Friend or Foe

Friend or Foe

Chapter 4: The Three Broomsticks

Red...

Red...

Harry groaned and collapsed onto the ground.

He was in his "forest", which, of course, was actually the Room of the Requirement. He was currently lying in the middle of the clearing, panting heavily. A few feet on the ground before him was a greenish stone. That was the stone given to him by Nicolas a year before. It was used to test one's magic. It would glow red if the spell it was hit with worked, otherwise it would remain green in colour.

Harry had been practicing with it for more than two weeks before the stone started to give him some respond. He knew that was an advance spell, and that it would be really hard for someone to learn it without an instructor. Nevertheless, after weeks of practice, he finally was able to make that stone glow bright red every time. Though he was exhausted after each practice...

Harry rubbed the sweat off his forehead. That spell was really consuming!

Sighing, Harry slowly crawled up from the ground and pointed his wand at the stone. Taking a deep breath, he performed the spell once again.

"Legilimens!"

The stone glowed bright red again. Good.

Now it was time to go on to the next stage.

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While Harry was practicing Legilimency, his friends were rapidly organizing the first meeting of their secret defense club. And by the time of the first Hogsmeade weekend, all possible members of the club had been informed.

A day before the first Hogsmeade weekend, Harry sent an "invitation card" to the annoyed Draco Malfoy in the Slytherin table. He still didn't know whether the Slytherin had decided to join, but he told him the time and place of the first meeting nevertheless.

Harry was alone in the library when Malfoy found him after the last lesson of that day.

"Malfoy." Harry looked up and greeted the Slytherin as he approached.

"What's the meaning of this, Potter." Malfoy took out the letter he had gotten that morning.

"Oh, that's the time of the first meeting," Harry answered with an innocent look on his face.

Malfoy snorted. "You know very well what I mean!"

Harry smirked. "Well, since you didn't give me any reply, I figured I'd just tell you when the first meeting was, in case you decided to join us."

Malfoy glared at him. "I've never-"

"So, will you come?" asked Harry, ignoring what the blonde was going to say.

"What make you think I'd teach those stupid mudblood friends of yours?" asked the blonde.

Harry narrowed his eyes. "You will not insult my friends, Malfoy," he said in a cold voice.

Malfoy met Harry's glare, both of them refusing to avert their gaze first. Finally, Harry sighed and looked away.

"So, will you join us?" he asked.

Malfoy paused for a while and replied, "I will only show my magic if necessary."

Harry nodded, agreeing.

"I can quit whenever I like," Malfoy continued.

Harry smirked. Trust a Slytherin to state something like that.

"All right, as long as you keep the existence of the group a secret," he said.

"Fine then," said Malfoy, satisfied.

"One thing though, Malfoy, if you are going to join, promise not to insult my friends again. No name calling and don't deliberately anger them," said Harry.

Malfoy stared at him and sighed. "Alright," he said, "but don't expect me to be friendly to them."

Harry chuckled. "Who would expect that from you?"

Malfoy smirked. "Potter, are you really planning to hold the meeting at Hog's Head of all places?"

Harry nodded. "Why?" he asked.

The blonde rolled his eyes. "Even the Three Broomsticks would be safer than Hog's Head if we don't want to be overheard!"

And so they started their first-ever civil discussion.

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"WHAT?" Ron exploded.

"I said," said Harry calmly, "Malfoy here is going to-"

"You told this... this... ferret about the defense club and asked him to JOIN?"

"To teach, Weasel," Malfoy injected coolly.

"Malfoy!" Harry shot Malfoy a disprove glare.

Malfoy rolled his eyes. "You can always leave if you want, Weasley."

Ron glared at him.

Harry sighed. To make matter worse, Hermione decided to enter the conversation.

"Harry, are you sure..." said Hermione, staring at Malfoy with uncertainty.

"He can be trusted, Hermione." Harry saw Malfoy widened his eyes at this. He continued firmly, "He is not his father."

"He is a bloody Death Eater!" yelled Ron.

"Ron!" Hermione warned him as she saw several customers in the Three Broomsticks had turned to look at them.

"Are you sure, Ron?" asked Harry. Before Ron could reply, he continued, "For all I know, he is skilled at defense and our group will benefit from him."

"But-"

"You hardy know him, Ron, you have no right to judge him." Harry sighed. "At least give him the benefit of the doubt, alright?"

Ron shut up and narrowed his eyes at Malfoy, who held his head up in an arrogant way.

Harry rolled his eyes at the pair's antics. He turned to the others, who had been watching the entire exchange. Some of them looked amused and curious while some looked puzzled at the presence of Draco Malfoy.

"Er..." Harry started, gaining the others' attention, "as you can see, Hermione here," Hermione reddened a bit, "got the idea that we need to learn Defense Against the Dark Arts properly. What Umbridge taught us was totally useless. So she suggested organizing a defense club, for our own safety or simply for passing the exam."

"For our own safety?" Zacharias Smith asked sharply.

Harry nodded grimly. "Voldemort is back. We need to know how to protect ourselves in order to survive." Malfoy narrowed his eyes at the statement. Harry noticed that and added softly, "No matter which side we are on."

"Do you have proof?" Smith narrowed his eyes. "That He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back?"

"No," said Harry firmly, surprising everyone, "I have no proof that could convince you." He sighed. "I am tired of repeating again and again what has happened. Voldemort is back, I saw it with my own eyes. If you choose to believe something that would make you feel better, so be it. But the sooner you accept the fact and prepare yourself, the greater chance you will have to survive."

Everyone was either surprised or frightened after Harry's speech.

"I don't believe you," said Smith quietly.

"Leave then," said a cold voice before Harry could reply.

Harry turned to see it was Malfoy who had spoken.

"If you have any problems, then leave," said the blonde. "I don't want to be in the same group as a bunch of idiots who can not distinguish between truths or lies anyway."

There were no further arguments after that, and despite the protests, no one left at the end.

Harry shot Malfoy an amused look, and the blonde raised his eyebrows in respond.

Harry chuckled and shook his head.

He turned to the others and continued cheerfully, "For those who still want to join, please sign you name here." He pulled out a parchment from his pocket and laid it on the table. "This is a magical contract. After you sign it, you can't tell anyone about this group. Everything should be kept secret, otherwise that would be considered as breaking the contract."

"What will happen if we break the contract?" someone in the group asked.

Harry smirked. He and Hermione had worked together to make the contract, and the consequences of breaking it were not at all pleasant.

"Believe me, you don't want to find out," said Harry slyly. He turned and wrote his name on the parchment.

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"How on earth did you find this place, Potter?" asked Malfoy, looking around the room.

Harry grinned. They were in a secret room down in the dungeons, the same room where Tom hid from 'Alex' after the Chamber incident. The room was a small conference room, with a long table and several chairs around it.

"A friend of mine told me," Harry answered. 'At least, I hope he is still my friend,' he thought grimly.

Malfoy snorted. "Searching for secret rooms in the dungeons? It seems you Gryffindors are more ruthless than I thought."

Harry raised an eyebrow, but said nothing about the identity of that 'ruthless Gryffindor' who found the room.

"So," he said, placing several defense books on the table, "what are we going to do in the first meeting?"

One day after the meeting in Hog's Head, the two 'leaders' of the defense club decided to meet each other after dinner to discuss what they were going to do in the meetings. As it was way too suspicious for the two of them to appear and actually have a civil conversation in the library, or rather, any public places, Harry suggested using this secret room. Harry was not ready to share the secret of the Room of Requirement to anyone at the moment.

"We need to find out what they could do before starting anything new," said Malfoy.

"And that can be translated as 'I want to find out what you can do', right?" Harry smirked.

Malfoy shot him a look that clearly said, "Of course!"

Harry rolled his eyes. "So, dueling then?" he asked, knowing it was what Malfoy was suggesting.

Malfoy seemed surprised that Harry voiced out exactly what he was thinking, though he concealed it well.

Malfoy smirked. "Why, Potter, it seems we can actually work together after all."

Harry smirked back.

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Severus was walking back to his personal chamber after gathering several ingredients from a storeroom in a rather remote part of the dungeons. He stopped abruptly as he heard voices coming from the room next to him. To say he was surprised was an understatement, as even he himself rarely came this deep into the dungeons. He would not be here had it not been for some of the darker ingredients that were needed for those dark potions requested by the Dark Lord.

He took out his wand, cast a silencing charm on himself, and crept closer to the door. He heard two voices coming from the room, and the two owners of the voices obviously were having some kind of argument.

"Expelliarmus?"

Severus immediately recognized that voice as Draco Malfoy's, but who was he talking to? And why was he here in the first place?

"Honestly, everyone knows this spell! Is that all you can think of?" Draco continued.

"That particular spell saved my life many times before. We'd better start from something easier before we move on to the harder ones."

Severus' eyes widened at the voice. Potter? What was he doing in his dungeons? And with none other than Draco Malfoy no less!

Determined to find out what was happening, he cautiously opened the door. Inside the dark room, he saw someone had pushed the ingredient shelf aside, revealing a door behind it. Pondering how anyone could find a room in a place like that, he pushed the door open to find Draco Malfoy sitting alone in the room.

Draco looked up from the book he had been reading when Severus entered the room. His eyes widened before greeting him with a smile.

"Hi, Uncle Severus," his godson said.

Severus frowned. "What are you doing here, Draco?"

"Reading," Draco answered, lifting the book in his hand for him to see. "The common room is too noisy. And Goyle and Crabbe kept disturbing me there."

Being a skilled Legilimens, Severus immediately knew the boy was lying. He knew Draco had no knowledge of Occlumency at all. Lucius had made sure of that to prevent his son from lying to him, he thought with distaste.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts?" he asked, eyeing the book in the boy's hand.

"Oh, this..." Draco started. Severus could tell that the young Malfoy was thinking of an excuse. "Well, my father won't be happy if I fail in my OWLs, right? Even if it is a useless subject."

Severus raised his eyebrows, stating he did not believe anything the boy had just said. Before he could say anything else, he felt severe pain coming from his left forearm, or more specifically, the Dark Mark. He clenched his fist and gritted his teeth in pain.

"Uncle Severus? Are you alright?" asked Draco, concerned.

Severus nodded tightly. "We'll talk later, Draco," he said before turning

on his heel and sweeping out of the room.

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Several minutes after Snape ran out, a pale Harry Potter reappeared in the room, an invisibility cloak in his hand. He stared at the open door, knowing exactly what Snape's abrupt behaviour meant. He shifted his gaze to the blonde beside him, who was also staring at the open door, frowning.

"Malfoy?" he asked.

Malfoy turned to face him. Harry noticed the blonde had paled visibly, which he couldn't understand why. Unless...

"We were lucky this time, though I'm sure he was suspecting something," said Malfoy. He sneered. :I can't believe both of us have forgotten to place a silencing charm on the room! We didn't even lock the door." He looked at Harry. "But the alarm just now... someone must have put a ward there."

Harry nodded. He thought for a while and said slowly, "I guess that certain friend of mine put it there." Which was quite likely, he mused. He remembered Tom saying he should add a ward in the room since 'Alex' had found him so easily. Of course, Tom had no idea of their connection.

The two boys had been surprised when an alarm rang in the room, warning them someone was invading. Without thinking, Harry hid himself under the invisibility cloak which he had used to sneak into the dungeons earlier while Malfoy quickly buried himself under the book nearest to him.

"Anyway," said Harry, "let's get out of here now."

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"Albus, the Dark Lord wants to find out what the prophecy is about."

Albus Dumbledore sighed. "He will try to trick Harry into getting it. Only Harry and the Dark Lord himself can remove the prophecy from the shelf without damaging the orb."

Severus sneered at the mention of Potter's name.

"Voldemort must not get the prophecy, Severus," said the old wizard.

Voldemort. Severus never figured out how Albus did that. The Dark Lord had placed a curse on all of his followers by using the Dark Mark. All Death Eaters were forbidden to call their master "Voldemort", or they would suffer from severe pain coming from the Dark Mark. To make it worse, it would cause the same effect when they heard someone saying that name. The Dark Lord seemed to think that if the population of the wizarding world were afraid to say the name "Voldemort", then not even his own Death Eaters should be allowed to call him that. Though, no matter how many times Albus called him by that name, Severus' Dark Mark gave no response. Every time Severus asked him about that, that annoying old man would only said, "Oh, several wards would do the trick, my dear boy."

"I know." he answered. He did not know what exactly the prophecy was about. It was too dangerous for him to know, being a person so close to the Dark Lord, who was a skilled Legilimens. He only knew the prophecy was about Potter, and they should keep the Dark Lord from knowing what it was about.

"Severus, about what I asked earlier..." Albus started.

Severus groaned. He knew exactly what the headmaster wanted him to do.

"The boy hates me, Albus, and I must say the feeling is mutual," he protested.

"I know what you feel about James, but Harry is not..." Severus held up his hand to stop the headmaster from going any further.

"From what I've seen, that boy is exactly the same as his father." Severus sighed, knowing it was useless to argue with Albus. He knew he could never change the perfect image of the Boy-Who-Lived in Albus' mind, no matter what the boy had done. Instead, he told Albus something that had been disturbing him. "Do you know your precious golden boy has been acting strangely?"

Albus sighed. "Severus, I've had enough complaints about Harry from you already."

"No, it's not the same. The boy was somehow... different," he said. "Do you know he's been associating with Draco?"

"Young Mr. Malfoy?" said Albus. Severus could tell he was surprised at the statement.

"Yes," said Severus, "I'm sure that it was Potter talking with Draco in the dungeons just now." He smirked. "Surprised to hear your Gryffindor golden boy associating with a Slytherin?"

Albus looked at him disapprovingly. "I'm worried about him, Severus, but I can't risk being so close to him. I would have taught him myself, but I can't. Please, Severus."

Severus rubbed his temple. He knew there was no way he could refuse.

"Fine then, but don't expect too much," he finally said. He nodded to the smiling headmaster and stood to leave the office. Upon reaching the doorknob, though, he thought of something and turned around. "I need to borrow your Pensieve, Albus."