Draco's Companion

A/N- What will Rita come out with this time? I really tried to make myself bitter like she is, I hope it worked!!! This is a long chapter, I hope you guys all enjoy it!!!

WeasleyWench-:D Thanks man, I really appriciate your help!:D

Rumor- Rita will get hers. Promise!

Sleepyxin- I don't really know if I'm going to write a war scene. :S. I'll have to see if I get inspiration by the time that comes.

GrimWriter- Yes. You really did. I didn't put any of the reactions in there, and I'm sorry for that. Honestly I was just having a crazy weekend, but wanted to get *something* out. But now my chapters are much longer, and (I like to think) much more detailed:D

SneakyFox- Yep, we will be seeing another Horcrux in this chapter, and we will know about the Feather too. That idea actually came from WeasleyWench, but thanks all the same:P Well the feather anyway, I added the initials. (yay me! haha) Thanks and Enjoy!!

Chapter Thirty-Six: Grimmauld Place.

"Draco?" Harry asked when they were sitting in their common room.

"Yeah?"

"How do you think Rita found all of that out?"

"I don't know Harry." He said with a sigh.

"It's just weird isn't it?"

"Very, but I'm not in the mood to figure it out, I'm going to bed. We need to be up early enough to eat and get to Dumbledores office before 9:30."

"I can't believe Sirius owns that house." Harry said skeptically.

Draco sighed and stood up, he had already heard all of Harry's ranting from the walk back their common room. He yawned and stretched, arching his back and throwing his hands over his head. "Are you coming to bed?" he asked.

"Yeah." Harry said, yawning too.

****

Harry and Draco were down at breakfast by 8:30. They wanted to make sure they got a great meal in their bodies at one point today, what with all the cleaning they weren't sure when the next time they were going to eat would be. Halfway through the meal Harry realized that alot of people were, once again, giving him odd looks.

He didn't want to deal with everyone's questions about yesterday. Couldn't they just give it up?

Draco watched Granger get up from her seat, a newspaper in her hand, and watched her approach the Slytherin table. Draco nudged Harry in the ribs with his elbow and nodded at the approaching girl. Harry registered the newspaper in her hand, and his eyes darkened a twinge. The other Slytherins glared at Granger but she held her head up high and ventured her way towards Harry and Draco nonetheless.

"I think you should look at this." She said, holding out the magazine for them to take.

They glanced at each other and Draco reached out and took it. Hermione quickly walked back to her table once she was free of the paper.

Death Eaters or Order Members?

There seems to be some confusion about 'Our Savior' Harry Potter and his partner Draco Malfoy, writes Rita Skeeter. It is said that Lucius Malfoy had started training the two boys to become Death Eaters at the extremely young age of ten. He had been training them in the dark arts and potion making, getting them ready to meet their 'master'.

"How silly the imbecile must feel about that decision now" Said an un-named wizard.

The boys had then been taken to the Dark Lord to meet him days prior to boarding the Hogwarts Express for their first time. Unfortunately, Dumbledore didn't know that these corrupted boys could *possibly* pose a threat. At their first arrival to school they were given a simple, yet juvenile mission: Watch Dumbledore.

The boys, at the time, had no idea what they were to watch for. They tried to spy on Dumbledore but they seemingly turned up with nothing. Throughout the last five years of their schooling, they had been meeting He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named on a regular basis, trading information with him and attending his meetings.

Harry Potter was wrongfully informed about the murder of his parents. He was told that it was Peter Pettigrew who killed them, when the rest of the wizarding world was well aware that it was You-Know-Who. Harry was recently informed that it was in fact You-Know-Who who killed his parents, and has taken a complete turnaround. Draco Malfoy also feels that his parents were killed on orders from the Dark Lord, which also caused him to question his loyalties to the man.

It's now a possibility that Draco and Harry are on the wrong side of the Dark Lord, and their lives are on the line. The true question about the boys, is where do their loyalties lie? With the Dark Lord, or with Dumbledore?

I asked a few witches and wizards, who would like to remain anonymous, how they felt about the entire situation. The majority said that the teenaged boys are simply trying to infiltrate the Order. It is widely thought that the boys are going to follow in Lucius's footsteps, and be faithful servants to the Dark Lord. If they have, in fact joined the Order then they should be watched very carefully.

Draco finished the paper and glanced at Harry. Harry just shrugged and went back to his eggs, completely aware of the fact that many different pairs of eyes were burning into his skin. He looked at Draco and gave him a look that clearly said 'later'. Draco picked up on it and also went back to his food, tossing the offending newspaper over his shoulder. It fell apart in mid-air and papers flew in every which direction, fluttering out of Dracos surroundings.

They ate their meal leisurly and finished at 9:20. They stood up and headed towards Dumbledores office. Once again, Granger and Weasley boy number six, (How can a family produce so many offsprings??), met them at the large double doors.

"Well, that was quite the article." Granger said first.

Harry and Draco nodded.

"How many people know about your childhood?" She questioned.

"Well, at least 30 Death Eaters know that we were there at the time, but I don't know how those Death Eaters would know that we are now part of the Order. No one other than Order members know about us being there." Draco said.

"Or so we assume." Harry added.

"I wonder how Rita would have gotten all of that information?" Granger asked.

Harry shrugged. "No idea."

"It's weird that she's getting all this information after our conversation the other night. Don't you think?"

Harry sighed, "I don't know Granger."

"Well, I think she was just making most of it up." Ron said.

"I don't think so Ron. It was to informative to just be 'made up'." Hermione said knowingly.

Harry gave her a look.

She stopped talking about it.

"You look nervous." Weasley pointed out.

Harry shrugged. "Not really. I haven't really spent a lot of time with Sirius, or ever really seen him that much."

The two Gryffindors gave him an understanding look.

Draco just looked at the ceiling and gave his head a small shake. Who cares about Sirius?! 'I'm here!!' Draco thought. Jealousy kicking in, full swing.

They stopped in front of the Gargoyle and then looked at each other, waiting for someone to say the password.

No one did.

"Err.." Draco said looking at Weasley distastefully, someone else should have to be doing this, "Bertie Botts' Every Flavoured Beans?"

The gargoyle jumped to the side, and Draco looked slightly pleased with himself.

They took the moving stairs to Dumbledores office and Harry knocked loudly.

"Come in." Dumbledore said cheerfully.

Everybody entered and stood around for a moment, unsure of what to do.

"I'm assuming that you read the article?" Dumbledore asked, his eyes holding Harrys.

"Yes sir." Harry said

"Have you or Draco ever given her an interveiw?" Dumbledore asked curiously.

"No sir." They said together. "She tried to interveiw me once, but I slammed the door in her face." Harry told him, unsure of why. It wasn't really releveant.

"You realize that this puts your boys in even more jeopardy now?" Dumbledore asked calmly.

Draco looked appalled at that thought. "How?!"

"Well, now everyone is going to be curious about your loyalties."

Hermione looked shocked. How had she not thought of that?

"I was getting some pretty nasty looks from a few of the Slytherins" Draco admitted.

Dumbledore nodded. "I feared so. Well, don't give anybody any information. Keep to yourselves until I get back. I would like to start regular meetings once I have returned, with you" He said looking at Harry and Draco. "You will be informed of my return, and remember, don't stay out too late tonight." He said, gesturing to the pot of Floo powder.

"Did you find the feather?" Harry asked, ignoring the gesture.

"Indeed." Dumbledore said. "It was just where you said it was."

"And what do you think?" Draco asked. "Is it a Horcrux?"

"I believe it is."

"And it was just sitting in Snape's room, out in the open. That's pretty hard to believe." Said an unconvinced Ron.

"Yes, it was. I'm not sure why it was there."

"Because he's a Death Eater!" Ron said rather harshly.

Harry and Draco gave each other looks. Of course he was!

Harry was just going to open his mouth to confirm that statement when Dumbledore took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and pointer funger.

"Ronald. We have been through this. I trust him."

Now Harry and Draco's looks were full of confusion.

"We will finish the conversation about the Horcrux at the meeting next weekend." Dumbledore stated, obviously hinting that he wanted them to go.

"I thought we were going to be otherwise disposed next weekend." Draco pointed out.

"Ahh yes. Right you are. Then we will finish it some other time." He said, gesturing yet again to the Floo powder.

Hermione stepped forward and grabbed a handful of the powder, closely followed by Ron. Harry cocked an eyebrow at Dumbledore. "We don't know the location." He pointed out.

"Oh yes," Dumbledore said with an odd laugh, "It's 'Number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London'"

Harry stepped to the fireplace, shouting his destination. Draco stepped in once Harry was gone.

"Take care of him Draco." Dumbledore said with twinkling eyes, moments before Draco had vanished.

****

Harry was seriously regretting his decision to help Mrs. Weasley, the house was a *disaster*. They were currently covered in masks and protective gloves, spraying a vile smelling potion at curtains in the drawing room. They were killing 'Doxys' or something. Harry watched Ron put a couple of the stunned Doxys into his pocket, rather than the bucket they were supposed to be placing them.

Weasley looked over and Harry cocked an eyebrow. Ron made his way slowly over, still spraying the already soaked curtains.

"My brothers, the twins, they're testing a bunch of things for a joke shop. They told me that if I found anything worthwhile to bring it back. I thought these were interesting." He muttered to Harry.

Harry just shrugged "I guess.." He then looked over at Draco, who was obviously not enjoying their weekend activities at all. "I could be doing something *fun* right now, Harry" he said disdainfully as he picked up a stunned Doxy off of the carpet, tossing it into the bucket.

Harry had the decency to look a little bit sorry.

Finally, after what felt like hours, and after Dracos hand had cramped so bad that he didn't think it would work properly for a week, Mrs. Weasley called that it was time for a break.

She went downstairs to get some snacks for the students.

"Why don't you just flick your wand?" Ron asked.

"Because I am trying to show you all that magic isn't there to be abused. You can't use it on your every whim." She said as she was departing.

Ron was shaking his head. Everyone else was looking at him curiously. He noticed and just shook his head harder.

Harry walked over to the window, and looked out at the frozen grass. The sun was coming up slowly from the back of the house, and hadn't dethawed anything at the front yet. "I guess I'm not going to be seeing Sirius as much as I thought."

"Well, my mom said that there is some people who come and go that we can't see." Ron answered.

"Why wouldn't we be able to see them?" Draco asked, flexing his cramped hand repeatedly.

Ron shrugged, then started massaging his stomach, "I hope she hurrys up though. I'm starved."

Draco rolled his eyes. "I swear to God, if I have to spray that bottle one more time I'm just going to take myself right back to Hogwarts, without you."

Harry snorted. "We can see if there's anything else we can do."

Dracos eyes widened and he started nodding. "Yes."

Mrs. Weasley came back then, with a plateful of sandwiches and a pitcher of pumpkin juice. Everyone took a sandwich, but Draco eyed the juice suspiciously.

"I didn't poison it Mr. Malfoy." Mrs. Weasley told him sternly.

Draco shook his head quickly to clear it and took a glass of it.

"Are we done with the Doxy's now?" Harry asked hopefully.

"Yes, I think we got them all."

"So now what are we going to be doing?" Draco asked happily. Stupid bottle.

"There's a series of shelves", she pointed across the room to the opposite wall. No one had even looked that way. "We need to get rid of all the junk on them."

Harry smiled. Good. He saw Draco continue his compulsive hand-flex.

Once they had finished eating they went to the shelves, finding alot of odd things. There was a jewelry box that sang a beautiful song but made everyone sleepy, that is until Granger had the sense to snap the lid shut. There were many Black goblets, that Harry was sure Sirius would want to keep.

"He told us to get rid of everything holding the Black Family Crest on it." Mrs. Weasley told him when Harry pointed out she probably shouldn't throw them away.

Draco was apalled, Harry mirrored his image.

They continued purging the shelves, they came across a rather large locket that none of them could open. Hermione thought that it had an odd sort of appeal and asked Mrs. Weasley if she could keep it.

"Your going to have to ask Sirius at dinner." was Mrs. Weasleys reply.

Hermione pocketed it.

****

Several gruelling hours later, everyone was walking down the rickety, steep steps. Draco pointed to a portrait that was covered by a large curtain.

"What's behind there?" He asked curiously.

"Oh, nothing." Mrs. Weasley said with an indifferent wave of her hand.

Harrys attention was focused on the curtain now too, but he didn't press the matter.

Once they got down to the kitchen there were three more red-heads, Sirius, and Lupin, Sandor's 'apprentice' or 'helper', were all seated around the table.

Everyone sat down, and Draco felt terribly uncomfortable. He had chosen a seat across from the twin Weasley boys. Everyone was conversing, Ron was peeling potatoes for his mother, who was bustling around the kitchen making a meal, while talking to Granger in a low voice. Sirius and Harry were talking animatedly to each other, mostly about Harry's dead father. Draco couldn't make himself enter that conversation. Lupin and Mr. Weasley were talking about something or other. The Weasley twins were taking turns poking fun at Ron, or watching Draco.

"So. How was your-"

"-'great' day cleaning with-"

"-Our mother."

"Erm....okay."

The twins smiled knowingly.

"Do you always talk like that?" Draco asked them.

The twins both raised their left eyebrows together, drawing the exact same look of confusion onto each of their faces. Draco burst out laughing. The twins looks quickly changed to that of mock offense.

"Sorry." Draco murmured between laughs, "That was just too funny." He finally managed.

Harry looked up at him, Sirius' gaze followed. Harry surpressed a smile.

"What the hell is so funny?" He asked Draco.

Draco cleared his throat and tried to compose himself.

"They just do everything the exact same." He explained lamely. "....The looks on their faces were hilarious." He said right after, trying to correct himself.

Thankfully, at that point Ron had gotten up from the table and broken everyones staring gaze. He took the potatoes to his mother and then sat back down, leaning across the table confidentially. He handed the twins five of the doxys that they were stunning earlier.

"What do you want those for?" Draco asked with a look of disgust. Harry looked down and seen Dracos hand flexing. He shook his head and with a small smile returned his attention back to Sirius.

George looked contemplative, then leaned forward confidentially. "Were designing a joke shop, but we need jokes, and merchandise first." He said finally, in a low whisper.

Draco leaned forward too, "Merchandise?" he whispered, looking down at the doxys.

"We read that there is something in doxy venom that we need." Fred picked up, "We are making these pills that--"

"FRED WEASLEY" Erupted into the kitchen and Draco jerked back in surprise. Harry's mouth dropped and he cut himself off, mid-sentance. Granger whimpered slightly.

A very angry looking Mrs. Weasley stood at the end of the table glaring harshly at her twin sons.

"Where did you get that." She asked evilly.

"Get what?" The twins asked simultaneously.

"Accio Doxy!!" She said, and the Doxy flew into her outstreched hand. She repeated the spell until she was sure that she had them all. She held them in front of her with a smug look on her face. "These!" She answered loudly.

Fred and George looked as though they were drowning. "Just something we found-"

"-in Ron's hand"

Mrs. Weasleys face switched to Ron's reddening one.

"Thanks." He muttered to his twin brothers, as his mother started yelling at him about decency and something about a joke shop. Harry was pretty sure the statement was rude. Draco burst out laughing again.

Mrs. Weasley cut off, mid-tirade and now looked at Draco, who realized that this probably wasn't a good time to get an angry Mrs. Weasley on his case. He couldn't stop his flow of laughter despite the incredulous looks he was receiving. At his laughter, Mrs. Weasley looked at him seriously for a moment, utterly shocked, and then started laughing too. After a moment everybody at the table was laughing, only to stop once it was realized that the soup was burning. To everyones great relief, Mrs. Weasley was in a much better mood after that.

They had all started eating soon after that and Harry concluded that the food was very good.

"Sirius?" Granger asked when the meal was almost finished.

"Yes Hermione?"

"I found this while we were cleaning today." She lifted the old tarnished locket out of her pocket. "I think it has an odd, but beautiful nature. Would I be able to keep it?"

"Sure." Sirius said, barely looking up.

Hermiones face brightened. "Thanks." She said happily.

****

After everyone was finished eating, and were leaning back in their chairs trying to give their stomachs extra room, they all started conversing again.

Harry decided that he loved being around Sirius, his good mood was addictive, and Harry couldn't get enough.

Draco was shocked that these people could actually be funny, and as much as he hated to admit it, he liked them.

Once Harry turned to Draco, and Sirius started speaking with Lupin and Mr. Weasley (or Arthur), Draco finally got to speak with Harry.

They started talking in hushed voices about how it was really shocking about how much they liked these people. Mrs. Weasley (Or Molly, because that is what she has been demanding they call her) is a nice lady. She's a little bit psycho sometimes, and loves to yell, but she still loves her family, and makes a mean meal.

The twins. They are hilarious, everything they say and do is all for entertainment. Draco had a feeling that they could be serious if they needed to be.

Granger was..well she wasn't as bad as the two boys expected her to be. They had been told (and witnessed) in the past few years that she was a bookworm and she was bossy.. She had other okay attributes too. She was nice to them, she was easygoing...well two anyway. Harry was just glad she never brought up anything about the first year while in his presence.

Lupin had known Harry's parents, as the boys were informed when Lucius came home bleeding that night, and Sirius and him were great friends throughout their schooldays.

They Floo'd back to Hogwarts soon after. Dumbledore was no where to be seen, and Harry felt a weird pang in his stomach. He shrugged it off and exited the office after Draco. Everyone was in a great mood because they had been so well fed. Today was a great day.

A/N- I hope my Rita article was okay. I won't be doing a third, it's now only the two. Are my chapters up to par??:P