Elementals of Magic: Prophecy of Lies

Chapter 29

Meddlesome Affairs

Harry awoke to voices, and he quickly shut his eyes. He was now trapped in the clutches of Voldemort, and it was best to pretend that he wasn´t awake yet as they would most certainly stop their conversation if they knew he was conscious.

"He´s awake," someone said, much to Harry´s dismay. A low chuckle sounded through the room, one that chilled Harry´s spine.

"Dear, dear Harry. Open your eyes."

Against his will, Harry´s eyes were opened and brilliant green exposed to his dismal surroundings. He was in a stone cell with no apparent way to escape. He patted his robes for the wand, but it was gone. No!

"Still trying to preserve yourself, Harry? How very Gryffindorish of you," Voldemort said, and the lipless mouth was smirking at him. Two men stood beside the Dark Lord, both garbed in black robes. Harry´s heart leapt. Draco and Lucius Malfoy, looking like mirror images of each other.

All three of them were looking expectantly at Harry, who remained silent. He thought he saw something flicker in Draco´s eyes, but Harry wasn´t sure about it.

"Come, Harry. Surely you know Lucius Malfoy and his son, Draco?"

Harry made no response. Voldemort laughed.

"Young Draco will be one of the finest of my Death Eaters. He has been Initiated early with a special task that I believe he can accomplish. After all, who can resist such charms?" Voldemort ran a finger down Draco´s cheek, and Harry felt disgust. He should not be allowed to touch such purity.

"Harry, Harry, I am quite a bit surprised that you actually fell for the trap I set. After all, I thought it might have been a little bit too obvious. But the Traitor served his purpose well. We can use him later again."

"What did you do with Snape?" Harry yelled.

"Him?" Lucius asked, and he laughed. "The Traitor´s paying for his betrayal everyday. Quite a few think he´s a good fuck."

"Of course, you would know," Harry snarled back. This was sick, unbelievably sick, but what else could he expect from Voldemort and his followers? He thought he saw Draco swallow back something.

Lucius smiled thinly.

"Actually, no. He does not fit my tastes very well. I prefer mine well-groomed, elegant, and clean. He is none of those."

So maybe he really did love Narcissa. But still, he was a filthy Death Eater.

"Young Draco, you do know what you are to do, do you not?"

"Yes, Master," Draco murmured, and he lowered his eyes.

"Good. If it doesn´t come to pass, then you will have a most splendid birthday."

The wall slide open, and another Death Eater entered through the door. He immediately bowed, averting his eyes to the ground.

"My Lord, there´s someone here to see you."

"And who would that be?" Voldemort asked, and his lips smiled dangerously.

"I don´t know," he stammered. "But we tried to hold her off, and she stopped us all."

"I think I know who´s decided to grace me with her presence. Wait here," he told Draco and Lucius. With that, he swept out of the room along with the messenger.

"We´re alone now, Potter, just me, you, and my son. Isn´t he a very pretty boy?" Lucius asked, a dangerous smile playing on his face. Harry made no reply still.

Lucius ran a hand through Draco´s pale blonde hair, which filled Harry with disgust. He hadn´t done anything to Draco in the short time, had he? Oh God.

"Many people want him, Potter. Half the Death Eaters here want him. And he´s been delivered right to you, with a pretty bow and everything. Isn´t that right, Draco?"

Draco made no reply.

"Not willing to speak? Don´t worry. They won´t have you. Yet. At least, not while I refuse to let them. After all, why should such beauty be wasted by giving it to the brutes here? Such beauty deserves beauty of the same kind, and beauty is one of the most useful tools."

"Yes, Father," Draco replied obediently.

"Potter, did you know that half the Death Eaters here would like to take you as well? You have a very wild beauty, Potter, though I never liked wild beauty. The Traitor has such beauty, which is why he is wanted by most here. Many Death Eaters would give anything to be in my son´s place right now, but my Lord has seen to it that Draco received it, as he is the most likely to succeed."

At that moment, Voldemort returned.

"Draco, I leave you to your task. You know what to do. Come, Lucius."

The two men left the room, and Harry collapsed. He didn´t know what to do. The solid weight of Draco´s ring on his finger did little to reassure him. What was Draco´s task and what did it have to do with him?

Just then, a Death Eater entered, hauling a prisoner with him. He shoved her in roughly, then closed the door again. Harry and Draco both glanced at her for a second, though neither truly registered her in their minds.

"Draco," Harry whispered brokenly. The next thing he knew, Draco had his arms wrapped around him, kissing away his tears.

"Shh...It´s okay, love. I won´t hurt you, ever."

"What does he want you to do? And what´s happening? I´m so confused."

"He...He wants me to convince you to join our side, even if it means that I have to seduce you. And if I don´t do it by my birthday, then he´ll kill you."

"Well, you won´t have to worry about seducing me," Harry said, and he tried to grin, though he failed miserably.

"And Severus...He´s been held captive this whole time. He never died. Everyday, he would be tortured. His spirit´s been broken. The Dark Lord put Imperius on him and then had him set a trap for you."

"And I fell for it, like the idiotic Gryffindor that I am."

"Don´t say that, love. I probably would have fallen, too."

"But you respect him and you would have wanted to help him. I did it because I thought I could save us all, that I could end the war before it even happened. And now, I´m stuck here. We´re out of luck."

"No, you´re not," a new voice spoke, and the two men turned to the source. Draco could scarcely restrain a gasp. Standing not a decimeter away from them was Narcissa Malfoy, and on her arm hung Draco´s Merging Cloak.

"Mother?" Draco choked out.

"Yes, Draco. I had to come see you one last time." She stepped closer and cupped her hand around Draco´s cheek. Tears shimmered in her eyes.

"Don´t hate Lucius, Draco. He was never given another choice."

"And you never gave them a choice, Narcissa. Or have you forgotten?" another voice piped up. The three simultaneously turned to the prisoner, and Draco and Narcissa both let out a gasp.

She had beautiful, smooth black hair that was the same color as her robes, and Harry couldn´t tell where the hair ended and where the robes began. Her eyes were startlingly gray, the same color as Draco´s, and they were hard and cold, with a hint of sadness. She would have been beautiful had she not had a long and hideous scar running down her face, from her eyebrows to her chin. Harry recognized her as Victoria, from when he had seen her with Tom Riddle during Ravenclaw´s Hunt, though she didn´t have the scar then.

"Victoria?" Narcissa whispered, as if she couldn´t believe her eyes.

"Narcissa. What a pleasure to see you again." Victoria stood up, and Harry could see her hands and feet bound by chains. Immediately, though, they vanished.

Victoria stretched.

"I hate to be breaking in at a family moment, but Narcissa, don´t you think you owe them the truth? After all, you never gave them a choice. Or do you not remember what you did in their First Year?"

Harry and Draco looked at each other bemusedly. What was Victoria talking about?

"How did you know?" Narcissa breathed.

"How did I know? Really, Narcissa, you should have known better. You weren´t needed, though you did speed things up and helped things along nicely. Still, you shouldn´t have."

"Shouldn´t have what?" Draco asked.

"Do you remember a certain camp experience you shared with Mr. Potter, Draco?" asked Victoria.

"Yes. But what does that have to do with this?"

"It never happened, Draco. Your mother used a Potion to change your, Mr. Potter´s, and Ms. Parkinson´s memories."

"But why?" Draco asked Narcissa.

"Why? She wanted to make sure that you would be friends with each other. She knew that once you became a Death Eater, you would need someone on the other side to support you. Parkinson could never count as she is deathly in love with you, but Potter could. He would be the perfect person to support you and vouch for you, especially with his status. But she never intended the relationship to go as far as its present shape."

"Mother, is this true?" Draco asked, and he had a broken look in his eyes.

Narcissa sighed.

"Yes. I admit it. I did brew a Potion and changed your memories. But I did it for your own good."

"But how could you just change our memories like that, toy with our emotions like that?"

"Don´t blame Narcissa too much, Draco. She did it for you. She would do anything for you."

"Still, that doesn´t make it right," Harry spoke. "I don´t even know if our love is real anymore. Was it induced by the Potion, or do I really feel this?"

"Don´t say such things, Harry," Draco said, and he leaned in and kissed Harry tenderly, tears falling from his eyes. The tears mingled with the kiss, and Harry could feel his heart break.

"Even if you don´t love me, I know that I love you, Harry," Draco said.

"I was wrong. That kiss...It told me everything I ever wanted to know. My heart knows you, Draco, and it loves you and would die for you. This is real."

They broke apart to find Narcissa sobbing quietly.

"Why did you have to do this to me? Why? Why was it always me? First Lucius, then Draco. I´m sorry, Draco and Harry, I truly am, but it was the only thing that I knew to do at that moment. I couldn´t just see you become a Death Eater, Draco, and follow blindly in Lucius´s footsteps, the ones he never should have taken. But it´s too late for that, isn´t it? I thought that if I could make the two of you believe you were friends in the past, you would become friends, and Draco, you would switch to the right side, the side that would win. You needed someone to support you, someone besides Pansy. Pansy would be on your side, always, but you needed someone who didn´t have his life revolving around you. I thought Harry would be the perfect choice. I wasn´t truly wrong. I never intended this whole thing to go so out of hand, I never intended for the two of you to fall in love with each other, but maybe it´s not a bad thing, because this will ensure that Harry will never abandon you."

"Why did you work so hard to ensure that I would have someone to support me? Wouldn´t you always support me? You may seem to be on the other side in public, but I know that you are on their side, against the person you love. Why?"

"Because I was afraid," murmured Narcissa.

"Of what, Mummy?" Draco asked, and Narcissa completely broke down. Draco walked over and hugged his mother, and Narcissa held him tightly.

"She´s afraid that you will abandon her," Victoria replied.

"Why is it that you know everything? And why is it that no one can ever find you? I´ve been wanting to contact you for the whole of this year, and now, you showed up!"

Victoria laughed hollowly.

"You wouldn´t understand my reasons until it´s time for the last battle."

"Oh? Did you not want anyone to hurt your precious Tom?"

A pained look came into Victoria´s eyes, and Harry knew that Draco had hit a sore spot.

"Tom?" she whispered. "He´s already been hurt. I hurt him, He hurt him, he´s already been broken, like Severus. But this time, I will save him. It´s the only thing left for me to do. But why did you want to contact me?" she resumed in her normal tone.

"Because I want to know my connection with Firewind dragons. My Animagus Potion told me that my best form would be one of a Firewind dragon."

A look passed between Victoria and Narcissa. And then, Narcissa seemed to snap. She walked towards Victoria and slapped her hard on the face. Victoria´s hand came up to a quickly spreading patch of red on her cheek as her face contorted in shock.

"Why, Narcissa, I didn´t think you had it in you," she said, and she laughed.

"I´m sick and tired of this, Victoria. I´m tired of keeping this secret. Why is it that you always make the rules? You may be the most powerful of us, but it does not entitle you to have supreme power. We should be allowed to decide for ourselves."

"And you do."

"No, I don´t. The one thing that truly matters, I can´t tell Draco. I never could. All his questions, they could have been answered by one sentence. But I´ve had to lie to him to keep the secret safe. Do you know how much I hate deceiving him? He deserves to know. You don´t deserve him."

"Oh, really? And do you think it would have done any good to have him know any sooner? It would have only added confusion and chaos into his life, and if Lucius found out, Draco would have been doomed. He can know now because the time is finally right."

"You can tell him, since it´s your secret, but you don´t deserve to. I´ve had to feed him, clothe him, teach him, bathe him, play with him, do everything that a mother had to do. I did everything for him and with him. I loved him more than I should have. I grew emotionally attached when I shouldn´t have. It´s all your fault. You just left and never came back! And what did you do while you were gone? You certainly did not go looking for the other two. And I know for sure that you haven´t found a replacement for Severus. All you did was be a lazy bitch and do nothing while heaving all the responsibilities onto me!"

"Shut up, Narcissa. You can complain all you want, but you can´t tell me that you didn´t enjoy it. You loved him more than your own, and you wished that he was, didn´t you? You wanted me to be out of the picture after a while, and I was, conveniently. But do you know what I did? Do you even know why I had to leave him with you? Narcissa, I´m no longer alive. I died the day before I gave him to you. I was killed by Voldemort, and thankfully, I had left him with some Muggle. Otherwise, he would be gone as well. I could never have taken care of him, me being dead. And keeping him with me would have only made his life more dangerous, and I needed him to grow up in a secure place. You were the only choice. And when I found out what happened, I knew that I was extremely lucky. I never forgot him all these years. I thought of him all the time. And what did I do this whole time? I thought up of the perfect plan and what we have to do for it. As for the other two? They don´t need to be found, I already knew who they are. A replacement for Severus? There´s no need. Are you satisfied now, cousin?"

Narcissa put a hand up to her mouth.

"I...I didn´t know. If I had..."

"Of course you didn´t! Do you think I would have worried your mind? You were already in grief, and I didn´t want to trouble you anymore than I had to, and I was giving you enough as it was! Do you think I would have told you the truth, told you that I was no longer living? It would bring about too many complications that I don´t need. Albus would get ahold of it, and then, I would have to talk to him. I didn´t need interference then, just peace so I can decide what to do next once all of us are assembled. And I did. I know exactly what to do now."

Harry stared agape at the two women, Victoria radiating off absolute fury and Narcissa regret. Victoria was dead? But how can that be?

"I...I think I know what you´re talking about," Draco choked out.

The two women turned to him.

"He was always a smart one, Draco. But of course, given his heritage, he had to be."

"I just want to know one thing. Who was my father?"

"The man who gave you the mark on your arm, son," Victoria replied.

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