll live.’

‘Of course you will. You always do.’

‘You haven’t destroyed those wands, right?’, she asked.

‘No, that was Harry’s suggestion, but I wanted to know what you considered best.’

‘There’s too much power within them to just throw them away. Just… let me take one out.’

‘Why?’

‘Because it’s something I need to do for myself. Not everything has to do with what I see, Draco’, she replied harshly.

‘Fine. Harry, would you bring them?’, he asked and the brunette complied. ‘Are you sure you’re okay?’

‘I’m just very tired.’

‘We’ll just leave you alone, alright? Get some sleep and then we’ll see what to do with those wands’, he said as he pulled the covers up.

‘No… it’ll just be a second’, she said.

Harry went in, carrying the robes full of wands and opened it before her. Just like she had done earlier, she took the one that belonged to Voldemort’s only love and looked at it pleased.

‘I’ll keep this one, put the rest in a box… keep them somewhere safe, okay?’, she supplicated.

‘Sure… will you try to get some sleep now?’, he asked and she just nodded with her eyes closed. ‘Good…’

Draco and the Gryffindors that had been at Harry’s room left. Harry and Draco sat outside the room with the wands in between.

‘You shouldn’t worry so much about her, Draco. She knows what’s best for her.’

‘I know… she’s just growing so fast. I’m afraid she won’t need me anymore.’

‘Believe me, she already doesn’t’, Harry said and Draco looked at him in disbelief. ‘She’s completely independent and she doesn’t need anyone to take care of her, just like me when I was her age. And yet, I still need my parents, and she’ll always need you, not to tell her to put on a coat before going outside, but to offer her the sort of love no one can match. You are her only family. She’ll never be too old for you, even when she stops being a child and begins worrying about boys and how she looks with make-up and nail polish. You will always be as important to her as you are now.’

‘You’re probably right. I’ll just have to let her grow and have a life of my own. Can I count on you for that?’

‘If you can handle the media, the constant fight to make the world a better place and the regular nightmares, there shouldn’t be an issue’, he beamed and put an arm on his shoulders.

‘I think I’ll manage to survive. After all, if you still do, it mustn’t be that difficult’, he laughed.

‘So… what now?’

‘Only Hera knows…’

~ The End ~


A/N: Intrigued by the ending? Stay tuned for ‘The Hourglass’. I simply needed to put an ending to this story, but ideas kept flowing, so there will be a sequel, and this last chapter was my way to link this fic to the next.
Thank you for reading and reviewing!!! I just love getting your reviews, they’re very encouraging and really keep me going. So, thanks for everything ^.,^
And whilst I start writing the sequel, go check out my other fics: ‘Haunted’ and ‘Harry Potter and the Eyes of the Dragon’.