Proof of Life

Exposures



For a few minutes, everyone stood mutely in stunned silence. Harry cast a nervous glance at Severus, whose face was completely neutral, as his ego wasn\'t bruised at all, and as if nothing out of the ordinary had taken place a minute ago.



Hermione was the first to speak.



“We should go after him,” she said, uncertain.



“Why bother?” Ron muttered. “He\'s an idiot.”



“He isn\'t well. And he\'s drunk and upset. He could do something really stupid.”



“More stupid than the scene he made here?” Ron said pointedly.



“Well. I guess that\'d be hard to top,” Hermione conceded with a weak smile. “But still. I think he came here looking for help. It just... all escalated into a row before we could fix it.”



“You can\'t always fix everything,” Harry spoke finally. “Maybe we should just let him be.”



Harry had fully expected Ron to agree with him,and was surprised when Ron said, with obvious reluctance,



“Well, if someone is following him, it\'s not a good idea to have him roam around Merlin-knows-where, drunk and angry. I think Hermione is right. We should go look for him.”



“Maybe he went home,” Harry said. He was still pissed off beyond all reason, and spending possibly the entire night looking for Draco wasn\'t his idea of fun.



“He would have used the Floo to go home,” Ron pointed out.



“Right,” Harry said with a resigned sigh. “Well, fine. You two go ahead.”



“You should come with us,” Ron insisted. “Come on, Harry, it could be important.”



Harry cast a cautious look at Severus, who appeared to be completely unaffected by the confrontation. However, Harry knew by now that appearances could be deceiving.



“Would you like to come along?” Harry offered on an impulse.



“I doubt that\'d be a good idea, given that it was my presence that provoked his outburst,” Seveurs said at once. “You should go.”



Hermione and Ron nodded to Severus and walked out of the house. Harry lingered for a bit and stared at Severus, trying to gage his real reaction to the words Draco had thrown at them in the heat of the moment.



“You all right?” Harry asked finally when he\'d given up on reading anything in Severus\' expression.



“I am not the one throwing hysterical fits in other people\'s houses,” Severus replied tersely, but his voice softened slightly when he added, “I\'m fine, Harry. Go.”



Harry gave him a small nod and headed outside, where, behind the gate, Ron and Hermione were waiting for him.



“Well, now we have to figure out where he took his drunken ass at this time of night,” Ron said.



Harry cast a spell, taking a moment to analyze the Apparition trace left behind, still reasonably fresh but beginning to fade.



“Somewhere in London, or nearby.”



“Let\'s go to Diagon and Knockturn,” Hermione suggested. “Some places must be still open there.”



Harry sighed, and lifted his hand to rub his forehead. He had a feeling it was going to be a long night.



-o-o-o-



The search of Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley took an hour and turned out to be useless. Nobody had seen Draco, or if they had, they weren\'t talking. There was a faint Apparition trace present, but nothing else.



“Maybe he Apparated here, went to some shady establishment in Knockturn and took the Floo somewhere,” Harry guessed.



“But where?” Hermione asked miserably.



Harry thought about it for a moment, and winced.



“Come on.”



He led them inside the Leaky Cauldron, and headed straight towards the Floo.



“Where are we going?” Ron asked, keeping up with Harry\'s fast pace.



“Hogsmeade. Three Broomsticks.”



“Why would he go there?”



“Because he\'s drunk and itching for a fight. Can you think of a better place?”



-o-o-o-



Harry\'s wild guess turned out to be accurate. It took them mere seconds to spot Draco, who was sitting at a small table in the corner of the room, nursing a glass of Firewhisky in his hands. People were casting curious glances at him, but Draco seemed intent on ignoring them. He barely looked up when Harry, Ron and Hermione approached.



Harry pulled up a chair and joined Draco at the table without asking for permission. Hermione and Ron followed suit, and Draco finally lifted his head and gave them mirthless smirk.



“Came to tell me how wrong I am? Save your breath.”



“What\'s gotten into you? It\'s not like you to attack Severus like that,” Harry said, as neutrally as he could manage.



“Oh, I am so terribly sorry. I suppose I should pretend everything is fine, and that you aren\'t sabotaging the only avenue to freedom he\'s got left,” Draco said contemptuously.



“What\'s that supposed to mean?” Harry snapped.



Draco stared at Harry with cold amusement.



“Are you really that stupid? Lovegood says that the only way for Severus to prove his innocence to the Wizarding World would be to generate that bloody Doe Patronus that you\'ve told everyone about. There\'s just no way he\'ll be able to do that now. Not after you\'ve insinuated yourself so deep into his life, and conveniently replaced every happy memory he ever had with yourself.” Draco\'s lips curled into a derisive grimace. “Though I suppose you like it that way. Fun to have someone completely dependent on you, isn\'t it, Potter?”



Harry gulped, finding that his hands were clenching into fists of their own accord, and realizing belatedly it might come to wands – or blows, in spite of his best intentions. Ron noticed that and placed a warning hand on Harry\'s shoulder.



“So quiet, Potter?” Draco taunted. “But don\'t worry. I doubt he cares. In fact, I doubt he even notices what a pathetic, pitiful spectacle his life has become, thanks to you...”



“Stop it!” Hermione\'s indignant whisper sounded more like a cat\'s hiss. “It\'s not our fault that you can\'t pull yourself together and have a normal life!”



Draco gave her an unpleasant smile. “And whose fault is this, huh, Granger? You\'re the good ones. You\'ve won the war. You\'ve built this pretty new world, where those who didn\'t happen to be on your side are now reduced to nothing. Don\'t tell me you aren\'t enjoying yourself.”



Hermione winced, and her face paled slightly at those words. She shook her head, and seemed like she wanted to say something, but didn\'t quite manage it.



People in the room began to whisper, and a small crowd was forming a loose semicircle around them. Draco stood up, swaying slightly. The table wobbled when Draco leaned on it for support.



“What are you staring at?” Draco addressed the onlookers, his voice slurred. “Huh? What are you all staring at? Want to see a Death Eater? Is that it? Wondering if you should be scared of me?”



“Malfoy, stop it,” Harry whispered, reaching across the table for Draco\'s shoulder to make him sit down again, although without success. “Shut the fuck up.”



Ron stood up and made an attempt to wave the crowd away. “Ey, just ignore him. He\'s just drunk. We were just leaving. There\'s nothing to see.”



“He\'s drunk, yes,” Draco echoed mockingly. “But there\'s something to see.” He threw Harry\'s hand off his shoulder and stood up straight, staring directly at the crowd. Then, before either Harry or Hermione could reach for him, he bared his left arm and lifted it in the air, exposing his Dark Mark to everyone\'s view.



“Here! Is this what you all wanted to see? Is it? Are you bloody happy now?”



Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw someone in the crowd pull out a wand, and reached for his. Ron and Hermione drew their wands as well, and turned around, shielding Draco from the pub\'s patrons. All conversations ceased, and for a long minute they were at a standstill, three wands against a at least two dozen, with Draco separated by nothing but the trio\'s bodies from the hostile crowd.



Just then, Rosmerta made an appearance, walked trough the parting crowd and stopped a few feet away from the four of them, glaring at them mutely.



Harry was the first to speak.



“As Ron was saying, we were just leaving. Excuse us.” He reached for Draco and grabbed him by the elbow. This time Draco made no protest, but simply went limp in Harry\'s grip and allowed himself to be dragged out of the pub. Hermione and Ron were moving behind them, creating a fragile human buffer between the crowd and Draco.



Once they were outside, and a safe distance from the pub, Draco sank onto the ground on the side of the road and hugged his body with his arms. Harry and Hermione sat down next to him. Ron remained standing, his wand still out, scanning the area for potential trouble.



“What\'s gotten into you?” Hermione asked quietly. “What did you do that for?”



Draco shuddered quietly and tucked his face into his knees.



“Tired,” he mumbled. “So fucking tired of everything.”



“Well, that was really daft,” Harry said ruthlessly. “There we are, trying to make sure that nobody finds out about your Dark Mark, and you go ahead and do this. What if the Underground gets wind of this, and decides you\'re a threat to their plans? Do you even realize how much danger you\'ve placed yourself in?”



At the mention of the Underground, Draco twitched noticeably, and slowly lifted his head. Harry winced in sympathy when he noticed that Draco\'s cheeks were streaked with tears.



“D.. do you think it could have been the D... Death Eaters following me?” Draco\'s teeth chattered as he spoke.



Harry shrugged.



“I doubt that,” Ron said quietly, still looking at the Three Broomsticks, as if anticipating trouble to come at any moment. “Current intelligence suggests that they are scattered and desperate. I don\'t think they have the resources to follow every former Slytherin student who might or night not have the Dark Mark. Mind you, now that your secret is out, it\'s only a matter of time until they hear.”



Draco shuddered again, as if the full weight of what he\'d done in a fit of drunken rage finally settled on his shoulders.



“You really should stay put in your Manor, Malfoy,” Ron said bluntly. “Don\'t even think of going out alone. Same goes for your mother.”



“I...”



Ron turned around and stared at him. “Do you have family other than your mum? A girlfriend? Children?”



For a second Draco froze, but then shook his head.



“No. No, nobody.”



“Good. At least you don\'t have to worry about someone else being at risk because of your stupidity.”



“Well, yes. There\'s that.”



Another silence hung between them. Draco was taking deep breaths, as though trying to calm himself.



“You could come home with me,” Harry offered on an impulse. “We\'ve got room, and...”



“No, thanks,” Draco said, interrupting. “I\'ve got it. I know what I\'ll do.”



“And what\'s that?”



“I\'ll disappear. Just... take some money, change my appearance and leave the country. Go someplace else.”



“Like where?”



“Don\'t know. I\'ll figure something out. Just as far away from here as I can manage will do. The Underground isn\'t as big in other parts of the world. So...I\'ll just hide away until everything is over. I know how to do that.”



Harry nodded thoughtfully. It did seem reasonable, sort of. And likely, less risky than staying here, where the Underground activity was most rampant.



“I understand, I guess. For now, let\'s take you home. All right?”



Draco nodded, appearing to have no energy left to protest.



The four of them Apparated to the gates of the Manor together, and walked together to the very door of the old building. Harry and Ron took it upon themselves to cast the diagnostic spells on the wards around the Manor.



“Maybe you should stay here, after all,” Hermione said hesitantly. “At least it\'s safe inside. And the wards will inform all of us if something is wrong...”



Draco just shook his head, and Hermione dropped the subject without finishing the sentence. For a few minutes they all simply stood by the door in awkward silence, not knowing what to say, but not quite ready to part company yet.



Finally Draco spoke.



“Potter. Tell Severus I said goodbye for now.”



“Okay.”



“Tell him, I\'m sorry. I really... shouldn\'t have said any of that.”



“I\'ll tell him.”



“Well, good.”



Hermione smiled one of her sad smiles at him.



“You really did something very stupid today.”



“Yes, Granger, you\'ve mentioned that about a hundred times by now.”



“Well, it was very brave too. Almost Gryffindor.”



Draco huffed, feigning insult. “There\'s absolutely no need for rudeness.”



They all laughed together, but the laughter didn\'t last long. Draco gave them one parting nod, and disappeared behind the doors that shut behind him almost instantly.



-o-o-o-



When Harry finally returned home, Severus had already gone to bed, but wasn\'t sleeping yet. He simply lay on his back, with his eyes shut, not making a single move when Harry wormed his way under the blanket, and stretched out alongside him.



“How did it go?” Severus asked.



“Um. Not that great.”



“What happened?”



“Draco made a scene at Three Broomsticks and showed his Dark Mark to a few dozen people. Then he decided to leave the country.”



Severus issued a dry, bitter laugh. “A fitting conclusion to an absolutely insane evening. Narcissa will be thrilled, I\'m sure. Still, there\'s some logic to him wanting to go into hiding.”



“He also asked to tell you he\'s sorry.”



“Hmm.”



“I think he really meant it.”



“I\'m sure he did. Just like he meant what he\'d said earlier. From his perspective, I\'ve exchanged my freedom for safety and protection.”



“That\'s a stupid perspective,” Harry said at once, and Severus chuckled quietly. “Severus? You must know that\'s not how anybody thinks of you.”



For a while Severus didn\'t answer. Harry turned sideways and looked at him. In the dusk of the room, Severus\' profile was clearly outlined, and seemed somehow both severe and lonely.



When Severus finally spoke, it made Harry ache for him all over again.



“Harry. I think it\'s too late for me to worry about what people think.”



To Be Continued...