Rating:
R
House:
Schnoogle
Characters:
Draco Malfoy Harry Potter Hermione Granger Severus Snape
Genres:
Drama Slash
Era:
The Harry Potter at Hogwarts Years
Spoilers:
Philosopher's Stone Chamber of Secrets Prizoner of Azkaban Goblet of Fire
Stats:
Published: 07/17/2003
Updated: 08/11/2003
Words: 114,996
Chapters: 43
Hits: 388,758

Snakes and Lions

GatewayGirl

Story Summary:
When Ron and Hermione get together, they notice only each other. A nightmare prompts Harry to return alone to the empty Chamber of Secrets, and leads to a new look at an old enemy. Harry enjoys the company, but with Bellatrix LeStrange actively hunting him, how far can he trust a Death Eater's son? (H/D -- mostly friendship, progressing to mild slash) Sixth year. Rated R for unseemly behavior (drinking, stealing, and Dark Arts), occasional cursing (the non-magical sort), and off-screen violence.
Read Story On:

Chapter 33 - The Shrieking Shack

Chapter Summary:
Draco and Hermione
Posted:
07/31/2003
Hits:
6,947



The Shrieking Shack


When the Gryffindors arrived at Potions, their last class, on Monday, they found most of the Slytherins already there, copying information from a piece of parchment hanging on the door. It was a note from Professor Snape stating that he had canceled class due to urgent business, and assigning extra homework that would more than consume the extra time.

Ron grinned at Hermione. "All right!" he exclaimed. "Let's go down to the lake."

Hermione shook her head. "Sorry." She glanced at Harry, then looked apologetically at Ron. "I have something else to do first."

Ron looked pointedly at Harry, then back at Hermione. "Yeah, I bet you do," he said.

Harry snorted. "Come on, Draco," he said. "Let's go for a walk."

Draco burst out laughing.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Never mind," Draco choked out. "Yes, let's. Shall we go down to the Forest?"

Harry grinned. "Right. Like we planned, just earlier. Let me talk to Hermione first, though."

Ron turned on his heel and left. Harry stared after him.

"I'm sorry, Hermione," he said. "I was trying to hold that off."

"Not your problem," Hermione assured him. "Come over here." She led him down the cross corridor, out of earshot of their few lingering classmates.

"Can you handle the cauldron by yourself?" Harry asked. "With it still light outside, it might be best for us to meet you at the Whomping Willow. Three people sharing the cloak was hard enough in the dark...."

Hermione grinned. "It certainly was! We're not little kids, anymore. Don't worry about the cauldron. I'll levitate it."

"Right, then. Starting now will make tomorrow easier."

Harry had been dreading trying to spell-cast after potions lab. Not only would he be tired, but Draco and Hermione would discover they knew different times for the end of the session. Doing it before would be much easier, though they might miss dinner. Harry wondered if anyone had noticed how many dinners the three of them were skipping. Ron, he realized, as he headed left the stairs to cross the Entrance Hall. Ron had noticed how many dinners he and Hermione had missed, even if he hadn't noticed Draco was missing them too.

"Cat got your tongue?" Draco asked, as they walked down the steps in the warm afternoon sunlight.

"Thinking about Ron."

"He thinks you're stealing his girl."

"Yeah."

"You want to? I could help."

"No."

"You sure?" Draco urged. "You're comfortable with her. The two of you mesh -- the way you talk, the play of ideas. And it wouldn't be a bad blood match, either. Crossing with another mixed blood will show up whether the two of you are harboring latent non-magical --" Draco broke off suddenly. "Well, whatever you like."

"The thing is, I don't want to. If we hadn't been friends since we were eleven, I think I would, but as it is, I already love her, but in entirely the wrong way. I can't just change that," Harry explained. "Besides, I want Ron to be happy."

"Hermione's not going to be happy with Ron. She needs more than that."

"More what?"

"Attention. Interest. Engagement." Draco snorted. "Intelligence."

"He's really quite smart, you know."

"Is he?" Draco drawled. "He had me fooled." He kicked at a small fallen branch, and it tumbled in front of them. "So, about marrying...."

"What?" Harry was vaguely confused at how this conversation had jumped to marriage.

"You're a half-blood, but from a good family, and with money. I think your best match would be a pureblood with no money. That way, you'd both improve each other's and your children's standing."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Er, Draco..."

"I thought of a few Hufflepuffs who would do, but I can't really see you with a Hufflepuff. Then it occurred to me -- How about Ginny Weasley?"

"Draco!"

"Well, she's cute, her family likes you --"

"I am sixteen! I am too young to worry about marriage!"

"What?" Draco stared at Harry a moment, then rolled his eyes. "If you say so, but wait too long after graduation, and all the good ones will be gone. You'll end up with someone ugly, or willful..."

"I don't mind willful," Harry growled. "I think it's rather a requirement, in fact."

"Oh, definitely Ginny, then."


At the Whomping Willow, Harry immobilized the tree, and Draco went into the tunnel. Harry then waited for Hermione. She was walking along the edge of the forest, reading a book which she was apparently levitating before her. There was no sign of the cauldron.

Before she went inside, she lowered the book to a foot above the ground. It wasn't until Harry saw that she had let her wand fall to her side that he figured out what she was doing -- the book was on top of the covered cauldron, which was draped in the invisibility cloak.

Walking in the low-ceilinged tunnel was even more annoying than Harry had remembered. He supposed he was bigger, now. They were all relieved to reach the Shrieking Shack.

"Let's rest a bit before returning," Draco said. "My back hurts from walking like that."

"Funny," said Harry, stretching backwards. "It wasn't so bad when we were thirteen."

Hermione laughed. "No. Not as much of a difference for me, though. I think I was taller than you, then."

Harry looked longingly at the boarded-up windows.

"Just think -- we're only a short walk from the sweet shop."

"No good way out, though," Draco noted.

"Harry, this is your first day off punishment," Hermione warned. "You are not going to risk getting caught in Hogsmeade."

"But I want Chocolate Frogs," Harry whined, with deliberate self-indulgence. "And Tease Toffees."

"I'll get you some later," Draco volunteered. "Promise." He looked unhappy. "Actually, we should start right back. Not getting caught is important."

Harry nodded reluctantly, and got to his feet. "What will we do till potions lab, then?" he asked.

"I might try to find Ron," Hermione said. She snorted. "Or maybe I won't."

"You sound like me, last December," Harry observed.

"We could have another dance lesson," Draco suggested.

Hermione bounced. "Lovely! Teach me to waltz?"

"Do you have any waltz music?"

"Oh. No."

"Probably no, then. I'm really no good without music."

Hermione smiled. "I'll buy some over the holidays." She stopped suddenly. Her hands flew to her mouth. "I mean --" She looked down, flustered. "Sorry. It's not that I expect...."

Draco whirled on her, scowling. "Expect what?"

"I mean," Hermione said uncomfortably, stepping back from him, "I don't expect you to --"

"To associate with a Gryffindor Mudblood?" Draco sneered.

"Draco!" Harry snapped.

"That," Hermione agreed at a whisper. She was blushing hot, and she had ducked her head forward so her hair half-hid her face.

Draco's face reddened with fury. "What is wrong with you, girl?!" he snarled, advancing on her. Hermione backed away, again. "Don't retreat like that! What happened to the girl who frigging slapped my face?"

Hermione looked beseechingly past Draco to Harry. Draco stepped closer, backing her into the wall and blocking half of her face from Harry's view. "Look at me when I'm talking to you!" he bellowed.

That was too much like Uncle Vernon. Harry, who had started to step forward, found he was frozen by it. Like Lucius, too, he thought, except Lucius would whisper, with that subtlety of menace Draco could never quite master. Hermione started to laugh, a tight, choking sound, but a laugh nonetheless, and Harry desperately willed her to shut up, to be quiet, to look neutral.

"Think that's funny, do you?" Draco spat.

"Dragon?" Harry tried shakily.

"You stay out of this, Potter!"

While Draco was still screaming, Hermione leaned forward and kissed him on the nose. Draco jerked back, then his hand came up in a strike for her head. Harry, too far away, finally lunged forward, but Draco had stopped, his fist midway between his face and Hermione's. He was breathing very hard.

"Don't touch me again, Granger."

"Draco, will you make up your mind?" Harry snapped.

Draco took a deep breath and let it out shakily.

"If I come back unbound," he said, "I will continue to associate with you, Hermione. But do not, ever, do that to me again."

"I was just trying to startle you," Hermione said. "You were so...." She swallowed. "Just as well, I suppose. You've been so nice you were starting to seem like a complete stranger. Comforting to have you explode about nothing."

"It wasn't nothing!" Draco screamed.

For a moment, they all stood still.

"Look," Draco said finally, speaking only to Hermione. "It's one thing for me to say I'm better than you. But you can't believe it. Bloody Hermione Granger doesn't believe some dilettante pureblood is better than her."

Harry thought about Marcella, in Death Eater robes, then about Dobby, and what Draco had said about things that cowered. Hermione just stared.

"If I come back," Draco said, "and I'm a Death Eater, I won't associate with you. It won't be possible. But if I'm not, and I won't talk to you ..." he scowled -- "just bash me. Don't put up with that crap. You don't do that! Something in the world should be constant."

"S'okay, Dragon," Harry said, soothingly. "She was just off-balance, and you were just channeling your father. Let's go."

Harry dropped down into the hole. Hermione came next, then Draco. Both, Harry noticed, were shaking. He thought he might be as well. He hoped nobody in Hogsmeade had heard Draco screaming. It was dinnertime, so they probably hadn't, at least not clearly enough to not ascribe it to ghosts. Together, the three proceeded, hunched, through the low-ceilinged tunnel, until tension defused into boredom. Two thirds of the way back, they paused to rest and, sitting, stretch their necks.

"You know what really scares me?" Draco asked idly.

"What?" Harry prompted.

"That I'll get home, and Father will start drilling me, and I'll be so wired on Dark magic that it will all just seem reasonable."

"That's ridiculous!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Haven't done any Dark Arts, have you?" Draco sneered.

"Of course not!"

"It's not ridiculous," Harry said. Hermione studied him for a moment and frowned.

"Well, write yourself a note, then," she said, quietly.

Draco, to Harry's surprise, nodded. "That could help. It would need to be cryptic, of course."

"Marcella," said Harry, without thinking.

Draco stood up, hitting his head on the ceiling. "Ow. Fuck! Let's go."

They resumed walking. Harry wondered if he could give Draco anything that would remind Draco of him, in some useful way.


Harry, wearing the cloak, stole out after everyone was asleep and met Draco in the Owlry. They flew out the window and into the night. It smelled of waking earth and new things growing; frogs sang from the wet places in the forest and the shallows by the lake.

"It would have to be a full moon," Draco complained.

"And so beautiful anyone might be out," Harry added.

Draco grinned. "And we'll waste it on trying not to be caught," he agreed. "Wouldn't you love to just fly?"

Harry swooped through the mild spring air, trying to draw all its hope into his lungs, to let it soak into his blood. Reluctantly, he turned into the shadow of a tower.

"I can't afford a perfect moment now, and another month like last one. Let's get this done."


They found the windows for Dumbledore's office. All were closed, but the room itself was brightly lit, and they did not go too close. Harry was not surprised that one of the windows had a direct view of the distant gates, and another looked towards the Forbidden Forest. From the dark night, they could easily see the backlit designs of the windows. Each window was done in a mixture of colored and textured glass. Four depicted the animal symbols of the houses, but the fifth, the one that looked to the gates, showed a rising phoenix, which glittered as if on fire from the shifting light behind it.

"He likes them, doesn't he?" Draco asked.

Harry laughed. "Even me," he said teasingly.

"Are you a phoenix?"

"Aren't I? Didn't I rise from the flames?"

"Huh. Just what the world needs. A green phoenix."

Harry laughed. Despite their resolve, neither could resist a few unnecessary turns about the towers, but they stuck to the shadows.




Chapter 34 -- A scheduling discrepancy is noticed