Grim Memoran

"Hey, look over there!" Hermione whispered to Harry and Ron over breakfast early in their fifth year at Hogwarts school. Harry and Ron looked over to the Slytherin table, where she was pointing.

Draco was reading a letter, and as his eyes scrolled further down the piece of parchment, his face was going white. Then, without wrning, he got up and hurried out, a neutral expression set on his pale face.

"Wonder what that was about?" Harry said curiously.

"Who cares?" Ron scoffed, and helped himself to some scrambled eggs.

But Harry couldn't help wondering...


Late that week, Harry was putting on his Quidditch robes in the changing room by the Quidditch pitch for the first match of the year against Slytherin. As he felt the usual pang of nerves, he smiled at the thought of perhaps winning the Quidditch cup that year. He was captain of the Quidditch team now, and he hoped to make it proud.


His thoughts were interrupted by Ron Weasley stumbled into the room, looking half-asleep, and his eyes drooping.


"Come on Ron! You're really late!" Harry scolded good-naturedly.

"Sorry, I was asleep. Didn't you feel like this before your first match? Especially if it was against Slytherin."
"I did. So I'll let you off just this once . Come on, the sooner we get out there, the nerves will go away.

The rest of the team were ready. As soon as Ron had put on his scarlet Quidditch robes (which clashed with his hair) the team set out onto the Quidditch pitch to a tidal wave of cheering. Harry grinned at Ron, who smiled back, and looked slightly less nervous.

Madam Hooch trotted onto the field as the Slytherin team crossed the pitch. Harry noticed that Draco Malfoy hadn't grown much over the summer, and now they were both the same height. Good, Harry thought smugly, now he can't call me shortie.

"Ok, I want a nice, clean match, people." Madam Hooch warned, and blew the whistle.

Both teams shot up into the sky like rockets to the moon. Ron nervously flew to the goal posts, as he was the Gryffindor goal-keeper.

Harry flew over the match, watching the Quaffle and looking out for the Snitch. He waved over to the stands, where Hermione was sitting next to Seamus Finnigan. Seamus whispered something in her ear and she giggled and turned pink. Harry grinned. Hermione had written to Harry over the summer to tell him she was going out with Seamus, and they'd been head-over-heels for each other since then.

"What a save!!! Go, Wealey!" yelled Dean Thomas, the commentator, and Harry cheered louder than anyone else.

Wonder what that letter was about, Harry thought, it mustn't have been good news. Oh, well, it's probably nothing, really-
"POTTER!"
Harry looked round in time to see a Bludger flying at his face, and dodged it neatly. He heaved a sigh of relief, and wiped his brow.

There was a gasp in the crowd as a small green blur hurtled past him towards the ground.

"Well, how about that," Ron said as the figure fell seventy feet from the sky. "Malfoy fell off his broomstick."



Harry stared as Draco hit the ground, landing in a crumpled heap. The Slytherin team tried to play on but Madam Hooch blew her whistle and both teams flew down to the ground. As Draco was being stretchered (sp?) away, Hermione and Seamus approached Harry and Ron, and Hermione was shaking.

"He just fell and lay there and it was so scary!" she wailed.

"Who cares?" Ron said, shrugging. "It's only Malfoy, It's not like he's important or anything."
"Oh, it's not because it's him, it's because it's anyone!" she replied, trying to pull herself together. "He might be dead!"
Ron rolled his eyes. "Well, DUH! He just hit the ground head first after a seventy foot drop, he couldn't possibly be any deader."
"Shut up, Ron!" Harry hissed, handing Hermione a tissue.

As the crowd made their way back towards the castle, Hagrid bustled up behind them. "Go on, back teh yer towers! Yeh'll get ter know more there!"
Harry, Ron, Hermione and Seamus hurried back to Gryffindor tower, with Ginny Wealey trotting behind them. "What do you think will happen?" she said.

"Well, hopefully his funeral's on a Saturday so that I've got plenty of time to dance on his grave!" Ron said bitterly. "Stupid git!"
"Ron!" Hermione shrieked.

"Don't worry about it luv. At least no one else is hurt. I might have been Harry if he hadn't dodged."
"I guess you're right." Hermioen replied.

But, as Harry lay in bed that night he remembered something. A voice had called to him, urging him to get away from the Bludger. And, Harry thought uncomfortably, as he tossed over for the hundredth time that night, the voice had sounded suspiciously like Draco's.




Harry got out of bed and got dressed, and put on his invisibility cloak. He looked at his watch. It was just after midnight. He tiptoed quietly down the stairs, careful not to make a noise of wake anyone up. He opened the portrait hole and slid silently out into the cold corridor.

As Harry descended the stairs as quietly as he could, he heard Madam Pomfrey calling, "Who's there?". Harry ducked into the shadows, and waited for the school matron to go back into her office.

When she was gone, Harry hurried up to the hospital wing, hoping she wouldn't come back out again.

He reached his hand out to open the door when it suddenly opened for him. There was a gasp and Harry heard light footsteps running down the hall. Probably one of the ghosts, he thought, and eased the Hospital Wing door open.

The room was dark and still. Harry could hardly see two feet ahead of him. When his eyes had become accustomed to the dark, he crept round the beds, looking for the one that Malfoy was in. When he had found the right one, he took a piece of parchment and a quill out of his pocket and wrote a short note.

Harry looked at the bedside table and picked a book up from it. A letter was stuck to it, reading, "With love, from Pansy." Harry slipped the note inside the book, and left the Hospital Wing.

I know it's nuts, he thought to himself. He's probably going to die. But if he doesn't, then we need to sort a few things out.




"You did WHAT?" Ron yelled at breakfast the next morning.

"I had to!" Harry replied hotly. "He saved my life!"

"So?"

Hermione hit them both over the head with a book. "Pipe down, the both of you! Look, I think Harry has a point about trying to set things straight with Malfoy. But Ron's right, Harry, you could have gotten into so much trouble!"

"I had my invisibility cloak on." Harry explained.

"What do we have first peroid?" Ron said, getting fed up with discussing rules. "It's Herbology, isn't it?"

Harry checked his timetable. "Nope, it's Potions." He said, putting it back into his pocket.

Later that day, word spread around the school. Draco Malfoy was alive. He would be returning to class in about a week. Ron was very disappointed.

"Ron, you'd think somebody had died to see your face." said Seamus.

"The problem is, someone hasn't died." Ron replied, but you could tell he was sort of relieved.

Harry had told them about the footsteps too. They said it was just a ghost. Harry didn't think so. The only ghost that ever made footsteps was Peeves, and the frightened gasp that he had heard was definately a girl's.




The next week, Harry was glad to see that Draco had returned to school. He tried to get him on his own so that he could talk to him about the Quidditch match. It was impossible. He was swamped by girls wherever he went and Harry was surprised that he didn't drown in all the perfume that was hovering around his admirers.

Harry grabbed the back of his robes when he was coming out of the bathroom. Draco stared at him.

"Hi, Draco."

"Hi."

"Did you get my letter?"

"Yep"

"Oh. Good."

"Yeah. Good."

All this small talk is getting us nowhere, Harry thought. "Look, Draco. Can you remember what happened just before you fell off your broomstick at the Quidditch match?" He said straight out.

"Sort of."

"Well, do you remember yelling at me to move away from the Bludger?"

Draco's eyes were unreadable. "Yes."

Harry tried to look straight at him. "Well, I just wanted to thank you."

"Oh! Well, any time, I guess."

Draco turned and walked away down the hall. "Oh, and Draco?" Harry called.

"What?"

"Why did you do it?"

Draco turned round and looked at him. Harry hesitated. "I mean, it was really cool of you to do that and everything, but before then, you would have watched me burn in Hell.

Draco kept his eyes carefully expressionless. "You'll find out sometime, Potter."

"When?"

"When you have to."




Harry watched Draco walk away, wondering what he had meant. Draco had said that he'd find out when he had to, but he wanted to know now. He walked back to the Slytherin common room, where Ron and Hermione were playing chess, and Seamus was keeping score. Professor McGonagall (sp?) was taking names of people who would be staying at school over Christmas. Harry wrote his name down immediately. Then he went to join Ron, Hermione and Seamus.

"Hey." He said and sat down.

"Hi, Harry!" Seamus said cheerfully. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Harry lied.

Seamus moved over to make space for Harry on the couch. "Well, sit down then. You can play the winner!"

Harry decided to try to forget about Draco's secret. He'll tell me when he's ready, he thought, and sat down beside his friends.

Harry, Hermione and Seamus waved Ron off as he left on the train home. The other three were staying for the holidays.

Harry went to bed early, and fell asleep at about 10pm. He didn't notice the dark shape watching throwing something through his window, nor did he hear the muffled yells from the ground below.




Harry woke up early on Christmas morning. There was a pile of presents at the foot of his bed, so he got up and threw his pillow at Seamus to wake him up.

"Ow! Why?"

"Because I'm awake and I'm lonely." Harry replied.

Seamus sat up and swung his legs onto the floor. "Fine, fine, I'm up - Oooh! Presents!"

Harry laughed as Seamus got tangled in his bed sheets, fell onto the floor and rolled under the bed.

"Idiot." Harry said and picked up his first parcel. It was from Hagrid. Harry tore off the brown paper that it was wrapped in and pulled out a huge box of Droobles' Best Blowing Gum.

Hedwig came soaring through the window with a note in her beak. It read, "Happy Christmas, from Vernon and Petunia". Hermione's present was a book (surprise, surprise) about different types of magical blood found in families.

Harry was surprised to see that there was nothing from Ron, but he decided that Errol was probably delayed again.

Seamus' present was a large moving portrait of the Chudley Cannons. They all smiled and waved up at him. Harry hung it above his bed. "Thanks, Seamus!"

"No problem! Hey, great, thanks Harry!" He was holding the Leprachaun book that Harry had given him.

"Any time! Hey, what else did you get?"

Seamus had received presents from his family, Harry, and Hermione.

When they went down to the common room, they found Hermione waiting for them. "Merry Christmas, guys!"

"You too!" they replied.

The three of them walked down to the Great Hall, where the Christmas Feast was held. The hall was quite empty, as most people had gone home for the holidays.

Harry's eyes drifted round all the tables. He recognised most of the people in the hall. There was Cho, the Creevey brothers, the Patil twins, Lavender Brown, Hannah Abbot, and Justin Finch-Fletchley. He didn't recognise a tired-looking girl at the end of the Gryffindor table who looked about fourth year, and kept glancing at the Slytherin table.

Malfoy was there too. Crabbe and Goyle had gone home, but there were quite a few girls around him to make up for their absence.

The door flew open, and a bright red light filled the room. The main beam seemed to strike the Slytherin table. The red envelope that came from the light, however, drifted over to the Gryffindor table into Harry's hands. He opened the envelope quickly before the Howler could explode. A chilling voice poured out like poison from a cauldron.

"He's not coming back!"

Harry glanced around, and saw that Draco had gone.




Harry stood up in a panic. He looked around again. The tired-looking girl was gone too, but he didn't notice that. Harry ran out of the Great Hall, and Hermione and Seamus followed him.

"Harry, what-" Hermione began.

"He's got him! He's got Malfoy! He's going to kill him! We have to find him now!"

Hermione tugged at Seamus' arm. "Come on, Seamus! What's he talking about?"

"Harry," Seamus said, forcing Harry into a seat outside the hall. "Slow down and tell us what's happening. We can't help if we don't know what's going on."

Harry started again. "Look. Someone's taken Draco. I'm sure of it. Didn't you hear what the howler said?"

Hermione and Seamus were looking at him strangely. "No-it was just a lot of smoke and a hissing noise." Hermione said.

Seamus stared at Harry. "You must have imagined it."

"Wait!" shrieked Hermione. "It must have been in Parseltongue! Which means it was from-"

"Don't say it!" Seamus said quickly.

Harry looked at Hermione, and panic filled his eyes. "You're right! It's him! We have to go now!"

"But Harry!" Hermione shrieked. "Go where? We don't even know where he is! Harry, it's going to be no use just going off and looking under every rock in England. He might not even be in England!"

Harry looked at his shoes. "I know." he said quietly. "But I owe him my life."

"I know, but it won't do him a bit of good unless we organise-"

"Harry!"

Harry, Hermione and Seamus spun round to see someone running towards him. It was Draco.

"Look, there he is." Seamus said, pointing at him.

Draco drew level with them, and said. "Right, you three, come in here."

He pulled them into a broom cupboard, and lit his wand.

"Malfoy!" Hermione squealed. "We thought-"

"That doesn't matter, I know." he said quickly. "Now listen. You probably guessed it's Voldemort." Seamus and Hermione shuddered. "He's got Ron, and the sooner we find him, the better."




"What?" shrieked Hermione. "How do you know?"

"I have sources. Now listen. At the beginning of this year, I got a weird letter. It told me some things that could be really important." Draco handed Harry, Hermione and Seamus the letter. It was written in Latin. Draco read it in English:

I, the Dark Lord, work in mysterious ways. As the son of one of the Death Eaters who recently showed me a lot of faith, I will share with you some of these things.

The Potter boy has weak spots where his friends are concerned. I plan to take one of these and keep them until the Potter boy comes to find them. If he fails to come to get them, I will kill his friend. If the fool doesn't work out any of my clues, try to give him some a few yourself.

His remaining friends will receive some of these clues. Each will be written in another language. If they come to find me, do not get involved. Death will await you if you ruin my plan.

"Did anybody else get a letter like this, other than Harry's howler?" Draco asked when he was finished.

Seamus coughed. "I did."

"When?" said Harry.

"This morning, when I fell under the bed. It was lying there." Seamus replied.

"We need to wait until Hermione gets her letter." Draco continued. "Then we need to get out there and find Weasley."

Harry looked up suddenly. "Draco, why are you doing this?"

"Huh?"

"Why are you helping us?"

Draco smirked, a shadow of his old smile. "Hey, relax, I'm not going soft or anything. But you'll know soon enough."

"When?"

"When you have to."

Draco climbed out of the broom cupboard and walked back to his common room, and Harry remembered him and Draco having a similar conversation just a few days ago.

Harry lay in bed that night, unable to sleep. He couldn't stop thinking about the letters. He'd have to read Seamus' in the morning. He thought over everything that Draco's letter had said...

Death will await you if you ruin my plan.

Harry sat bolt upright, an uneasy feeling in his stomach.

Death will await you...