Harry Potter and The Bound Prince (BP1)
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Harry Potter › Slash - Male/Male › Harry/Draco
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Adult ++
Chapters:
37
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50,983
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155
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Currently Reading:
1
Category:
Harry Potter › Slash - Male/Male › Harry/Draco
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
37
Views:
50,983
Reviews:
155
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
1
Disclaimer:
I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Loose Ends
Chapter Number/Total: 32/37
Chapter Title: Loose Ends
Words: 3366 Words
Notes: Italics sections are taken directly from Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
June 3
Harry was sitting in the common room with Ron and Hermione. They were all reading quietly, not really speaking to each other. Harry had come to himself a bit more the past few days, but he still hadn't given up on the books. He didn't read as much around Draco anymore, but he took advantage of when the other boy was doing prefect duties. There were only three books left to look through now, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione each had one.
Harry sighed. He was still desperate for an answer, but instead of going absolutely mad, his heart just gave random painful beats. Mostly when he was reading or when he was simply staring at Draco. He didn't show it anymore, but he was still falling apart on the inside. He shook his head of those bad thoughts and turned his attention back to the pages of empty hope in front of him.
"Erm, Harry?" asked a voice from above.
Harry looked up. It was Jimmy Peakes, and he was holding out a small scroll that Harry immediately recognised. He took the scroll from him quickly and unrolled it. "Thanks, Jimmy," he said, scanning the parchment. "It's from Dumbledore." Harry looked up at Ron and Hermione. "He wants me to go up to his office as soon as I can."
Ron's eyes widened. "Does it say just you?"
Harry nodded, frowning.
"Blimey,” whispered Ron, “You don't reckon … he hasn’t found...?"
Hermione looked at Harry with wide eyes also.
"I suppose I'd better go and see what he wants ..." Harry said slowly, looking at the parchment again. "Keep looking, yeah?"
Ron and Hermione nodded hurriedly, both looking anxious.
"Go, Harry!" Hermione said shrilly after Harry sat there for another few seconds.
Harry frowned again and marked his page before getting to his feet and heading out the portrait hole.
He walked along the halls and was stopped shortly by Peeves on the seventh floor. Harry tried to jinx him, but Peeves dodged the spell and thankfully went cackling about his way. The corridor turned very silent, it being so close to curfew.
He froze, upon hearing a scream and crash, and listened.
He turned and headed towards the noise. Around the corner, Professor Trelawney was sprawled on the floor. There were several sherry bottles laying beside her, one broken.
Harry sighed and hurried forward to help her to her feet. "What happened, Professor?" he asked.
She got to her feet with Harry's help and patted her hair. "You may well ask!" she said shrilly. "I was strolling along, brooding upon certain Dark portents I happen to have glimpsed ..."
Harry's attention wandered. As he looked around, he realised where they were. "Were you trying to get in the Room of Requirement?" he asked.
"... omens I have vouchsafed - what?" She looked suddenly shifty.
"Were you trying to get into the Room of Requirement?" he asked again.
"I didn't know the students ..."
"Not all of them know about it," Harry said quickly, not really wanting to stand there anymore. "It sounded like you might have been hurt. What were you trying to do?"
Professor Trelawney drew her shawls around her defensively. "I wished to __ah __ deposit certain—um -- personal items in the Room ..."
Harry looked down at the sherry bottles on the floor. "Right. Why couldn't you get in then?"
"Oh, I got in all right," she said, glaring at the wall. "There was someone already in there."
Harry's head turned to face her very quickly. "Someone was in there?" he asked, frowning.
"Yes, someone was in there." Professor Trelawney sniffed.
Harry's mind immediately shot to Crabbe and Goyle and his eyes narrowed. "Who was it?"
"I have no idea," said Professor Trelawney. "There may have been two. It certainly sounded like two ... I heard two different voices."
"What were they saying?"
"They weren't really saying anything .... they were ... whooping."
Harry raised an eyebrow. "Whooping?"
"Yes."
"Male voices?"
"Yes."
"Whooping?"
"Yes, whooping."
Harry frowned again, confused. What were Crabbe and Goyle doing in there that would make them whoop? Perhaps he should've told Draco ....
"Did you see what they were doing?"
"No, everything went black and I was pushed from the room!" Professor Trelawney said indignantly.
A sudden idea came to him. Whatever Crabbe and Goyle were doing was sure to be against school rules. If Professor Trelawney told Dumbledore about it, then he could possibly get back at them for hurting Draco. "I think you should tell Professor Dumbledore," Harry said quickly. "You should tell him that someone pushed you out of the room."
“You think so?” The Professor paused in thought. Harry realised she liked the concept of sharing this little episode.
"I'm on my way to meet with him now. We could go together.” said Harry.
“Oh, well, in that case,” said Professor Trelawney, smiling as she leaned down, scooped up her sherry bottles and dumped them into the large vase standing in the closest niche.
“I miss having you in my classes, Harry,” she said soulfully, as they set off together. “You were never much of a Seer ... but you were a wonderful Object ...”
Harry did not reply; he had loathed being the Object of Professor Trelawney's continual predictions of doom.
“I am afraid,” she went on, “that the nag -- I'm sorry, the centaur -- knows nothing of cartomancy. I asked him -- one Seer to another -- had he not, too, sensed the distant vibrations of coming catastrophe? But he seemed to find me almost comical. Yes, comical!”
As her voice rose Harry caught the noticeable scent of alcohol even after she had left the bottles behind.
“Perhaps the horse has heard people say that I have not inherited my great-great-grandmother's gift. Those rumours have been bandied about by the jealous for years. You know what I say to such people, Harry? Would Dumbledore have let me teach at this great school, put so much trust in me all these years, had I not proved myself to him?”
“I well remember my first interview with Dumbledore,” went on Professor Trelawney, in throaty tones. “He was deeply impressed, of course, deeply impressed ... I was staying at the Hog's Head, which I do not advise, incidentally -- bed bugs, dear boy -- but funds were low. Dumbledore did me the courtesy of calling upon me in my room at the inn. He questioned me ... I must confess that, at first, I thought he seemed ill-disposed towards Divination ... and I remember I was starting to feel a little odd, I had not eaten much that day ... but then ...”
This caught his attention, for he knew this was when the Professor had made the Prophecy, about him and Voldemort that had changed his entire life.
“... but then we were rudely interrupted by Severus Snape!”
“What?”
“Yes, there was a commotion outside the door and it flew open, and there was that rather uncouth barman standing with Snape, who was waffling about having come the wrong way up the stairs, although I'm afraid that I myself rather thought he had been apprehended eavesdropping on my interview with Dumbledore -- you see, he himself was seeking a job at the time, and no doubt hoped to pick up tips! Well, after that, you know, Dumbledore seemed much more disposed to give me a job, and I could not help thinking, Harry, that it was because he appreciated the stark contrast between my own unassuming manners and quiet talent, compared to the pushing, thrusting young man who was prepared to listen at keyholes -- Harry, dear?”
She peered over her shoulder. Harry had stopped walking and there was a considerable gap between them.
“Harry?” she repeated uncertainly.
She looked concerned and frightened. Harry stood frozen as wave after wave of shock beat upon him, pressing out of him everything but the information that he had just learnt.
Snape, who had overheard and shared the news of Trelawney's prophecy with Voldemort. He and Pettigrew, who had sent Voldemort after him and his family ...
“Harry?” said Professor Trelawney again. “Harry -- I thought we were going to see the Headmaster together?”
“You stay here,” said Harry through numb lips.
“But, dear ... I was going to tell him how I was assaulted in the Room of --”
“You stay here!” Harry repeated angrily.
Alarmed, she followed him with her eyes as he ran around the corner to the gargoyle that stood sentry to Dumbledore's office. He shouted the password and then sped up the staircase. He pounded on the door only to hear Dumbledore's calm "Enter," after he was already in.
Fawkes the phoenix looked round, his bright black eyes gleaming with reflected gold from the sunset beyond the window. Dumbledore was standing at the window, looking out at the grounds, a long, black travelling cloak in his arms.
“Well, Harry, I promised that you could come with me.”
It took a moment or two for Harry to understand, shock from the information he had just learnt having cast out everything else.
“Come ... with you ...?”
“Only if you wish it, of course.”
“If I ...”
Then Harry remembered why he was there.
“You've found one? You've found a Horcrux?”
“I believe so.”
Anger, excitement, shock and resentment battled for several moments.
“It is natural to be afraid,” said Dumbledore.
“I'm not scared!” said Harry at once, and it was perfectly true; fear was one emotion he was not feeling at all -- well, he was not afraid of retrieving a Horcrux at least. His mind shot back to Draco and he thought for a moment about if he should go with Dumbledore at all, but then, “Which Horcrux is it? Where is it?”
“I am not sure which it is -- though I think we can rule out the snake -- but I believe it to be hidden in a cave on the coast many miles from here, a cave I have been trying to locate for a very long time: the cave in which Tom Riddle once terrorised two children from his orphanage on their annual trip; you remember?”
“Yes,” said Harry. “How is it protected?”
“I do not know; I have suspicions that may be entirely wrong.” Dumbledore hesitated, then said, “Harry, I promised you that you could come with me, and I stand by that promise, but it would be very wrong of me not to warn you that this will be exceedingly dangerous.”
“I'm coming,” said Harry, almost before Dumbledore had finished speaking. Boiling with anger at Snape, and his anger at the situation Draco was in, his desire to do something desperate and risky had increased tenfold in the last few minutes. This seemed to show on Harry's face, for Dumbledore moved away from the window, and looked more closely at Harry, a slight crease between his silver eyebrows.
“What has happened to you?”
“Nothing,” lied Harry promptly -- there were many things that had happened to him within the past month.
“What has upset you?”
“I'm not upset.” Another lie.
“Harry, you were never a good Occlumens --”
That word was the fuel that sparked Harry's anger.
“Snape!” he said, very loudly, and Fawkes gave a soft squawk behind them. He didn't know why he didn't say anything to Dumbledore about Draco too, but strangely, something made him feel like he shouldn't, and it was easy to pretend that Snape was the only thing bothering him. It took some of the pain away.“Snape's what's happened! He told Voldemort about the prophecy, it was him, he listened outside the door, Trelawney told me!”
Dumbledore's expression did not change, but Harry thought his face whitened under the bloody tinge cast by the setting sun. For a long moment, Dumbledore said nothing. “When did you find out about this?” he asked at last.
“Just now!” said Harry, who was refraining from yelling with enormous difficulty. And then, suddenly, he could not stop himself and it was a relief to finally be yelling at someone, even if it had nothing to do with Draco. “AND YOU LET HIM TEACH HERE AND HE TOLD VOLDEMORT TO GO AFTER MY MUM AND DAD!”
Having trouble controlling himself physically, he turned away from a motionless Dumbledore. He was torn between the need to rage and share his feelings that Dumbledore was a fool for trusting Snape. And with his desire to go with him and destroy the Horcrux, he was terrified that if he didn't control his anger, he would be left behind ....
“Harry,” said Dumbledore quietly. “Please listen to me.”
Having difficulty staying still, and still trying not to yell, he paused to look at Dumbledore.
“Professor Snape made a terrible --”
“Don't tell me it was a mistake, sir, he was listening at the door!”
“Please let me finish.” Dumbledore waited until Harry had nodded curtly, then went on. “Professor Snape made a terrible mistake. He was still in Lord Voldemort's employ on the night he heard the first half of Professor Trelawney's prophecy. Naturally, he hastened to tell his master what he had heard, for it concerned his master most deeply. But he did not know -- he had no possible way of knowing -- which boy Voldemort would hunt from then onwards, or that the parents he would destroy in his murderous quest were people that Professor Snape knew, that they were your mother and father --”
Harry let out a yell of mirthless laughter.
“He hated my dad like he hated Sirius! Haven't you noticed, Professor, how the people Snape hates tend to end up dead?”
“You have no idea of the remorse Professor Snape felt when he realised how Lord Voldemort had interpreted the prophecy, Harry. I believe it to be the greatest regret of his life and the reason that he returned --”
“But he's a very good Occlumens, isn't he, sir?” said Harry, whose voice was shaking with the effort of keeping it steady. “And isn't Voldemort convinced that Snape's on his side, even now? Professor ... how can you be sure Snape's on our side?”
Dumbledore was silent for a time; his expression read as if he were trying to come to a decision. At last, he said, “I am sure. I trust Severus Snape completely.”
Harry tried to take deep breaths to steady himself, though it wasn't very successfull. “Well, I don't!” he said, as loudly as before. “He's up to something with Crabbe and Goyle right now, right under your nose, and you still --”
“Crabbe and Goyle? Was it not Mr Malfoy you accused of doing something under my nose? I do not remember any mention of Mr Crabbe or Mr Goyle." Dumbledore raised one eyebrow.
Harry was silent for a second. "Draco was doing something. I don't know what. He hasn't told me, but Crabbe and Goyle knew about it and so did Snape. Why couldn't they all have picked up where Draco left off?"
"We have discussed this, Harry,” said Dumbledore, and now he sounded stern again. “I have told you my views.”
“You're leaving the school tonight and I'll bet you haven't even considered that Snape and those two might decide to --”
"To what?” asked Dumbledore, his eyebrows raised. “What is it that you suspect them of doing, precisely?”
“I ... they're up to something!” said Harry, and his hands curled into fists as he said it. “Professor Trelawney was just in the Room of Requirement, trying to hide her sherry bottles, and she heard male voices whooping, celebrating! They’re doing something dangerous in there … and you're about to just walk out of school without --”
“Enough,” said Dumbledore calmly. Harry went silent, immediately knowing that he had crossed an unseen line. “Do you think that I have once left the school unprotected during my absences this year? I have not. Tonight, when I leave, there will again be additional protection in place. Please do not suggest that I do not take the safety of my students seriously, Harry.”
“I didn't --” mumbled Harry, a little abashed, but Dumbledore cut across him.
“I do not wish to discuss the matter any further.”
Harry swallowed his words, afraid he had gone too far and would be unable to accompany Dumbledore, but Dumbledore went on, “Do you wish to come with me tonight?”
“Yes,” said Harry at once.
“Very well, then: listen.”
Dumbledore drew himself up to his full height.
“I take you with me on one condition: that you obey any command I might give you at once, and without question.”
“Of course.”
“Be sure to understand me, Harry. I mean that you must follow even such orders as ‘run’, ‘hide’ or ‘go back’. Do I have your word?”
“I -- yes, of course.”
“If I tell you to hide, you will do so?”
“Yes.”
“If I tell you to flee, you will obey?”
“Yes.”
“If I tell you to leave me, and save yourself, you will do as I tell you?”
“I --”
“Harry?”
They looked at each other for a moment.
“Yes, sir.”
“Very good. Then I wish you to go and fetch your Cloak and meet me in the Entrance Hall in five minutes' time.”
As Harry left quickly, Dumbledore looked out of the window, the sun a slash of red on the horizon.
***
Harry rushed back along the halls, moving as fast as his feet would allow. His head was swimming with everything he'd just learnt. He rushed into the common room and found Ron and Hermione exactly where he had left them, still reading.
"Harry?" Hermione said looking up at him, surprised.
"I'm fine," Harry said, dashing past his friends to run up to his and Draco's room. He searched around for a bit and found the Marauder's Map and his balled up socks that hid his small bottle of Felix Felicis. He raced back down the stairs at breakneck speed.
"I have to be quick," Harry said, panting. "Dumbledore thinks I'm getting my Invisibility Cloak. Listen ..." and he told them where he was going and why. He ignored Hermione's gasps of horror, and Ron's urgent questions.
"So you see what this means?" he continued. "Dumbledore's not going to be at the castle tonight. I know there's lots of protection around the place, but I'd feel much better if I knew that you lot were all safe. Crabbe and Goyle might be up to something in that room. I never found out what Draco was doing in there, but they might have been continuing where he left off. They were happy about something, according to Trelawney, and I don't like it. After what they did to Draco, who knows what they're capable of?" He shoved the map into Hermione's hand. "Watch Crabbe and Goyle, and watch Snape too. It's possible he could try something with Dumbledore not here, he might even be in on whatever Crabbe and Goyle are up to -- he knew what Draco was doing in there. You should round up as many D.A. members as you can as well. The more people watching, the better I'll feel," Harry finished.
"Harry --" Hermione began.
"I don't have time to argue," Harry said quickly. He thrust his socks into Ron's hand.
"Erm, what do I need socks for?" Ron asked.
"The Felix Felicis is in them. Share it between yourselves and Draco -- just in case. Tell him I said I'll be back later. Tell him I went somewhere with Dumbledore." He looked at them seriously. "Tell him I love him."
Ron winced, but Hermione nodded.
"All right, I have to go. I've already spent too much time here," Harry said, getting to his feet. "Don't look like that, Hermione, I'll be fine. I'll be with Dumbledore. Tell Draco what I said, okay?"
Hermione frowned and nodded one last time, and then Harry was off.
***
{The Cave - Chapter 26 in HPB – unchanged from the book.}
Chapter Title: Loose Ends
Words: 3366 Words
Notes: Italics sections are taken directly from Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
June 3
Harry was sitting in the common room with Ron and Hermione. They were all reading quietly, not really speaking to each other. Harry had come to himself a bit more the past few days, but he still hadn't given up on the books. He didn't read as much around Draco anymore, but he took advantage of when the other boy was doing prefect duties. There were only three books left to look through now, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione each had one.
Harry sighed. He was still desperate for an answer, but instead of going absolutely mad, his heart just gave random painful beats. Mostly when he was reading or when he was simply staring at Draco. He didn't show it anymore, but he was still falling apart on the inside. He shook his head of those bad thoughts and turned his attention back to the pages of empty hope in front of him.
"Erm, Harry?" asked a voice from above.
Harry looked up. It was Jimmy Peakes, and he was holding out a small scroll that Harry immediately recognised. He took the scroll from him quickly and unrolled it. "Thanks, Jimmy," he said, scanning the parchment. "It's from Dumbledore." Harry looked up at Ron and Hermione. "He wants me to go up to his office as soon as I can."
Ron's eyes widened. "Does it say just you?"
Harry nodded, frowning.
"Blimey,” whispered Ron, “You don't reckon … he hasn’t found...?"
Hermione looked at Harry with wide eyes also.
"I suppose I'd better go and see what he wants ..." Harry said slowly, looking at the parchment again. "Keep looking, yeah?"
Ron and Hermione nodded hurriedly, both looking anxious.
"Go, Harry!" Hermione said shrilly after Harry sat there for another few seconds.
Harry frowned again and marked his page before getting to his feet and heading out the portrait hole.
He walked along the halls and was stopped shortly by Peeves on the seventh floor. Harry tried to jinx him, but Peeves dodged the spell and thankfully went cackling about his way. The corridor turned very silent, it being so close to curfew.
He froze, upon hearing a scream and crash, and listened.
He turned and headed towards the noise. Around the corner, Professor Trelawney was sprawled on the floor. There were several sherry bottles laying beside her, one broken.
Harry sighed and hurried forward to help her to her feet. "What happened, Professor?" he asked.
She got to her feet with Harry's help and patted her hair. "You may well ask!" she said shrilly. "I was strolling along, brooding upon certain Dark portents I happen to have glimpsed ..."
Harry's attention wandered. As he looked around, he realised where they were. "Were you trying to get in the Room of Requirement?" he asked.
"... omens I have vouchsafed - what?" She looked suddenly shifty.
"Were you trying to get into the Room of Requirement?" he asked again.
"I didn't know the students ..."
"Not all of them know about it," Harry said quickly, not really wanting to stand there anymore. "It sounded like you might have been hurt. What were you trying to do?"
Professor Trelawney drew her shawls around her defensively. "I wished to __ah __ deposit certain—um -- personal items in the Room ..."
Harry looked down at the sherry bottles on the floor. "Right. Why couldn't you get in then?"
"Oh, I got in all right," she said, glaring at the wall. "There was someone already in there."
Harry's head turned to face her very quickly. "Someone was in there?" he asked, frowning.
"Yes, someone was in there." Professor Trelawney sniffed.
Harry's mind immediately shot to Crabbe and Goyle and his eyes narrowed. "Who was it?"
"I have no idea," said Professor Trelawney. "There may have been two. It certainly sounded like two ... I heard two different voices."
"What were they saying?"
"They weren't really saying anything .... they were ... whooping."
Harry raised an eyebrow. "Whooping?"
"Yes."
"Male voices?"
"Yes."
"Whooping?"
"Yes, whooping."
Harry frowned again, confused. What were Crabbe and Goyle doing in there that would make them whoop? Perhaps he should've told Draco ....
"Did you see what they were doing?"
"No, everything went black and I was pushed from the room!" Professor Trelawney said indignantly.
A sudden idea came to him. Whatever Crabbe and Goyle were doing was sure to be against school rules. If Professor Trelawney told Dumbledore about it, then he could possibly get back at them for hurting Draco. "I think you should tell Professor Dumbledore," Harry said quickly. "You should tell him that someone pushed you out of the room."
“You think so?” The Professor paused in thought. Harry realised she liked the concept of sharing this little episode.
"I'm on my way to meet with him now. We could go together.” said Harry.
“Oh, well, in that case,” said Professor Trelawney, smiling as she leaned down, scooped up her sherry bottles and dumped them into the large vase standing in the closest niche.
“I miss having you in my classes, Harry,” she said soulfully, as they set off together. “You were never much of a Seer ... but you were a wonderful Object ...”
Harry did not reply; he had loathed being the Object of Professor Trelawney's continual predictions of doom.
“I am afraid,” she went on, “that the nag -- I'm sorry, the centaur -- knows nothing of cartomancy. I asked him -- one Seer to another -- had he not, too, sensed the distant vibrations of coming catastrophe? But he seemed to find me almost comical. Yes, comical!”
As her voice rose Harry caught the noticeable scent of alcohol even after she had left the bottles behind.
“Perhaps the horse has heard people say that I have not inherited my great-great-grandmother's gift. Those rumours have been bandied about by the jealous for years. You know what I say to such people, Harry? Would Dumbledore have let me teach at this great school, put so much trust in me all these years, had I not proved myself to him?”
“I well remember my first interview with Dumbledore,” went on Professor Trelawney, in throaty tones. “He was deeply impressed, of course, deeply impressed ... I was staying at the Hog's Head, which I do not advise, incidentally -- bed bugs, dear boy -- but funds were low. Dumbledore did me the courtesy of calling upon me in my room at the inn. He questioned me ... I must confess that, at first, I thought he seemed ill-disposed towards Divination ... and I remember I was starting to feel a little odd, I had not eaten much that day ... but then ...”
This caught his attention, for he knew this was when the Professor had made the Prophecy, about him and Voldemort that had changed his entire life.
“... but then we were rudely interrupted by Severus Snape!”
“What?”
“Yes, there was a commotion outside the door and it flew open, and there was that rather uncouth barman standing with Snape, who was waffling about having come the wrong way up the stairs, although I'm afraid that I myself rather thought he had been apprehended eavesdropping on my interview with Dumbledore -- you see, he himself was seeking a job at the time, and no doubt hoped to pick up tips! Well, after that, you know, Dumbledore seemed much more disposed to give me a job, and I could not help thinking, Harry, that it was because he appreciated the stark contrast between my own unassuming manners and quiet talent, compared to the pushing, thrusting young man who was prepared to listen at keyholes -- Harry, dear?”
She peered over her shoulder. Harry had stopped walking and there was a considerable gap between them.
“Harry?” she repeated uncertainly.
She looked concerned and frightened. Harry stood frozen as wave after wave of shock beat upon him, pressing out of him everything but the information that he had just learnt.
Snape, who had overheard and shared the news of Trelawney's prophecy with Voldemort. He and Pettigrew, who had sent Voldemort after him and his family ...
“Harry?” said Professor Trelawney again. “Harry -- I thought we were going to see the Headmaster together?”
“You stay here,” said Harry through numb lips.
“But, dear ... I was going to tell him how I was assaulted in the Room of --”
“You stay here!” Harry repeated angrily.
Alarmed, she followed him with her eyes as he ran around the corner to the gargoyle that stood sentry to Dumbledore's office. He shouted the password and then sped up the staircase. He pounded on the door only to hear Dumbledore's calm "Enter," after he was already in.
Fawkes the phoenix looked round, his bright black eyes gleaming with reflected gold from the sunset beyond the window. Dumbledore was standing at the window, looking out at the grounds, a long, black travelling cloak in his arms.
“Well, Harry, I promised that you could come with me.”
It took a moment or two for Harry to understand, shock from the information he had just learnt having cast out everything else.
“Come ... with you ...?”
“Only if you wish it, of course.”
“If I ...”
Then Harry remembered why he was there.
“You've found one? You've found a Horcrux?”
“I believe so.”
Anger, excitement, shock and resentment battled for several moments.
“It is natural to be afraid,” said Dumbledore.
“I'm not scared!” said Harry at once, and it was perfectly true; fear was one emotion he was not feeling at all -- well, he was not afraid of retrieving a Horcrux at least. His mind shot back to Draco and he thought for a moment about if he should go with Dumbledore at all, but then, “Which Horcrux is it? Where is it?”
“I am not sure which it is -- though I think we can rule out the snake -- but I believe it to be hidden in a cave on the coast many miles from here, a cave I have been trying to locate for a very long time: the cave in which Tom Riddle once terrorised two children from his orphanage on their annual trip; you remember?”
“Yes,” said Harry. “How is it protected?”
“I do not know; I have suspicions that may be entirely wrong.” Dumbledore hesitated, then said, “Harry, I promised you that you could come with me, and I stand by that promise, but it would be very wrong of me not to warn you that this will be exceedingly dangerous.”
“I'm coming,” said Harry, almost before Dumbledore had finished speaking. Boiling with anger at Snape, and his anger at the situation Draco was in, his desire to do something desperate and risky had increased tenfold in the last few minutes. This seemed to show on Harry's face, for Dumbledore moved away from the window, and looked more closely at Harry, a slight crease between his silver eyebrows.
“What has happened to you?”
“Nothing,” lied Harry promptly -- there were many things that had happened to him within the past month.
“What has upset you?”
“I'm not upset.” Another lie.
“Harry, you were never a good Occlumens --”
That word was the fuel that sparked Harry's anger.
“Snape!” he said, very loudly, and Fawkes gave a soft squawk behind them. He didn't know why he didn't say anything to Dumbledore about Draco too, but strangely, something made him feel like he shouldn't, and it was easy to pretend that Snape was the only thing bothering him. It took some of the pain away.“Snape's what's happened! He told Voldemort about the prophecy, it was him, he listened outside the door, Trelawney told me!”
Dumbledore's expression did not change, but Harry thought his face whitened under the bloody tinge cast by the setting sun. For a long moment, Dumbledore said nothing. “When did you find out about this?” he asked at last.
“Just now!” said Harry, who was refraining from yelling with enormous difficulty. And then, suddenly, he could not stop himself and it was a relief to finally be yelling at someone, even if it had nothing to do with Draco. “AND YOU LET HIM TEACH HERE AND HE TOLD VOLDEMORT TO GO AFTER MY MUM AND DAD!”
Having trouble controlling himself physically, he turned away from a motionless Dumbledore. He was torn between the need to rage and share his feelings that Dumbledore was a fool for trusting Snape. And with his desire to go with him and destroy the Horcrux, he was terrified that if he didn't control his anger, he would be left behind ....
“Harry,” said Dumbledore quietly. “Please listen to me.”
Having difficulty staying still, and still trying not to yell, he paused to look at Dumbledore.
“Professor Snape made a terrible --”
“Don't tell me it was a mistake, sir, he was listening at the door!”
“Please let me finish.” Dumbledore waited until Harry had nodded curtly, then went on. “Professor Snape made a terrible mistake. He was still in Lord Voldemort's employ on the night he heard the first half of Professor Trelawney's prophecy. Naturally, he hastened to tell his master what he had heard, for it concerned his master most deeply. But he did not know -- he had no possible way of knowing -- which boy Voldemort would hunt from then onwards, or that the parents he would destroy in his murderous quest were people that Professor Snape knew, that they were your mother and father --”
Harry let out a yell of mirthless laughter.
“He hated my dad like he hated Sirius! Haven't you noticed, Professor, how the people Snape hates tend to end up dead?”
“You have no idea of the remorse Professor Snape felt when he realised how Lord Voldemort had interpreted the prophecy, Harry. I believe it to be the greatest regret of his life and the reason that he returned --”
“But he's a very good Occlumens, isn't he, sir?” said Harry, whose voice was shaking with the effort of keeping it steady. “And isn't Voldemort convinced that Snape's on his side, even now? Professor ... how can you be sure Snape's on our side?”
Dumbledore was silent for a time; his expression read as if he were trying to come to a decision. At last, he said, “I am sure. I trust Severus Snape completely.”
Harry tried to take deep breaths to steady himself, though it wasn't very successfull. “Well, I don't!” he said, as loudly as before. “He's up to something with Crabbe and Goyle right now, right under your nose, and you still --”
“Crabbe and Goyle? Was it not Mr Malfoy you accused of doing something under my nose? I do not remember any mention of Mr Crabbe or Mr Goyle." Dumbledore raised one eyebrow.
Harry was silent for a second. "Draco was doing something. I don't know what. He hasn't told me, but Crabbe and Goyle knew about it and so did Snape. Why couldn't they all have picked up where Draco left off?"
"We have discussed this, Harry,” said Dumbledore, and now he sounded stern again. “I have told you my views.”
“You're leaving the school tonight and I'll bet you haven't even considered that Snape and those two might decide to --”
"To what?” asked Dumbledore, his eyebrows raised. “What is it that you suspect them of doing, precisely?”
“I ... they're up to something!” said Harry, and his hands curled into fists as he said it. “Professor Trelawney was just in the Room of Requirement, trying to hide her sherry bottles, and she heard male voices whooping, celebrating! They’re doing something dangerous in there … and you're about to just walk out of school without --”
“Enough,” said Dumbledore calmly. Harry went silent, immediately knowing that he had crossed an unseen line. “Do you think that I have once left the school unprotected during my absences this year? I have not. Tonight, when I leave, there will again be additional protection in place. Please do not suggest that I do not take the safety of my students seriously, Harry.”
“I didn't --” mumbled Harry, a little abashed, but Dumbledore cut across him.
“I do not wish to discuss the matter any further.”
Harry swallowed his words, afraid he had gone too far and would be unable to accompany Dumbledore, but Dumbledore went on, “Do you wish to come with me tonight?”
“Yes,” said Harry at once.
“Very well, then: listen.”
Dumbledore drew himself up to his full height.
“I take you with me on one condition: that you obey any command I might give you at once, and without question.”
“Of course.”
“Be sure to understand me, Harry. I mean that you must follow even such orders as ‘run’, ‘hide’ or ‘go back’. Do I have your word?”
“I -- yes, of course.”
“If I tell you to hide, you will do so?”
“Yes.”
“If I tell you to flee, you will obey?”
“Yes.”
“If I tell you to leave me, and save yourself, you will do as I tell you?”
“I --”
“Harry?”
They looked at each other for a moment.
“Yes, sir.”
“Very good. Then I wish you to go and fetch your Cloak and meet me in the Entrance Hall in five minutes' time.”
As Harry left quickly, Dumbledore looked out of the window, the sun a slash of red on the horizon.
***
Harry rushed back along the halls, moving as fast as his feet would allow. His head was swimming with everything he'd just learnt. He rushed into the common room and found Ron and Hermione exactly where he had left them, still reading.
"Harry?" Hermione said looking up at him, surprised.
"I'm fine," Harry said, dashing past his friends to run up to his and Draco's room. He searched around for a bit and found the Marauder's Map and his balled up socks that hid his small bottle of Felix Felicis. He raced back down the stairs at breakneck speed.
"I have to be quick," Harry said, panting. "Dumbledore thinks I'm getting my Invisibility Cloak. Listen ..." and he told them where he was going and why. He ignored Hermione's gasps of horror, and Ron's urgent questions.
"So you see what this means?" he continued. "Dumbledore's not going to be at the castle tonight. I know there's lots of protection around the place, but I'd feel much better if I knew that you lot were all safe. Crabbe and Goyle might be up to something in that room. I never found out what Draco was doing in there, but they might have been continuing where he left off. They were happy about something, according to Trelawney, and I don't like it. After what they did to Draco, who knows what they're capable of?" He shoved the map into Hermione's hand. "Watch Crabbe and Goyle, and watch Snape too. It's possible he could try something with Dumbledore not here, he might even be in on whatever Crabbe and Goyle are up to -- he knew what Draco was doing in there. You should round up as many D.A. members as you can as well. The more people watching, the better I'll feel," Harry finished.
"Harry --" Hermione began.
"I don't have time to argue," Harry said quickly. He thrust his socks into Ron's hand.
"Erm, what do I need socks for?" Ron asked.
"The Felix Felicis is in them. Share it between yourselves and Draco -- just in case. Tell him I said I'll be back later. Tell him I went somewhere with Dumbledore." He looked at them seriously. "Tell him I love him."
Ron winced, but Hermione nodded.
"All right, I have to go. I've already spent too much time here," Harry said, getting to his feet. "Don't look like that, Hermione, I'll be fine. I'll be with Dumbledore. Tell Draco what I said, okay?"
Hermione frowned and nodded one last time, and then Harry was off.
***
{The Cave - Chapter 26 in HPB – unchanged from the book.}