Veniam Dare

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"Paula, you're talking rubbish!" -Simon Cowell

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe." -Albert Einstein

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Chapter 5: The Cross on the Tree

Draco could have hexed himself for how horrifyingly stupid he had been.

Why the hell had he followed Potter into the Forbidden Forest? He had known, he had surely known, that any idea courtesy of Harry Potter would have been a bloody awful one. Really, the question was why he had gone against his better judgment and left Grimmauld Place at all.

Oh, right. He had been feeling bad about his actions at Hogwarts.

Stupid, fucking conscious, Draco sulked to himself, dragging his feet through the thick mix of decomposing leaves and forest grasses he was, and had been, walking through for several hours. Who needs one if this is where they get you?

"Malfoy, stop feeling sorry for yourself," Harry interjected into his thoughts, weary of the morose look on Draco's face.

"Make me, Scarhead." Damn. Was that really the best he could come up with?

Harry made a frustrated noise. "Do you have to be so difficult all the time? I'm really, really trying here, Malfoy, but you're making it near impossible."

"Oh yeah, and 'stop feeling sorry for yourself' was definitely the epitome of niceness, Potter," said Draco sarcastically.

"And you're still being difficult!"

Draco snorted. "Really, Potter, shut up or I'll have to start actually insulting you again."

Now it was Harry's turn to snort. "I'm beyond your petty insults now, Malfoy. Nothing you can say about me means anything." After these two days of dealing exclusively with a Malfoy, he had decided the best course was to simply let Draco's jibes slide right off him.

Raising an eyebrow, Draco replied, "You so sure? What about that blood-traitor Weasel girl you fucked last year?"

Harry's face reddened. "Don't go there, Malfoy."

"What, ickle Potty, bothered by my 'petty insults?' Or," Draco continued, eyes widening in comprehension, "are you bothered because you never actually got around to fucking her?"

"Shut it, Malfoy." Harry's voice was low and dangerous.

"Yes, yes, the second one must be it," Draco persisted in an airy, amused tone. "Although I find that rather hard to believe. That little slut has shagged just about everybody else, after all."

"Malfoy," Harry warned, but Draco ignored him and continued talking.

"Now that I think about it, I wonder what she does with all those brothers of hers. You know, a girl can get pretty lonely going all summer without her big, strong boyfriend about to satisfy her. But then again, you weren't exactly "satisfying" her in the first place, were you?" Draco smirked.

And then Harry snapped. "Shut the fuck up, Malfoy! Don't you dare talk about Ginny that way, she's twice the man you'll ever be!"

"Are you coming out to me, Potter? I always knew there was something odd about a single girl in a family of far too many boys. Now I know: she's apparently not even a she," Draco replied, nonplussed.

"I'm not bloody coming out to you, you fucking git! I'm not even gay!" Harry shouted, looking like he was just about to punch Draco really, really hard. "And...and Ginny's a girl!" he added as an afterthought.

Draco raised a nonchalant eyebrow. "Seems like you're pretty vehement for a straight boy."

"Apparently not vehement enough if you're still going on about it."

"All I'm saying, Potter, is that you didn't have sex with the sluttiest girl in school, who also happened to be your steady girlfriend and was probably gagging for it herself. You wouldn't even know if she were a man or not. It all adds up, actually."

Draco's smirk widened at the totally put-off expression on Harry's face. "Oh, budge up, Potter, I'm sure some sadistic man will find it in his heart to fuck a guy like you. Actually, what am I talking about? Even a sadistic man isn't blind."

Harry scowled. "I doubt there's any man that could possibly be more sadistic than you, Malfoy," he muttered under his breath, although Draco caught it anyway. "And I'm not gay," he added, louder.

"Of course, Potter, whatever you say, but the first step to acceptance is admitting it," he sighed, mock-chastising Harry.

"I'm not gay, Malfoy!"

"Naturally, Potter, naturally," Draco said in a mockingly grave tone.

Harry made a frustrated noise.

"Oh, and I thought I heard you say nothing I happened to mention would 'mean anything' to you," Draco said smugly.

"You're a right arse, Malfoy, and you know it."

The smug smirk broadened. "Please, Potter, being gay isn't all bad."

Harry suddenly stopped his trudging through the undergrowth. "And you would know that how...?"

Malfoy flushed scarlet and sped up his pace. "I wouldn't, that's how."

Harry could've burst out laughing at the sudden switch of their roles. "Pretty vehement for a straight boy, eh?" he called after Draco, who was now a good ten meters ahead.

"Oh, shuttup, Pot--" Draco halted mid-sentence.

"What is it, Malfoy? Bothered by my ickle insults, are we?"

A look of disbelief spread onto Draco's face, Harry's taunts seemingly lost to him in his shock. "This...this can't be. I have to be mistaken." He seemed to be staring fixedly at the side of a tree, conveniently set in a small clearing. Exactly what had so captured his attention, however, was obscured by branches.

Harry furrowed his brow, an uneasy feeling creeping into his stomach to replace the amiability of only moments before. "What is it?"

"Potter," Draco continued, an unusual edge to his voice, "come look at this and tell me what you make of it."

Harry, skeptical and mildly concerned, walked over to the apparently fascinating tree and stood beside Draco. "Er...exactly what am I looking at? All I see is a big, red X slashed onto the bark here."

He paused to look Draco over, startled at how panicked Draco now seemed. "It's a little weird, yeah, Malfoy, but nothing to get worked up about. This is the Forbidden Forest; any random creature could've made this."

"Potter," Draco said again, deathly white and looking rather ill, "does anything else about this clearing look familiar? Like you've ever seen it before?"

Harry glanced around the area. "Let's see...giant, gloomy trees, rotten leaves, creepy Forbidden Forest air. Yes, I'll have to say that it does look familiar. This entire bloody forest looks familiar, as a matter of fact, since it all looks exactly the same. What're you so worried about?"

"It wasn't 'any random creature' who made this, Potter." Draco gulped. "It was me. While you were unconscious, I went out to search for something to eat. I marked this exact X on the tree I left you under so that I'd be able to find my way back."

Harry furrowed his brow. "Wait...you made this thing? That's impossible, we've been walking for nearly a day, and I'm sure we didn't get turned around. I've been doing quick point-me's every few hours."

"I'm positive I made it. See the flourish there at the tail end? That's my signature technique!"

"You have a signature technique? Malfoy, it's a letter not a game of Quidditch," Harry said incredulously.

"Potter, this isn't the time!" Draco snapped. "This means we've walked in a giant circle, and wasted all this time going nowhere! We might as well have just sat around all day gorging ourselves on those revolting vegetable plant-things!"

"Hah, so you admit they're gross!" Harry said triumphantly.

Draco's face became flushed, an illustration of his rising temper.

"Ok, ok, I get it, Malfoy," Harry quickly said, "but I just don't understand how that's possible. It has to be the forest playing some kind of trick on us. Maybe we walked into a trap?"

Draco looked at him in disbelief. "How can you be so calm about this?! Isn't it worse if we've walked into a trap than if we just walked in a circle?"

Harry didn't answer, still staring at the X. "Let's just find a reference point and keep going forward. How about we put a small mark on every fifth tree or something, to make sure we're going in a straight line?"

"Yeah, ok, whatever," Draco sighed, tired and perpetually hungry. "And we can look for something to eat along the way."

The two boys nodded and once again stepped out of the clearing, Draco marking another decorative X as they went. After a few more steps, Harry marked another red X, and on it went for an incalculable period of time, until they were both too tired and weak to continue.

"Shit," Draco cursed, foregoing his usual impeccable posture to slouch against a tree trunk. "If we don't find more food soon, I don't know how I'm going to make it."

Harry slumped down next to him. "Shut it, you're not making this any more pleasant, you know. If it weren't for you I could've just escaped that Death Eater and be back at Grimmauld with the Order instead of here with some ungrateful traitor."

Draco stuck out his lip in a pout. "You're the one who dragged me in here. So that means you shut it."

Harry was silent. "Ahh, shit," he finally sighed after a few moments. "Let's just make it as far as we can for today and then we'll rest." He stood up shakily and offered Draco a hand.

Draco looked at it quizzically, then glanced up at Harry's face. He was looking away, and his expression was almost...embarrassed.

Smirking, Draco had to ask, "What's this? An apology?"

Harry snorted, but didn't argue. "Just take it, you weak git. I bet you can't even stand on your own."

Draco also didn't argue, mostly because he was pretty sure Harry was right. He took his hand and pulled himself up. The brief touch of Harry's rough skin to his own reminded him of the glittering, shattered glass of the broken window back at Hogwarts. Not in texture, but in the beauty of something so dangerous and forbidden to pick up. His own hands were soft and pale, so different.

Harry held onto Draco's hand for a little longer than necessary, although finally let it slide out of his grip. The smoothness was comforting. It reminded him of Ginny's hands, except without the expectation of that touch leading to something more.

"Potter?" Draco prompted, and Harry looked up, startled.

"What?" Harry was even more startled at the concerned frown creasing Draco's forehead, and the way he looked at him so worriedly, his cool gray eyes unusually warm.

"You just looked sort of far-off." Draco shrugged dismissively and continued forward.

Harry looked curiously after him.

-.-.-.-.-

"Fuck! Shit! Bugger!"

"Ron! Mind your mouth!" Hermione reprimanded him sternly. "There is definitely an explanation for this. Definitely."

"An explanation for why Harry is nowhere to be bloody found in this creepy old house, and Malfoy isn't either?!" Ron retorted, turning pink. "I tell you, that fucking ferret probably surprise attacked Harry and turned him over to Voldemort!"

"Ron, really. Your mother's already called together a search team for him. It'll be ok." Hermione said, choosing to cling to logic in place of Ron's emotional approach.

Ron looked aghast. "I can't believe you're not more distraught over this. Our best friend is MISSING. Come to think of it, you said that exact same thing earlier when we tried to firecall him, and look where we are now! Or rather, where he is now!"

Hermione expression broke, and her hands started shaking. "What, you think that I'm not more incredibly scared over this than I have been by anything else in my life before? You think that Harry, my best friend, doesn't matter to me more than almost anything else in the world?" She had started yelling, her veneer of calmness gone completely. "I wish I could do something for him, to save him like he's always saved me, but how can I? What's there to do?"

Ron was speechless for a moment, and then walked over and put a comforting hand on Hermione's shoulder. "I didn't...I didn't mean it like that," he said quietly.

Hermione bit her lip and looked away. "I know. But we have to help in any way we can, even if that means just staying here and strategizing."

"I just wish that we could do something, like actually get out and help him somehow," Ron said, embarrassed to notice that he was absentmindedly stroking her hair.

"We can do something," Hermione said, squeezing her eyes shut and opening them again. "We can start locating the Horcruxes, maybe even destroying them. Even if Harry's not here, we can still help him. Especially if he's already in Voldemort's grasp, we have to give him every chance to survive that we can."

The shine of grim determination in her eyes startled Ron, but he stood up straighter. "Where should we start?"

She thought for a moment before answering. "What do you think the chances are of us getting into the Hogwarts library?"

"Hasn't Hogwarts been overrun by Death Eaters? I thought Professor McGonagall turned on the wards."

Hermione smiled mischievously in a way that made Ron's heart beat faster. "Looks like we're going to have to break in then, doesn't it?"

-.-.-.-.-

"Sure you don't want an ickle rest now, Drakkey?" Harry taunted, snickering at Draco's unkempt state.

"I'm fine, thanks," Draco sneered back, although he was breathing heavily. Truthfully, the only reason Harry had felt compelled to instigate their conflict was because he himself was about to fall over from fatigue. Malfoy had always been weaker than him, so he had assumed Draco would lose it first, although he actually seemed to be holding it together. That, and Harry could never resist a mind game with Draco Malfoy.

And, of course, it was an excellent distraction from the gnawing hunger and the growing weakness in his legs.

"Sure you don't want a little nap, Malfoy, you're looking marginally more awful than usual, although actually come to think of it you always were a pretty awful git," he smirked, stumbling a little.

Draco's sneer held fast on his face, and he even picked up his pace, moving ahead of Harry. "Just shut it. You know it's really you whos--" Draco's voice was cut off as he suddenly vanished into thin air, accompanied by a loud crash.

"Malfoy?" Harry shouted, quickly drawing his wand and scanning the proximity. "Malfoy! Can you hear me? Are you all right?"

He breathed in slowly, and realized that the forest had become absolutely silent. Not a creature stirred anywhere, Harry's own rapid heartbeat the only audible sound. He slowly turned around in a circle, painfully aware of the unavoidable crunching his footsteps made in the loam.

Thump, thump-thump. His heartbeat sounded like a drum, and he was sure every creature in the forest could hear it. His own heart, giving him away...the irony was too much for him to think about, so instead he concentrated on just listening for something, anything at all.

He swallowed down the urge to call out to Draco again. Shit, he thought, taking a defensive step backwards. What the hell is going--

Any other thoughts were halted as he felt something constrict around his ankle, springing up and lifting him into the air.

From his new vantage point, upside-down about five feet in the air, he could see the reason for Draco's disappearance. A huge hole had been disguised by a leaf-covered net, which Draco had innocently stepped into. Harry could just barely see his blond form lying prostrate on at the bottom of a six-foot hole.

Harry's breathing sped up, the blood pouring into his head and pounding louder than ever.

"Malfoy!" he called, swinging around frantically in midair. "Malfoy! Get up, you have to get up!"

"Diffindo," Harry muttered, pointing his wand at the rope holding him up. Nothing happened, the rope still held strong. "Diffindo!" he tried again, with more emphasis, this time concentrating everything he had, like when he was casting the Incarcerous spell earlier. He could feel the spell work this time, the magic flow through him and even saw its faint glimmer as it traveled through the air and into the rope. But the rope was still not severed.

With a horrible jolt he realized the rope was probably enchanted, not just to resist magic but also so it might never let him down. "Malfoy!" he yelled again, more anxiously. "Please, I've never asked you for anything in my life before but just please, please GET UP!"

The wind stirred behind him, rustling the leaves of the trees ominously. The forest seemed to grow darker.

"Diffindo!" he tried, one last time, but it was not the sound of cutting rope that resulted but a voice, quiet and cold.

"Your brand of magic will never work on those ropes," it said, and for a haunting second Harry thought it was Lord Voldemort, come after him in the middle of the Forbidden Forest to finish him off for the last time. Harry hadn't yet destroyed the Horcruxes, he hadn't even gotten to say goodbye to Ron and Hermione. It couldn't end here, where no one would even know of his death, or what to do to stop Voldemort!

"They are made out of centaur hair from our own tribe," it continued, "and are resistant to any trifling human magic you could ever try."

Harry's face fell in relief, the voice not enough of a hiss and the tone not so devoid of the memory of love to belong to Voldemort.

A figured appeared in Harry's line of view, and scrutinized him closely. "You dare underestimate us?" the creature, which Harry could now see was a centaur, hissed, apparently insulted by the way Harry's expression had softened.

"No, no! I've witnessed firsthand the prowess of centaurs," he said, thinking desperately. Although his captor hadn't turned out to be Voldemort, centaurs were probably the next worst thing. He was in centaur territory now, their territory, where even the viciously imperialistic Ministry had never dared tread, and for sound reason. "Please, I'm just lost, I don't mean any harm."

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that Draco was gone. Had another centaur come and taken him away already? Or had he...escaped? Either way Harry didn't have much to hope for. If Malfoy had indeed gotten away, there was no way in hell he was coming back into danger to save Harry, he knew. He couldn't even manage to hate Malfoy for it, although he knew he never would do the same.

The centaur snorted throatily. "You are lost, very lost, human. So far from all your laws and petty commands, so deep in the forest."

Harry looked into his eyes. "I know, and I just want to go home. Please," he begged, unable to think of anything else he could do.

This time the centaur laughed coldly. "When a centaur wanders into the lands you wizards have stolen and declared your own, he is imprisoned, merely for stepping on the earth that has always been rightfully his. Why would we show any mercy to a thieving beast of a human trespassing on our own lands?"

"Please," Harry said again.

The centaur grinned maliciously, and then undid the rope wrapped around Harry's ankle, and he fell none-too-gently to the ground. Reaching down, grin still plastered on his face, the centaur grabbed Harry by the neck, lifting him up so they were eye-to-eye. A look of confused curiosity crossed his face. "You seem familiar, human. Have I crossed paths with you bef-"

Before he could finish, a louder yell sounded. "Hey! Centaur thing! Over here, I'm a much better catch! My dad works with the Ministry...er, used to work with the Ministry! Come and get me!"

Harry looked wildly around. It was Draco's voice. Meaning he'd...he'd come back, for Harry.

And was additionally doing something incredibly stupid, dangerous, and, Harry had to admit, very much what he would have done.

The centaur turned around, still holding Harry, his grip choking. "You are a fool," he said simply.

"I would agree wholeheartedly, as I think Potter would too," Draco replied, and Harry noticed how frozen he looked.

"Potter?" the centaur asked, looking back to Harry. "Harry Potter, we have indeed crossed paths before." His wicked grin slipped back on.

The expression struck a match in Harry's mind. A centaur he remembered... "Bane..." he choked out, the hand too tightly grasped around his throat.

"Sorry to interrupt your little reunion, but..." Both Bane and Harry looked over at Draco, and Harry gasped/gurgled (they were one in the same with a constricted throat). Draco had whipped out his wand, and was pointing it straight at Bane. "...I'm really not a fool. Stupefy!" he shouted, and the spell had just enough potency even this deep in the forest to shock Bane into dropping Harry, although he barely even cringed.

Harry didn't pause, getting up and sprinting away from the mildly distracted centaur. Draco had fled almost before the spell was even off his lips, so Harry followed his lead into the trees.

Bane galloped after them, quickly gaining, until he started at the sight of his leader, Magorian, standing ahead. He wondered why he was not joining the chase.

"Magorian! Trespassers!" Bane yelled, running past him.

Magorian, instead of following, stuck out his arm to block Bane's path. "Ronan told me you would be ambushing the humans."

Bane looked aghast. "Those trespassers are escaping! They attacked me! We must follow them!" he said, pointing to the two humans crashing haphazardly through the forest, disappearing farther away every second.

Magorian shook his head. "Those humans, do you know who they are?" he asked calmly.

Bane spat on the ground. "Scum is what they are, they insulted our kind."

Magorian gazed up at the forest canopy and small sliver of starry sky visible above, still shaking his head. "Those are the two visitors fated to come here, the two from the castle, fated to return to darkness." He glanced down, directly at Bane. "They are meant only to meet us in passing, their futures lie in a distant and cold place. We must not interfere."

Bane looked longingly at where the two boys had run. They had disappeared into the dark of the forest, although it would not be hard to track their movement based on the underbrush they were destroying in their clumsy haste.

"It's written in the stars, it cannot be disobeyed," Magorian added, eyes still locked on Bane.

Bane grudgingly stood down. "If it is written in the stars, I cannot oppose it." He thought a moment, then said, "If I may ask, what is it that is written? What is their fate?"

Magorian finally glanced away, his face shadowed. "Nothing is certain. The stars merely reveal that around those two, the dark is rising. They are to again return to the human world, but only terror awaits there. Terror, violence, and death, that is their fate as the stars sing it."

Bane scuffed a hoof across the ground, and Magorian closed his eyes in respect.

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