Blast from the Past

Blast From The Past - Part Nine

Author: Wintermoon

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Long Day

"That rat. That bloody evil rat! I can't believe he'd be here again, how could he even, aaaarrrg that bloody rat!"

Draco stared at this outburst, not sure what was going on. "Weasley, would you like to tell me about the rat?" he asked in amusement.

After a very rushed and not completely coherent explanation of exactly WHO Peter Pettigrew was in relation to Harry, and Draco's admission that he knew Pettigrew as a Death Eater, Draco grabbed Harry's invisibility cloak (much to Ron's surprise) and the two of them got under it and started out of the castle toward the edge of the grounds. They were, of course, headed directly toward the dot marked Peter Pettigrew.

Once they got outside, both boys pulled out their wands and whispered "lumos" so they could continue to watch the map. What they saw at that time put even more fear into both their hearts. Pettigrew was still hovering at the edge of Hogwarts grounds not far past the Whomping Willow. The new problem took the form of the five other dots that were also flickering off and on the map. Those dots were labeled Arnold Parkinson, Ares Crabbe, Miles Pritchard, Ian Goyle, Lucius Malfoy and Harry Potter.

Draco and Ron paused in their trek, examining these labels carefully, both seeming to possess a need to read and re-read these names until they changed. Unfortunately, the names didn't change. Blue eyes met grey eyes and both of them realized that this was much bigger and more dangerous than they ever imagined.

"Should we get Dumbeldore?"

"Honestly," Draco said as he looked at the read-head. "What do you think Dumbledore can do against seven Death-Eaters?"

"Seven? I only see six there."

"Fine. Six Death-Eaters and one in training."

"What the bloody hell are you getting at Malfoy?" Ron's temper was getting out of control at the suggestion that his friend would be planning to join the rest of that group. He was having a great deal of trouble keeping his voice down.

"Harry asked me a couple days ago to set up a meeting for him."

"With these people? And you did it?"

"No, with Voldemort. And I didn't do it. I didn't set this up either, he must have done it himself."

"But why. . ."

"I don't know, exactly. I've been trying to figure that out. I've noticed some changes but I didn't think he was this serious about it."

"Malfoy, look!" Ron interrupted, pointing the lit end of his wand toward the map. The group seemed to have dispersed. Pettigrew and Potter were the only ones left. They watched closely as the two dots went toward the Whomping Willow and paused. "It looks like they're talking. I don't understand why Harry would be talking to the man that betrayed his parents and got them killed. It doesn't make sense. It's like he's under the Imperio curse or something."

"He's not. You know he can fight that. You've seen him do it."

They stopped speaking again as the map showed Harry walking directly toward them. Looking out, they saw Harry walk by, pause and look directly at them, then turn and walk into the castle. Once he was completely gone and the heavy doors had closed behind him, Ron turned to Draco quietly. "Did he know..?"

"I think so."

"All right, Malfoy, I think it's time you tell me exactly what's going on around here."

"Honestly Weasley, I wish I knew." Ron could tell by the look in Draco's eyes and the expression in his voice that he was being honest. Draco walked away, heading toward the castle and taking the invisibility cloak with him. Ron stood silently watching the Slytherin leave, wondering what bizarre things were going on with his best friend, then finally realized that it was nearly one o'clock in the morning and he was standing around outside after hours with no invisibility cloak to keep him from getting caught.

"Shit."

~*_*~

When Draco arrived at his room, he was somewhat surprised to find Harry sitting leisurely on the edge of the bed, waiting.

"Harry! I thought you'd be asleep by now." He walked over to kiss his boyfriend, hoping that Harry hadn't actually known they were there. Something about that meeting and those names had Draco on edge.

Harry returned the kiss somewhat casually (as casually as two hormone ridden 17-year-olds can) and smiled somewhat sadly at the blonde Slytherin. Draco caught the look and was afraid to mention it, but at the same time felt that he most definitely should. Before he could get too deeply embroiled in an internal argument, Harry spoke.

"Why don't you trust me, Dray?"

"What?" Standing by the bed, wrapped in Harry's loose but comforting embrace, Draco hadn't expected such straight-forward confrontation.

"I said, why don't you trust me, Dray?"

"I heard you; I just don't understand what you meant."

"Okay, it would seem that you have a lack of faith in me for some reason. It's rather odd, I must say considering you're the one named 'bad faith'. Anyhow, I would like to know what has caused this absence of trust."

"Stop trying to show off like your bookworm friend, Potter," Draco kept his tone light and teasing, hoping to avoid this conversation, but he could see from the determination in those green eyes that he was to have no such luck. "I do trust you. Why would you think I didn't?" He failed to realize that his nerves and concern for the raven-haired Gryffindor were causing his voice to drop to a near-whisper.

"Because you were outside looking for me earlier."

"Have you developed a Mad-Eye Moody ability to see through invisibility cloaks now?" Draco knew that was really of little relevance and was as good as a point-blank admission that Harry was right, but he was still anxious to delay or avoid this conversation by any means necessary. He had suddenly decided that he didn't give a good God damn what his boyfriend was doing in the woods with six Death Eaters in the middle of the night. He didn't want to know. He really didn't.

"Not quite," Harry smirked. 'Merlin, he's really starting to look cruel when he does that,' Draco thought uncomfortably. "I just knew. It's one of those 'seer' things, I can tell when people are watching me. What I thought was really odd is that Ron was with you. Since when are you two civil enough to be under the same cloak together?"

"Since he came here worried about his best friend and dragged me out of the castle muttering something about a rat that you needed to stay away from."

"Oh, so he had the map with him?"

"Yes."

"I'll need to make sure to keep that away from him in the future. I can't have him looking for me all the time. It's not safe."

"Harry, we saw you, we saw who you were with. I don't. . .."

"Wait," Harry interrupted him with a finger on his lips. "Don't bother to ask, I'm not going to tell you. I can't. It's not safe."

"SAFE!!!!!!!! How DARE you talk about what's SAFE when you're running around in the middle of the night with Voldemort's cronies!!!"

"Please Dray, just don't ask. Just trust me, please?" Silver eyes filled with anger and fear met with pleading emerald eyes. Draco took a deep breath and felt tears of frustration beginning to pool in the corners of his eyes. Blinking quickly and looking around the room he attempted to calm himself down.

"Fine." The response was so quiet, so calm, that it sounded like surrender.

Harry tightened his embrace and pulled the Slytherin close for a kiss. When their lips met, Draco felt the anxiety begin to fade away. He found himself simultaneously comforted by the contact and disturbed by the ease with which his worries disappeared while he was in Harry's arms.

"C'mon, Dray. Let's get some sleep." Harry kicked off his shoes and pulled Draco onto the bed with him.

"You're not worried about staying here all night? What about your dormmates?"

"I'll deal with that tomorrow. It's not like they'd turn me in, so there's no problem. Unless you don't want me to?"

"I do. I'd really like it." Draco smiled, probably his first genuine smile since Ron first knocked on the door, and kicked off his shoes as well. Too tired to worry with changing clothes, the raven-haired Gryffindor and his platinum blonde, Slytherin boyfriend, simply collapsed on the bed and fell asleep in mere minutes, still wrapped in each other's arms.

~*_*~

Breakfast was a rather uneventful time, despite the angry and worried looks Harry kept getting from his best friend. Ron wouldn't dare mention his knowledge or his company of the previous evening - not in front of Hermione - but he could certainly give Harry some looks that expressed exactly how he felt.

Harry was pleasantly distracted from Ron's glare when the post arrived and Hedwig dropped a letter from Remus on the table. He wondered briefly why she flew away so quickly (Hedwig always stayed for a treat and bit of petting, but today she still seemed angry with him, even more than before) but was too intent on reading the letter to think on it long.

Son of Prongs,

I am well, and missing you greatly. Don't worry with the rat, it will fall into a trap eventually.

I would love to hear more about this relationship of yours. You seem very unsure of it in your letter. You know, don't you, that you can tell me anything. It doesn't matter how you feel, who you feel it for, or what you do, I'll still love you. I don't know why you feel that you can't talk to your friends about it, but I'm glad you can talk to me. I'm also glad to know that it's not extremely intimate just yet. I don't think you need to rush into anything. Don't get embarrassed by my saying that, it's my duty as an authority figure, you know.

I've had word from Fawkes as well. I'll be working on the mission, but doubt I'll be able to come visit at this time. Please take care of yourself, remember who your parents are and that you make them proud by being yourself. Think long and hard about decisions, it's important.

Moony

Harry read and re-read the letter, wondering if it was his imagination or if Remus was hinting that he knew things Harry hadn't told him. Things Harry hadn't told anyone, with the exception of Draco.

At the thought of his new boyfriend, Harry looked up to find those grey- blue eyes looking directly at him. They smiled at each other across the Great Hall and Harry found himself wondering how Draco would react to being kissed senseless in front of the entire staff and student body of Hogwarts. After a quick wink and a brief nod to Draco, Harry excused himself from the table and left the room, headed directly for the Observation room of the Astronomy tower.

As she watched him go, Hermione was finally able to put a meaning to the strange feeling she'd been having. She looked at the Boy-Who-Lived, or Harry as she preferred to call him, and wondered when and why the Harry she'd known and loved like a brother for six years was suddenly gone.

"Ron?"

"Yes?"

"Would you mind terribly if I asked you to come back to my room with me?"

Ron took the briefest of moments to ponder the way most teenaged boys would react to that question coming from the mouths of their girlfriend, no, fiancée. He realized in that brief moment that the war had indeed had a strong affect on him and his fellow students. They had been forced to mature mentally much earlier than most children would. He could hardly imagine most 11-year-olds going through the myriad of obstacles that he, Harry and Hermione had faced in their first year, not to mention the battles and losses they'd endured since then. Snapping himself back to attention, he smiled at Hermione and reached over to give her hand a reassuring squeeze. "Of course not." As an afterthought, he tried to lighten her mood by adding, "if we stay there long enough I can skip transfiguration." It worked, almost. She did smile a bit.

Once inside her room, however, Ron realized that the smile was fleeting. His initial thought that Hermione had something very serious on her mind was right.

"Something's wrong with Harry."

"Why do you think that?" Ron looked at her carefully, trying to hide his feelings as much as possible. He knew that if Hermione were to find out who Harry had been meeting with last night, she would be more than upset. So much more than upset that he didn't even know a word for it.

"I don't think it, Ron, I know it. There's something not right about him. His aura's changed. His energy is sparking and zapping all over the place. His moods are weird. And don't even let me get started on the insanity of him being FRIENDS with Malfoy."

"Okay, I'll admit to the moods and the whole Malfoy thing being a little unusual, but . . ."

"Stop. Sweetie, listen to me. Remember how Harry used to be? How he was silly and fun and pretty much, for Harry anyways, NORMAL? Remember on the train this year, how he was trying to hide from the first years because they kept staring at him? How he's always just been Harry and it seemed like the fame and the power was just a side effect or something, but he never acted like he was better than others? Remember that?"

Ron nodded.

"Close your eyes and think back to the last time you hung around Harry, just a normal average friendly conversation."

Ron closed his eyes and thought, and thought and thought. Finally he was able to remember a fun evening playing Chess with Harry. It was late September or early October. 'Wow, I didn't realize it had been that long,' Ron thought. They had been discussing the next Hogsmeade trip and the pranks they wanted to buy from the twins' shop while they were there. It was an all together relaxing time and Ron felt better just thinking about it.

Hermione could sense the change in Ron's moods. She knew that his memory was relaxing and enjoyable, which is just what she'd been hoping for. "Now, pay attention to the energy you feel from Harry in that memory, how does it feel just to be in his presence."

Ron thought, he visualized the game board, the empty sweets wrappers around them, the smile on Harry's face as he laughed at a joke. It felt good. It was comfortable, like your favorite slippers and light-hearted, like a really good joke that would just leave you in a good mood. It was cool, Harry calmed people. Ron, immersed in this memory, had a sudden image of being surrounded by a calming, comfortable blue-green light.

"Now, think about Harry at breakfast today and tell me how it felt to be in his presence then."

Ron switched his brain to remember breakfast, Hermione's downcast eyes, his own anger and worry for Harry, the letter that Harry didn't even talk about. "It feels cold, bleak. Like there's something big, like there used to be a really big fireplace with a roaring fire in it and it gave off lots of warmth and comfort and now it's been put out and the fireplace is boarded up and the cold wind and snow have crept in and if you stay there too long. . ."

He opened his eyes in shock. "I never knew you could do that, that I could do that!! I actually felt it, the energy. Can I do that with other people too?"

Hermione smiled slightly at his enthusiasm. She kissed him sweetly and nodded, "yes, once you know you have the ability. I always thought you would. But about Harry, what were you saying?"

"He feels cold," Ron repeated. He didn't want to think about it too much. It was a very uncomfortable feeling.

"You said 'if you stay there too long' but you didn't finish it. What would happen if you stay there too long?"

Ron stared very pointedly at an apparently obvious invisible spot on the floor. He didn't want to continue this conversation. He didn't want to continue this line of thought. On the other hand, he knew what he'd felt and he knew Hermione felt it too. Surely others had, would? Something would need to be done, something could help Harry and in the past it had always been him and Hermione to help Harry when he was in danger. They could do it again, right? But only if he were willing to face up to the facts. He raised his head slowly, looking deep into Hermione's chocolate brown eyes. He saw her love for him reflected there, and her concern for Harry. His own blue eyes began to water as he took a deep breath to prepare himself for what he needed to say, if only to hear it spoken aloud. "if you stay there too long, you'd die."

~TBC~

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