The Pensieve

Vengeance

It was two weeks after Harry had collapsed at the wedding, and he was still unconscious. His condition hadn't gotten any better; if anything, it had worsened.

Draco hadn't left Harry's bedside at all. Either Ron or Hermione had brought him all his meals. This evening, it was Hermione's turn.

"Hasn't woken up, has he?" Hermione asked, as she did every time she came in.

Draco gave a half-hearted smile and responded the same way he did every time. "If he had, you would've known that very second."

Hermione sighed and said something new. "Draco...this isn't healthy for you. You need to get out."

Draco shook his head. "I won't leave him. What if he has another attack?" Harry had been having convulsive episodes every now and then ever since he had collapsed. "Or what if he wakes up and I'm not here?"

Hermione sighed and stroked Draco's hair. "Draco, we have to consider the possibility that..." she took a deep breath, "that Harry might not wake up at all."

"No, Hermione! I can't give up on him like that!"

"I'm not asking you to give up, I'm just asking that you not give yourself false hope."

Draco smiled sadly at her. "Thanks for the concern, Hermione, but I'll be fine. I promise."

Hermione sighed. "Well, here's your dinner, in any case. Oh, and Dumbledore has some news about Harry's condition that he's going to share at the Order meeting tonight. Are you going to come, or do you want me to take notes for you?"

Draco considered it for a moment. "I suppose I'll come," he said finally.

"Good. You've needed to get some new scenery. By the way, Snape is going to be at the meeting. He wants to talk to you."

"Alright. I'll see you at the meeting tonight."

~*~

That night, at the meeting, Dumbledore let out his news.

"After some researching and a little work from Professor Snape," Dumbledore said, gesturing to the professor, "we have come to the conclusion that Harry may be kept in this situation by none-other than Voldemort himself."

"Wait, you're saying that You-Know-Who is doing this to him?" Draco blurted out.

"Draco, hush," Snape said softly.

"Unfortunately, yes, Mr. Malfoy," Dumbledore said solemnly. "It does appear that the Dark Lord is causing Harry's condition, although why is anyone's guess. We will, of course, have our spies doing everything possible to find this out," he said with a nod at Snape. "And, Mr. Malfoy, I must ask that you not do anything rash. The last thing we need now is for you to run off and get yourself killed."

Draco nodded. "Sure. I'll just...stay around here."

"Very well," Dumbledore responded. "Now, if there's nothing else, then I call this meeting adjourned."

While everyone else was leaving, Snape pulled Draco over out of the commotion. "Good evening, Draco. How are you holding up?"

Draco sighed. "I'm ok, I guess. Why do you ask?"

Snape raised an eyebrow. "Because I was worried about the wellbeing of my godson! Is that a crime?"

Draco smiled. "No, of course not."

Snape sighed and looked uncomfortable. "Now, Draco, I hate to have to tell you this, but your father is not considering your marriage binding."

"What?" Draco asked in disbelief. "Why in Merlin's name not?

"He is claiming that the wedding was not fully completed, and therefore is not a legal, binding marriage. And, of course, the ministry will agree with him. He still holds a lot of power over them."

"So, what you're saying is that he still has a claim over me?"

Snape nodded. "That's exactly what I'm saying, Draco. But believe me, if you don't want to take the mark, I will do everything in my power to insure that you don't have to take it."

Draco, unable to express his gratitude with words, threw his arms around his godfather.

Snape, who was unaccustomed with physical contact of any sort, awkwardly hugged him back. "I promise that you will be safe, Draco. No matter what."

~*~

Draco sat on Harry's bed and stroked his husband's hair back. "I don't care what father says, or anyone else for that matter! We are married!" He leaned in and kissed Harry's forehead.

Suddenly, Harry convulsed and writhed as if he were in enormous pain.

"Harry!" Draco exclaimed, grabbing his hand. "Harry, listen to me, you're going to be alright! You can fight this!" Harry's convulsions had been becoming ever more frequent for the last few days, as Voldemort continued to become stronger.

It pained Draco to know that there was no way for him to ease Harry's pain when the attacks started. The best he could do was hold his husband's hand and pray that it would be over soon.

They were in luck; this attack lasted only five minutes, which was quite short compared to the longest one, which had been twenty minutes. Finally, Harry seemed to calm down, and his body relaxed slightly, but he still kept a death-grip on Draco's hand. This was how it always went, and somehow, knowing that Harry's hand stayed tight on his own when the rest of his body went limp comforted Draco in some small way. It felt as if, just maybe, Harry knew he was there.

"I can't take this any longer," Draco said suddenly. "I don't care what Dumbledore says, I can't just sit here and watch you die." He sadly pried his hand out of Harry's grip and planted a kiss on his scar. "I love you," he whispered, and silently slipped out of the room.

~*~

Hermione came up the next day to give Draco his breakfast. True, it was Ron's turn today, but she had volunteered to do it again. Draco always seemed to open up more around her, even though he and Ron had bonded tightly over the whole Harry situation. She felt that she could get him to talk to her, and heaven knew that boy certainly need someone to talk to.

"Draco? I've got your breakfast," she said, coming through the door. "I've-" She stopped short, seeing that Draco was not in the room. There was only one reason that he would leave Harry's side. "Draco Malfoy, you fool!" she cried, and ran to alert Dumbledore and the rest of the Order.

~*~

"He must have gone to confront Voldemort," she concluded during the emergency meeting of the Order that Dumbledore had called.

"I find it hard to believe that Draco would do something like this," Snape said grumpily.

"Do you have a better suggestion, Professor?" Hermione asked mockingly.

"You would do well to not take that tone of voice with me, Miss Granger," Snape said dangerously.

"You both would do well to say nothing else to each other for the remainder of this meeting," Dumbledore warned.

"Yes, sir," they grumbled together. Hermione took a seat next to Ron, who put a comforting arm around her and glared at Snape.

"We need to band together more than ever now," Dumbledore said solemnly. "There can be no bickering among us at such a dire time. Are we absolutely sure that he couldn't have gone anywhere other than to Voldemort?"

"Actually, Albus," Snape spoke up, "I spoke with him last night and informed him Lucius was not considering Draco's marriage binding. He may have gone to confront him."

"So, what everyone's saying is that no matter where he's gone, he's screwed," Ron said bluntly.

"As graphic a description as that is, Mr. Weasley, it would appear to be accurate," Dumbledore said sadly.

"What do we do?" Tonks spoke up.

"Albus instructed Mr. Malfoy not to do anything rash," Remus pointed out. "Perhaps he took that to mean 'don't go to Voldemort', so he went to his father."

"I suppose that makes sense," Snape agreed reluctantly. In the matter of his missing godson, he was willing to let bygones be bygones until Draco was safely back. But only until then.

"Very well," Dumbledore said, taking control again. "We shall send people to Malfoy Manor to check on that." He turned to Snape. "Would it be too much to ask you to go to Voldemort?"

"Certainly not," Snape responded.

"Professor Dumbledore," Ron piped up, "I would like to help somehow."

Dumbledore shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry, Ron, but I just cannot allow you, or Ms. Granger, to get involved. I am not willing to risk any more of our youths."

Ron nodded in understanding. "Of course, sir."

"Very well. This meeting is adjourned."

~*~

In actuality, the thought of confronting his father hadn't crossed Draco's mind in the least. His sole thought was to stop the creature that was causing Harry this excruciating pain.

Draco used one of the secret passages to gain entrance to Voldemort's lair. He realized with a pang that this was the same passage he had led Harry through to safety almost a year ago.

As he passed the door to the Pensieve Room, as he and Harry had jokingly named it, a wave of sadness crossed over him and had to lean against the doorway and close his eyes to regain his composure.

What was he doing here, he wondered? This was no way to help Harry. This was just a way to get himself killed! He should have let Severus or someone else handle this. But no matter now. He was here; it was too late to go back. If all he could do was get killed, then at least he could say that he tried to save the one person he loved.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself staring at the imposing figure of Lucius Malfoy.

"Father!" he exclaimed, almost falling over backwards.

"Do not call me father, you ungrateful little brat! You turned your back on your family, but I forgave you! I took you back as my son! And how do you repay me? By betraying our Lord! You revolt me, you worthless piece of scum! I always knew you'd turn out bad!"

"I'm not the one who turned out bad, father," Draco sneered.

Lucius sneered back. "How dare you?" he roared, whipping out his wand.

"Oh, come now, father, you wouldn't really hurt your own son," Draco mocked, egging him on.

"Crucio!" Lucius shouted.

Draco's senses exploded with pain and he collapsed to the floor. Lucius stood over him, laughing, for a good fifteen minutes, just enjoying the sight of his son in pain.

Finally, he lifted the curse so that he could gloat, but Draco was the first to speak.

"Really, now, father, is that the best you can do? Your curses used to hurt so much more!"

Lucius scowled and raised his wand to put the curse back on his son, when someone jumped between Draco and the wand. Someone with fiery red hair...

"Ron!" Draco cried. "What the bloody hell are you doing here?"

"I'm saving you, you prat!" Ron said as if this were the most obvious thing in the world.

Lucius roared with laughter. "Oh, Draco, you've sunk to a new low! I mean, being saved by a Weasley?!"

"Crucio!" Ron yelled with fury, and Lucius fell to the floor, writhing.

Ron backed away from the screaming man. "Oh, Merlin, what've I done?"

"I'll tell you what you've done," Draco said from the floor. "You've done something that I should have done a long time ago. Now, would you please help me up?"

Ron grasped his friend's arm and pulled him to his feet. "I used a forbidden curse!" he breathed, unable to believe that he had actually done it.

"Yes, well, I'm about to use a worse one," Draco said tonelessly. "Avada Kedavra!"

His father instantly stopped writhing, and Draco slowly lowered his wand. Ron stood, staring at Draco, unable to believe that someone could use such a terrible curse on another human being and show absolutely no emotion about it, as Draco was now.

After a few minutes, Draco said, "Well, I'd better get going."

"Going where?" Ron asked suspiciously.

"To finish what I came here to do, obviously!" He hesitated. "I don't want to put you in harm's way, Ron, but I could probably use some help..."

Ron sighed. "There's no way I can persuade you to come back with me?"

"No. None."

"Well, then, I can't just let you stay here and die all alone! I just...I wish I'd said goodbye to Hermione..."

"Don't think like that. Be positive."

"Ok, I can do positive. Gee, I'm so glad I'm about to die without telling Hermione that I love her!"

Draco rolled his eyes. "Come on."

~*~

When they arrived in Voldemort's main chamber, they were greeted by none-other than Voldemort himself. Although his back was to the two of them, he apparently knew they were there.

"Well, well, well," he said calmly in his horrible, high-pitched voice. "If it isn't young Master Malfoy and his newfound friend. It's such a delight to have you both here!"

"Please, my lord," Draco begged. "All I want is for you to stop hurting Harry."

"I apologize, Master Malfoy, but I can not."

Draco sighed. "It was worth a try."

"Indeed it was, young one, but unfortunately, we must now do it my way." Draco and Ron pulled out their wands and got in defensive stances, but Voldemort waved the back of his hand at them. "You need not get defensive, young ones. You are only children, so it seems only fair to me that you get the chance to attack me head-on." He turned to face them. "After all, when you are dead, you will be able to say that you got one hit in against the great Lord Voldemort."

Draco and Ron looked at each other. Could this be a trick? But it was apparently a sincere offer, so they both raised their wands.

"Avada Kedavra!" they shouted together, their voices echoing off the stone walls. Green blasts shot out of the ends of their wands, knocking Voldemort off his feet and throwing him against the far wall.

The two boys braced themselves for when the dreaded Dark Lord would arise again, but he just lay in a heap at the bottom of the wall.

"There's no way," Ron said breathlessly. "Absolutely no way! We're not powerful enough! Are we?"

"I don't know...I thought only Harry was able to..." Draco said, waking slowly over to the seemingly unconscious man lying on the floor. Very warily, he checked the pulse. "Ron..." he said, not believing what he was feeling, "Ron, he's...he's dead! We killed him!"

"But how is that possible?"

"Who cares? We killed the Dark Lord!"

~*~

The two boys Apparated back to Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place with huge grins on their faces, fully prepared to take credit for You-Know-Who's downfall. However, when they arrived in the kitchen, the smiles disappeared from their faces immediately.

Remus, Tonks, and Hermione all sat, tears in their eyes, at the table. Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape all stood around, looking equally glum, although perhaps less so on Snape's part.

"What's wrong?" Draco asked, a growing feeling of despair settling in his stomach.

"You're back!" Hermione exclaimed. She flew around the table and engulfed Ron in a huge hug. "I was so worried!"

"That's not what you're all upset about, is it?" Ron asked.

Hermione pulled back. "N-no...that was part of it, but...it's bigger than that..."

"What is it?"

Snape piped up. "Draco," he said gently. "I suggest you sit down before we tell you this."

"I prefer to stand," Draco said haughtily. "Now, what is it?"

Hermione took Draco's hand comfortingly. "Draco, please don't take this too hard, but..." she took a deep breath. "Draco, Harry's dead."

Draco's world came crashing down around his head, and everything went black.

To Be Continued....