Memoirs of a Serpent's Son

Memoirs of a Serpent’s Son

--Age 17—part 20

December 1 –continued

“Malfoy!! Malfoy, let him go!” someone was yelling. I felt arms pulling at me, but I was locked in position. I was shaking and holding Harry and I wasn’t about to let him go.

“Draco! What happened?” That voice I recognized… Tonks… she came running up and I lifted my head to see her, staring through my now disheveled hair. I was surrounded by people. Shacklebolt was holding his wand steady to Wormtail whose face was indescribable. Granger and Weasel were prying at my arms as Tonks knelt before me.

“I think… he passed out,” I answered. My voice sounded distant as I spoke. “It was... why didn’t you come??”

“You didn’t call us!” Tonks answered, trying to goad me into letting Harry so. “Draco, you need to relax and let me enervate him. He’ll be ok.”

I nodded weakly as I felt Granger and Weasel tear me off of him as soon as I relaxed my grip. Harry fell to the ground with a soft thud before Tonks touched him with the tip of her wand and he jerked back to life.

I finally came back to myself as I saw Harry open his eyes and shake himself off, getting gingerly to his feet. I realized that I was being held back by Weasel and Granger and wrenched myself from their grip, getting to my feet as well. I brushed my hair out of my eyes and tried to reassert myself.

Then I cued in on Tonks’ comment.

“We didn’t call you??” I snapped suddenly, bewildered. “What are you talking about?? We DID call you! That and even if you hadn’t heard our yelling your names, wouldn’t you think it a good idea to respond to the screams and loud bangs coming from the supposedly deserted house?!?!”

She stared at me oddly for a moment, glancing over at Shacklebolt as Granger and Weasel fawned over Harry. I cursed them inwardly.

“Draco, we didn’t hear a thing,” she said quietly. “We’ve been standing just outside the door all this time and all we could hear were footsteps every so often…”

That can’t be right. There is something inherently WRONG here. VERY VERY WRONG.

“What??” Harry snapped to attention, waving his friends off. “How is that possible? I was attacked by Inferi and screaming out curses! These three were banging on the walls enough to bring the house down and yelling their lungs out just past the door and yet you heard nothing???”

“You WHAT?” Tonks snapped. We were all staring at one another in muted horror. “You were attacked by Inferi?? But how is that possible? Kingsley and I checked the premises before letting you in! There was nothing there! No Inferi, no dark wizards hiding anywhere. Hell, there wasn’t even a mousetrap!”

A what?

“Bloody hell, this is insane,” Weasel was muttering as he ran his fingers through his hair. Harry was shaking his head and making half-finished gestures as he tried to understand it. Granger was doing something very similar. Meanwhile, I turned my attention to the only person who could tell us more.

“Pettigrew!” I snarled, turning to the bound rat. I was livid. “What do you know about all this?!”

He winced at my voice. I’m sure he recognized the tone, if he was indeed a Death-Eater. He would have heard that tone from my father.

I held up my wand and pointed it directly at his neck. He shuddered and tried to keep contact with my eyes but failed on more than one occasion.

“I… d-d-don’t know a-anything!” he lied through his teeth, cowering from me.

“YOU LIAR!” I screamed, throwing a spell at him. He was knocked onto his back on the floor and I knelt over him, pressing the tip of my wand into his jugular. “Tell me the truth, you worthless coward! You were the only one at his side for a long time, weren’t you??”

“Ah, p-please!” he whimpered, his watery eyes shutting under the pressure of my wand.

“I have no reason not to kill you,” I hissed, my face close to his now. If he knew ANYTHING about this prior to our arrival, and kept it to himself, then he could have caused Harry’s death. If that was so, he would NOT get away with it. Not while I still have a heartbeat.

“The Dark Lord came back here twice!” he squealed, shivering violently.

“When and what for?!” Everything behind me was silent now and I felt the rest of the group pressing in closer to get a better look or hear more clearly… or perhaps to restrain me if I tried to kill the pitiful little rodent.

“I-I don’t k-know!” he spluttered, almost crying now. “But the first time he came, he left with that shield, and the second time he brought it back with him! I s-swear! Th-that’s all I k-know!”

I relaxed slightly and got up off of Wormtail, getting to my feet. The two Aurors immediately got Pettigrew up as well. I wasn’t really watching mind you. I was thinking… because suddenly it made more and more sense…

Which was quite frightening.

How would you feel if suddenly the things that went through Voldemort’s mind started making sense to you?

“What does this all mean?” Harry asked, frustrated, though pleasantly energetic. That reassured me a bit.

“Well… the first time he came back after his return, he came back to get the Horcrux,” Granger rationalized. “I suppose he wanted to keep it somewhere safe. But the second time…why would he bring it back?”

“You know… don’t you?” Harry’s question was directed at me, though he didn’t call me by name. I knew it was. I looked up at him with cold eyes.

“I think…I might.”

“Well then, tell us!” he ordered, seeming a bit annoyed. I frowned and looked away for a moment before shaking my head.

“You said Dumbledore thought that Voldemort wanted to make a Horcrux out of your death,” I repeated. He nodded. “But that wouldn’t make much sense if this was the object he was using, prophecy or not. I think he made the Horcrux out of your father’s death.”

“Why is that?” he asked quietly, his eyes turning to the golden shield on the ground.

“Your mother was a mu-… muggle-born,” I caught myself. This was not the time to get myself pummeled into oblivion. “And your father was a pure-blood. That means that he was the descendent of Godric Gryffindor. He was the most direct descendent. You are half-blood and so, technically, only half Gryffindor.”

“Alright,” he conceded. “But why would that be so important?”

I sighed as I tried to flesh out all my rampant thoughts. That and I was rather exasperated with Harry’s inability to put two and two together.

“Voldemort is the last descendent of Salazar Slytherin,” I continued as everyone closed in around me. “If he was going to use Gryffindor’s shield, then your father’s murder would have been the better one to choose. That would be like the ultimate victory of Slytherin over Gryffindor… Kill the last direct descendant and then use the murder to live forever. You are the last descendent in general, but your death wouldn’t have had the same meaning. He wanted to kill you just to make sure he was invincible. Your father’s death was symbolic.”

They stared at me as I explained this. I don’t know how this all seemed so logical to me… but it did. I suppose my father’s constant forcing me to read those history books on the rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor paid off in the end…

“That… makes… a lot of sense,” Granger forced herself to say. She looked at me dumbfounded and with a little bit of jealousy. I suppose she was put off by the fact that she hadn’t thought of it.

“But that still doesn’t explain why he would have brought the shield BACK,” Harry snapped, probably wishing he didn’t have to accept this all. It did mean, after all, that he was only settling an age-old feud between two wizarding families… which seems quite… meaningless, in the long run.

“Think about it,” I continued. “You were the only one who was able to enter the room. You were the only one who was able to release the locks on the shield and the Inferi were charmed with an illusion of YOUR parents in particular. This all set up in the sitting room where your father was killed, in the place where you defeated him the first time. What does that tell you?”

They were silent for a moment.

“Voldemort set this up specifically for Harry,” Granger whispered. “The entire thing was a trap for Harry alone…”

“But that also means that –” Harry began, his eyes widening in horror.

“He also knows that you are after the Horcruxes,” I finished for him.

I didn’t want to accept the possibility either, but what choice did I have? What choice did any of us have? That’s what all the evidence was pointing to…

“And the silencing charm,” Tonks continued. “He must have put one on the house so no one would hear it if you screamed… no one could come to save you. But there is something I still don’t understand… what the hell are –”

“And the invisible wall,” Granger cut in, leaving Tonks without an answer. She and Shacklebolt gave each other strange looks. “We couldn’t pass it. We couldn’t use magic on it, and we couldn’t Apparate in to get you. I tried. This was entirely designed for you, Harry… to kill you.”

He looked from one face to the next in discomfort. I tried not to look at him… he must have felt so alienated. So alone.

I know that feeling too.

“But… but I would need Pettigrew to get here!” he countered desperately. “How could I get here otherwise? And if I went to get Pettigrew, then why didn’t someone just kill me then?”

“Perhaps this was a last-ditch plan,” Granger suggested. “If you managed to get all those things, then it would have to break you.”

“No, that’s not it,” I shook my head. “It wasn’t hard at all to get Pettigrew. Don’t you remember? The place was empty… no hexes or jinxes or curses…”

We stared at one another for a moment or two and then Harry and I looked at one another.

“Snape,” we said together without meaning to. The others seemed rather taken aback.

“Snape locked Pettigrew up and left him there alone, with no protection,” I said carefully.

“He must have got his orders from Voldemort, telling him to make sure that I got him without a hitch,” Harry continued for me. “He set this all up specifically for me. Sure he wouldn’t mind risking a soul-piece because he underestimates youth all the time. He would never have imagined that I could get out of there alive. And the placement of the shield and protections must have seemed perfect to him because then I would –”

“Die in the same place and position that your father had,” I finished, as his voice seemed to cut out. “Perfect poetic justice for him, I imagine… but there was no way for him to know that you knew where Pettigrew was unless he was aware that I –”

“That you are with us,” Harry said.

Suddenly… everything seems to be very bleak. If Voldemort knows about all these things…everything we need to do is suddenly going to become much more difficult.

“How the bloody hell are we going to do this now??” Harry spat angrily. “He’ll be on our every footstep! He’ll rearrange things and protect his other Horcruxes more closely!”

“Not if…” I began, worried about what it was I was going to say… “Not if he doesn’t know this was you…”

“What?” Several people asked in unison.

“Well… he’s playing games and tricks, isn’t he? We can too,” I muttered, trying to reason it out for myself. Could it work? “We…Ok. We destroy this Horcrux right here. Then we cast a Dark Mark above the place. The Daily Prophet will report on it and say that there was the body of a young man found who is unrecognizable. You lay low and make sure that only people who need to know you are still alive, know that you are still alive. Voldemort can either think that you are dead, much as he thought you would be, or else that it was one of his Death-Eaters who betrayed him.”

There was a long silence and then –

“You are bloody mad,” Weasel shot at me. I rolled my eyes.

“No, no,” Harry said. “I think… that could work… for a while anyway. Maybe… but who is this ‘young man’ going to be? And how do we destroy this Horcrux? What do we sacrifice?”

I smirked at him.

“The answer to all those questions is the same,” I told him smugly. And then I turned my attention to Pettigrew. “We sacrifice the only person who actually owes you a life-debt.”

Harry surveyed me for a long moment, his eyes glimmering rather darkly. He looked mildly scared but something else was alight inside of him. Something I’d never seen before.

The need for revenge.

“Of course,” Granger mumbled, seeming rather green. I couldn’t tell if it was because she felt ill at the idea of witnessing a death, or because she was jealous again. “Once Wormtail is dead, the Fidelius Charm is broken and anyone can see the house. That way the Ministry will be made aware of the Dark Mark and be able to investigate and report on it. So Voldemort will get the news of it as well.”

“Alright, I think we’ve all let you talk quite long enough,” Tonks chimed in. “What the hell are you all on about? What are Horcruxes??”

We all froze suddenly. I turned to my… cousin.

“This is not the time or place to explain that,” I said quietly. “And frankly, I’m not sure you should know… for both of your protection, anyway.”

“Then why do you know??” she snapped at me. I flushed red.

“That was… an accident, but no matter,” I brushed off the comment. It didn’t matter if Pettigrew knew any of this. He was going to be dead soon anyway.

“Look, we don’t have time right now,” Harry interrupted, flushing rather red as well. We had all been so engrossed in the conversation that we’d forgotten that there were any around us that weren’t aware of what we were talking about.

“Harry’s right,” Granger admitted. “We need to destroy this thing here and now. But Pettigrew doesn’t have a wand.”

“He can use mine,” Harry offered. I shook my head.

“No, yours is too valuable,” I rejected. “He can use mine. Everyone else has to train their wands on him while he does it, mind you.”

They all nodded. Well… all except Pettigrew. We set him up, standing with one arm capable to cast spells, in front of the shield. He whimpered before I handed him my wand.

“You don’t have a choice here,” I snarled at him dangerously. “Either you do this and pay back not only your life-debt to Potter, but the debts of treachery you have against the lives of Lily and James Potter, Sirius Black and Cedric Diggory, as well as paying penance for your disservice to the wizarding world as a whole.” I paused to let the answer sink it. “Or we send you back to Voldemort so that he can deal with your betrayal accordingly. And I promise that his fate will be worse than this one. I don’t suppose you are the type to enjoy torture.” I smirked at him and then it broadened to a smile. “Or…”

“Or??” he asked with rather too much hope. I gave him a sadistic look.

“Or we could just lock you in a room with Lupin,” I hissed venomously. “I’m sure Remus would enjoy that thoroughly. Wouldn’t you?”

His face drained of colour and I was left looking at a man who seemed more of a ghost than anything else. I shrugged and let him think it over before I made the decision for him.

“James and Sirius never understood what the true value of their powers was,” he snapped rather suddenly. “They wasted themselves on accepting people like Lily and working for the Ministry.”

“On the contrary,” I snarled angrily back at him. “Harry Potter’s survival is proof that they knew exactly what the value of their powers was. Now get to killing yourself, you worthless piece of rubbish. The world will not lament you.”

I handed him my wand and stepped away. He glared at me and probably considered hexing me, but Harry immediately walked over and stood in front of me, his wand trained on Wormtail’s chest.

Pettigrew grimaced and turned his attention to the Horcrux. He lifted my wand and cast a spell we could not hear. Then with a blinding flash of light, Gryffindor’s shield was thrown into the air and shone with brilliant cracks all the way through the metal. Then, in an instant, with a resounding bang, it looked as though it exploded into thousands of tiny pieces and rained down in silver and gold pieces onto the ground around us.

At the same moment, there was an ear-splitting shriek as Wormtail’s body was lifted unceremoniously into the air. He dropped my wand and began to spin and contort into strange positions before he, much like the shield, looked as though he was being torn into pieces and pulled apart.

There was a deafening cry and then a loud thump.

When all the light faded away, we looked out to the scene and saw only the golden shield lying harmlessly on the ground with a bloody lump of a man next to it, the chains that bound him somehow gone.

I walked over to Wormtail’s dead body and gently kicked him over until he was lying on his back. His face was blown away and his skin was singed. My lip curled and I picked up my wand from the ground.

I looked at Harry for a moment. He walked over as well (along with everyone else) and glared down at the body of the man who had caused so many deaths. Harry looked as though he was tempted to spit but he refrained. I took a deep breath.

Then I transfigured his body in the appropriate places until he had at least some of Harry’s likeness. They all stared at the body in some muted terror before looking up at me.

“You all seem surprised,” I remarked casually. “Is it because I just transfigured a dead body, or because you didn’t think I was a good enough wizard to manage the likeness to Potter?”

They didn’t answer but I could sense Harry’s instinct to snort.

“So what now?” Granger asked.

“We cast a Dark Mark and go back to Grimmauld…” Harry said. He was still staring at the body.

“And explain what all of this was about,” Tonks added, rather pale. “You do realize that you were just responsible for the death of someone? Even if he was a traitor and a Death-Eater. We won’t arrest you, but you do owe us an explanation.”

“Perhaps we do…” Harry whispered. “But it will have to wait until Remus gets back. I won’t tell you without him.”

“Alright… I suppose that’s fair,” she conceded. “Let’s go, then?”

“Hold on,” I told them. I walked back over to the entrance of the Potter house and stood before the sad looking structure. It was once so full of life and warm welcomes, but now, after all the dark magic the walls have witnessed… it’s been tainted.

“Morsmordre!” I cried out, pointing my wand to the skies just above the house.

Then I ran back to the others. Harry was holding the shield tightly under his arm and nodded to me before he Disapparated. I did too.

When we got back to Grimmauld Place, we all collapsed onto the couches in the sitting room. I lay my head back against the back of the sofa and took a deep breath…

I’ve never felt so drained of life before… panic can do that I suppose.

“At the very least,” Tonks began quietly. “Explain to use what happened inside the house… what happened with the Inferi?”

So Harry began explaining. I must admit, I did not want to hear everything he said.

“Well, when I opened my eyes and pulled my hands away from my face,” he was saying quietly. “I looked up and say nothing but light and the shining figures of my parents… Just my mother and father, standing above me with brilliant and welcoming smiles. They were holding their hands out for me to take… To join them.” He stopped and cast his eyes away from everyone in the room. “I thought… I thought I was dead. I thought I was with them, where ever they are… I felt so warm and calm. I thought… I just raised my arms to them, to take their hands… to go with them. I wanted just to go with them…”

And then I felt my entire body threaten to implode. Everything was crushing down on me as though I could feel the weight of the air above my head. I clenched my jaw and fought back the tears and screaming madness that was boiling up inside of me… the anger that threatened to break free and flood the house.

I balled my fists as well and stared determinately in front of me, trying to ignore Harry sitting next to me and saying all these things… saying them as though they mean nothing… they aren’t important.

“Then what stopped you?” Granger asked quietly.

“I… heard someone calling me…” he whispered, still refusing to look at anyone. “And then they didn’t seem right… the image flickered or something and I thought I saw them rotting for a moment… and then suddenly the illusion fell and I realized what was going on. That’s when I started scrambling around and they started attacking. And then more and more of them came… when Malfoy told me the spell to use… I just screamed it out again and again, until they were all gone. I got to my feet and bolted, taking the damn shield with me. I guess… I guess I burnt out quickly because then I just remember everything going black…”

Everyone was quiet for a while. I think I was shaking… I didn’t see anything in clear focus… I was just so angry!

How could he do that?? How could…I wanted just to…

Something was said and everyone got up and started for their rooms. I got to my feet and ran after Harry, putting my hand on his shoulder.

“Can I talk to you alone for a minute?” I asked him quietly. He gave me a small smile and nodded.

“Sure.”

-------IIIIIII-------

A/N: Wow… I don’t really want to make a comment about this one, because I almost feel as though I’ve hanged myself with what I wrote in it… I think I just made my own life that much harder, anyway… but hopefully you’ll like it anyway.

I would also like to say I had a really bad day today, so I hope it didn’t affect the writing, but I would like to know something. When I have bad days I try to distract myself with things. Harry Potter is usually one of my distractions… I also think about London a lot… as I plan to go live there… at least to study. Among other things… I was just wondering what you guys do? Do you read/write/watch Harry Potter as well? If it’s too personal, I understand, no worries.

Oh yes, and during the last chapter, Draco wasn’t the only one calling to Harry, but he wasn’t aware of what the other two were doing much because he was so focused and panicked about what was happening to Harry, though yes, they did notice him call Harry by his first name and everything… that will come up later.

The Inferi trap was created after he returned to power, when he realized that Harry and Dumbledore were destroying his Horcruxes (with the Ring and the Locket). This means that he can feel it (in some way) when they are destroyed. Harry was the only one who could get into the room and unlock the trap, but anyone could touch the horcrux if they wanted to. :)

Also, I’m going with the idea that Tonks and Lupin are “technically” together, though Lupin’s mind is clearly on other things, like Sirius and the war and all. I won’t do anything to play up their relationship, definitely not on Lupin’s part anyway. Tonks will be the more active one I guess, if you can say that. But yeah… not so much with that lol. I’m only playing with it a bit because it’s canon, otherwise I would just pretend that didn’t happen hahaha. XD

And as for Snape, I’m doing my best to make his entire part in this still very ambiguous. I won’t tell you just yet if he really is a “bad nut” (lol I love that expression) or if he’s good, but you’ll find out eventually ehehehe.

And I promise that some very good Draco-on-Harry action is coming up very very soon!

Love and cookies and thanks for the reviews!!