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Draco wanted to scream out loud as his father got dragged away by Ministry officials, claiming that he needed to be arrested for his unauthorized access to the Department of Mysteries. Draco wanted to fight everyone, even though he knew it wouldn’t be any help at all. Just when he was starting to get somewhere with his father, and figure out where he stood with the man, he had to go and get arrested. And the worst part was that lately Lucius had been keeping his word to Draco, and had been doing his best to distance himself from Voldemort and his other followers.
Narcissa hugged Draco, holding him in place so that he wouldn’t be tempted to bolt forward and start scratching at the arms of the aurors until they had to let go of his father. As soon as the aurors and Lucius were gone, Draco tore himself free from his mother’s arms. He heard a gaspy breath, and glanced back to see the tears that were rolling down Narcissa’s face, and he couldn’t stop himself from crying as well. He willingly returned to his mother’s arms so that they could cling tightly to each other, and they sank to the floor, desperately holding each other up so that neither of them would entirely collapse.
,,,
“Everything is falling apart,” Draco whispered as he pressed his face into Harry’s shoulder. “My father tried to be a better person, but was still punished for his past anyways. We’re no closer to figuring out where any of the rest of the horcruxes are, and now-” he cut himself off suddenly, hugging Harry even tighter.
Harry rubbed his hands in soothing circles across Draco’s back, but nothing could erase how miserable Draco felt. “And now what?” Harry asked softly.
Draco took in a shuddering breath, and then slowly let it out. He remained holding closely to Harry, not wanting to have to look the other boy in the eyes. “With my father in jail, Voldemort decided that I am responsible for carrying out a mission that I can’t possibly complete. What the hell am I supposed to do?”
There was a small pause before Harry pulled away and forced Draco to meet his gaze. “We will figure this out the same way we have figured out everything else that life has thrown our way. We’ll do it together. I swear to you, Draco, that we will not just sit back and let our lives be filled with more tragedy.”
“I’m so glad that I have you,” Draco whispered, and pulled Harry into a desperate kiss.
,,,
Draco was in the middle of skimming through a particularly boring book so that he could find the information he needed for the essay that had been assigned in his history of magic class. It always seemed so cruel when professors gave such length assignments on the very first day of classes, but that didn’t mean Draco was going to just let himself fall behind. Then suddenly Harry was in front of him, slamming something down on the table. Draco arched one eyebrow. “I’m glad that you’re so excited, but some of us actually like to get our work done on time…” he trailed off as he realized that there was something in Harry’s hand, and a triumphant grin on the boy’s face. “Alright, I’ll bite. What’s going on?”
Harry held out a small bottle filled with a shimmering gold substance. “It’s liquid luck. The potion. As a prize for brewing the best draught of living death in potions class.”
Draco furrowed his eyebrows. “But you’re terrible at potions. Professor Snape probably only passed you at all because of pity, and because he wouldn’t want people thinking that his godson is dating a total moron. So who did you steal that from?”
Harry narrowed his eyes and put his hands on his hips. “Okay, I wouldn’t say ‘terrible’, exactly. I’m comfortably mediocre at potions. But I swear I didn’t steal this. I had the best potion, but it’s because I had a bit of help. But that’s not the pont. The point is that I want you to have this.”
It took a moment for Draco to realize that Harry wasn’t messing around with him. “Do you even realize what kind of opportunities might be available to you with that?”
Harry walked around the table, shrugging casually as he moved. “I thought that you could use it more than I could.” He left the tiny vial on top of the table, and then suddenly dropped down to drape himself across Draco’s lap. “Then again, I do work pretty well as a good luck charm, so maybe I’ll just keep it after all,” he mused. His brilliant green eyes glittered with amusement.
Draco’s hands automatically reached up to hold Harry in place, and he rolled his eyes. “No take backs. But what was this help you had? Surely even Slughorn isn’t daft enough to not notice someone telling you what to do?”
“It was a book that told me what to do, not a person. And not in the creepy way like that book from second year, I promise. This was a perfectly normal, non thinking book. I think some kind of potions genius was the one to have it last. At first I was annoyed to see that I’d gotten stuck with such a ratty copy since I was the last one in the room, and I hadn’t planned on taking potions since I wasn’t allowed to under Snape’s regime, but once I realized that all the scribbles in it were actually tips, I figured that I may as well at least try, because it’s not like I was going to do incredible amazing all on my own.”
Draco tilted his head. “I’d like to see this book, if you don’t mind. I’ve always enjoyed potions class as is, but if there’s something that can make even you successful, then I’d certainly like to take a glance over it.”
Harry nodded, and moved to stand up, though Draco was reluctant to pull his hands away. Harry laughed. “I need to grab the book if you’re going to see it.”
Draco made a big show of heaving out a huge sigh and then letting go of Harry so that the boy could hop up to his feet. He went over to where he’d carelessly dropped his bag on the floor on the other side of the table, and rummaged around in it for a moment before pulling out a beaten up copy of the potions textbook. “Ta-da!” He presented the book with a big flourish.
Draco plucked it out of Harry’s hand, and began to flip through the pages. He slowed down almost immediately, though, as he took in the sight of the familiar handwriting. He went back to the first page, where it simply said ‘property of the half-blood prince’. He looked up at Harry with wide eyes. “This is probably going to sound strange, but I’m pretty sure that this was my godfather’s at some point. The handwriting is very similar to his, he’s a half-blood, and his mother’s maiden name was Prince.”
“Huh. So my grade in potions is going to be saved by Snape?” He didn’t look entirely pleased about the idea. Draco still didn’t quite understand what it was that always had Severus and Harry look at each other with disdain. Harry was a Slytherin, and he was talented- at least in the more practical subjects aside from potions-, and he was quite possibly the love of Draco’s life. At least Severus didn’t dislike Harry as much as Lucius had at first, so there was that.
Draco let Harry take the textbook back to tuck it away into his bag again. “Well, I just came by to give you that liquid luck. I have to go now if I don’t want to be late.”
“Late to what?” Classes were over for the day already, and Draco had been hoping for some quality time with his boyfriend. Merlin knew that that would be far more fun than doing homework.
Harry shrugged apologetically. “Quidditch. Officially, tryouts for the teams don’t start until next week, but I’m captain this year, so I called for an earlier meeting to get a better assessment of everyone’s skills, and to make sure that everyone is in a good place. It shouldn’t take too long, don’t worry. Hopefully you’ll be done with your work by the time that I get back.”
Draco watched Harry hurry off, and then let out a soft sigh before returning to his work. He considered trying out for the quidditch team this year, but then decided that he didn’t have the time for it. And he didn’t want anyone accusing Harry of being a bad captain and only choosing Draco for the team because he was a good kisser, or anything like that.
,,,
“And the diary was one of them,” Harry explained in an excited voice. “So we’ve actually destroyed two of them already. Now, according to Dumbledore, there should be five of them left. He thinks that Tom had an obsession with relics, and would choose the founder’s items, but that’s only four so it would still leave one.” He hesitated for a moment before continuing, though he looked at the wall next to Draco’s head instead of meeting his eyes. “Ah, so Dumbledore actually thinks that he might know where one of them is. And he kinda wants me to come with him to try and get it.”
Draco furrowed his eyebrows. His first instinct was to say that he was going to go with Harry, or forbid the trip, but he knew that that would be overstepping his bounds. He just wished that he could wrap Harry up in a blanket and tuck him away somewhere safe, because it seemed like everything in the entire bloody world was out to get him sometimes. “Just promise me that you’ll be safe,” he said instead.
Harry reached out to take Draco’s hands. “I’ll be with Dumbledore. He’s one of the greatest wizards of the time, so what could possibly go wrong.”
“Famous last words,” Draco grumbled. He kissed Harry on the cheek, and then let out a soft sigh. “Harry, about what I’ve been tasked with-”
Harry squeezed his hands gently. “Don’t worry about it. Voldemort can’t make you do anything. I promised you that we would figure this out together, and I meant it. I know that neither of us is the biggest fan of the headmaster, but he doesn’t deserve to be killed.” He hesitated for a moment, and it looked like he was about to say something important, but then he just tugged Draco forward to give him a little kiss on the cheek as well. “As soon as I get back from this little field trip, we’ll talk, okay? We’ll figure out something.” Then he hurried off, leaving Draco by himself.
Once Harry was gone, Draco decided to head to Severus’ sleeping quarters. He knocked politely on the door, and it didn’t take long for his godfather to open it and look down at Draco with one eyebrow raised. “Is there something I can help you with?”
Draco shrugged. “I was hoping that we could just talk. Maybe have some tea together or something. I have a few things on my mind that I was hoping I could share with you. If you’re busy, I could just…”
He trailed off as Severus took a small step back while leaving his door open. “I’m well aware that leaving you to your own devices is most likely to just result in you doing something entirely idiotic, so I may as well take preventative measures.” It didn’t take long for them to both be seated and holding steaming cups of tea. Severus stared at Draco impassively. “So what is it that’s on your mind?”
Draco sighed, and slumped down in his seat. “I don’t even know where to begin.” He took a sip of his tea, not caring about how scalding hot it was all the way down his throat. “I know that my mother went to see you after I was given a certain assignment, so I’m assuming that you know all about that.”
Severus gave him a long look before dipping his head down in a single, shallow nod. “And you are bothered by it?”
“Who the hell wouldn’t be at least a bit disturbed? I’m being asked to-!” he cut himself off, not sure why, but feeling like it would be unsafe to repeat the exact instructions out loud, at least while within the school. “And on top of that, I’m worried about Harry. Do you have any idea where he is right now? All he would tell me is that he needed to go on a trip with Dumbledore to fetch… something.” He wasn’t sure if Severus already knew about the horcruxes or not, and he felt guilty about hiding details, but didn’t want to put Severus in an even more awkward position than he already was in.
There was a sharp look in Severus’ eyes as he shook his head. “I was unaware that the headmaster had intended on heading out tonight. And with Potter, of all people.” He leaned back in his seat and steepled his hands together.
Silence went on between them for a few seconds before Draco realized that he needed to keep talking, even though he suddenly felt hesitant to do so. “Um, so this is a totally unrelated question, but have you ever heard of a living thing being a horcrux?”
Severus blinked a few times before looking at Draco in surprise. “How do you even know that word?” Draco shrugged, and waited for Severus to answer. “It is not entirely uncommon among those wizards dark enough and foolish enough to tear their own souls into pieces. There have been a few different cases of wizards using their familiars to contain half of their soul.”
“What about… a human horcrux?”
Severus stared at him, and Draco had to resist the urge to look away from his godfather’s gaze. “Draco, what foolishness have you gotten yourself involved with now?”
“It wasn’t me,” Draco grumbled.
Severus narrowed his eyes. “Potter, then. The only times you ever look so concerned are when he or yourself is in trouble. Why would you-” he cut himself off suddenly, and his eyes widened. “The tournament. I see, now.” And then he switched topics so suddenly that Draco almost thought he would get whiplash. “What is your plan for the task that you have been assigned.”
Draco gulped down the rest of his tea before practically slamming the cup down onto the small table that was in between him and Severus. “I don’t exactly have a plan,” he admitted. “Harry and I were going to try and figure out something together.”
“It’s not like you to procrastinate, Draco. You’ve had this entire school year to figure out what you’re going to do. I suppose that this is Potter’s influence on you.”
Draco scooted forward so that he was sitting on the edge of his seat. “Alright, enough of this passive aggressive attitude. Why the hell do you hate Harry so much?”
It seemed as though he had surprised Severus with the question, and it took the man several long seconds to respond. “He is nothing like his father,” he said quietly. “Yet he looks so much like him that I cannot help seeing his father in him in everything that he does.” Draco furrowed his eyebrows, but waited patiently for Severus to continue. “It may be difficult for you to believe, but I was not exactly the most popular student in my own schooldays. One of my only lifelines was my dearest friend, but I betrayed her, and then she me. She married my greatest tormentor.”
“So Harry’s mom was your best friend and his dad was mean to you in school?”
Severus gave him a cold look. “Something like that.”
Draco stared at Severus until Severus was the one to break eye contact. That had never happened before. “She wasn’t just your friend, was she? Or at least you didn’t want that to be all there was between you. You really cared about her.” He shuddered slightly. “Ugh, you could have been Harry’s father in some alternate universe.” Then he got more serious. “So you hate Harry because his mom chose another guy over you? How is that in any way Harry’s fault?”
Severus sighed. “It’s not. And I don’t hate Potter. How can I when he’s the one who makes you so happy?”
Draco got up and walked over to Severus so that he could hug the man. He wasn’t usually big on physical affection with anyone besides Harry, but right now he could use the comfort about as much as his godfather probably could. “Thanks. Oh, and by the way, we found an old textbook of yours. It’s the only reason Harry’s been doing so well in potions this year.” He was sure Harry would understand why Draco felt the need to throw him under the bus just this once, since it meant that Slughorn wasn’t miraculously able to teach Harry anything, and also that Harry wasn’t more skilled than Severus when it came to that particular subject.
Severus returned the hug, making a show of being reluctant about it, but Draco could tell that it was a nice moment for both of them, even if he hadn’t gotten any answers to any of his problems yet.
,,,
After staying and chatting with Severus for a little longer, Draco was startled when his godfather suddenly straightened up in his chair, looking very alert. “There’s something I need to go and take care of. Go back to the dorms.” Then he ushered Draco out of his quarters before hurrying off.
Draco had no idea what was going on, but he thought that it had to be too big of a coincidence for Severus to suddenly be in a rush somewhere on the same night that something was going down with Harry and Dumbledore. So he raced back to the Slytherin dorms to grab Harry’s invisibility cloak, sending a silent apology to the boy for the appropriation of his stuff. Then he grabbed the map as well, since he had no idea which way Severus might’ve gone.
He ended up following his godfather to the headmaster’s office, whispering the most recent password that he knew of so that he could slowly creep up the stairs, and stand by the door to listen to the conversation. “I’ll admit, I’m surprised to see you here, Severus.”
“You triggered the wards by apparating directly into the school. Why did I not know that you had planned on heading out at all?”
Dumbledore responded in that usual sickeningly cheery voice of his. “I had not thought it necessary to inform you of my whereabouts.”
“Even when you took an underage student off of the school grounds without any permission from a guardian? No matter what you were doing, you have to realize how bad that looks. And that’s not even the entire point. What was so important that you needed to take off now?”
Draco got distracted from his eavesdropping when someone suddenly pinched at the cloak and tugged on it slightly. He turned to see Harry crouching next to him on the stairs that led up to the office. He pulled the cloak off. “What’s going on? Where did you go? What did you end up doing?”
There was a worried look on Harry’s face, and no sign of the playfulness that could be seen there so often. “We have to get out of here,” he whispered. “Or I might do something that I regret.”
“What are you talking about?”
Harry closed his eyes, and took in a deep breath. “We’ve had all year to work on a plan to get you out of your responsibility,” he said in a hushed voice. “You’re a smart guy, Draco. It probably hasn’t escaped your notice that I’ve been putting off talking about a plan. It’s because you’ve already been given an out.”
Draco furrowed his eyebrows. “You’re not making any sense.”
Harry let out a soft sigh. “Your mother contacted me near the beginning of the school year. She knew that you and I would try and figure out some way to get you out of your assignment, and basically told me not to bother doing anything stupid because she’d already found a solution.” Draco arched one eyebrow, waiting impatiently for Harry to just finish explaining whatever the hell was going on. “She made an unbreakable vow with Snape so that he would do the job for you.”
Draco’s eyes widened, and he spoke in an angry hiss. “And it never occurred to you to share that information with me all year? You know how much I care about my godfather, and you were just going to let him-!”
“Nobody let’s that man do anything! He wouldn’t have agreed to anything that he didn’t want to. He’s willing to do this because he cares about you too, Draco! What else are we supposed to do? We have no way of defeating Voldemort, at least not right now, and Snape is the best chance we have of saving you from having to do something that you would regret for the rest of your life!”
“I’m glad you have it all figured out, then,” Draco said with a sneer. “I definitely can’t see any reason you would think it would be important to tell me about any of this! Just leave me the hell alone. I don’t need you to ruin things even more than you already have.”
Harry clenched his jaw, and had that stupidly stubborn look in his eyes that Draco normally loved as much as he hated it. Right now, though, he just hated it. How dare Harry decide that Draco didn’t need to know about this? How dare his mother decide to go behind Draco’s back to come up with her own solution? How dare Severus be foolish enough to actually do this just for Draco?
He shoved past Harry, leaving the cloak in a crumpled heap on the steps, and shoved the door to the headmaster’s office open. Severus was standing by the large window, which was clearly broken, and Dumbledore was nowhere to be seen. He rushed forward to stand next to Severus, and then let out a loud gasp when he looked down and saw what had to be a body lying on the ground below. He felt like he was going to be sick as he turned to face Severus. “How could you do this?” He knew that an unbreakable vow meant that Severus had to do whatever he’d promised, or else he would die, but just the fact that he’d made the vow in the first place, and then hadn’t said anything to Draco all year… “ He made a small gasping noise as he tried to figure out what the hell he was supposed to do now. One of his favorite people had just murdered a very important man, for Draco. And one of his other favorite people had just sat back and allowed it to happen. How the hell was he supposed to feel about that?
He staggered out of the office, noticing how Severus didn’t even attempt to call him back. When stepped out, he saw that Harry was already gone, though he almost slipped and fell on the invisible cloak that was still there. He picked it up and brushed some dirt off, feeling as though he was moving on autopilot.
Draco headed back to the dorms, mostly because he didn’t know where to go, though it felt like he was trying to walk through syrup or something, and it felt like it took years for him to get back to the dorms. Something about the room didn’t look quite right, and it took him a moment to realize that it was because one of the beds was missing the trunk at its foot. Harry’s trunk was gone, and his bed was made neatly in a way that it only ever was on the first and last days of school. There was a single piece of parchment folded in half and resting on top of Harry’s pillow. Draco’s name was written across it in Harry’s familiarly messy scrawl.
He was quick to snatch up the paper and unfold it to read what it said. ‘I’m sorry. You were right. I should have told you about what was going on. I’ve been a bad boyfriend, and I’ve already done enough to hurt you. I have a lead on where to start looking for more horcruxes. I’m going to go and find them and destroy them all. I wish you all the best, and I’m so sorry for ever causing you pain.’
Draco crumpled the letter up as he shoved it into his pocket. Harry was running away? It was so close to the end of the school year, but he was going to just leave now? When Draco needed him? Could he really be blamed for what he’d said earlier? Sure, it had been a bit harsh, but it was such an insane situation, and he wasn’t sure that anyone could be expected to just easily handle hearing their boyfriend tell them something like that.
How the hell was Harry even planning on hunting Horcruxes when the trace would still be on his wand until the end of July? And who could Draco even tell about any of this? The headmaster would be the most obvious choice, but he was dead, and- Draco couldn’t focus on that or he really would be sick. After thinking about it for a minute, he realized that he was an idiot, and then headed out to McGonagall’s quarters. She was the deputy headmistress, which meant that she’d probably be in charge at least temporarily, and besides that, she was Harry’s mother. Surely she’d want to know that her child had decided to take off on his own for a dangerous mission where he potentially wouldn’t even be using magic.
Under different circumstances, he might have felt bad about pounding on her door at this late hour, but right now, he was too worried about Harry to care about waking up a professor. McGonagall answered the door in a nightgown, but somehow looking just as composed and stern as ever. “Mr. Malfoy, I can assure you that even though you students may require the bare minimum of sleep, I…” she trailed off, something on Draco’s face probably making it obvious that something was seriously wrong. “What is it this time?”
Draco shrugged, and he had to fight to stop himself from just crying. What part should he even consider to be the most important? “Harry’s run away.” He fished the crumpled note out of his pocket and held it out to the witch, who accepted it warily. It didn’t take her long to look it over, and then look back at Draco. “Why don’t you tell me exactly what is going on?”
Draco gulped, and he couldn’t meet her eyes. “It’s kind of a long story. And, um, Professor Dumbledore is… is dead.”
There was no alarm in McGonagall’s eyes, which Draco found admirable. If he was a teacher hearing the double helping of bad news, he’d probably start panicking immediately. “I’m going to call the DMLE, as well as your mother. Wait right here.”
Draco waited in the hallway as she closed the door, and he figured that she probably wanted to get properly dressed before the aurors showed up. Draco leaned back against the stone wall, but even that felt like it wasn’t enough to hold him up, and he ended up sinking down so that he was just sitting on the ground, staring off helplessly into the distance.
It seemed so impossible to so quickly go from being so happy to… this. He’d never liked Dumbledore, but he didn’t think that the man deserved to be killed, especially not when he had been such an adamantly anti-Voldemort man. Legally, Severus should go to jail for what he’d done. He’d murdered a man. It would be only fair, considering that Lucius had been sent to Azkaban when he hadn’t done anything bad enough to warrant going there. But Severus had done it so that Draco wouldn’t have to. And nobody had actually witnessed the crime, since Harry had left the room while the two men were still talking, and Draco hadn’t gone in until after Dumbledore was already dead.
Draco just wanted to slam his head back against the wall. Why the hell wasn’t anything in life ever fair? He’d get one thing, only to lose another. And regardless of who had actually done the deed, Voldemort was only going to be empowered by the death of his greatest enemy.
He hadn’t even noticed anyone approaching, but then there were suddenly arms wrapping around him. He saw his mother kneeling beside him, and he tried to shove her away, wanting to blame her for everything, but she only held onto him tighter. “I did it for you,” she whispered. “I love you, my son.”
Even though he didn’t want to, Draco found himself collapsing into his mother’s embrace, and crying far more than he wanted. But she didn’t judge him for the tears that soaked through the top of her dress, and just continued to hold him, and make soft soothing noises. “Why is this all happening?” He asked that same question a few more times, but nobody answered. How could they? It seemed to be a question for which there could be no response.