Issues

Chapter 12: Issues of Consolidation.

Morning saw Harry flat on his back in bed sleeping - snoring loudly enough to wake the dead. It wasn't until Remus entered his room, flung the curtains open wide and made a lot of noise that Harry grunted and grudgingly woke.

"What time is it?" he asked, rolling away from the sudden light.

"After nine," Remus replied. "Ron and Hermione are downstairs. I think they want to hear what happened yesterday."

"Right," Harry said, reluctantly flinging back the covers and sliding his legs over the edge. Yesterday had been odd in more ways than one, he remembered. Not the least of which was how comfortable he and Draco were in each other's company now. However, the important things that happened yesterday were that Sully had been given enough ammunition to do an expose on the effects of the forced use of Veritaserum, and that they hadn't found Snape's diary. Yet. "Thanks," he told Remus. "I'll be down as soon as I get dressed."

"Are you actually going to eat this morning?" Remus asked, smiling. "Yesterday you just pushed it around your plate."

Harry grimaced. "Yes, I'll eat, I promise." He looked for his clothes, which he'd tossed somewhere last night after getting in very late. By the time he'd taken Draco back to his cell in the Ministry building, it had been too late to do anything more than be relieved that the Glamours had held long enough and then come home and fall into bed.

Remus left and Harry quickly dressed. He made a stop in the bathroom, washing and combing his hair before heading down to the kitchen to be greeted by the sight of Ron hoeing into mounds of bacon and eggs.

"Morning, Harry," Hermione chirped, pouring coffee. She amended her tone to sympathetic when she saw how tired he looked. "You look like you had a rough day, yesterday."

"Thanks." He grimaced. "Shouldn't have bothered with washing then, huh?"

"Well, you could've done something with your hair at least," Ron joked around a mouthful of bacon.

"Hah, very funny." Harry rolled his eyes and sat down, taking the coffee Hermione offered.

"Bacon and eggs, Harry?" Tonks asked from the stove. When he looked at her to nod and thank her, he saw she was rather preoccupied with hitting the sleeve of her robe, which had caught fire. He laughed and waited until it was out before agreeing to a cooked breakfast.

"So, Harry, catch us up with what happened at St. Mungos yesterday," demanded Hermione when they were all seated, plates of piping hot food piled in front of them.

"Yeah," agreed Ron. "We saw Dean and he gave Tonks his statement, but we haven't had the chance to hear what happened to you. And then you nicked off to Snape's..." Ron broke off, flushing badly.

Harry winced seeing Remus and Tonks both stop eating and look at him questioningly. "You went to Snape's?" Remus asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Good one, Ron," Harry groaned.

"Sorry, mate," Ron apologised. "Look, I reckon they need to know all this stuff anyway. The more that know the full story the more help we can get and you know we can trust these two."

Harry dropped his knife and fork and ran his hands through his hair, sighing. Ron was right. He was just so used to being told by those older than him that he didn't know what he was doing and having his every action questioned that he'd not wanted one more person to doubt him - and yet, the longer he kept the full story from them the more they were going to doubt him because they were only hearing half the story.

'You're right." He sighed.

Hermione nodded and squeezed Ron's hand in support, giving him a smile.

"Any time you're ready, Harry," Remus said.

Looking around at them he thought about Ron's words and about the help he'd need over the next couple of weeks, and decided that he needed to be smart about this and ensure that everyone that was helping - with the exception of Peter Sully for the moment - should be fully aware of the facts. Especially seeing as people like Tonks and Kingsley were risking their jobs. They needed to be paid the respect that Harry felt had never been paid him. So many times in the past his actions had been based on incomplete information and ignorance of the truth. He'd be a hypocrite if he didn't tell them what was going on.

He nodded. "All right, but not until we get everyone together. We'll need your family Ron, but maybe not Ginny, she has enough to be going on with looking after Dean. And we need Kingsley as well, if he's available. I'll have to go and let Draco know..." He stopped. It would be too much to let it slip that he'd taken Draco out of the Ministry. Even Ron and Hermione would think that too much right now. "I'll let him know I'll be late," he finally finished. "If you can organise everyone to be here in, say, an hour, then I promise to get everyone up to speed on exactly what's going on."

It was amazing how much of a relief that felt. Remus and Tonks looked momentarily annoyed that they'd have to wait an hour, but when Harry tucked back into his breakfast making it obvious that he wasn't going to expand on anything further, they reluctantly joined him. He spent the rest of his time at the breakfast table eating and chatting with Hermione and Ron about their visit to Dean.

.o0o.

Draco was pacing the cell when he arrived.

"Worried I wasn't going to turn up?" Harry teased, only to be sorry when Draco's face flushed in embarrassment for a second before he masked it and shook his head.

"No, I just want to get back there and keep looking. I absolutely hate being in this cell."

And Harry knew that was true enough. It would be enough to drive him insane, he knew that. Being surrounded by four walls, no windows and nothing to do, nothing to listen to, no one to talk to...

Even so, Harry knew that Draco was still insecure about being left alone and forgotten, which was understandable being shut up in here alone so much. He wished there was something more he could do, but they were walking a fine line as it was and he didn't want to draw too much attention to them.

"I can understand that," Harry agreed. "I'll take you there now, but I have something to do this morning and won't be back until this afternoon."

Draco frowned, then looked shocked. "You're going to leave me there on my own? You trust me that much?"

"I figured if you were going to escape you'd have done it by now. Even if you were planning on hurting me, you could have at any time yesterday, not the least when I fell asleep with your head on my shoulder," Harry said smiling, just a touch awkward remembering how comfortable it felt to have Draco's head on his shoulder. "Besides, you gave me your reasons for not escaping yesterday and for some reason, I believe you."

The next thing Harry knew was that he had an armful of Draco hugging him. "You keep surprising me, Harry," Draco said softly. "Though I shouldn't be. It was this 'you' that kept me going in there, kept me hoping that one day you'd kill that maniac and I'd be free. I just..."

The words stopped and Harry, who'd actually surprised himself by holding Draco back, pulled away a little to look into Draco's face. "Just what?" he pressed.

Draco blushed, looking uncomfortable. "I just never thought that you'd have faith in me in return. What if I let you down?"

Harry grinned. "Oh, come on, where is the arrogant Draco Malfoy that I know? The one that would sneer at me for even suggesting you'd care if you let me down?"

"I think he finally realised that he's found someone he never wants to let down again."

Blast that Malfoy, Harry sighed. That was the second time in less than twenty-four hours that Draco had said something Harry found he had no response to. When did the goal posts change and leave him floundering, not knowing this Draco Malfoy at all? Had he ever known the real Draco?

After a few more moments, Harry pulled away entirely. "Anyway, the reason I won't be with you this morning is that I need to finally tell some people what's been going on. They're all helping me in one way or another and they don't know the full story."

"You won't tell them about...about what I told you...?" Draco asked apprehensively.

Harry shook his head. "No, that's not my story to tell. I haven't told anyone, don't worry." Harry took out the Invisibility Cloak and handed it to Draco, who took it and covered himself with it. "Ideally, you should be part of the discussion as well, but I haven't told anyone I've had you out of the cell," Harry added. "But I'd like to bring Hermione back with me to Spinner's End to help look for the diary this afternoon."

"You think she'll be happy to see me there?" Draco's voice came a little muffled from under the cloak. It sounded doubtful.

"Whatever she might think of you personally, she wants to help because she doesn't believe what they did to you, nor what they're planning to do, is right."

It took a while for Draco to reply, and when he did it was very soft and Harry had to really listen to make sure he heard right.

"I'm grateful for her help, then. Will you thank her for me?"

"You can do it yourself when you see her later," Harry said bluntly, walking to the door. This humbled Draco was disconcerting; he wanted Draco's biting wit back, even if the sarcasm was directed at him. It was more familiar; this Draco was most unsettling, turning a lot of the comfortable-ness about yesterday into something intimate and he had no desire to become intimate with Draco.

Though when he felt Draco's hand on his arm, letting him know he was there as they left the cell, he wondered at the truth of that. Then he stomped on that thought as quickly as it rose. Perhaps he should just stick to trying to make sure Draco stayed out of Azkaban.

Minutes later they were out of the Ministry, Draco still holding Harry's arm, by necessity now, so that Harry could Apparate them both to Spinner's End.

"It doesn't look any better the second day," Harry said as they walked across the street to the front door.

"You expected it to?" Draco replied dryly.

"No." Harry snorted.

"Bit pointless making that observation then, wasn't it?"

"Well, I'm sorry, your majesty," Harry said, sarcastically. "Pardon me for being observant."

Draco laughed. "Save your obviously prodigious observation skills for finding that diary."

"Yes, sir." Harry grinned and mock saluted him as they entered the dusty, run-down house.

He made sure that Draco was safely inside then set some ground rules.

"Now," he said, trying to withhold a grin. "No opening the door to strangers. No going out anywhere by yourself, and no reading Sev's porn if you find it."

"I hardly think that last one is a problem, Potter," Draco responded sardonically. "I'd probably scream if I had to look at his porn." Harry raised an eyebrow. "Severus generally preferred women, Harry, your mother for one. Unless he had a secret gay fetish, then I'm pretty sure I'll not appreciate his porn."

"Right," Harry said. Of course. Harry gave himself a mental poke in the ribs for that one. "Well, behave yourself and good luck," Harry said. "I'll bring Hermione back when we're done with the meeting."

"Just go, Potter," Draco said rolling his eyes. "I'll be fine."

"Okay," Harry said nodding, oddly reluctant to leave. It wasn't as if he didn't trust that Draco would still be here when he got back, it was more that he didn't like leaving him on his own.

How he was to explain this odd friendship to the others, he didn't know.

By the time he arrived back at Grimmauld Place everyone else was assembled in the kitchen. There was coffee and pumpkin juice on the table and a cake obviously supplied by Molly. Kingsley had been able to make it after all and Harry appreciated that he'd taken time from his busy job for this. They made quite a crew when he looked at them all seated around the table. Ron, Hermione, the twins, Bill, Molly and Arthur, Remus, Tonks and Kingsley. You could do a lot worse when it came to loyal friends, Harry decided.

He smiled at them all. "Thanks for coming. I thought that finally it was about time you all knew exactly what is going on. How we killed Voldemort and just why I think Draco Malfoy should be freed."

There were a number of protests to this, notably from Kinglsey, Remus, Bill, Arthur and Molly, which he expected. He let those that objected finish saying what they were saying, and politely listened, even though they almost universally consisted of "You can't do that, he's a Death Eater!"

"Wait, hear me out before you protest, please?" Harry asked calmly when they were done.

"You all know that Hermione, Ron and myself were off searching for something most of last year," Harry began. "What you don't know is what it was we were looking for. Each time Voldemort killed, he separated a piece of his soul, embedded it in an object and hid it away. As long as any of these objects remained intact, he could not be killed. There were seven of these Horcruxes, as they're called, and few knew of their existence." He stopped and let them process this information. Ron and Hermione already knew this of course, and they sat there quietly.

"I knew there was some other reason, apart from the prophecy, that Albus hadn't gone after Voldemort himself to at least weaken him," Remus said. "It makes sense now, knowing how obsessed with immortality Voldemort was."

"That'd be something Voldemort would do," Kingsley agreed. "Always on the path searching for immortality. You obviously destroyed them all, right?" he asked, giving Harry a look.

"Yes," said Harry. "Of course, after we got rid of them we had no idea of how to kill Voldemort, to make sure his body was destroyed as well. We received a tip from an anonymous someone, who turned out to be Snape, involving a spell designed specifically to kill someone whose soul had been split. After everything that happened we didn't want to trust it or the source, so we tried the spell on a number of different things and nothing happened. In the end it was only because he reminded us that Dumbledore had trusted him and we had nothing else that was certain to work, that we took it on faith. We were right; it did work. Without that spell, we'd have been left using the killing curse, but there'd always be the chance that someone would attempt to resurrect Voldemort's body and use necromancy to bring him back. Snape saved us all. He was working for us the whole time."

There was silence in the room. "But he killed Albus," Molly insisted.

"That's right," agreed George.

"I know," Harry replied. "But Albus was dying anyway. He'd attempted to destroy one of the Horcruxes and in the process damaged his hand beyond repair. He'd also been poisoned whilst undertaking the retrieval of another Horcrux and I don't think he would have survived the combination of both."

Harry took a moment to gather himself, residual guilt for his part in Dumbledore's death still present.

"I think he asked Snape to kill him so Draco wouldn't have to. Snape had been working pretty closely with Dumbledore during the year trying to heal his hand; he knew what Dumbledore was doing and he knew about the Horcruxes. Draco tells me that they had both been researching a way to kill Voldemort after we'd destroyed the Horcruxes."

"And you believed him?" asked Remus, incredulously.

"Not at first, no. But then Draco knew about the Horcruxes, too, and as far as I know we three were the only ones left alive who knew what they were." He indicated Ron and Hermione and himself. "He also knew the spell, and seeing that it came to us from Snape, only someone working with him would have also known it. I hardly think Snape would have informed Voldemort or the Death Eaters of the spell, do you?"

There were a lot of doubting faces around the table and Harry knew he'd have to let them think things over for a bit before they absorbed it properly.

Eventually, Harry went on to explain about events of the past few days and how his life was once more in danger, which made Molly look at him, concerned. He didn't reveal that he'd taken Draco from the Ministry building, though, nor did he tell them what had happened to Draco during the war.

When he came to the story of the victims he'd seen in St Mungos, Hermione's eyes filled with tears, though her jaw was set, determined to help in making a difference. A determined Hermione made a formidable opponent and Harry smiled; those in charge wouldn't know what hit them when Hermione struck.

"It was awful," Kingsley confirmed. "I never thought that a hospital would condone such inhumane treatment. And there's nothing on their files about the patients being restrained like they were, so unless someone actually sees it, they can deny all they like."

"Makes you wonder what the poor dears in Cornwall are going through," said Molly tearfully, sniffing into a handkerchief.

"It makes it even more imperative that we succeed in getting the use of this potion banned," said Hermione. "Harry, do we know when the story is going to appear in the paper?"

"I can answer that," Kingsley replied. "I spoke to Sully after some files mysteriously disappeared from my desk." He winked. "Apparently, the day after tomorrow. He said he needed time to get to 'know' some of the victims to write a decent story. He plans on doing one victim each day."

"Wow, that's a lot of work," said Harry.

Kingsley nodded. "He believes in this cause, Harry. Says he'll do whatever it takes to change things."

"Do you think he might need some protection? I'm not talking about official protection, because I hardly think the Ministry would be happy to protect someone that is going to blow the whistle on their practices," said Harry. "But we could put someone with him for a while at least."

"There is that," agreed Kingsley. "But the real question is how long will the Ministry wait before asserting, or attempting to assert some control over the newspaper and getting them to withhold the story? Sully might only get the chance to print one or two issues before being 'forcibly' shut down. The Ministry think they have been very lenient in letting him continue to operate, but if he pushes it with this story, then he'll find himself not receiving the same leniency."

"I can talk to him and see if he's happy to have one of us tagging around after him," Remus said. "I don't have a job to protect."

'Thanks," Harry said, nodding. "That reminds me, Kingsley, what about the nurse on that ward; she'll know that you had been in to see the patients..."

"I took the liberty of altering her memory slightly," he said. "She won't remember anyone being there. I don't like it, but I think the time has come when we need to start making a stand about the unethical practices of the Ministry. Unfortunately, to get it done means I have to resort to a something unethical myself. So, we had better succeed and it had better be for the overall good of our society," he stressed.

"It will be," Hermione insisted confidently. "How can it not be?"

"It still feels like we should give this peacetime administration time to get its act together before we start undermining it at every opportunity," Arthur said, worriedly.

"To a point, I agree, Dad," Ron piped up. "But unless something is done right now, then Malfoy, much as I dislike him, might end up a vegetable for no valid reason that we know of, and it's not right."

Hermione linked her arm through Ron's, rested her head on his shoulder and looked up at him lovingly. "When did you grow up?" she said, smiling.

Ron blushed. "You and Harry got through eventually," he admitted grudgingly.

"Good." She smiled again and then sat up properly. "Now we need to hope the use of Harry's name ensures that the story is picked up by the bigger newspapers and it gathers momentum that way," she added.

"Well, we'll have to wait until the story comes out to do anything more about it. I suspect that once it does come out and he uses my name, any press conference I attend will include a multitude of questions on it in any case. Hermione, if Peter Sully or one of this other staff members can be at the next one and raise questions, it will help, too." He looked at her and she nodded. "It does raise one huge problem." Harry stood and paced a little, thinking. He wasn't happy with the solution he'd thought of and he hoped that some of the others could think of a better one.

"Once it become public knowledge that I'm part of exposing the treatment of those patients and against the Ministry, I think Scrimgeour will decide to remove Draco to Azkaban. I can't let that happen; yet I can't just hide him myself. Not that he wants to run, anyway, he really wants to clear his name and live his life free. Any suggestions?"

From the looks of those around him, and the silence, there were still a few that doubted Draco really deserved their help. He sighed, disappointed, though it was understandable. "Ok," he said. "What is everyone thinking?"

'You're taking an awful lot on faith, here, Harry. You've never trusted Malfoy before, why now?" Arthur asked. Harry looked at his kindly face, lined with grief for the loss of Charlie and fighting to hold the need for vengeance back.

"Yeah, Harry," agreed Kinglsey. "It all seems rather flimsy to me, actually. Had you been working as an Auror for me, I'd be saying that there definitely wasn't enough evidence to support your opinion."

"It's really hard to explain," Harry respectfully replied to both of them.

"Come on, try us," George said. "You never liked the pointy git before."

"He's...different. The things that happened to him during the war - seeing the differences between the last time I saw him at school, and now - it's like two different people. It's knowing the type of person Snape was and how he worked. There is no way Draco would have had the knowledge he has about Horcruxes and the spell we used to kill Voldemort, unless Snape told him. We all know what Snape was like and how disagreeable he was, how good he was at his job of spying for the Order. He evaded detection by Voldemort for seventeen years, there is no way someone like Draco could have found out what he was up to."

"You're right about Snape," Remus said. "It's all so difficult to take in." He ran a hand through his shaggy hair. "Snape working to Dumbledore's orders all along and still spying for the Order and then discovering the spell that saved us all...it's almost unbelievable. "

"Perhaps we should give the boy a chance," Molly added, softly. "When Harry told us about the poor boy being beaten, I-"

"Have you all forgotten that that his actions resulted in this?" Bill hissed at them all, pointing to his face.

"Draco didn't do that to you, Greyback did," Hermione replied.

"Or that he almost killed Ron?" Bill continued.

"No one's forgotten that," Arthur said. "But even Ron thinks that we should help Draco, don't you, son?"

Ron looked around at everyone, and nodded. "Like I said before, he's still a git and I still don't like him, but if he's telling the truth and he was helping Snape, then he deserves another chance. What's happened to him...well...it's just not bloody right."

The smile on Hermione's face lit up the kitchen, and she leant into his side, kissing his cheek again and making him blush once more. He wrapped his arm round her shoulder and she fit under there snugly and happily.

"That's all very well for you, but I have to live with the effects of Greyback's attack for the rest of my life. I'm not so quick to forgive." Bill sat there with his arms crossed, face set hard and unforgiving, and scars burning red.

Harry realised his mistake, now. He'd arrogantly assumed that seeing the Weasleys had helped him so much during the war, that they would just go along with what he thought was right, now. But then and now were different times that required a reassessment of priorities and alliances. He sighed and nodded.

"I can understand that. I'm sorry, I won't ask you for any more help."

"I didn't say I wouldn't help. I don't actually agree with the Ministry about using Veritaserum like they have been and I'm quite willing to help get that stopped. And I'll help protect you as well, just don't ask me to do anything specific for Malfoy." Bill was still frowning, but he was quite firm in his support.

"Thank you, Bill."

"Anyway, Harry, that doesn't solve the problem of Scrimgeour removing Draco to Azkaban when he hears of your 'disloyalty'," Remus said, getting them back on track. "Did you have a plan to counter that?"

"I have one, but I was hoping one of you would come up with a better way," admitted Harry.

"Short of topping the old bloke -" George started.

"Or using an old reliable Imperius on him -" Fred added.

"What other plan is there?" George finished.

To be honest, Harry hadn't even considered those two solutions. Perhaps his idea wasn't as bad as that after all.

"I don't think we need to resort to that," said Kingsley, frowning.

"Certainly not!" Molly looked at the twins crossly. "Arthur and I bought you up better than that!"

"Give over, woman," George retorted, rolling his eyes.

"As if we'd do anything like that?" Fred said, aghast.

"What does she take us for?"

"All right, boys, that's enough," Arthur interrupted, and the boys smiled, having been teasing the whole time.

"You'd think she'd learn by now," George muttered to Fred under his breath, while Harry was grateful for the diversion.

"What about if we ask Sully not to use your name?" Hermione suggested, but Harry shook his head.

"No, I gave him my word, and I don't intend to go back on it," he replied.

"Maybe just until we find the diary and hopefully clear Malfoy?" she pressed.

"As much as I hate to say it, I just don't think the story will have enough credibility and will be too easy to deny unless it does have my name in it. If it were one of the larger publications, then they'd already have a huge following, which gives any of their stories a sort of authenticity. Peter's paper is on the fringes, almost underground and they just have no clout yet, apart from being a pain in the Ministry's arse."

"We're going to have to have something on Scrimgeour that we can use as leverage," Ron said.

Exactly what Harry had been thinking. Not that it was a preferred course of action, but it was better than the alternatives.

"I can ask around," Arthur said. "There's bound to be someone who knows something shady about him. And I'm sure there is underhanded dealings where he is concerned."

"You're condoning this, then?" Remus asked, shocked.

"What choice do we have? Let a corrupt Ministry hide what they're doing? Let more poor fools be rendered brain damaged after being forced to take Veritaserum?" Arthur responded.

Remus blanched visibly; Harry thought maybe he'd remembered what they'd talked about the other day. Reluctantly, he nodded.

"Besides, we won't actually use it. Eventually, I think Scrimgeour will actually be a decent Minister; he just has a lot of cleaning up to do. The Wizengamot can decide that in any case. We just need some time to find that diary," Harry said, raising his glass to his lips and draining his pumpkin juice.

"Continuing on," Harry said when he was done. "We need a way to be able to communicate with each other quickly. Owls are too slow and firecalling is inconvenient at times. Fred, George, do you have any gadgets in that bag of tricks you have?"

"As it just so happens, we do, Harry." Fred looked at George and they both winked at each other, smugly.

"We don't have enough on us at the moment," Fred said, pulling up the sleeve on his jumper, revealing an ordinary looking wristwatch.

"These," began George, "look like Muggle watches -"

"And that's where we got the idea from," Fred continued as he undid the watch. "Although, admittedly we did start researching a shoe phone because what better place to hide a way of communicating with someone else, right? But we realised that it would look completely conspicuous and out of place in the Wizarding World. Muggle spies might be able to get away with it, but not a wizard. So, -"

"We added a nifty little charm to this watch, so that it tells the time, too -"

"To make it functional, of course," Fred interrupted.

Fred passed the watch around and George took off his own watch.

"It's a charmed closed set of communication devices. All you have to do is set the hands of the watch to receive and send to a specific person. When you move the hands to that time you can talk to them as if they were in the same room."

"We've been testing them for the Ministry, the Unspeakables, and they're not perfected yet, but we can set them up for all of us and they should work. We've not had any trouble with ours so far."

"Brilliant," Harry said, taking one of the watches and inspecting it. For all intents and purposes it looked like an ordinary sort of analogue wristwatch; a black leather band, silver backed with a plain white face and black hands. The twins' invention skills were quickly becoming an integral part of this mission. Harry had to laugh at himself. Mission? It was a mission, now? Perhaps.

"Blimey, you two," Ron exclaimed, impressed.

"How soon can you set these up for us?" Hermione asked.

"This afternoon," Fred replied and George nodded.

Harry spotted Remus frowning and looking at the watch as it lay on the table, being careful not to touch it. "Er, Fred," Harry said, nodding toward Remus.

"Oh, don't worry Lupin, we've got all sorts." Fred assured Remus.

"We'll find you a nice gold one. Right smart that will be," added George.

The next few minutes were spent discussing the new communication devices with the twins giving a demonstration of how theirs worked. When they'd all marvelled over the inventiveness of the twins, even Molly indulging in a rare compliment about the line of work they'd found themselves in, Harry turned to Kingsley.

"Any word on the whereabouts of Coghill?" he asked.

Kinglsey shook his head. "He seems to have gone to ground. We've had Hoxley under surveillance, but he's keeping his head down. We're putting him through retraining, hoping that will teach him the right way to do things. But of Coghill, there's nothing I can tell you, Harry, I'm sorry. We're just going to have to keep looking for him and you'll have to be on alert, especially with the Ministry functions you have coming up."

"If they still want me after the newspaper comes out," Harry said, disappointed that Coghill hadn't yet been caught, yet still optimistic, and with more important things on his mind.

"I think we should assign someone to be with you at all times," Arthur put in.

"Yes, dear," Molly added. "You should have some protection."

It was the last thing Harry wanted, as he intended to spend most of his days looking for the diary until it was found and he had Draco to think of. They had a point though. "I'm going to be at Spinner's End for the next few days and safe, out of the way. I'll agree that when I'm in the public eye I should have some, but not here, nor Spinner's End."

"But what's to stop him finding out you're there and attacking you while you're there on your own?" Ron asked.

"I won't be on my own. I was hoping Hermione would come and help me search."

Hermione's eyes lit up at the thought of scouring Snape's library and she nodded enthusiastically.

"But she's hardly -"

Hermione turned her eyes on to Bill and glared so hard that he backed down.

And that, it seemed, was that. Slowly they all dispersed after working out that Bill and Arthur would attend Harry's next public appearance, which was the next day, and that the twins would have their communication devices ready by this evening.

After a quick lunch, and packing leftovers and drinks into a basket, he and Hermione Apparated to Spinner's End.

"Before we go inside," Harry said as they walked across the street. "There's something you should know. Draco's inside."

Hermione stopped in the middle of the street and looked at Harry with her mouth hanging open. "What did you say?"

"I said, Draco is in there. He wanted to help look, and after seeing those poor people in the hospital and knowing that if we can't stop this he might end up like that, I just couldn't leave him in that cell all by himself."

"I don't care what you thought, Harry," Hermione said, angrily, her fists clenched and by her sides. "We're all risking our lives for that...boy... and if he escaped or if anyone found out that he wasn't in his cell then we'd all end up in Azkaban. Did you even think of that?"

"He's not going to run and there are strong Glamours on his cell. The guards know not to disturb him during the day. There's so much I haven't been able to tell you about him, but, please, if you trust me at all, please don't tell anyone."

"Oh, Harry who would I tell?" She sighed and gave him a long look. "You can't seem to stay away from trouble can you?" she lamented. "People who need rescuing just seem to find you." She was quiet for a moment. "He's really changed?"

Harry nodded. "He's been through so much, Hermione, you wouldn't believe it."

"I'll give him a chance," she said. "Seeing as I'm fighting to save his miserable life, I may as well."

Harry hugged her. "Thanks."

Harry opened the door to silence. "Draco?" he called.

No answer. The secret door though to the bedrooms was slightly ajar. "Maybe he's showering," Harry said.

"And maybe he took advantage of your good nature and ran off," Hermione said, shaking her head.

"No," Harry insisted and grabbed Hermione's hand and walked through to the bedroom.

When they entered the bedroom, Harry saw Draco lying on the bed with what looked like a photo album across his chest. He appeared to be asleep, but as Harry neared, he noticed the tear tracks down Draco's cheeks.

"Draco?" he called and the blond jumped and sat up, surprised, and frowned when he saw Hermione. Harry thought it was a frown at being caught in tears by someone like Hermione whom he'd always hated.

"Potter, you scared me. Ever heard of a bit of warning?"

"Nice to see you, too," he said. "You all right?"

"Of course." He looked away and surreptitiously wiped his face. "I just found some old photo albums of when I was a child. Severus used to come to our family Christmas parties." He paused, looking back down at a photo that Harry could see was one of a small boy jumping over a much younger, though no less greasy Severus Snape. Draco's finger traced the contours of the small boy's face. "Things were a lot simpler then. I still believed that my father loved me and would always protect me from anything bad."

Harry let go of Hermione's hand and sat down on the bed next to Draco. "You look like a pretty cute kid," he said, smiling.

Draco smiled. "I was. I still am, I'll have you know." He may have been smiling but his eyes were still filled with tears, which he furiously blinked away, clearly annoyed with himself.

"Yeah, right," Harry joked, nudging him with his shoulder. He glanced over to Hermione and saw her with a frown of compassion on her face and a knot inside him unravelled. Things would be all right. "Do you want to come and have some lunch and update us on how your search went this morning?"

Draco nodded. "Would it be all right if I kept this photo, do you think?" He looked up and only then seemed to realise that Hermione was still in the room, too. "Oh, hello," he said, politely.

"Hi, Draco," Hermione replied.

"Come on, let's get Draco some lunch and we can talk."

In the kitchen Draco unwrapped sandwiches and ate slowly as his body was still recovering from near starvation, and they chatted about what Draco had found so far. Hermione and Draco hadn't said anything to each other apart from hello, but there seemed to be an unspoken truce between them. She whispered to Harry that Draco had taken a few steps up in her estimation by still being here. Harry thought he would give them both time to talk to each other this afternoon.

"Lots of really old Witch Weekly magazines, but no diary and what's worse, no porn, unfortunately," said Draco, with his hand over his heart in a melodramatic pose.

Harry laughed. "Oh, you poor thing."

"Whatever will I do without my porn?" Draco carried on. "Although I am really glad I didn't find any more pictures of your mother."

Hermione startled and Harry told her about the photo in the bedroom.

"Enough talk about your mother, Potter, I want to talk to you about getting me some porn, seeing as you -"

"I'm not getting you porn, Draco. You'll just have to...use your imagination."

"So hard done by," Draco lamented. "I suppose I will have to redouble my efforts to find this diary, then and hope that Severus will have had some secret porn stashed away."

"Oh, so that's why you're so keen to search for this diary," Hermione joked. "You want his porn."

"Oh no," said Draco, completely deadpan. "I'm only doing this so Harry can do his saviour thing and then shag me silly, like sleeping beauty."

Harry choked on his juice. If he hadn't been so mortified by that statement, then he'd had fallen off his chair at the look on Hermione's face.

But once more, he found he had nothing to say to that. Only this time, he didn't find it as distasteful a thought as he had a few days ago.