The Dragon Games

"In. Now!" Harry repeated after Draco didn't move.

"I have school tomorrow," Draco replied, confused.

"Does it look like I care, Malfoy? Now get in the fucking game!"

He sat on the ground, determined, and a few short seconds later Draco joined him, eyeing him suspiciously. All the while, Harry couldn't help but get more and more worked up. Draco was using him; making him fall for him, making him trust him. That's what they wanted, Harry's trust, so that they could destroy him.

"This isn't really using your head, Harry," Draco said cautiously, trying to calm Harry down.

"Concentrate," he hissed.

Draco shut his mouth and closed his eyes.

Moments later, they were in the game, and the screech of the Dragon came. Neither of the boys said much of anything as the wound on their chests became deeper.

"You're not going to ask anything," Harry told him as they came to their feet. "You're going to answer all my questions, and you're not going to say a word."

Draco raised his eyebrows at him, but didn't say anything. Maybe he knew this had been coming.

"You said you didn't intend to hand me over to Voldemort. Well, what do you plan on doing with me?"

Draco grinned. "Well, it's definitely not appropriate, if that's what you're thinking."

"Goddamn it! I mean, are you going to let someone else kill me?" he asked angrily.

"No, I'm not going to let anyone kill you," Draco said. "Not if I can help it." He paused and then continued, "I'm not here for Voldemort; I'm here for myself. I want you to help me destroy him."

"Destroy Voldemort?"

"Yes."

Harry certainly hadn't thought of this. Draco was here to destroy Voldemort?

"Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"I'm weak, Harry. I don't like to come off as weak. I didn't trust you, and I didn't particularly like you. I was using you to benefit my cause, because I knew you would help if there was something in it for you."

Draco paused, and Harry still didn't really understand.

"I'm going to ask a question," Draco said quickly.

Harry knew this was Draco's way of asking him if it was okay, yet stating it rather than asking it in effort to save a question of the six allowed. "Alright."

"Would you like me to tell you everything once we get out of this level?" Draco asked.

"Yes. Will you?"

"Yes," Draco rolled his eyes. "You always do that, you always ask a question after I offer something."

"Yeah, well, you told me I couldn't trust you," he said. "I'm not completely stupid, though it may seem it at times."

"You can trust me now," Draco muttered. He turned away from him and headed to a door that had just appeared, pouring out fog into the white room.

Harry stared after him. Was Draco saying that because he had found a new fondness for him?

He stepped through the door after him and into a valley of thick silver fog.

"Draco?" he called.

"Find the orange flags," the Dragon's voice called overhead.

"Harry?" Draco asked. "Can you see anything?"

"No," he said, trying to squint through the fog. "Where are you?"

"Apparently lost," Draco muttered.

"Keep talking," he called to him.

"Right, I'm surrounded by fog, but I suspect you are too, otherwise you'd be able to find me."

Harry felt something underneath his foot.

"Ouch!" Draco yelled. "That's my foot!"

"Sorry," he said, stepping back. "How are we going to find the flags?"

"Squint?" Draco suggested.

"Stop being dumb," he hissed. "Take a hold of my shoulder or something."

"Alright," Draco said.

He felt Draco's hand take a hold of his upper arm, and Harry started to lead them around. After about ten minutes of searching it seemed like a hopeless cause, until from the corner of his eye, he spotted something orange.

"Look," he said, nodding in the direction of the flag.

"Oh thank Merlin," Draco said.

They came to the flag, and Draco picked it up. The fog vanished around them, and for a split second, Harry could see a flag off to their left, on a hill. A thick purple fog filled in around them.

"The other flag is to our right, in a cavern," Harry said, then frowned. That wasn't what he had intended to say, and that was not where the flag was.

"I don't believe you," Draco said, and Harry could detect his confusion at the end of his sentence as Draco released his arm. "I understand what's going on."

Take my shoulder. "Don't take my shoulder," Harry hissed.

Something was messing with their words. After all, it wasn't hard enough for them to just have to find the flags blind, so there had to be other factors to mess them up.

Draco took a hold of his shoulder again.

"We should keep moving until we don't know what's going on," Harry said. Now that's brilliant.

"Are you mental?" Draco said in an agreeable tone.

Whatever was going on was switching around Harry's words, so he realized he had to do say the opposite of what he meant.

The flag is to our right. "The flag is to our right."

He was now really confused. If that hadn't worked, what were they going to do?

"You don't know where the flag is?" Draco asked.

"No, I don't know," he said. "Don't let me lead you."

Harry started towards where he remembered seeing the flags and Draco followed him through the purple haze till they stumbled upon the orange.

"Not there!" he said.

He picked it up and the purple fog faded away. No flags were in sight.

"That was moronic," Draco muttered.

Harry smiled as a red fog filled in.

Suddenly, the idea of Draco touching his shoulder pissed him off. The same thought must have run through Draco's mind because his hand immediately moved away.

In fact, Harry was starting to get upset that he was even here at all. He was feeling angry with Draco for being near him, and mad at the Dragon for telling him to find the flags. He was even mad at the flags for existing.

"I hate this," Draco said aloud.

"I hate this more," he argued. "I hate these flags."

"I hate that I agree with you!" Draco hissed.

Harry knew these feelings weren't real- or maybe deep down they were- but right now, the fog was spurring these feelings, and he couldn't bring himself to even care about finding the next flag.

"I hate this fog," he muttered.

"I hate the color red," Draco answered back.

I hate, I hate, I hate. The two boys went on for a very long time, their list of hates growing from food to every person they had ever met.

"I hate Snape," he said.

"I hate the Weasley's."

"I hate Professor Binns."

"I hate this place."

"I hate this place even more."

"I hate this place so much that my hatred for those disgusting orange flags is nothing in comparison."

"That's it!" he shouted. "I hate this place! Repeat that, Draco."

"I hate this place," Draco repeated.

Harry kept focusing on that thought because the more he hated this place, the more he wanted out, and the more he didn't care that Draco was following him.

Finally, he found the flag and picked it up. The red fog scattered, and their minds broke free.

"I don't think I'll ever hate anything ever again," Draco muttered.

Harry looked down to see that Draco was holding his hand. Sometime between the first hate and the last, Draco had taken it so he wouldn't loose him.

"Err, Draco," he said awkwardly.

A blue fog poured in and he lost his trail of thought. His body was becoming heavy, his eyes droopy, and he had never felt more exhausted in his life. He heard Draco give a huge yawn, which caused him to yawn as well.

"Sleep," Draco mumbled.

"No, no, sleep," he said. "Well, maybe we can rest for a few minutes..."

His conscious was screaming no, but his body was telling him he needed to sleep.

"Yeah," Draco yawned again. "A few minutes."

He felt Draco tug his hand down, and he collapsed to the ground.

He looked out for a moment and saw a glimpse of orange in the not-too-far-off distance. If he could only just scoot a little...

He felt a sharp pain in his arm and found Draco peering over at him, holding another flag.

"Get up!" Draco said to him.

"What happened?" he asked, blinking to wake from his sleep.

"You fell asleep."

"So did you," he countered.

"I'll explain at the castle, come on."

Draco offered him a hand to pull him up and he took it, and they groggily headed towards the glowing golden door.

---

Hermione's eyes fluttered open, and for the first time in a while, she wasn't knocked out immediately with the haunting voices and pain. She looked up and found Madam Pomfrey standing over her, smiling.

"Good, you're awake," the nurse said. "Mr. Weasley will be delighted."

"Where is Ron? What did he do?" Hermione asked. The last thing she remembered was Ron running off to find Pansy.

"He didn't do anything. Professor Aiyana took care of them," Madam Pomfrey assured.

"What happened to them?"

"I'm afraid I do not know. You'll have to speak with the Headmistress to know that, which won't be for a while I'm afraid; you have to get some rest."

"Did you get the curse off?" she asked hopefully.

"In a matter of speaking, Professor Snape came up with a potion that would nullify the effects of the curse."

Hermione started and then realized that she was talking about Snape's wife, and not Severus himself.

"So the voices will stop?"

"Yes, and so will your headaches," Madam Pomfrey smiled.

She was relieved. No more headaches, no more voices, and maybe no more Pansy, Blaise and Millicent, but that didn't mean it was the end of them. Especially with how hell bent they were about getting her killed or worse, making her go insane.

"You have to get some rest now, but this evening you may have a few visitors."

"What time is it?"

"It's about two in the afternoon."

"I can't miss classes!" she exclaimed.

Madam Pomfrey shook her head. "I'm afraid you'll have to. It'll only be for a few days; you can get Mr. Weasley or Miss Patil to bring you your homework until we're sure you're better."

Hermione sighed, upset. She definitely didn't like to miss school, even if she had a validated reason. However, what she wanted most of all, was to be spending time with Ron again. She couldn't wait to see him.

---

Back now in the room of magic, Harry was waiting for Draco to explain what had happened in the game.

"It's a good thing you snore, Harry," Draco said, grinning.

"I do not!" he argued, embarrassed.

"How would you know?" Draco winked. "Well, let's just say you were making a lot of racket in your sleep, and every time I closed my eyes, you'd make another sound. In my head, all I wanted was to get to sleep so badly that I scouted out the flag and dragged myself over to it. Well, before that, I tried to punch you in the arm a few times so you'd stop, but you didn't. That's what happened."

"I see," Harry nodded. It explained the pain in his arm.

"We should sit for the rest of the story," Draco said.

"Right," he agreed. He sat, watching Draco sit on a seat cushion away from him on the couch.

"Did you get the letter from The Angel?"

"Yeah, how did you know that?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Hold on," Draco said. "I'll get there."

He nodded, letting Draco continue.

"To begin, I guess I'll start off with what happened after last year. I lied to Voldemort. Me and Snape both lied to him."

Harry didn't say anything; he had decided he would let Draco explain everything before he interrupted.

"Snape is on your side, Harry," Draco said.

Doubt it, he thought grimly.

"Dumbledore and him both knew what had to be done," Draco sighed. "Snape tried to talk me out of killing him a million times, but I was worried about disappointing my father again. I couldn't let him down, not after he threatened my mum. I tried to overcome my fear, but I couldn't do it. So Snape carried out a plan that Dumbledore and him had devised. Snape and I went into hiding immediately thereafter, as I'm sure you could guess." He paused, and after Harry nodded, he continued. "Snape told me of their plan and told me I would have to go to Voldemort and tell him I had done the job, not him, so I did. It was fairly easy. After all, I've been practicing the art of lying since I was born, being a Malfoy and all," he sighed. "Voldemort bought it. He was so pleased with me that he offered me another job. This time, it was to kill you." Again, to make sure Harry was getting all this, he paused for a nod from the boy to go on. "I told him I would, told him I'd devise a plan, but all the while Snape and I were creating a plan ourselves. I guess now would be the time to tell you of Dumbledore's plan first. Dumbledore created a sort of culling spell on his phoenix bird, so that the song it sang after his death would make him born again. And he was, that night he died, he came back."

Harry's draw dropped. Dumbledore was alive? Was it possible?

"He came back as a woman, naming himself Allie Aiyana. He created this plan so that no one would know of his return, especially Voldemort. He would be able to go undercover and devise even more ideas that were ingenious. The only ones that knew of his return were Snape, myself, and Professor McGonagall. She was the one who told the Ministry that Aiyana was a long term friend who was more then qualified for the position of Headmistress and she would be honored to see her there."

Harry thought for a moment. Aiyana is Dumbledore? As inconceivable as the idea seemed, it was absolutely a Dumbledore thing to do.

"So Dumbledore knew that Severus couldn't come back to Hogwarts, but we needed someone who could keep an eye on me for Voldemort's sake. We have to make it seem like Rosaria was here to keep tabs on me for him, like Severus did last year."

Harry finally had to interrupt. "Rosaria really is Snape's wife?"

Draco grinned. "Yeah."

"Huh," he said, and then allowed him to continue.

"Well, Dumbledore has been helping me send you the notes, Harry. We've discovered a new way to destroy Voldemort for good, and that's through this game. Dumbledore knows that the thing both of us want the most is to be rid of Voldemort, and that's the weapon that will appear at the end of this game."

"And the Mortuus Sermo?" Harry asked.

"That was my idea, and Dumbledore and Snape don't know about it," Draco sighed. "I didn't want you to know what was going on, mostly because I didn't want you to think you could suddenly like me and confide in me. Also, you're an incredibly bad liar, Harry. I can read you like an open book, and I couldn't have Pansy or my father or Voldemort realizing I had betrayed them until it was the right time. I gave you the Mortuus Sermo to save you from destroying the both of us."

"Why are you telling me now?"

"Because for some crazed reason, I've actually grown to care about you, and also, you really freak me out when you get all emotional like you did when you burst in here."

"I'm sorry," Harry muttered.

"You would've figured it out without me, Harry. You and your little pep squad would have unveiled it all sooner or later," Draco said with a shrug.

Harry sighed. That wasn't necessarily true this time around. He hadn't once mentioned the Games to Ron or Hermione, or anyone else for that matter. He didn't seem to be the only one, though, for Ginny and Ron were clearly keeping something from him. And Hermione, well, he didn't even have half a clue about what was happening to her.

"I think you're wrong about that, Draco," he said with a sigh.

"Why's that?" Draco asked.

"Ron and I haven't exactly been talking a lot lately," he muttered, watching a frown form on Draco's face. "Things have just gotten too out of control lately, and I just felt I needed to keep things secret until I knew what I was getting into. But that never happened, and I haven't been able to bring myself to tell him," Harry said.

"You mean," Draco started, "that you didn't get your brilliant conspiracy theory from Weasley? That came from your own head?"

"No, that came from Dobby and Kreacher. House-elves who have been following you around since last year," he explained.

"I see," Draco said. "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that, so I can deal with this other little issue I see."

"What's that?"

"What the bloody hell are you doing not talking to your best mate?" Draco yelled.

Harry froze, surprised and slightly intimidated.

"You're supposed to get rid of your stress by talking to your mate! That's what Weasley is for! No wonder you haven't been sleeping!"

"What are you screaming about, Draco?" he asked, trying to keep he's voice low so that Draco would follow suit.

Draco started to speak again, but Harry frowned as he went on and on - whatever he was muttering about was not in English.

"Draco?" he asked.

But Draco kept on going, streaming a fluent line of words that made no sense to him. He looked in hysteria, and Harry tried to calm him down, but instead, he stood up and started pacing, still ranting.

Harry leapt up after him, grabbing his swinging hands. Draco stopped speaking, his eyes full of longing. He moved to let go of Draco's hands, but instead Draco was pulled closer. He didn't know if it was his doing or Draco's doing, but either way, his mind was lost in a buzz.

Draco was just inches from him, and Harry felt his own hands snake around his waist, his head leaning towards the boy's slender mouth.

It all happened in a quick instant. Their lips met, and Harry's eyes fluttered closed. He felt Draco's arms wrapping around his own waist, pulling him in closer, filling the kiss with more passion.

Time passed, and Harry wasn't quite sure who the first to pull away was or how long they had shared that first perfect kiss- the kiss that was still sending shivers down his body even though Draco was now out of arms reach.

If he had any doubt before this moment about liking Draco, it had all been demolished in that one demolished with that one kiss.