Rating:
PG-13
House:
Astronomy Tower
Characters:
Draco Malfoy Harry Potter
Genres:
Romance Slash
Era:
Multiple Eras
Spoilers:
Philosopher's Stone Chamber of Secrets Prizoner of Azkaban Goblet of Fire
Stats:
Published: 03/30/2004
Updated: 04/03/2004
Words: 34,819
Chapters: 23
Hits: 78,050

Draco Malfoy and the Heart of Slytherin

Saber ShadowKitten

Story Summary:
At the heart of every Slytherin...

Chapter 18

Posted:
04/03/2004
Hits:
2,719

Chapter Eighteen: Confrontation at the Hogwarts-Hogsmeade Station


The sun was beginning to lower in the sky already, as it set early in wintertime. As the shadows lengthened, the temperature dropped, sending a chill down Draco's spine.

"So, what happens now, Potter?" Draco said. He looked between Harry, Wormtail, Voldemort, and the old wizard prone on the ground and decided that they'd have to leave the nameless wizard behind.

"What do you mean?" asked Harry, triple-checking Wormtail's ropes.

"We've spent all this time training to rid the world of this git," Draco kicked Voldemort's corpse, "and we succeeded. But now what? Do our lessons stop? Do we go back to being normal, boring wizarding students?"

Harry straightened and scratched his head, causing his snow-dampened hair to stick up. "I'm not rightly sure. I wouldn't mind being normal and boring for a change."

"Potter, you're always a bore." Draco saw Harry shiver and noticed his robes were still wet from lying in the snow. Draco sighed exasperatedly. "You're also an idiot."

Harry looked puzzled. "What did I do now?"

Draco tromped through the snow, over to Harry. "You really are an idiot," he muttered, unwinding his green and silver scarf from around his neck. He dropped it around Harry's neck, casting both a drying and warming spell on Harry's robes, as he tied the scarf. "You're the only one who could survive the killing curse twice, only to catch your death from a cold."

Harry smiled a brilliant Harry Potter smile. "Not when I have you to take care of me."

"Take care of you?" Draco snorted. "This is self-preservation, Potter. I would be lynched if I let the hero of the wizarding world die, when I could have prevented it."

"Right. Of course. How could I think it was because of anything else?" Harry's smile grew wider and brighter.

Draco scowled at him. "Stop looking at me like I'd hung the moon, you overgrown lummox, and let's go already. You might not have noticed, but it's bloody cold outside."

Harry nodded, still grinning, and cast a spell on Wormtail. "Mobilicorpus!" The sleeping Death Eater stood and jerkily followed Harry and Draco over to Voldemort's corpse.

Harry latched onto Wormtail's wrist with one hand and Draco's upper arm with the other hand. Their purchases had been shrunk and stuffed into Harry's robe pockets. Draco cast mobilicorpus on Voldemort, too, causing a macabre spectacle as the corpse stood. Draco grimaced as he seized Voldemort's hand. He quickly pressed the correct spots on the spider medallion and the four wizards disappeared with a pop.

The portkey deposited them on the platform at the Hogwarts-Hogsmeade train station -- right in the middle of students unloading from the train, back from winter holidays.

Draco, Harry, and the two ensorcelled wizards fell in a tangled heap with a few students. Others gathered around as they extricated themselves.

"I'm going to Floo Professor Dumbledore inside the station house," Harry told Draco, as he straightened his glasses. "Watch Pettigrew. If he wakes up, put him back to sleep. He needs to stay alive in order to clear my godfather's name."

Draco nodded and Harry hurried off. Draco ended the moving spell on the adult wizards, so they stayed on the platform where they'd fallen. He glowered at the students standing around him. "Don't you have carriages to catch?"

Some moved off, gossiping like mad, but most stayed put. Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle elbowed their way into the circle, along with a few other older Slytherins.

"Hmm, what do we have here?" sneered Zane McCoy, the seventh year Slytherin Quidditch Captain. "Draco Malfoy and two dead bodies. This does not bode well for Potter's boyfriend."

"Sod off, McCoy," Draco said, standing guard over Voldemort and Wormtail. He realized suddenly that he could be in serious trouble if the student Death Eater loyalists figured out that it was their Dark Lord dead at his feet.

Wormtail stirred, catching everyone's attention. Draco cursed silently and quickly recast the sleeping charm on Wormtail.

"Hey, I know him," said Goyle, pointing at Wormtail. "I recognize that silver hand. He's mmph--"

Pansy clamped a hand over Goyle's mouth. She smiled with deadly sweetness. "I think several of us know who he is, and it's our duty to escort him home."

Merlin's beard!, Draco thought, as seven wands were pulled. Forget guarding Voldemort, he was already dead. Draco would be, too, if he lost Wormtail. Harry's future happiness depended on Pettigrew and, although Draco still mostly hated Harry, he would not allow that happiness to be taken away.

Zane pointed his wand threateningly at Draco. "It's time to see how ickle Drakkie looks covered in hexes."

"Let's not," Draco stated cooly. "Expelliarmus!"

Zane's wand flew from his hand, landing on the platform some distance away.

"Expelliarmus!" Draco was able to cast the spell once more on Pansy, before the Death Eater children retaliated.

Five hexes came at him at once. Draco kept his mouth parted and let them all hit, falling to the platform and wincing in pain. It didn't last long. "Finite incantatum."

Gasps, shouts, and loud gossip surrounded Draco as he scrambled to his feet, the hexes all gone. "Stupefy!" he cast on May Puebla. "Engorgio!" he cast on Goyle's wand hand. "Expelliarmus!" he cast on Crabbe, before another two hexes hit Draco.

Draco threw the curses off quickly and darted a look around as he disarmed another attacker. Draco knew there were at least a dozen other non-Slytherin children of Death Eaters somewhere on the platform. Zane and Pansy had retrieved their wands and were pushing their way back into the middle of the circle. The other students didn't stop them, or draw wands to help Draco. He'd wager they would if it was Harry being attacked.

Draco opened his mouth to cast another spell, when Goyle let out a bullish yell and charged. Surprised, Draco's well-trained instincts took over and he flipped Goyle, using the large Slytherin's own momentum against him.

Almost immediately, thick arms wrapped around Draco's in a vice from behind. Draco threw his head back, cracking his skull against the face of the person holding him. He saw stars at the same time the other student howled and released him. Harry always predicted the move and jerked his head out of the way. This was the first time Draco felt the effects of using his head as a weapon, and it threw him off balance. It didn't help that Goyle succeeded in tackling him.

Draco's abused skull cracked against the platform and he bit back a yelp of pain. Goyle had his hands around Draco's bare neck, the swollen one giving him an advantage. He squeezed.

Out of the corner of his eye, Draco saw Zane and Pansy approach Wormtail. "No!" Draco tried to yell, but it came out as a croak, as Goyle continued to strangle him.

Draco boxed Goyle's ears as hard as he could and cast sonorous on himself. "POTTER!" his voice boomed, causing all to jump.

Goyle reared back, covering his injured ears. Draco fisted his hand in Goyle's robe, sat up, and head-butted him. More stars exploded in Draco's vision, but he was still able to hex Pansy. "Furnunculus!"

Pansy screeched as boils suddenly covered her body. Zane and the other two Slytherins who had their wands aimed at Draco.

"Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy!"

The three boys were stunned, Harry Potter coming to the rescue.

Draco slumped in relief, casting the quietus charm on himself, returning his voice to normal.

He relaxed too soon. Goyle recovered from the head-butt and his fist hit Draco's face like a locomotive. There was a reason Goyle had been one of the goons protecting Draco before his father's death, and Draco felt it in the cracking of his cheek.

A shout of rage echoed in the air, and Goyle was suddenly flying. He crashed into the surrounding students, bowling them over.

A wild-looking Harry Potter appeared in front of Draco. The green and silver scarf around his neck was partially unwound, his hair was in disarray, and his cheeks flushed. He crouched, pulled off his gloves and shoved them in his pocket, and lightly touched Draco's injured cheek. "Numbus."

Draco's cheek tingled a moment before the pain faded, and all he felt was Harry's warm, calloused fingertips on his face.

"All right there, Malfoy?" asked Harry a bit roughly.

"What took you so long?"

Harry snorted, straightened, and offered Draco a hand up. Abruptly, he rounded on the crowd of students and began a furious rant.

"I cannot believe you people! What the bleedin' hell is wrong with you? Why didn't you help Malfoy? Seven against one is a bit unfair, and I highly doubt he deserved it..."

Salazar help him, Potter was being righteous on Draco's behalf. Draco was never going to live this down. He went to collect the seven downed Slytherins' wands as Harry went on.

"...All of you have wands and know how to use them. You go to a wizarding school, for Merlin's sake! Some of you even learned to cast hexes before coming here..."

The circle of students shifted uncomfortably. Heads bowed. The silence was shamed. A single wand poked out between two robed shoulders.

"...I am ashamed of the Gryffindors most of all. We're supposed to be protectors..."

Draco saw the flash of a spell being cast at Harry, within seconds after he'd noticed the wand. He rushed forward, darting in front of Harry, and the spell hit Draco full on.

Draco was really never going to live this down.