Up The Road

Chapter 5

Harry nearly fainted. It was asking too much of him not to tell anyone about Draco. The Slytherin hadn\'t told him not to say anything, but he\'d gathered that anyone who knew about his lessons with Snape, or were, to boot, part of those lessons, then Snape would hex him something awful if he told. Still, Ron was always asking where he was going and Hermione, who seeemd to have a little more sense about her, shushed him. But, at he was leaving, she ran up to him and pushed him aside.

\"Where are you going?\" she asked, her eyes filled with worry.

Harry hesitated. A part of him - a big part - wanted to tell her exactly where he was going. But he knew better of it. If he told, Hermione would just get in the way, telling him it wasn\'t a good idea, even though it had been Dumbledore\'s idea, not his, to continue lessons with Snape. With all the things that had happened, especially in the past few years, Harry knew that being taught by Dumbledore himself was way too risky: too much magic involved. With Snape, the hatred and mutual anger was still there, but it only skewed the magic half the time. And Harry was getting better the more time he spent in the cold dungeons, staring into cold, beetle-black eyes framed by greasy hair. It wasn\'t something he enjoyed, but it was something that would save him.

Hermione didn\'t seem satisfied with his answer, but left him and went to sit by Ron. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry could see his two friends whispering back and forth about him. He didn\'t like it, but he knew what he had to do. Perhaps his friends would be angry with him; but their present anger would surely turn into thanks later, or relief at the very least, once he employed the skills he was currently using in his lessons with Snape.

The stairs seemed to echo as he went down further, mind twisting as his heart nearly exploded in his chest. He wasn\'t sure why he\'d let those grey eyes suck him in so deep. It seemed so foolish now, to agree to lessons with yet another Slytherin. And, he remembered with a slight sense of dread, he\'d agreed to trade off with Draco.

But not tonight. No, tonight was too soon. Way too soon.

Although...

\"Potter,\" said Snape and Draco at the same time, not bothering to look at each other in amusement. Draco simply bowed his head a little, letting Snape do all the talking.

\"Sit,\" said Snape.

Harry stood a short while, enough to be defiant, but not enough to seem too obviously blatant. He\'d learned his lesson about taunting the Slytherin head of house a while back, when Snape had taken fifty points from his house for not apologising quickly enough for nearly singing off Snape\'s hair during a more complicated spell.

Harry finally sat, noticing the way Draco\'s body seemed to subconsciously drift towards him. Draco remained in his chair as Snape spoke, though throughout the speech, Harry felt as if Draco were growing closer and closer to him, and was suprised to feel Draco\'s knee against his. It must have been a trick, for Draco was a good metre away from him.

Harry shrugged and continued listening.

\"So, you realise that you will have to train a lot harder now that the Dark Lord has gained a new informant,\" said Snape. \"And your informant will have to work hard to appear as if he is really informing.\"

Harry fell out of his Draco reverie of knee-touching. \"My informant?\" he asked, stumbling over his words.

\"Yes,\" replied Draco, standing from his chair and taking a position near Snape. In the light, Harry was struck by how alike they seemed: not only in demeanor, but in stance and frame and eyes. Draco\'s eyes became blacker while Snape\'s eyes became more golden, then settled on grey. Hair seemed to be the same colour, even though Snape had black hair which normally contrasted so darkly with Draco\'s gleaming white-blonde hair. Yet it was the same person. Harry didn\'t know how to explain it. He half-wished he\'d let Hermione come with him this time, to see how she would have explained it.

\"I\'m your informant, Potter,\" said Draco.

Snape glared and rolled his eyes. \"What Mr. Malfoy means to say is that he\'s the Dark Lord\'s informant on you.\"

Harry considered what he\'d heard, but it still didn\'t make sense. Draco didn\'t seem to be a good informant of any sort. Harry could remember back in his fourth year at Hogwarts, when the other wizard had snuck in reporter, Rita Skeeter. But Rita had been caught, and so had Draco...by Hermione.

\"How is he informing on me? I hate him.\" Harry instantly regretted the words as he spoke them. It was true that Draco had annoyed him for a long, long time. But things were different now. Very different. He met the grey eyes, which had seemed almost...was that pain?

\"Well met, Potter,\" said Draco sarcastically. \"I\'m wounded to the core, I tell you.\"

Harry felt no heat of anger at the response; only anger, and guilt. He felt a tinge of sadness over it all, wishing he could take back the words he\'d spoken in such a rush of dislike for Snape. It was an unfortunate trick of the light that made the two Slytherin-dwellers seem so alike - that\'s what it had to be. The light. Harry could blame the poor lighting and his failing eyesight, even though he was still quite young and should be able to tell the difference between his grown nemesis and his same-aged one.

Snape ignored the short looks between his two students. \"You will have to work together, to corroborate on whatever it is you plan to feed back to both your parties.\"

\"But sir,\" said Harry, marveling at the way he\'d subconsciously addressed Snape.

\"Yes?\" said Snape, his voice menacing, letting the short fuse he possesed around Harry shine through.

\"Well,\" began Harry, feeing suddenly nervous under the glare of the other two wizards. \"What did you mean with that last statement? I mean,\" went on Harry, not letting Snape answer just yet, \"that I plan to tell my party the truth. Only Draco is supposed to lie.\"

Draco snorted. Snape did the same.

Harry wished he were somewhere else until they both returne to less snorting-like stance.

\"Potter,\" scoffed Snape. \"Surely you know that it\'s better to lie to both places.\"

\"Does that include you, then?\" challenged Harry.

Snape\'s smile was as mesmerising as it was terror-inspiring. \"Yes. That includes me, Boy Wonder. You are not to tell anyone what is really going on. You will trust Draco and Draco alone.\"

\"And vice versa,\" cut in Draco, answering Harry\'s question before he could ask it.

So. Harry would depend on Draco, and Draco would do the same for him. But would Draco really do that? What if Snape and Draco were both on the other side, just trying to fool Harry into sneaking over to the other side under pretense of escape?

\"How will I know he\'s not lying?\"

\"Well,\" answered Snape somberly, though his mouth betrayed amusement at the situation. Draco began to look most uncomfortable. \"That is where the fun begins.\"

PLEASE REVIEW!