Insomniac

Chapter One

Remus Lupin was watching four Privet Drive carefully for any signs of Harry. Barely eight in the morning and already he was opening his second piece of nicotine gum - a Muggle trick, but wizards just didn't have anything that he'd found could really keep the never-ending cravings at bay. Besides, under an Invisibility Cloak it was difficult to smoke a cigarette. Remus had been doing a poor job of hiding a smoking habit for years, but now things were getting out of hand.

This was just like last summer, he thought, all the watching and waiting, and when Harry came out, an endless day trailing him around the streets near number four. Remus sighed. At least last summer there had been Sirius back in London, and all the cigarettes he wanted. Why am I quitting again? he wondered, and then he sighed again.

He wondered just what the harm would be in saying hello to Harry, and he wondered if Dumbledore had even told Harry he would be watched again this summer. He took a long sip of water from the bottle he had brought with him, not taking his eyes off the house, sucking on the half-chewed gum.

The Order of the Phoenix had settled into a way of operating this past year. They'd been meeting at 12 Grimmauld Place (a place Remus had heard of for years, but had only been in once), guarding the Prophecy and making sure Harry was staying out of trouble at Hogwarts. Dumbledore leaving Hogwarts had been a problem, and Dolores Umbridge an even bigger obstacle, and Snape's abrupt cessation of Occlumency a near-catastrophe, but Remus had at least felt like the Order was, well, operating. He knew they were in a war, and that there would be casualties, but a part of him had hoped things would end quickly. He hadn't expected anything like the Department of Mysteries and he certainly hadn't thought that Sirius - Sirius - would be the first one down.

Grimmauld Place was empty now, except for Remus, because with Sirius's death the enchantments and wards on the house had been lifted. The house was no longer Sirius's - it was likely going to go to Bellatrix Black Lestrange, the eldest of his closest relatives - and so, being that they were now squatters, the Order had had to move out their belongings and meet at Hogwarts. Remus was out of a home. Dumbledore had assigned him the task of scouting out new locations for headquarters, but Remus had thus far done so halfheartedly. As dank, unsettling and uncomfortable as Grimmauld Place was, it was still the last place Sirius had laid down to sleep, and Remus did not want to leave it.

It had been a strange few years, and he thought with some trepidation that the coming year would probably be even stranger. The Order had met twice now at Hogwarts and so far they were focusing their efforts on ensuring Harry's safety while they attempted to glean more information about Voldemort's whereabouts, plans, and strategies. They'd met that morning after the Department of Mysteries, and all of them were exhausted and overwhelmed, but Dumbledore had said, We need to focus on Harry's safety and I've told Harry about the prophecy. They had nodded somberly, and a few of them rubbed at their eyes with fatigue. Dumbledore told them then to go home, and sleep, but sleep seemed like a strange foreign practice and Remus hardly even knew where to go, anyway. He had gone back to Grimmauld Place, and spent the afternoon wandering up and down the stairs and looking through the few things Sirius hadn't thrown into the kitchen fire. His heart felt wrung dry like a sponge, and he'd gone through thirty-three hand-rolled cigarettes in two days. He left the ones Sirius had rolled not four hours before he'd gone through the Veil and decided, again, to quit later.

The last few days had been the worst, though, because Remus was still staying at Grimmauld Place, and Kreacher was with the Malfoys and the house was empty as - he didn't want to say a crypt, but it was. He was only there to sleep, and he was only sleeping a few hours a night, but Remus knew he needed to find more permanent lodgings soon. This wasn't right.

Now Harry was leaving the house. Remus put the cap back on his bottle of water and got to his feet. He followed Harry down Magnolia Crescent and around Juniper Lane. If anything, he thought, at least Harry was getting sunshine. Of course, today was drizzling, but he thought In theory. Harry walked like James had walked, fluid and deliberate, but there was a slump to Harry's shoulders that James hadn't had, and Harry kept his hands in his pockets not as a gesture of blithe carelessness, but as a way of trying to stay hidden from a world he hadn't asked for.

Harry was crossing back onto Privet Drive when, as Remus took another sip of water and held the Invisibility Cloak over his head with his free hand, something changed. Harry whirled around suddenly, he bent over backwards, he looked stricken - and then he vanished. He vanished. Remus's mouth opened and he ran to where Harry had been - Harry had to still be here. He heard footsteps, and saw some pebbles on the wet road moving of their own accord - he ran to them - a second later a car door opened, and a second later the car started. He watched in horror as the car began to drive itself - it couldn't drive itself, he told himself angrily - the car tore off down the road with a screech of tires. Remus stared.

"IMPEDIMENTA!" he shouted, pointing his wand at the retreating car. The spell was well-aimed, but the car swerved before he could hit it. "STUPEFY!" he yelled next. "STUPEFY! STUPEFY! HARRY!"

He swallowed as the car rounded the corner and vanished. Harry was gone.

:::

He had been expecting an ambush, at least on some level, and so Harry's reflexes were poised and ready as he followed his usual morning route around Privet Drive. The days were blending into one another already, and he found he could not think of very much aside from - aside from anything, really. He found that the long, familiar route he had taken each morning last summer was a comfort to him now.

Through all this, he was watchful and vigilant. He wondered vaguely if he was being followed again, as he had been last year. He wondered who was following him now, because he was hearing soft footsteps behind him as he walked, and though he'd turned around a few times he could not see anyone there.

Hands in his pockets, Harry turned the corner and started ambling back up Privet Drive. He was stepping off the curb when he heard the footsteps behind him, and instinctively he reached for his wand - just in case, he thought - but a voice said Accio wand! and he felt his wand slide out of his back pocket and before he could whirl around to grab it it had vanished, and a split second later he felt a peculiar draining feeling as the same voice hissed Silencio! and he found he could not cry out as someone - someone invisible - was pinning him down, throwing an Invisibility Cloak over him, rapping him hard on the head with a Disillusionment Charm -

He tried to scream something - this was no Order member - this wasn't supposed to be happening -

"Hello, darling," said Bellatrix Black Lestrange with a little grin. He tried to run - who was on guard? why weren't they helping? She had her hand in a fist around his arm, and she was looking at him through those heavy-lidded, man-eater's eyes. She had a smile on her gaunt Azkaban face. She looked like Sirius.

"YOU - " he tried to say, "it's you, it's you - I -"

"Stupefy," she said next, and there was instant blackness.

"Mobilicorpus!" Bellatrix hissed, before Harry could hit the ground. Harry slumped a little but remained upright, two inches above the wet pavement. His head rolled back like a doll's. Quickly - there had to be someone from the Order around here - she pushed Harry's floating body into the large, black car she'd left idling by the curb. Behind her she heard a man shouting, and she felt a curse glance off the rear bumper as she, and Harry, sped away.

When they were out of Little Whinging, and close to the edge of Surrey, Bellatrix turned the radio up. She sang Oh the shark, babe - has such teeth, dear under her breath as she lit a cigarette with a tap of her wand.

:::

Bellatrix arrived in Wiltshire with Harry midmorning. They drove up a long lawn to an overwhelming mammoth of a house, one that seemed to rise out of the ground from the endless expanse of grass that surrounded it. Bellatrix looked up at it; it'd been a long time since she'd been here and wondered briefly how Narcissa would take their arrival. With her free hand, she flicked her wand at Harry again, rendering him Untraceable - this way, the Order (she was sure they already knew he was gone) would have a more difficult time finding him. Of course, she corrected herself, they won't find him at all this time.

Glad to have finished the first leg of her task, she steered the car around the circular drive to the front door. The Malfoys' front walk was generally used as decoration, as none of the Malfoys drove, being respectable Purebloods, and driving was seen as something Muggles and Mudblood-lovers generally did. She wondered if the curses and hexes Lucius had performed to safeguard the house twenty years ago were still in working order.

"C'mon," she said to Harry, disregarding the fact that he was Stunned. She shut the car off with another tap of her wand and, with effort, tugged him across the driver's seat and onto the brick walk. She floated Harry ahead of her to the huge front door, straightened her robes and ran her tongue across her teeth, then knocked.

A full minute later the door opened to reveal her sister Narcissa, dressed in a burgundy silk dressing-gown and not looking nearly as shocked as Bellatrix thought she might.

"Narcissa," Bellatrix said warmly. "Won't you let us in?"

"Us?" said Narcissa, looking around. "Who have you - is that - Bella." Narcissa squinted in Harry's direction, and the toes of Harry's trainers made a scraping sound against the brick walk.

"Indeed," said Bellatrix. She and her sister shared a look and smiled. Narcissa opened the door and they filed into a large, pretentious entrance hall, floating Harry ahead of them. The house had a self-righteous feeling that Bellatrix remembered well: the high, vaulted ceilings, the walls lined with haughty portraits of Malfoys and Blacks that posed elegantly and gossiped with one another. Everything around them - tables, chairs, antique vases, clocks - cost more than many wizards' annual salary. She smiled. It was every inch the Malfoy Manor.

"I have to say, I wasn't expecting you just yet," Narcissa admitted, leading them through the hall into the kitchen, where she had a cup of tea on the table. "Please explain to me what this is about. That is Harry Potter, is it not?"

"It is," said Bellatrix. She flicked her wand, and Harry crumpled to the ground and lay there. "Want to see how he looks?"

Bending down she tapped his head with her wand, and slowly Harry Potter became distinguishable from the dark wood of the floor. Narcissa stared, her eyebrows arching slightly. "He's Stunned, and Disillusioned, and I think I put a Silencing charm on him as well - " Bellatrix flicked her wand sharply a few times, and a ghostly voice said Stupefy! Silencio! Accio wand!

"Yep," she said. "Let me tell you, it was a bloody pain getting him into the car."

"Car," Narcissa repeated in confusion.

"Yes. We drove here, the car's out front."

"You don't have a car, Bellatrix," Narcissa pointed out.

"Oh, I know, I just took one for the occasion. Some Muggle car." She shrugged.

Narcissa sighed and sat down at the long dark table with her tea.

"I suppose you want to hide the boy here. Is the Dark Lord issuing instructions?"

"Yes, I'm here on his orders," said Bellatrix. "He's a bit disheartened nowadays, you know, as most of us are up in Azkaban for the time being. But, I have Potter, and he'll be happy about that I'm sure. Wormtail is with him."

"Wormtail," said Narcissa to her tea. "Now that is something I have not been able to wrap my mind around."

"He's a funny little chap, I'll admit," Bellatrix agreed. "'Master, I beg you,' and 'Master, I adore you,' and all that. He makes a fair henchman."

"Where are they?"

"The Riddle House. Funny how no one from the Order's thought to actually go there."

"Yes, well, much of what the Order do is funny," Narcissa remarked. "Snake food, the lot of them."

They both drank tea in silence, Narcissa with a splash of milk and Bellatrix with plenty of sugar, while Harry lay on the floor by the bare fireplace. They took him out of the kitchen after agreeing to stow him in the fifth-floor attic ("I don't think I've ever even been in your kitchen," said Bellatrix, and Narcissa replied, "Yes, I haven't an idea where Kreacher's got off to this morning"), and they floated him ahead of them through the long hall to the stairs by the front door. They went up several flights of stairs and down several hallways and through several huge, high-ceilinged rooms filled with books, portraits, and whatever Dark materials could be displayed without threat from the Ministry. Harry drifted before them, toes grazing the floor, his head thrown back as though a knife were held to his throat.

They were nearing the attic when a door behind them opened and closed. "What's going on?" a sleepy voice asked, and a moment later: "Mum - Mum, is that Potter?"

Narcissa and Bellatrix turned around to see Draco Malfoy standing there in a t-shirt and pajama trousers, his hair on end, looking at them in complete confusion. The confusion faded when he saw Harry, though, and color rushed into Draco's pale face. His mouth twisted into a cold, eager smile.

"Potter," he spat, taking a few quick steps forward.

"No you don't," said Bellatrix, and Draco stopped short and looked up at her. Draco wasn't particularly short, but Bellatrix was taller than he was, and this made her even more intimidating than she would be otherwise.

"You must be - " said Draco, realization dawning on his face.

"Your dear auntie Bellatrix," she said. "I haven't seen you since you were a baby, Draco. Goodness, you look like your father."

Draco peered around Bellatrix at his mother, who was floating Harry down the hall. "Mum," he said loudly, "what's going on?"

"Narcissa, you take him upstairs," Bellatrix instructed. "I'll explain things to Draco. He and I ought to get reacquainted, anyway. Come downstairs with me, Draco, we'll have some tea."

"Mum," Draco repeated, but Bellatrix took his arm and pulled him down the stairs. He craned his neck to see his mother vanishing with Harry around the corner. "Bellatrix - Aunt - Well, what's going on?"

"The tide is turning again, Draco," Bellatrix explained as they went down the hall. "Potter's going to be staying with us for a little while."

"Why?"

"Dark Lord's instructions."

"Why here, though?"

"Please, Draco, tell me where else we should keep him."

"What are you going to do with him?" He followed his aunt into the kitchen, where she sat down at the long table and gave him a withering look.

"I'm sure you can answer that question yourself, love. Here. Make us some tea."

Draco glared at her. "I can't do magic, I'm not of age."

Bellatrix laughed. "Oh! So you aren't." She tapped the kettle with her wand and it began to whistle. "There you go."

Draco sighed and began to pour himself tea. Bellatrix handed him her mug and he filled it.

"You are not to breathe a word of this to anyone," Bellatrix said to him as soon as he sat down. He opened his mouth to protest, looking offended, but she shook her head. "I've heard you've got a big mouth, and you're not going to shoot it off with your friends. I don't care how great it makes you look, you cannot tell anyone that Potter is here."

Draco sighed again. "I wouldn't say anything anyway, you don't need to tell me that," he said sulkily.

"Hmm," said Bellatrix. They sat in silence for a moment. Draco watched her.

"Can you tell me something?" he asked.

"What?"

"How did you get your wand back when you escaped Azkaban?"

Bellatrix smiled. "That's a good question, Draco. The answer is that when someone gets sent to Azkaban, their wand is stored in a locked vault in the prison. When we got out, we just broke in and took our wands back. It wasn't hard."

"The vault isn't enchanted and all?"

"Oh, it is," said Bellatrix breezily. "We had the help of the Dementors, fortunately."

"Oh," said Draco. They sat for a few more minutes. Draco thought vaguely that this was shaping up to be a strange morning. He'd never met his aunt, but he had seen many pictures; his parents had rarely spoken of her. Despite the fact that they were both loyal supporters of the Dark Lord, Draco got the sense that his father and Bellatrix did not get along very well. His mother's smile became rather fixed whenever her name came up in conversation.

"So tell me about yourself," Bellatrix said, sitting up in her chair. "Here you are my flesh and blood and I hardly know you. Your mother's told me you're a prefect! You've just taken your O.W.L.s, haven't you? What N.E.W.T.s are you going to be doing? Tell me about Hogwarts. How's Slytherin House?"

Draco smiled wanly. What an odd question after what he'd just witnessed. Bellatrix was serious, though - she was looking at Draco as though she desired nothing more than to hear about how he was doing at Hogwarts. "Yes, I just took my O.W.L.s," he said slowly. "I think I did all right, but we won't find out until the end of the month. For N.E.W.T.s I think I'm taking, you know, Defense, Potions, Charms, History - "

"Why History?" Bellatrix asked incredulously. "Is Professor Binns still teaching it?"

Draco nodded with a smile. "Yes. Well, I needed some N.E.W.T. levels to take, so Professor Snape recommended History of Magic, I guess they like seeing that on your N.E.W.T.s, and besides it's an easy class."

"Professor Snape," Bellatrix repeated. "You know, your father told me he was teaching. Potions, right? How's he doing?"

Draco shrugged. "Fine, I guess."

"He's your Head of House?"

"Yep."

Bellatrix seemed to think this was funny. Draco drank some more tea and waited for her to stop snickering about it. He thought she had an odd laugh; for some reason it made the hair on his arms stand on end.

"I'm serious, Draco," she said, suddenly quite humorless, when she was done laughing. Draco looked up at her. "Don't breathe a word about Potter to anyone. Anyone. I will put a Memory Charm on you if I have to. Honestly. I don't care who comes in this house."

"Well, I'm glad you don't care," said Draco. "My friend Pansy is coming today. Her parents are going away for a week and she's coming to stay."

"Pansy," Bellatrix repeated. "What's her last name?"

"Parkinson."

Bellatrix thought about this. "I don't know that name," she said at last, shrugging.

"Her parents were Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, so you probably wouldn't," Draco said.

"Oh. She a fellow Slytherin?"

"Of course," said Draco with a smirk. "Please don't make the mistake of thinking I have friends in other Houses. I really don't." He paused. "Okay, maybe a few acquaintances with some Ravenclaws, but other than that."

"It's better that way, really," Bellatrix agreed. "Best to keep to your own House. Slytherins are our people, you know."

Draco nodded and drank more tea. "I know," he said.

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