The Phoenix and The Dragon

They had been calmly lounging on Harry’s bed when a commotion sounded downstairs.



“It’s her!” Harry rushed to the door and waited impatiently.



“You’re a bit like a caged animal Potter and it’s very disconcerting.” He watched Harry excitedly pace back and forth; it reminded him of the dragons and the Triwizard Cup.



“I can’t help it.”



“Quite alright.” Then Draco and Harry snapped their necks to the side as the sound of bolts been thrown back echoed through the door. When it flung open Hermione burst in full tilt and ran smack into Draco, who had not moved fast enough to the side. Behind her was a chorus of yells, something about ‘bloody freaks’ and ‘more passers then King’s Cross’. Harry pushed by them and shoved the door shut. The bolts were of course thrown back into place and Harry and Draco shared a collective sigh. Hermione simply yelped and jumped back from the blond, wand at the ready.



“Malfoy!” Harry lunged in between them and held up his hands.



“He just got here and he’s not dangerous. He’s going to help, I talked to Snape!” Hermione looked perplexed and livid and she kept her wand steadily on Draco.



“Harry, what are you talking about?!?”



“I have his wand, just let me explain.”



“No, let me.” Draco stepped out form behind Harry and smiled imploringly. Hermione looked him over and he could see the gears turning behind her eyes. He knew he looked tired and he saw her eyes darting across his features, pausing at cuts and scrapes but her wand never wavered. “I was forced, as I’m sure Harry here has told you, to act against my…better nature…and try to kill Headmaster Dumbledore. Which I failed miserably to do, obviously, and when I failed I was taken by Professor Snape, not to the Dark Lord, but to Severus’ own home. I was kept there and then moved several times, mostly in the brush and in muggle inns until it was safe enough to try to contact the Order. Unfortunately, your Order will need proof of my innocence as wells as Severus’ and in order to do that he will need Dumbledore’s pensive and me out of the way.” Hermione held up her other hand. Draco found it amusing that even in this situation if he sounded like a professor then he would be treated as such. “Question?”



“Why not use Veritaserum?”



“Not only can you trick Veritaserum but the Order will hex first and ask questions later, on sight, if either of us were to show up. May I continue?”



She waved her hand.



“Severus, before term, was contacted by my mother. She knew the mission I was given by the Dark Lord. She also knew it was punishment for my father’s failure at the ministry and the whole fiasco that followed. Worried for my safety she asked Severus to make an unbreakable vow with her. The terms were that he was to finish my mission, if I were to fail, which I say again, I obviously had. Once the vow was made Severus contacted Dumbledore, he explained the situation and began discussing ways to get around the vow, nullify it or trick it.



“Dumbledore insisted that it could not be tricked and that it would have to be carried out. He commissioned a small portrait of himself and then told Severus that he was going to have to-”



This was the part Draco hated. “-to kill him.”



Hermione gasped at just the right time and clutched her hand to her chest, her heart hurt. Draco assumed it was the metaphorical heart and he could relate.



“You see Dumbledore knew that he was going to die. In destroying a horcrux he released a curse on himself, you saw the evidence of the curse only on his hand at the time, but it would have spread, painfully. He had said that he would rather go with good cause. Severus, on orders from Dumbledore, attempted to figure out what I was planning but I, being a complete dolt, refused to tell either Severus or the headmaster, thus the commotion and the endangering of my fellow students, including you and Potter here and I’m sorry for that.” Hermione glared but he continued. “I am. But I thought I was beyond help. The headmaster could have easily asked me himself, told me he knew and forced it out of me, but then the Dark Lord could have just as easily went into my mind and saw that Dumbledore knew and kill me on the spot.



“He protected me and I was a prat. Thankfully Severus arrived in time on the tower to fulfill his vow, save me and-well-to follow through with Dumbledore’s wishes. Otherwise he and I would also be dead. When we left the grounds we were officially on the lamb. Severus, with the aid of Dumbledore’s rather special portrait, decided that the safest and most productive place for me would be with Harry. I could help out since I mucked things up in the first place. Also I would be out of Severus’ hair while he went to retrieve memories from Dumbledore’s pensive to show McGonagall and prove his innocence and mine in the process.” Draco took a deep breath. “And here we are.”



Hermione nodded sullenly. He could tell that even though she hated the whole thing she was rolling it around in her head. Weighing all the options and looking at it from all the angles. He could have swore he heard the grind of metal on metal as her brain cranked towards it conclusion. He admired her cool logic.



“I don’t like it and I don’t like you, but Harry trusts you and for the moment, so do I.” She smirked then. “That and Harry has your wand.” She turned to her friend. “Now, you spoke to Dumbledore’s portrait?”



“Yeah, it said he charmed it, a bit like the sorting hat.”



“Yes he could do that, he was very powerful, but did you check it for spells? Jinxes? Hexes?” Harry dropped his head. “Of course not that’s always my job and you and Ronald can never seem to be bothered. Too late now.” She clucked her tongue at him unenthusiastically and rolled her eyes. “Well then I guess you’ll want to know about R.A.B.?” Her eagerness showed through no matter how irritated she was. Harry matched her.



“Yeah, what have you got?”



“You mean what do I think? Well, the idea came to me from that tapestry that belonged to Sirius.”



“What about it?”



“R.A.B. It could be a stretch but didn’t Remus tell you that Sirius’ brother was a Death Eater who tried to get out? His name was Regulus Black. That takes care of the R and the B. When it hit me I immediately got permission to search the house for any records that might have his full name since it was burned off. Well in a book of births and deaths I found it. His middle name was Arcturus, which could be our A!”



“It’s him, it has to be!” Draco sighed over Harry’s enthusiasm causing the Gryffindors to look at him, not that Hermione hadn’t kept one eye on him anyway. “What?”



“Well wouldn’t you know it, we’re related. I guess the Black’s are not as nefarious as we think we are.” Harry laughed and Hermione just cocked her head in thought. But it was true, the more he thought about it the more it made sense. A Black would feel obligated to join the Dark Lord but being a Black has maybe lost some of its potency over the years. Or maybe Voldemort has just become more visibly insane. Either way.



“Maybe, or maybe you can talk the talk but can’t walk the walk.”



“What’s that supposed to mean Granger?”



“It means you still let Death Eaters into Hogwarts and you were still fixated on the dark arts.”



“But I’m not a killer.”



“That has yet to be seen.”



“Look,” He could feel his teeth grinding and forced his jaw to relax. “I’m here to help.”



“You mean here saving yourself from Voldemort?”



“Well that’s one way you could look at it.” Her eyes narrowed to slits and her face was growing red. “But that’s not the way it is.”



“I think that’s exactly the way it is.” Draco wondered how she dared to presume to know anything about him. He stepped over to her and looked directly in her eyes.



“You don’t know what its like and you certainly don’t know the way it is. You were never surrounded by enemies who were once your role models and given the option of killing your headmaster or killing your parents, because that was my option Granger. Murder on both sides, no door number 3. It was everything I knew, the way I was raised. My entire life and the only family I had ever known. Tell me what you would do? Times up. Quills down. What would you say?” She breathed deeply but stared back at him, they were almost nose-to-nose.



“I-I don’t know.” He laughed harshly.



“Are you telling me you wouldn’t save your parents noble Gryffindor?”



“I’m just saying I don’t know. You could have gone to Dumbledore.”



“Thereby killing my parents and myself, not a chance.” ‘I am a Slytherin after all’ was what went unsaid.



“Well you could have tried.” Just when Draco thought he could strike the killing blow, Harry sandwiched himself between the two. He miraculously summed up the situation in a few sentences.



“No, he couldn’t. And no, we can’t understand, but we don’t have to. Herm all that’s important is that he’s here now and he’s willing to help and we have a plan.”



“A plan?”



“Yes, a plan, and I think it could give use some very helpful information if it works.”



“What’s the plan?”



“I’m not going to tell you because you won’t like it but I promise I can handle it and we’ll be fine.”



“Harry!” Her eyebrows shot downward and her forehead scrunched up.



“Honestly it’s probably safer that you don’t know, just in case.”



“Well what’s that worst case scenario if the plan goes bad?”



“Besides just dying? You want the specifics. Draco and I could be captured in the house of or on the grounds of a known Death Eater and probably both be tortured and killed and the Wizarding World would go with us. But that’s pretty much standard for any of my plans lately so…”



“Harry!” She tried to maintain and even breathing pattern and Draco noticed her wand quiver and her other hand kneading the hem of her jumper, there’d probably be a hole there later. “Okay I know I can’t stop you but can I help?”



“No, we won’t need it. Just um-” This time Draco cut in.



“Actually we might want her to check in the day after the ‘plan’ to make sure we make it out. If we don’t,” he turned to look at her again, “you’ll find a slip of paper on Harry’s desk with our location.”



“Why can’t you just tell me now?” The blond found her insistence endearing but it didn’t get the job done. Maybe if she had been storming around and throwing hexes like a Weasley, he thought, she’d have got it out of them



“Herm nothing is safe anymore, just trust me. And Draco. That’s all I can say.”



“Fine, but be careful.” She hugged Harry swiftly, which was a little hard with her wand trained on Malfoy but she managed before turning to her friends newfound ally. “And you,” she lowered her wand, “You be careful as well. And if you hurt Harry in any way, just one hair, I will make Voldemort look like Flitwick before I’m done with you.” He just nodded. She looked like she meant it. People with that amount of talent, logic, and passion were always the ones that scared Draco the most because they could do the most damage. But honestly how many enemies did she think he needed right then? He didn’t have a death wish. That and why harm Harry, his only real chance at survival, he was also the better looking option. Not that it had any bearing on Draco’s decisions, consciously anyway. She turned her back on them for the first time that evening and knocked on the door. Mrs. Dursley opened it quietly on the other side and after bolting it again they heard receding footsteps in the hall.



Draco looked at Harry. “I could eat and then we should get some rest. I say we head to Pansy’s tomorrow night. It will give me more time to recuperate so we don’t end up in pieces when we get there.” Harry looked a little stunned. “You alright?”



“Yeah, I just miss her is all.”



“Sorry mate but that’s the way this has to go. With any luck we can get this mess settled before school starts up again.”



“If it starts up.”



“Potter, stay together. You can’t go breaking down before a life threatening mission. Forget Granger. Think of Dumbledore and the horcruxs. Plus I’ll be there to watch your back.” Harry blinked and smiled at the blond.



“Could you not while we’re at the Parkinson’s? I need you on your toes, not drooling.” Draco lifted an eyebrow.



“Potter, go to bed.” Harry nodded and Draco was secretly relieved. He wanted Harry, that was for sure, but he didn’t want to jeopardize their safety because the Golden Boy was hormonal.



“What about you?”



“I need to stay up and work out the details of the aforementioned mission. I’ll be back in bed before you know it, promise.”



“Great. Well night.” Draco got up and turned of the light. He sat by the window and began to picture the lay-out of the Parkinson grounds and wondered which floor board Harry pried up because there was a good chance his wand was in there.