The Phoenix and The Dragon

A/N: From Draco's POV, unlike previous chapters.


‘Perfect Potter’s a pouf. I knew it.’ Draco couldn’t help but feel just the slightest bit pleased with himself. He had always wondered, its sort of a habit he noticed in young homosexual males, once you realize you are you naturally wonder who else is. Draco had always suspected Potter because of their rivalry. He and Potter had had a flair for dramatics and the intensity of their arguments was sometimes almost more then he could bear. Almost. He found Potter extremely appealing, not for his looks entirely (though they were nothing to scoff at), but instead for his good nature, unlike Draco's own. Harry Potter had always intrigued Draco and this instance was no different.

Potter had been a bit of an obsession for Draco, up until last year of course when his obsession had been saving the life of his mother. He had worked all year scheming and plotting and planning to no avail. And when push came to shove, and it did, his mother disappeared. Not disappeared in the same way Bertha Jorkins had disappeared but disappeared instead to some foreign country to seek refuge with light wizards who would protect her. Draco opted to stay behind and fix the mess he made, or rather offer his services. Severus had guilted him into it.

Either way during the school year, although he had been busy trying to please the Dark Lord, he had managed to watch Potter (covertly of course) who at the time had been busy watching him deteriorate under the pressure of the threat of death. Potter had been the only one to recognize Draco's distress and mental anguish. So he let Potter watch him, feeling slightly smug that it had been Potter finally watching instead of himslef (except that time in the third floor girls’ lavatory, which he had not meant for anyone to see, especially Potter).

This summer though would be drastically different then that previous school year because Draco’s mother was safe in…well, wherever she was and father get along just fine Draco was sure and Draco decided that he was free to toy with, manipulate and observe his obsession ad nauseam and up close for an extended period of time. He knew he would eventually have to hold up his end of the deal and do a bit of work against his former master for his new protector and possibly a fair bit of life risking and wand-to-wand combat. The only thing that was holding him to his task, really, was that he knew he would be sharing that misery with Harry and being with Harry would make him feel that much safer during the whole ordeal and a Slytherin always thinks about his own safety first.

That is not saying that Potter’s ass didn’t have anything to contribute. After seeing Harry in his second-hand sleeping clothes and imagining all those muscle toning Quidditch matches Draco realized that he did not just have a healthy appreciation for Potter’s ass, he absolutely adored it. And he was determined to follow it through to the end of the mess he had made, wherever it may be.

So while Harry looked sullenly out the window at his aunt and uncle’s exceedingly normal backyard Draco rolled over, smirking, and finally nodded off.

“BOY!!” There was fiercely loud banging followed but an odd clinking noise. Draco turned over groggily and slowly trying to cover his eyes.

“What is that racket?” Then the door flew open and a gasp was heard.

“So it true, eh?” Draco sat up to see that not only was an extremely large Vernon Dursley standing in the doorway but that the savior had closed the blinds so there was in fact no reason to shield his eyes. Draco waited for Harry to reply but the boy simply stared at his uncle defiantly and smirked. So, not being one to be forgotten in a scuffle he interjected on Harry’s behalf.

“What is the meaning of this?” Vernon turned to Draco angrily, his face blotchy and purple.

“Don’t talk to me you freak!” Taken aback it took a moment for Draco to respond. He grabbed his sheet and got out of bed, he stood as proudly as he could manage in a sheet.

“Never speak to me like that again you filthy mudblood!” Then deciding that that was not enough punishment for waking him, he continued even though Harry had emitted a low growl. “How dare you think you can barge into this room, while I am asleep no less, and scream at two of the most important people in the wizarding world! And I am your guest; don’t they teach you any manners muggle?! I should hex you into next week for your total ignorance!” Vernon stalked towards Draco, fuming.

“I told you. Do. Not. Talk.” Draco smirked at Vernon’s obvious anger. Oh how he loved to get under people’s skin.

“And I told you to shut your fat muggle mouth. You may have pushed Harry around but not me. I am a Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, and I am not to be trifled with by mudbloods. So unless you want your manly bits hexed off I would get out of this room and I would stay out.” Vernon paled a little but stood his ground against the increasingly delighted (though you wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at him) blond. “Or perhaps I could give you another sleeping potion? I forgot to ask,” he simpered theatrically and bated his eyelashes, “did you enjoy the cupcakes?” Draco heard Harry snicker behind him but didn’t break eye contact with Dursley who had blanched and whose mouth gaped slightly, like a fish out of water.

“You-you little…” Vernon began his advance again but this time it was Petunia who stopped him. She rushed to his side and grabbed his arm and started to tell him, quickly, why perhaps this was not his best idea. Harry who had started moving around the bed, now stood next to Draco, who, thought himself a little like an ancient Roman, with the sheet draped over his shoulder.

“You know,” Harry whispered, “this really could have been avoided. He would have ranted and then left, you didn’t even have to get up.” Draco smiled.

“I figured, but honestly I haven’t taunted anyone beneath me in far too long. I was getting bored. Not that it isn’t fun to make jokes at your expense, because it is. It’s simply more fun when they don’t know its coming and you always know its coming. That and you're going to save my ass one day. So I figure I must owe you.” Now it was Harry’s turn to smile.

“This is true.” Their side conversation was interrupted when Petunia had finally managed to calm her irate husband.

Draco heard her whisper and he felt a little sorry for the pinched-face woman who had to deal with the idiot. “Come on then, we’ll just pretend he’s not here, we’ll pretend they’re both not here. Let’s go see if Duddy’s awake, I imagine your both very hungry.” Vernon simply nodded, scowling, and followed Petunia out of the room. When they were gone, and the boys heard all the locks click into place, Draco fell back onto the bed and laughed evenly.

“You know when he gets angry like that he looks a bit like an enormous prune, all purple and wrinkly.” Harry looked off wistfully for a second before returning his attention to Malfoy who was staring up at him from the bed. Harry, Draco thought, had looked almost happy.

“You know Hagrid had said that about him on the day we met, Hagrid brought me my Hogwarts letter.” Well that explained the far off stare.

“Hagrid brought it? He wasn’t even a teacher then. Why didn’t an owl bring it to you like the rest of us?” Draco was wondering if even before Harry had started school he had been Dumbledore’s pet.

“They tried, the owls I mean, but the Dursley’s wouldn’t give me my letters. They came for days, coming in through the chimney and the windows and the mail flap, even on Sunday.” Draco raised his eyebrow.

“Why is it important that they came on Sunday?” For some reason Harry laughed.

“Because muggle post doesn’t come on Sundays.”

“That seems inefficient.” No wonder muggles were so behind on the news, bloody backwards.

“Well eventually my uncle decided to try to out run them and drove us to this shack in the middle of nowhere.”

“That was pointless. Doesn’t he know anything about magic?” Most muggles would be pissing their pants to see real magic.

“No, and he’d like to keep it that way. So Hagrid showed up, gave me my letter personally and offered to take me to Diagon Alley and King’s Cross to catch the train. When he picked me up he called Vernon a ‘great prune’ and then gave Dudley a pig’s tail for eating my birthday cake.” This time Draco had to laugh with Harry. “He never got rid of it either so the Dursley’s had to-had to,” he stopped to breathe before he continued, “have it removed by a muggle doctor!”

“But I thought Hagrid wasn’t allowed to do magic.” Draco was hardly able to get the whole sentence out because the image of the fat boy he had watched yesterday devouring cupcakes would look perfect with a little piggy tail sprouting from the butt of his trousers.

“He’s not, strictly speaking.” Draco smirked and then snorted when he tried to hold back his laughter which made Harry laugh even harder. When they had calmed down Harry returned to watching the backyard, although this time he was smiling. Draco snuggled against the bed and watched the golden boy.

“So Potter, were you going to get me any clothes?” Harry turned back to Draco.

“You want to wear my clothes?”

“Tell me we are not going to fight about this the way we fought about the bed.” Harry rolled his eyes. “Don’t roll your eyes at me Potter, I’m cold.”

“How can you be cold, it’s June!”

“It doesn’t matter what month it is Potter I’m used to wearing clothes!”

“Fine.” Harry, having already changed into jeans and a t-shirt, walked over to his closet and began rummaging around for something for Draco to wear. Draco was roughly the same measurements as Harry and therefore all of the clothes were a bit big. When Harry threw the clothes onto the bed he moved to turn around but Draco gripped his arm. “What now Malfoy?” Draco exposed his left arm, palm up.

“I just wanted to make sure you knew. Er, thanks for the clothes, I think.” He nervously eyed the garments while Harry stared at his arm, inspecting the pale skin there. Draco hadn’t taken the mark, not that he wouldn’t have. Voldemort had wanted him to finish his first task before he was marked and formally a Death Eater but he had only been given a sort of temporary mark that would be made permanent at the completion of his mission. He had been secretly relieved but would have done it if it had meant saving his mother and the Malfoy name. Though now he was beginning to see that maybe the Dark Lord had tarnished his name instead of contributing to its good standing.

“Oh, yeah, no problem.” Harry looked a little stunned at Draco’s admission and Draco was surprised at his subdued behavior. In fact he had expected Harry to do some childish dance spiting the Dark Lord with copious ‘I told you so!’ calls. He had also expected a fair amount whooping and a congratulations from Harry along with a ‘Welcome to the Light’ membership card and t-shirt. Then again he always did have an overactive imagination.

When Harry was finally turned around Draco inspected his new clothes and dropped his sheet. On the bed was a pair of red and gold boxer shorts, a pair of jeans that looked as though they had been magically tailored to fit better (Granger’s doing of course, he would have to remember to thank her) and a white threadbare t-shirt. In short he would look exactly like Potter, only blond. He sighed as he slid into the clothes; at least they were comfortable and worn. That was the only good thing he could say about them so in his mind he repeated it over and over. It almost convinced him. When he was finished he walked around to Harry’s front and spread his arms as if for inspection. Then he shook his head.

“When this war is over I am taking you shopping because this is pathetic.” Harry sighed and raised his eyebrows incredulously.

“Beggars can’t be choosers Malfoy.” He had a point.

“Right. Well, down to business then?” Draco had actually thought up a plan during his little nap. Well he had a dream and it led him to a plan anyway, and he bet it would be more then Potter had.

“Um, I guess so, yeah. So I’ve made a list of potential horcruxs but I have know idea where they are.”

“That is where I come in.”

“You know!?!” Harry’s face lit up and his smile was the widest Draco had ever seen it, all the way up to his eyes.

“Well no,” Harry’s face crumpled with a sigh, “but I do know who can find out and how to get there!” At this Harry looked skeptical but Draco could see a glimmer of hope at the way Harry’s eyes opened a little wider and a ghost of his previous smile returned.

“Yes?”

“Yes. But we’ll need your cloak and we’ll have to hop the fence in the backyard because I have to apparate. And that means I’ll have to take you sidelong, if that’s alright.” Harry furrowed his thick eyebrows and took his glasses of to massage the bridge of his nose. When Harry dropped his hand and opened his eyes Draco was struck by how much greener and clearer they were when there wasn’t thick magnifying glass in front of them. "I'd let you do it but you won't know where you're going and you'll splinch us."

“Fine, but I have to know exactly where we’re going and why and, well, all of the specifics before hand.”

“Done. You know I could do a spell to fix your eyes if you gave me my wand back. I’ll be needing it back anyway you know.”

“Hermione could fix my eyes too but I haven’t let her. Why would I let you?”

“Because if your glasses fall off in the final battle we’re toast.” Harry laughed.

“Yeah, okay maybe, but not right now.”

“Good. So, my wand?”

“Not yet. But yes before we leave.”

“Please.” Yes Malfoy’s would beg but only in extenuating circumstances. He missed his wand.

“No, not yet.” Draco put on his best pout and he’d say it was damn near the best one in all of England and probably Scotland if you asked him. “You’ll get it back; don’t look at me like that! You know that I know your faking it so drop the face Malfoy. I know a Slytherin trick when I see one.” He sneered at Harry who only smiled politely in return.

“Fine Potter, but you’ll get yours.”

“I’m sure. So what’s the plan? Who do you know and where are they?” Draco sighed and sat on the bed and leaned with his back against the wall.

“Pansy. She doesn’t know where the horcruxs are but the Parkinson’s are in Voldemort’s inner circle. I can apparate to the edge of her parent’s wards on their manor. We then walk through a niche in the wards that I had one of my house elves, Dobby, make me and we’re in.”

“Wait, Dobby?”

“Yeah, he was my personal house-elf. My father gave him to me, somehow though he was lost at the end of second year, my father never said why. Probably dead for pissing him off or something, my father has a bit of a temper. Please tell me your not going to start with that spew stuff Granger was spouting, they hate her you know.”

“Yes, I know. I also know Dobby. He works at Hogwarts now.”

“He does? No wonder father was angry; he lost the thing to Dumbledore.”

“Actually I tricked him into releasing Dobby.” Draco couldn’t help but laugh at the blush on Harry’s cheeks.

“You’re lucky you’re still alive Potter, you know that?”

“I’ve heard. Anyway Dobby was free then so he protected me.”

“Strong beings, house elves, the wizarding community doesn’t give them enough credit.”

“Yeah, I know, Hermione told me all about it.”

“I bet she did.” He laughed a little when he remembered those stupid badges Granger kept trying to pass out. They had the letters S.P.E.W. on them and he had wondered at the time how a girl like Granger could not notice the fact that it would be stupid to name an organization after a bodily function like vomiting.

“So we go to Pansy’s. How does that help us?”

“Inside information. She shows some interest in becoming a Death Eater and her parents will jump all over it. Up until now she has been adamantly against it, in private only of course. She owes me so I know she’ll do it. Then she pumps her parents about Death Eater activity and tries to spot anything peculiar. Any places being looked into or guarded that you wouldn’t expect. I bet now that a few important horcruxs are destroyed he will be guarding the rest.” Just then an owl landed on the window sill and pecked ferociously on the glass. It startled Draco so much he almost fell off the bed. Harry opened the window and let the large barn owl into Hedwig’s cage to mingle while he took the letter back to the bed. “What’s that?”

“A letter Malfoy.” Ugh.

“I know what it is, I mean what does it say?” Harry opened the envelope and enfolded the letter.

“It’s from Hermione.”

“And?”

“What, you want me to read it out loud?”

“Yes, we live together Potter, you can’t hide anything from me anymore so lets hear it already.” Harry sighed over dramatically.

“Fine. ‘Harry I have amazing news! I can’t write it but I figured out who the initials are!’ She figured out who R.A.B. is!”

“Who?”

“I’ll explain in a second, hold on. ‘Also I can’t wait to see you at the wedding.’”

“What wedding?”

“Bill and Fleur’s wedding”

“Again, who?”

“Bill Weasley, Ron’s older brother, and Fleur Delacour, from the Triwizard Tournament.”

“A Weasley is marrying a Veela? Interesting. Is that all?” Harry looked back at the page. “Yeah it is, she says she’ll floo after getting permission and explain everything in person. Hermione’s coming!” Harry jumped up in excitement. “Isn’t this great, she knows who R.A.B. is and she’s coming!”

“Who is R.A.B.?” Harry sat back down but Draco could tell he was antsy by the way he tapped his foot and he was smiling insanely.

“Well the night…” Harry paused, “the night you couldn’t kill Dumbledore.” He looked fleetingly sad and Draco was sorry for the millionth time. “Earlier he had taken me to find a horcrux, Slytherins locket. But the one we got turned out to be the wrong locket. There was a note in it for Voldemort and it was signed R.A.B.”

“What did the note say?” Harry got up and walked around the bed, bent down and was fiddling with the floor. Draco got up and walked around the bed to lean over Harry’s shoulder. Harry shoved his nails deeper and pried up a loose floor board. He quickly snatched out a folded piece of paper before Draco could see anything else and handed it over. The creases of the folds were worn, like it had been opened and folded over and over again. Draco figured it had. He read aloud. “‘To the Dark Lord. I know I will be dead long before you read this but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match, you will be mortal once more. R.A.B.’…Well that is something isn’t it?” Harry nodded hurriedly.

“And Hermione’s figured out who it is!”

“Did she say when she’ll show up?” Harry looked shocked, apparently he had not thought of that yet.

“No, she could be coming right now.” His eyes opened and he smiled widely. “We’re locked in. That’ll shock the Dursley’s. I imagine they’ll get us when she comes tumbling out of a magical fire then won’t they.” He laughed heartily. Draco wondered if Harry always laughed this much or if the brunette was still in shock from the arrival of two Slytherins and the new news of that R.A.B. fellow. Either way it always felt good to see Harry smile. He was the savior of course and if he was smiling that meant there was hope.