Tomorrow at the Latest

Harry, Draco and Blaise flew in silence for several minutes after departing from Malfoy Mansion. They were all riding close together, and Harry's foot kept bumping innocently into Draco's, but the other boy didn't seem to notice. Blaise was a few feet away from both of them, lost in his own thoughts.

Draco was rather shell-shocked. He'd been under the impression his entire life that his household was patriarchal, and that whatever little command his mother might have had was under the thumb of his father. It was too much to learn all at once that his mother actually was a powerful witch who had the moral ability to incapacitate her husband and leave him floating near the ceiling during breakfast.

He felt like he'd been repeatedly hit in the head with a brick. His mother was now a competent human being. When had that started happening? Why hadn't he known this before?

Suddenly, he felt a half-realization dawn on his confused brain. Narcissa had chosen that time to show her power for what may have been the first time since she married Lucius. Had she done it to help him? She'd never seemed like the dominant personality type, but she didn't seem to be very tolerant with her husband's treatment of their son.

But no, Lucius had been terrible to Draco for years. He'd never been an affectionate father, to say the least. Perhaps she decided that it was time to do something after seeing Draco happy, truly happy.

Draco gave a sideways look at Harry, whose eyes were partially closed and whose face was tilted slightly upward toward the morning sun.

Perhaps.

Draco turned back to face into the wind and frowned. This was very strange.

Harry's voice brought him back to the present. "You're mum is really cool."

"I was just thinking of something along those lines," he said absently.

"Kind of a shock finding all that out, though."

Draco shot a look of incredulity at Harry. "You think?"

"What are you so upset about? She helped us get away!"

"Harry, You have to look at the big picture. I'm just nervous. The balance of power in my family is shifting, and I'm fairly sure my mother can't hold off Voldemort when he decides he wants Dad back at a meeting."

"They still have meetings? Where?"

"I've got no idea where. But when his Dark Mark burns, he apparates right away. Do you honestly think he'd tell me where they have their little reunions?"

Harry contemplated this, and flew slower and slower until Draco snapped at him to keep up. They kept their course toward Hogwarts, flying over beautiful landscapes until Blaise thought the skin on his hands was going to peel off.

Finally, they spotted the school, and all three boys felt an enormous sense of relief. Flying was fun, Harry decided, but over long distances, he preferred something more conventional.

They alighted at the broom shed, where, stumbling and trying to regain use of their lower extremities, they stowed their broomsticks.

Harry put an arm around Draco's waist. "I'm glad you're back." A kiss gently placed on his neck. "I really missed you."

Draco laughed. "I wasn't gone very long. But I missed you, too."

"Are you scared?"

"That's a vague question. Like, of my parents? Of You-Know-Who?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know. In general, I guess."

With a heavy sigh, Draco leaned his head against Harry's shoulder. He was quiet for much of the time it took to trek to the castle entrance, but finally said, "Would you be?"

"I couldn't afford to be scared. Fear is kind of like a weakness, and there's too much at stake to allow that." He pulled Draco into a quick hug for emphasis on what it was that was at stake.

Blaise led the way back into school, and Harry and Draco followed with their arms around each other.

"Where do you think they all are? Class?"

Harry checked his watch. "Yeah. It's eleven. We could go to our dorms, get changed, c back downstairs to lunch, and then go to afternoon classes."

"It feels like we've been gone a long time." Draco bit his lip. "But it was only a few hours."

"We should go," Blaise said, prompting Draco. Then he spoke to Harry. "He takes forever to primp himself. If we want to get to lunch on time, we should split now."

Harry smiled and agreed. "Bye, then."

Blaise smiled vaguely and turned in the direction of the dungeons, while Harry and Draco shared one more parting kiss.

As he was climbing the stairs toward his common room, he realized how tired he felt. His backside was sore, and his palms were calloused from the long flight. He was stumbling past classrooms, but didn't really hear the faint murmur of the lessons within. His thoughts were on Draco.

He'd never felt so attached to anyone. He loved Ron and Hermione of course. And Blaise and Cho were quickly becoming part of their inner circle. But Draco was different. Harry had never gotten the sense with one of his regular friends that if he didn't have them, he might not be able to live properly.

He gave the password to the portrait of the fat lady. Only the three or four Gryffindors who were skipping class remained in the common room when he arrived. They gave him odd looks as he stumbled toward the boys' stair, but otherwise ignored him.

In the shower, Harry tilted his head back and let the hot water run over his face and down his neck. Once again, his mind was on Draco. It was weird how much he thought about one boy, and also how he could say honestly that Draco was probably thinking about him, too. It was weird, all right, but kind of nice.

***

Harry, Blaise and Draco entered the Great Hall for lunch trying to look like they'd been in school all morning. They each made their way to their respective tables, and Harry joined Hermione and Ron, who each bent in to hear how it had gone.

"We shouldn't talk about it here," Harry said in an undertone. "I'll tell you later."

***

"What happened at the manor?" Ron asked finally. Nothing had been explained yet as to the events that occurred while they had been apart.

Harry's face relaxed into a smile. "Draco's mom is really cool."

"Ah, now we understand." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"I thought your family were Death Eaters?" Cho asked.

"Not my mum, apparently," Draco said, apparently unfazed. He commenced to explain the story of his father learning that he'd been spending time with Harry Potter, bringing him home, and then Blaise and Harry coming to the rescue.

Ron sucked in his breath when he came to the part where Lucius burst into the bedroom to find the two hidden boys.

When Draco had finished speaking, they sat in a brief reflective silence.

"But where is she getting her power?" Hermione asked.

Harry blinked at her. "Does it matter?"

"Of course it matters. It's very unusual for an individual to possess that much magical energy within their bodies. It's also odd that she kept her power a secret from everyone for years."

Cho shrugged. "You could write her a letter and ask. If she's tapping power from some other source, it might be nice to know."

"Okay. Has anyone got something I can write on?"

Hermione had her bag nearby, and jumping up to bring parchment and a quill.

"Thanks," Draco said, accepting them from her. "What should I write? This seems awkward. I've never discussed anything important with my mother."

Ron looked thoughtful for a moment, but then suggested, "Dear Mum, we were wondering why you're so powerful. Is it your own energy, or are you tapping from something else?"

"That sounds alright," Harry said, indicating that Draco should copy down what Ron had just said.

Draco considered and reconsidered but finally wrote a short, to-the-point letter. Then Blaise requested to write a brief greeting at the end to Narcissa, and pretty soon the letter had been passed around so everyone could write something creative like, "Hi Narcissa," at the bottom.

Harry and Draco left for the owlry to send Hedwig to Malfoy Manor and everyone else stayed to chat. Ron kept asking for more information about the rescue mission for Draco, and Blaise was forced to recount the tale in more detail than before.

***

Hedwig flew in with the rest of the post owls the next morning and spiraled around near the enchanted ceiling until she spotted Draco at the Gryffindor table. She dropped the letter on his head and then hopped over to peck affectionately at Harry's arm before flying back to her perch in the owlry.

Reading the letter, Draco choked on a mouthful of juice. "Bloody hell. I had no fucking clue!"

"What is it?" Harry, Ron, Cho, Hermione and Blaise leaned to hear the news.

Draco glanced around. "Maybe we shouldn't discuss this here, someone could be listening."

Hermione waved a hand dismissively. "No one cares. They're all either falling asleep or making lots of noise. Everyone knows we're freaks, so it won't be worth wondering about if we have a huddled chat at the breakfast table."

"Oh, okay then." Draco hesitated and then deciding she was probably right. He wasn't used to sitting with people who weren't eavesdropping at every chance they got. "The power she has isn't coming f her."

Ron blinked and nodded. "So where's it coming from?"

Draco paused again and continued in a voice slightly above a whisper. "When Voldemort was in power years ago, her family cast a really complicated spell so that members of their bloodline could tap power from the Dark Lord himself. He didn't notice, and the elevated levels of evil and magic made them honored supporters, even though they were...well...cheating."

Draco squinted, trying to remember. "She was a Black, as far as I know."

Harry's jaw dropped. "Sirius! He's related to Narcissa!"

Hermione jumped up. "Nobody move. I'll be right back."

"She must be going to the library," Ron remarked benignly, watching Hermione sprint from the Great Hall. "She'd better hurry. Classes start soon."

"Then it's good we're here early," Cho said through a mouthful of eggs. She was using the lapse in intelligent conversation as a moment for eating.

"Sirius? Sirius Black, the murderer?"

Harry bristled at Draco, but calmed himself down and gave a thirty-second down on the Sirius situation for the benefit of Cho and Draco.

Moments later, Hermione returned carrying a large book. "Here it is. They have records of family histories in the library. I saw this the other day, but I didn't know we were going to need it."

As she opened the book, Harry noticed a large letter 'B' on the spine. Wow, he thought, it's like an encyclopedia.

"When was that book printed?" Blaise asked, eyeing the annt look of the cover.

"A long time ago, but books like this are enchanted to magically add names as people are born," she said without looking up.

"Okay, so who's listed as a Black?" Harry whined impatiently.

"Hm. Bellatrix Lestrange. I didn't know that."

Draco nodded knowledgeably.

"And Andromeda, that's Tonks' mum!"

"I'm guessing she doesn't know she has that kind of power," Ron snorted, remembering Tonks and her confident but accident-prone personality.

"Oh my god, Ron, the Weasleys are here."

Both Ron and Draco choked at the same time.

"I'm related to him?" Draco shut his eyes for a moment and opened them carefully. Hermione, Cho, Ron, Blaise and Harry were still sitting in front of him, and his mother's letter was in his hand. Yep, this was really happening.

"I can tap from You-Know-Who?"

"Draco obviously can as well," Hermione said, seeming to miss the outburst.

Draco choked again and Harry patted his back gently.

"I find it really hard to believe that he hasn't got an inkling this is going on," Cho said. "That's a lot of people stealing power from him. He cannot possibly be that strong."

"But not everyone who can does, because they don't know about it," Draco said.

"If he knew about it, he'd have done his best to wipe out everyone with capabilities against him by now," Harry argued.

Ron dropped his fork. "What if he finds out and tries to do that?"

"Don't worry about it Ron, we'll just have to get to him first."

"You're being ridiculous, Harry."

"What if they use too much of his power and he notices that something's wrong?" Blaise asked.

Harry's brain felt shocked for a moment as he realized something. "What if they use so much of his power that he has very little left? So little that it would be possible to kill him?"

Five sets of eyes widened with realization.

"Would that work?" Hermione whispered.

Draco put his face in his hands. "This is so not happening."

Harry ignored him. "We have to do some research. I also think it would be best to ask Dumbledore. You know, because Voldemort's afraid of him and all."

"Are you suggesting we have the Weasleys, Tonks, Narcissa and Draco perform so much magic using his power that it leaves him helpless?" Hermione said in disbelief.

"I'm not sure. But it's worth a thought, don't you think?"

Ron shivered. "I don't think I'm going to be able to get through classes today."

Blaise looked from face to face. His experiences with Gryffindors were starting to prove more and more dramatic.

**

Harry spent much of the day drafting a letter to Professor Dumbledore. He barely paid attention to any of his teachers, but instead focused on how to not sound like a complete idiot to the headmaster. He had to make him understand. Rescuing Draco from Malfoy Manor was something students were able to pull off, not that Harry thought Dumbledore hadn't been aware of that. But bringing about the fall of the Dark Lord was not something he felt was possible from a group of six teenagers.

As soon as his last class was over he ran to the owlry and sent Hedwig to Dumbledore. He had just walked into the common room when she was back, flapping just outside the window.

The headmaster requested his presence in his office right away.

***

As Harry stepped into the round office to see the portraits of past headmasters and mistresses blinking curiously at him. Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk, but he rose when he saw Harry.

"Please explain to me what it is you are proposing," he said kindly, his intense eye's focused on Harry's face.

Harry took a deep breath and started from the beginning. "Draco's mum is really powerful. She can sort of...semi-possess someone I guess, and kind of read minds. She doesn't need a wand either."

Dumbledore nodded to show he was listening, showing no signs of surprise.

"And she told us that her family, in order to be in Voldemort's inner circle, secretly performed this spell thing that allows members of their bloodline to tap power from him. It was stupid of them," Harry continued faster, "but they must not have realized that not all of their family were going to be Death Eaters."

"Quite true."

"Anyway, we thought that maybe, if we got all the people with Black family blood to use large amounts of his power at the same time, he might become so weak that we could kill him."

He stopped and saw the twinkle in the headmaster's eye.

"That would be an incredibly large task."

"Then we should get started right away."

Harry stood patiently, waiting for Dumbledore to respond to what he had just proposed. He needed him to back their plan, or it would never go through.

Dumbledore sighed deeply and looked in Harry's eyes. "Yes, that's absolutely right. Use the fireplaces to contact all the people you need. Try to avoid owl post. That can easily be intercepted. I wouldn't tell them what you plan. Just ask them to come here for a meeting."

Harry nodded and stepped toward the door, trying not to run. "Yes, sir."

"And Harry." Dumbledore laid a hand on his shoulder. "Good luck. We're counting on you."

**

Harry all but flew toward Gryffindor tower. He had just dragged an incredible responsibility onto himself, and he knew it was going to be pure adrenaline that would keep him going. That, of course, and Draco.