Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Oath Breaker ❯ Attack at Night ( Chapter 10 )

Part 10

When the torches dimmed and Filch made his last round through the dungeons, Draco slipped out of the Slytherin common room. He kept close to the wall, alert to any noise as he slipped out of the castle. He couldn't risk meeting any students breaking curfew, especially not now. Crossing the grounds quickly so no one would see him, he walked along the edge of the forbidden forest with one eye on the school and one eye on the trees. Even without moonlight and wearing his black cloak and robes he stood out against the white frost covering the earth, but where the trees touched the open landscape, the mud and shadows safely concealed him.

His breath misted and swirled in the faint starlight, uncomfortably loud in the night air. His cloak kept him warm but it could not muffle the sounds of his boots on the ice and stones. Every brush of his foot against the dead grass, the rustle of his clothes against his skin, even his heartbeat, sounded like thunder. And yet walking alone in the cold was better than being inside Hogwarts.

Even after a week's time the Daily Prophet did not know about the latest attack on Harry, but the students knew and their rumors filled the castle until the atmosphere felt as oppressive as Azkaban's. Worse yet, after Dumbledore decided to keep the students confined to Hogwarts in light of this new attack, under the excuse that the faculty needed to keep them safe from the repairs to the main hallways, gossip incubated within the houses and Draco was their favorite topic. McGonagall assured both him and Severus that neither Ron nor Hermione had broken confidence, but after Harry's attack and Draco's hrofana spell in front of several Gryffindors, many students had reached a verdict.

There were many students from every house who did not believe he was dark, but there were many who did. The punishment for a discovered dark wizard was expulsion from the community, and if the wizard died in the effort, so much the better. Purely as a precautionary measure, Severus had removed him from classes and confined him in Slytherin, but that no one had suffered any further attacks only confirmed to his condemners that Draco was responsible. For the past week, he hadn't dared leave his common room. Time seemed to stand still inside Slytherin. Taking this late night stroll felt like a breath of fresh air.

Out from the dungeons and under the sky, he at last saw the moon, just a sliver of light behind the clouds. Tomorrow night Pansy would bring the Slytherins home.

Just within sight of Hagrid's hovel a large fallen tree provided a convenient seat, and as he sat down he wished he'd brought his broom with him. At the time, sneaking out and walking the whole way had seemed like a wonderful break from being cooped up inside the dungeons. Now he just felt sore and winded.

He didn't know how long he would wait. Perhaps until sunrise, although that would mean no sleep. Dumbledore's new list of potions he wanted by the end of the week was nearly three feet long and Severus intended to work from dawn to moonrise each day. Even without classes, he was exhausted.

A twig snapped almost right behind him and he shot to his feet, his wand in his hand as he faced the trees. No one was there. His wand trembled and his skin turned cold. He stopped breathing. Even his heart seemed to pause. For a moment he heard nothing, not even the wind. And then he heard a slight scuff in the darkness, as of someone rubbing their foot accidentally against a tree root. Draco pointed his wand a little to the left and whispered "grywania."

Forced from its hibernation, the tree's branches sprouted tiny nubs and new branches. At the tree's base, however, a thick bunch of thorn bushes suddenly sprang up. Twisted by his dark spell, they didn't grow naturally but rather curled like fingers covered in thorns. A second later, he heard a satisfying shout of surprise and the heavy thud of something falling on the dirt.

"Dammit, Malfoy, you didn't have to do that."

Irritated by that voice, Draco still felt a wave of relief wash over him that it wasn't a Death Eater, or even another student. "You're damned lucky I didn't cast something stronger, you scar-faced idiot."

Harry came out from around the tree, quickly folding something shimmery and tucking it into a pocket in his robes. "Do you always attack people who haven't done anything?"

"When they're hiding in the bloody forest in the middle of the night, yes!" Realizing he was starting to sound hysterical, he took a deep breath and sat down with his back to Potter. So much for silently sitting in the dark. Maybe if he was lucky, the Death Eaters were taking the night off.

"...did I frighten you?" Harry asked, leaning over the tree and trying to see his face.

"Of course not!" He turned aside a little and put his hands on his face to cool it. Without moonlight, Harry couldn't see the flush he knew was turning his face pink. Sometimes he wished he didn't have such fair skin. Every single emotion stood out on his face. "I just don't like people sneaking up on me."

Harry smiled and sat down. "Sorry."

"What are you doing here, anyway? How'd you find me?"

"I'm following you. What are you doing out here? The Slytherins won't be coming until tomorrow night, or the night after."

"If they come."

"What do you mean, 'if they come'?" Harry asked, his eyebrows knitting together. "You and Snape said that's what the message meant. I swear, if you two were lying--"

"Don't you ever get tired of threatening me?" Draco sighed, looking up at the sky.

For a moment Harry sputtered. "I threaten you because it's the only way to get you to stop doing horrible things!"

"'Horrible things'?" Draco echoed with a laugh. "Well, I suppose since I'm dark...yes, the horrible dark wizard of Hogwarts hiding in my common room, afraid of the little light wizards who would never think of tearing me into bloody pieces. Good thing you're here to threaten me, who knows what I might do otherwise?"

From the silence, he realized he wasn't far off from the truth. He sighed and bowed his head. "How many of them want me dead?"

"I...don't know," Harry said. "They're talking about that raven spell you cast. Hermione's been trying to convince them it's not dark magic and Ron--"

"If you try to convince me that Weasley is defending me, I'll be forced to take you to Pomfrey for delusions."

Harry half-smiled. "He still hates you, nothing'll ever change that. But he's reminding everyone that you're helping Snape and that Dumbledore wouldn't let you stay if you were dangerous."

"So instead he's telling everyone I'm an incompetent dark wizard, wonderful." He looked at Harry and felt a twinge of irritation that he had to look up to meet his eyes. "No one's buying it, are they?"

"No one in Gryffindor will hurt you," Harry said firmly. "We've talked to everyone and the ones who think you're dark agreed to give you a chance. But Malfoy, if it hadn't been us, scarhead and mudblood and weasel, telling everyone you weren't evil, they wouldn't of believed us. You've been horrible ever since first year and no one trusts you at all."

"That's because the Slytherins aren't here," Draco said. "But what about Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff?"

"I don't know. We don't see them except in class. Would they really try anything?"

Draco stared at Harry for a moment to make sure he wasn't joking. "God, Potter, you could at least try to understand our society a little bit." He sighed and considered. "Maybe if it was just older students here, but there's a bunch of first and second year children and all the seventh and sixth years will think they have to protect the little rats before I sacrifice them to unholy demons."

"They believe you'll sacrifice them?" Harry asked, aghast.

"Oh yes, I regularly conjure spirits to do my bidding. And that's if I don't boil them for my dinner or eviscerate them alive to read the future in their entrails."

"Draco..." Harry looked sideways at him and took a breath before asking. "Will you tell me about real dark history? I mean, about what you said about Merlin and Morgan and--"

"You mean after all this time you haven't looked anything up in the library?" Draco interrupted. "Even here they have one or two honest books. Thiselton's Camlann and Ramifications for one--"

"It's not that," Harry said. "I can't go to the library. Hermione's always in the library, and if I go, she'll just start nagging me about--well, about everything."

"Everything?" Draco raised an eyebrow. "Nagging her little boy about taking his medicine?"

"Not that. She doesn't know. I mean, she knows I see Pomfrey a lot more often this year, but she doesn't know I'm...sick."

"Potter, you're not going to tell me you have some tragic disease and you're going to waste away before you even get to graduation?"

"No," Harry said with a smile. Draco made it sound like getting sick was a personal insult to him. "Nothing like that."

"Wait, she was part of whatever you did last year but she doesn't know--"

"A lot of things happened last year," Harry said. "Hermione doesn't know everything about me, even if she thinks she does. So...will you tell me? About dark wizards, I mean."

Draco sighed as if put upon. "Not like there's anything better to do. Might make up for all the lessons you've missed since they locked me in the dungeons."

"You're not locked up," Harry said. "You're down there for your own protection."

"Locked away, hidden away, it feels the same." Draco didn't mention he'd flown around the common room on his besom a few times just to pretend he was in the air and no longer surrounded by walls. After clipping a cabinet and slamming face first into the sofa, he didn't fly anymore. "Tell me what you know. You must have gleaned something from all the talk about me in class."

"That's the weird thing, they don't talk about you. I mean, yes, they talk about the things you've done, the raven spell, saving your owl, helping Snape, but they don't talk abut what any of that means. They don't say why casting a raven spell is dark, just that it is."

"Mm, figures. They probably don't know for sure, either. All they know is what their parents tell them. How'd you put it before? 'Dark wizards don't care about anything once they turn'?" He leaned back and stared at the stars. Without bright muggle city lights, they glittered brilliantly against the night. "That's misleading. We don't turn, we're born. Well, some people turn, of course."

He opened his mouth to mention that Snape's mother hadn't been dark, but he stopped himself before he said anything. Severus never spoke about his parents and even if he did, he would never want Potter to know about his mother. "The ones who turn don't call it turning, though. They always say they were called, felt drawn to it, seduced even. You use your light spells like tools, mundane little charms to make your life easier.

"Dark magic can never be mistaken for a tool. It's alive, it's dangerous, it feels like part of your soul. Whenever you cast a spell, it invades every part of your body and lights every nerve on fire. It's like putting yourself into the magic and letting it do the same to you."

Harry shifted slightly on his seat. "You make it sound almost...um..."

"Sexual?" Draco chuckled. "Father told me it was like a lover that'll do wonderful things for you, but take it for granted and it will kill you."

"Who on earth would want a lover like that?"

Draco remembered asking his father the exact same thing, but he'd asked in front of not only his father but his mother and Severus as well, one day when the potions master was at the manor. No one had answered him except with knowing smiles and a soft, slightly sinister laugh from Narcissa.

"Doesn't matter," he said. "What I'm saying is that we don't turn. Dark families have existed for generations and no one ever turns from it. We sometimes gain converts, but anyone who pretends to go to the light has always turned out to be dark in the end."

"You can't leave it?"

"It'd be like trying to leave our skin behind." Not a perfect explanation, he thought, considering his own physiology, but it worked. "It's part of who we are. We grow up with it, we live with it, and inevitably we die with it."

"What does this have to do with dark history?"

"It's..." Draco took a deep breath and considered how to explain. "It's frightening to some people. To most people, really. Look at the Ministry. It started with Merlin and his Order about not casting spells on muggles, but it grew into the monster it is today. They want to control every aspect of magic, make laws and rules and limits...on magic, of all things. They try to shackle it and act surprised whenever it breaks its chains.

"But us, we're willing to give ourselves over to the magic. We stopped thinking that we can control it completely and allow the magic to lead us where it wants. We don't hold ourselves to nearly so many rules."

"And what do you hold yourselves to?" Harry asked. "What rules do you have?"

There was that piercing glare again. Draco avoided it and covered the motion by looking intently at the forest. "Not so much rules as loyalty, to family and to extended family. I know you think I'm a spoiled brat--"

Harry didn't try to deny it. He laughed.

"--but I serve my father loyally. When you were walking around uninvited in my head, you heard that conversation about the Knights of Walpurgis, right?"

"Um, yeah. I really didn't mean to--"

Loathe to discuss it, Draco shrugged once. "The Knights existed long before the dark lord turned them into the Death Eaters. They're our counterpart to the Ministry's aurors, but we don't have the endless regulations to follow. Instead we're loyal to each other and protect our families. Loyalty is everything."

Harry didn't hear that last part, too busy thinking about something else. "Wait, if the Knights are Death Eaters and you're part of the Knights, then...you're a Death Eater!" Without waiting for an answer, Harry reached over and grabbed Draco's arm, yanking him forward as he pushed his sleeve up. Draco would've laughed at the surprised look on his face at seeing the unblemished white skin except Harry didn't seem to know his own strength.

"Ow! Let go!" He pulled free and shied away while he rubbed the red fingermarks on his arm. "Bloody maniac, I'm a Knight, not a Death Eater! Father took all the loyal Knights away. Did you see a mark when I was cutting up the dragon, you scarfaced idiot?"

"Sorry," Harry mumbled. "Forgot. Memory's been a big foggy lately."

Frowning, Draco reached out and grabbed Harry's hand, holding it for a moment. So he hadn't been imagining that cold, clammy feeling on his skin. He put his hand on Harry's forehead and winced. "Potter, you're burning up. Why'd you come out here if you're sick?"

"I'm fine," Harry said, pulling away with a grumble. "It's just a reaction to Pomfrey's medicine."

"So you decided to follow me over the grounds?" Draco stood up and tugged his cloak closed, muttering as he started to walk off. "Stupid Gryffindor."

"Wait, where are you going?" Harry shot to his feet and caught up, swaying slightly as he matched pace.

"It's too damned cold out here to be talking," Draco said. "And my legs hurt from sitting on that tree, and I've got to get some sleep before Severus wakes me up in, oh, four hours."

He waited for a response, but Harry was conspiciously silent as they walked towards Hogwarts. Draco snuck a glance from the darkness of his hood and felt a twinge to see Harry with slumped shoulders and a lowered head. He looked disappointed that their conversation had stopped. Draco felt a little sorry to see him like that and felt irritated by his own feelings.

"Tomorrow around dinner," Draco mumbled. "I can tell you more about dark wizards then."

Harry raised his head with a guarded look. "In your common room? Will Snape let me?"

"He will if I tell him you're coming for a lesson." Severus probably wouldn't be surprised either, not with how quickly Harry learned each spell Draco showed him. Even if they were simple spells, Harry was still picking them up rapidly. "Just...don't antagonize him. He's hard enough to work with. I don't need you two snapping at each other all night."

"Right," Harry said, but he was starting to smile again. "I'll be on my best behavior."

"That's hardly reassuring."

Alert as they crossed the grounds, Draco relaxed a little when they entered the castle again, quietly walking on the stone floor to the dungeons. The dungeons were the only part of the castle that seemed the same at night as day. Only the dimming of some of the torches signified that the sun was down, but even during the day the dungeons were dark and quiet with their own cool air circling across the stone walls. Living here, he grew to understand why his ancestors felt more comfortable living beneath the ground. Even now when they lived in normal houses, their most treasured possessions were kept in cellars. His father's study hadn't even had windows.

They were halfway to the common room when Draco realized something was wrong. He froze, his cloak swirling around his feet as he stared down the hallway. Without thinking about it, he grasped his wand and held it at his side.

"Malfoy?" A few feet ahead, Harry stopped. "What is it?"

Draco didn't answer. He didn't know what had changed or how the dungeons were different from when he left. He just knew he wasn't safe. Warned by countless memories in his nightmares, Draco recognized the charged air, the instinctual sense of foreboding, the way his breathing sounded like shouts to his own ears. This sense of dread felt different from his anxiety while walking outside, as if some monster's jaws were tensed around him just waiting to snap, and he slowly started walking backwards with his wand still raised. For a moment he wanted to hide again, change into a tiny white snake that could slip into a hidden chip in the wall safely out of sight, but that wouldn't be wise.

People aren't dragons, he told himself. They'll see me slithering away.

"Malfoy?"

He flinched at Harry's voice, then looked up like a startled rabbit as the air changed, moving through the windless dungeons as something stirred the air. For a second he couldn't move, couldn't even breathe. The scuff of someone's shoe broke his stupor and he turned to run back to the outer door.

Not two steps later, he stopped again, drawn to a halt by the sight of several students barring the way and coming towards him. Blue scarves and yellow scarves mingled among faces he didn't recognize. Perhaps if he saw them in a class, he'd remember their names, but right now he only saw them as the faceless mob that had killed his countless ancestors. He looked over his shoulder and saw more coming from around corners where they'd set up the ambush he'd narrowly avoided. The Slytherin entrance lay only a few yards behind them. It might as well have been a mile away.

"Harry," one of them said, beckoning the Boy Who Lived towards her side. "Come out of the way."

Fully expecting Harry to move, friendly overtures be damned, Draco stared in as much surprise as everyone else when Harry took a step not towards the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws but towards the Slytherin.

"I didn't really think you'd actually try this," Harry said to her, his wand easily appearing in his hand. "Don't you trust Dumbledore?"

"He's wrong this time. There are some people you don't give second chances to," she said. "And if you don't move, we'll take you down, too."

"He's not evil--!"

"He's a dark wizard," one of the boys said.

"We know what his kind do to children," another one said. "He can't stay!"

Murmurs of agreement filled the hall. All of them already held their wands in hand. They only waited for the first spell to be cast before they would start their own attack. No one wanted to cast the first curse.

Except Draco. This far into the dungeons, he had a better chance of reaching his common room than escaping outside, but there was no way to escape except through a fight. Again he wished for Crabbe and Goyle's backup, Pansy and her gang of girls, even Blaise or Nott's more cautious guile. All he had was one Gryffindor, the nightmares of his ancestors' deaths threatening to make him sick, and Snape's subtle spells of his own invention drilled into his head.

While Harry argued with the mob, Draco sang softly under his breath, his wand still pointed at the ground as if he was afraid to raise it. Which he was, but he wasn't afraid to cast a sneaky and potentially lethal spell.

"Hatiaen en rabere ic giefan t' eow," he whispered, the same phrase over and over again. One of the easiest dark spells to cast, it didn't change anyone's inherent nature, only drew out their natural hatred and rage. It'd be suicide to cast if it only worked on their anger's current target, namely himself, but the spell did not discriminate. He could almost hear Snape's voice explaining that emotions were more than enough to completely destroy his enemies. They were already afraid. If he whipped their hatred and anger into an uncontrollable frenzy--

"Don't you see," Harry kept trying, "this is exactly what the Death Eaters want us to do."

"Oh shut up!" a Ravenclaw boy snapped. "You act like you know everything--"

"--you don't even know what a dark wizard is," the first girl yelled.

"The Boy Who Lived doesn't know anything about our world--"

"--got poor Cedric killed--"

"Enough about Cedric!" someone in a blue scarf said. "Honestly, you'd think no one else suffered losses the way you Hufflepuffs go on about Diggory--"

"How dare you!"

"I knew him--"

"He slept in my dorm--"

"We've kept a bed empty for his memory--"

"Merlin, you're making him into a bloody saint--"

"Better than forgetting him!"

The squabbling grew into a roar around his ears. Draco almost smiled. Whoever had thrown out that first crack at Cedric had done him a favor. The ones blocking the way to the common room were entirely distracted. The group at the door, a little farther away and more alert, perhaps because of the chilly breeze coming in from outside, snipped at each other but kept Draco in sight out of the corner of their eyes.

"What on earth?" Harry whispered, staring in wonder as the mob crumbled into insults and clenched fists.

Draco glanced at him with a touch of irritation. He was glad Potter hadn't succumbed to irrational anger, but considering the boy's temper, Draco had to assume that Harry was just shrugging off another magical attack as usual and he found it annoying.

"That's it!" A fist flew along with a curse as two Hufflepuffs took aim at a Ravenclaw.

And that was Draco's cue. He stopped his chant, raised his wand and called out "bubonia."

Greenish-black spray from his wand struck everyone in the mob closer to the outer door. Harry watched wide eyed as huge swollen lumps emerged on their faces and they were seized with racking coughs, patches of their skin turning black as they sank to the floor in unison. Draco whirled on his heel and aimed at the second group who, startled from their arguing, began to raise their wands.

"Hrofana!" Even as he summoned enough ravens to pack the hall, Draco was right behind their beating wings, following in their wake as they tore through the crowd. Several stayed behind to peck and scratch at exposed faces and hands, buying him precious seconds as he darted over fallen students. He needed those seconds. He'd been up all day brewing potions with his master and casting dark spells on his own work. Two strong dark spells on so many people left his right arm trembling as he tightened his grip on his wand so it wouldn't slip out of his hand.

Once he cleared them, he turned as he ran, about to cast even more ravens to screen his escape. Instead of fallen students, however, he was startled by Harry suddenly bursting out of the cloud of ravens and barreling into him. The impact sent them both stumbling backwards and Draco's spell turned garbled as the wind was knocked out of him. Millions of slivers of ice accidentally shot from his wand, cutting through the huge incendio spell on Harry's heels, but flames still caught Potter across the arm and shoulder.

Draco landed on his side and his wand skidded out of reach. About to lunge after it, he stopped when a bright yellow curse exploded on the floor just a few feet ahead of him. He jerked his hand back and looked over his shoulder. His breath hitched.

Between him and the mob stood Harry, his robes burned around his right arm as he held his wand aloft. He looked absolutely furious.

"If this is what I'm missing out on of your wizarding world," he ground out between clenched teeth, "then you can keep it!"

"Harry, move--" one of them tried.

"Shut up!" he yelled. "I'm not letting you hurt him! Anyone tries, you damn well come through me first!"

Draco stared up in mute wonder. Never in any of his memories had anything like this happened. He watched Harry as if in a trance, unable to look at the students demanding that Potter step aside.

That's why he can defeat the dark lord, he thought. He doesn't know the rules. He doesn't know what's he's not supposed to do.

"Defending a dark wizard's as bad as a dark wizard itself," someone said, gathering their courage. Then a wand appeared out of the crowd, indistinct and safely anonymous, and the reducto spell flashed in the dim light.

Harry countered it easily. And the next spell. And the next. But then they were firing so quickly that he was hard-pressed to keep up, and Draco couldn't find the courage to dash from behind him to grab his wand, not when curses and hexes and violent spells smashed into the floor and whizzed through the air all around him. A moment later, two stupefy spells struck Harry in the chest, throwing him backwards across Draco's lap. A diffindo spell and several more stupefy spells flashed over both of them before the spells stopped flying as they all stared at the fallen Gryffindor. No one spoke as they all caught their breath.

"Is...is he okay?" a younger voice asked.

Hunching over slightly, Draco looked down at Harry's face, then gingerly touched the burned skin around his shoulder. Harry's arm trembled and his wand, still firmly in his hand, scraped on the floor.

"We'll deal with Potter later." As one, they all turned their gaze from Harry to Draco. "Him, first."

Again, hesitation. No one wanted to cast the first spell, not when they knew that this time it'd be more than just stupefy and reducto charms. They spared a moment to look at each other, steel each other's nerves.

Draco's hand seemed to move without him thinking about it. Knowing he'd never be able to pry the fingers back in time, he grabbed Harry's hand and raised it and the wand into the air as high as the burned skin would allow. Everyone noticed and in fear they all began shouting their own spells.

"Leohtia stricaena!" he yelled even as he leaned over Harry's body. He knew he wouldn't be able to shield him entirely. He didn't even think about how much it would hurt himself until the first bolt of lightning crackled through the air and exploded on his back.

More electricity spiraled down his arm and out, burning his robes and skin. From the mob's screams he knew his spell was working. As he poured more strength into it, he hoped dearly that they were thrashing in agony, that their pretty faces were scorching, that their mouths would burn as they howled and that every inch of their skin would be scarred forever, if they survived at all.

Casting the spell offered scant protection. Lightning coursed down his arm and back like white hot whips. He tried to scream but his voice died in his throat. It wasn't supposed to be this powerful. The spell should've ended by now. His arm stopped hurting but his back felt like burning tar had been poured on him. After several more seconds and long after the screams had stopped, he blacked out.

Beating black wings and a hard peck to his face woke him. Coughing from the smoke in the air, he waved his good arm by his head and scared off one of the ravens he'd conjured. He watched it jump backwards and fly back to the mass of bodies on the floor where the rest of the ravens were busy gorging themselves on students and the birds who'd had the bad luck of being killed by lightning.

He didn't know how long he'd been out. Probably only a few seconds. His body screamed in protest as he sat up, fighting down the waves of nausea as he saw the damage to his hand. Black, charred skin flaked off all the way down his elbow. His whole body started to shake and turn cold in shock.

Footsteps.

He didn't bother to look up. Sounds echoed in the dungeons so there was no way to tell how close they were or even who they were. Maybe it was Severus and Dumbledore, maybe it was their saboteur. Maybe it was another mob of students.

Sliding out from under Harry, who'd received little more than few red burns on his hand and legs, Draco turned over onto his hands and knees and crawled the few feet towards his wand. He had to take it in his left hand. His right refused to move.

"Ilmauzer," he rasped. The door opened and he was about to drag himself in when he looked back at Harry. Wasting precious seconds as the footsteps came closer and cursing his own stupidity, he aimed his wand at Harry and levitated his prone body through the doors into the common room. Only then did he crawl in, careful not to put any weight on his right arm.

He changed the password to the first word he thought of, his mother's name, and then set one locking charm after another on the door, each unlockable by another password, until he heard someone outside scream. Forcing himself to his feet, he found that he couldn't stand straight but had to walk almost doubled over, stumbling towards the far door and bringing Harry with him. He didn't think about hiding inside any of the bedrooms. He simply walked, head down, deeper and deeper into the halls nearly everyone had forgotten about.

This far in, they were still caves hewn out of the rock. No torches lit his way. One of the few benefits of his half-blood nature let him see vague outlines in the darkness. Dusty chambers echoed his own gasps back to him like whispers, turning into moans when he reached an old shower room, and he locked the door behind himself, laying even more charms upon it until he couldn't stand anymore. He set Harry down on the tiles near the back wall and sank down beside him, leaning forward because he couldn't bear to lean his back on the stony wall.

Long minutes passed. It felt like hours to him. The air here felt damp even though no one had used the showers in years. He briefly thought about rousing Harry but decided not to. Harry would be in pain, he'd be angry, he'd want to talk. Draco just wanted to sit in the darkness forever.

All too soon, he heard a soft whoosh of air rush through the caves and blow gently under the door. He swallowed reflexively and closed his eyes. Someone had figured out his passwords and opened the main door. He couldn't hear them at first, but within a few seconds he heard them walking through the caves, ignoring every door and coming straight towards the old bathroom. As he heard each locking charm breaking like wood being snapped, he raised his wand and breathed in.

Whoever stood on the other side of the door threw it open and stepped in, the quiet "expelliarmus" snatching Draco's wand away before he could speak. The sudden light from the torches outside blinded him for a moment, and he turned his head away with a wince, expecting to be cut to pieces or to hear an Unforgivable Curse.

"Stupid, stupid child..."

Draco blinked. After lighting one of the torches on the wall, Severus crossed the room and knelt beside him, setting down two jars, one of which he opened and pushed to Draco's mouth.

"Drink it," he ordered. "Two swallows at least, five if you can manage it."

With a shuddering breath, Draco put his good hand on the side of the jar even though Snape was the one tilting it and his head back. He managed three good mouthfuls before he started coughing again. After the fourth one he started to think he might be sick. He pushed the jar away and put his hand over his mouth as if he could settle his stomach that way.

"...how did you get through?" he whispered through his fingers. "All the spells--"

"The baron watched you seal the doors," Snape said as he unscrewed the other jar and pulled out a handful of ground dittany leaves. "You didn't even notice him. He told me every password, and you should be glad he did. If I'd been forced to undo those one by one, by the time I reached you, the damage would've set in and you'd be crippled."

Holding Draco's burnt arm out, he sprinkled the dittany across the skin and then waved his wand over it, whispering very quickly. With each wave, the tiny bits of leaves melted into a kind of cream. He watched in fascination as the skin turned dark red and started to bleed. It also started to hurt. By the time Snape had healed the skin back two more shades, Draco lay on one side whimpering in pain. He expected Severus to scold him for acting like a child. His master didn't say anything at all, even when he stopped working on his arm and turned his attention to his back. This time the healing dulled the pain since his back hadn't been burned to a crisp.

"A protego charm before a leohtia curse would block the worst of this," Snape said as he flicked away the raven's slice on his cheek. He gave his apprentice a once-over and almost snarled. "I expect they didn't give you time to protect yourself, though."

"I'm sorry," Draco whispered. "I should've stayed inside. If he hadn't been with me...he stood over me, between me and them..."

"Leaving the common room was stupid," Snape agreed. "Going out alone at night, especially when you knew half the school wants you dead...Malfoy arrogance truly knows no bounds."

He gave a tired sigh and stood up. "But, while you were indeed monumentally stupid, they were the ones who tried to kill you. You did nothing wrong, though I'm not sure that Madam Pomfrey will see it quite differently when she has to treat all of them."

"They're still alive?" Draco wasn't sure if he should feel relieved or disappointed.

"Yes, I'm afraid your only kills were some of your own ravens. Can you stand?"

Feeling worse than before but also stronger, Draco hissed as he turned onto his stomach and pushed himself up. He had to lean against the wall to rise, but finally he stood on shaky legs. "I don't think I can reach the hospital, though."

"You think I'd take you there? And have you surrounded with those would-be assassins?" Snape scoffed. "You'll be safer down here in your own bed. Since he's already down here, we might as well put Potter up as well. If he were to show his face among his friends, they'd probably hex it off."

If they didn't kill him outright, Draco knew. Light wizards defending dark wizards was simply unheard of, but then again that was something Harry didn't know about. Perhaps if he had grown up with his parents, he would have stood with the rest of the mob tonight. The thought made his stomach clench and nearly made him throw up, so he stopped thinking about how close he'd come to death and just tried to keep Snape's medicine down.

The walk back through the caves felt longer than going down them had. While Snape floated Harry out ahead of them, he kept one hand on Draco's arm to steady him. By the time they reached his room, Draco collapsed on top of his bed without bothering to get under the covers. Severus didn't argue or complain, he just summoned a blanket off of an another bed and lay it over his legs while he continued working on his back. Draco wanted to stay awake long enough to see if Severus would treat Harry's wounds, but he found that he couldn't keep his eyes open and he fell asleep, wondering if he imagined Snape's hand gently touching his hair or if he just dreamed it.

TBC...

Author's Notes:
1. grywania, from the Old English growan, to grow
2. Hatiaen en rabere ic giefan t' eow -- hate and rage I give to you
3. bubonia, from bubonic plague
4. hrofana, from the Old English hrœfn, raven
5. leohtia stricaena, from Old English leoht and strican, light and strike