Draco: Phoenix Rising

Chapter Six - Harry's Room

Hermione relieved Diggle and started to walk to the Dursleys' when she realized it was not even 9:00 in the morning. So much had happened already, it seemed much later. She decided to wait awhile and sat on the bench across the street from Number four, Privet Drive. Due to the necessity of Order members lurking about at all times of the day and night, the Order had installed a fake bus stop. Sometimes they were joined by Muggles waiting for a bus that would never arrive. Hermione was certain there had been dozens of complaints lodged with the local bus line.

When she deemed it late enough, she walked across the street and up to the front door. She heard a loud bellow as soon as her finger left the door buzzer and shortly the door was yanked open by a walrus-faced man that could only be Harry's uncle Vernon. Hermione had only before seen him from a distance.

"My name is Hermione Granger," she said brusquely. "I'm here to see Harry Potter."

Vernon's eyebrows beetled down until his eyes were nearly invisible.

"Are you... one of... them?" he asked in a hushed voice.

"I'm a friend of Harry's from school, if that's what you're asking."

Vernon grabbed her arm and dragged her inside before poking his head nervously out the door to scan for onlookers. Hermione nearly smiled at his antics. He really was quite odd.

"Who is it, Vernon?" Harry's aunt called from down the hall. Hermione motioned to the stairs.

"I'll just... pop on up, all right?"

Vernon's mouth opened and shut, but before he found his voice, Hermione bolted up the stairs.

"Harry?" she called softly, as all the upstairs doors were closed tight. One of the portals flew open and Harry stared at her in surprise.

"Hermione?" he asked in disbelief. "What are you doing here?"

"I needed to talk to you. It's about You-Know-What." Ron had begun referring to Horcruxes in that fashion and the name had stuck.

"Well, it's good to see you, anyway." He gave her an awkward hug and stepped aside. "Welcome to my hovel."

She sat down on his unmade bed while he bustled around tidying up.

"The Death Eaters tried to kill my parents," she blurted. Harry stopped clearing up and stared at her. She told him the entire story and showed him the note. She bit her lip in indecision while he read the words and then she said, "I left him one of our old DA coins. He picked it up and I spoke to him briefly this morning."

He sat next to her on the bed.

"That's bloody brilliant," he said admiringly. "I never would have thought to do that. What did he say?"

"Not much. I think he's reluctant to act against Voldemort. I'm really surprised he warned me at all. I mean, he wouldn't have joined the Death Eaters to begin with if he didn't hate Muggle-borns, would he?"

"It's hard to say. Look at Snape, the 'Half-Blood Prince.'" Harry's voice nearly cracked with bitterness. "Why did he join up?"

Hermione shrugged. "Attracted to power, I suppose."

"Yeah."

"Well, the reason I brought you the news in person is that I haven't mentioned the coin to Lupin and the others. I don't want them to try and force me to contact Devlin--"

"Devlin?"

"That's his name. Unless he made it up, which is possible, but it's all I have at the moment. Anyway, I think it better that we leave him be and let him contact us. I don't want to pressure him. He's got to be under enough strain if he's thinking of betraying Voldemort."

Harry thought about it for a moment and then shrugged.

"Whatever you think is best. It won't be the first secret we've had to keep from the Order. Speaking of secrets, you said you were here about Horcruxes?"

"Not completely, but I had an interesting chat with Lupin this morning about Regulus Black. I looked at the Black tapestry again--do you know he was only eighteen when he died? He was barely out of Hogwarts. How could he have gotten involved so quickly? He was our age, Harry. I felt sorry for him until Lupin told me he was a dark-haired Draco Malfoy."

Harry snorted. "There's you answer, then. Malfoy's neck-deep and he's our age, too. Maybe Voldemort recruited Regulus when he was still in school, like he did Malfoy. He might even have had the same assignment, which could be why he got cold feet."

"I didn't think of that," Hermione said wonderingly. "Maybe, like Malfoy, he couldn't kill Dumbledore."

"But, unlike Malfoy, he didn't have an evil traitor to perform the deed when he failed," Harry snapped. "So, it was goodbye, Regulus."

"Right, but all that is beside the point. What I've been trying to figure out is how Regulus knew about Horcruxes. How did he know about the locket, and how did he find it? From what you've told me, Dumbledore didn't even guess at the existence of the Horcruxes until your parents died... and Voldemort didn't."

Harry nodded. "All the more reason I have to go to Hogwarts."

"What? You mean return to school? We don't even know if it will reopen--"

"No, I need to go before school opens, if it opens. I need to use Dumbledores's Pensieve. I've only got three and a half weeks of protection left and I don't intend to wait around for Voldemort to swoop down the instant it dissipates. I plan to be long gone from here by then."

"Harry... have you thought about the Dursleys?"

"I try not to," Harry said dryly.

"What I mean is, if Voldemort is willing to go after my parents on the merest chance it will hurt you... don't you think he'll try to kill the Dursleys, too? He can't know how you feel about them."

"Snape could have mentioned it," Harry said, but his words were weak. His emerald gaze went far away and Hermione knew he was searching his feelings. She looked around his room. Everything in sight was either broken, worn out, or patched. Her heart suddenly ached for him with such fervor she felt tears prick her eyes. To have grown up here, where nothing had ever been freely given... not even love. Couldn't the Dursleys have spared even that for an orphaned child? She stood and crossed to Harry's desk, because the tears had spilled over and she didn't want him to notice. For a moment, she hated the Dursleys with a fierce passion... and Dumbledore, as well. She tried to wipe her tears away surreptitiously.

Harry was behind her, though, and his hand touched her shoulder.

"What's wrong?" he asked. She shook her head and choked the words out through the lump in her throat.

"How could he have left you here, in this horrible place? How could he stand to do it when so many people loved you from the moment you were born? Lupin, the Weasleys, even Hagrid would have been better! Molly would have taken you in a moment. You could have grown up in The Burrow. Not here, not like this!" She caught sight of a broken toy soldier on the desk, held together with carefully wrapped cellotape and felt another rush of tears. "How could he?"

Harry turned her gently around to face him. He smiled at her softly.

"He had to. My mother's protection was here. No matter what I had to face from the Dursleys, it was better than what awaited me out there." He gestured to the window. "He knew Voldemort wasn't gone, and the Death Eaters definitely weren't. Besides, it's nearly over. Soon Number Four, Privet Drive, will only be a series of bad memories. Now, cheer up." He reached up and wiped her tears away with his thumbs. She marveled at how tall he'd gotten. He was half a head taller than Hermione, and she was not a short girl.

She smiled wanly. "You're a really special person, you know that?"

"Not really. I'm just Harry." He laughed and she grinned broadly in return. He clapped her shoulder. "Now, about this Dursley problem. They did take me in, albeit unwillingly, angrily, and grudgingly. They treated me like a house-elf every minute I was in their presence, and their oafish son nearly did Voldemort's job for him six times over." Harry sighed. "But, I suppose they don't deserve to die. They certainly don't deserve what the Longbottoms got."

Hermione shuddered. "No one deserves that."

"So. What do we do about it? I'm certainly not going to sacrifice myself to give them blood protection."

Hermione giggled. "That would sort of make the whole exercise pointless. As I see it, we've only got two options. We make this house Unplottable, with you as Secret Keeper... or we move them to Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. You told me Dumbledore mentioned it to them last time he was here."

Harry began to smile. As his grin grew wider and wider, she raised a brow in puzzlement. He explained.

"Aunt Petunia is a neat freak. I'm picturing her at Grimmauld Place."

Hermione thought of the musty, dusty, cobwebby, bleak, residence and her smile matched Harry's own. Soon they were laughing aloud.