“There are some people that wouldn’t appreciate you lurking around the halls after dark, especially those that knew you during your school years.”
“Are you one of them?” Draco didn’t turn from the window. He squinted against the inky blackness. The shadows of the Forbidden Forest seemed particularly threatening tonight.
Harry shrugged as he stuffed his hands into his pockets, “not particularly, but then I have the happy image of you as a bouncing ferret to think of every time I begin to worry.”
“I’m not a spy,” Draco said darkly.
“Sorry… I was trying to make a joke.”
“It’s not a good night for jokes,” Draco said, “but I appreciate the attempt.” He turned away from the window. “I’ve had a lot of time to think the last dozen or so years. Do you know what I realized?” He turned to look down the shadowy hallway, as though expecting something to be there lurking, waiting for him… he had aged more than his former classmate in his years on the run. There was some all but invisible grey in his white blond hair, and fine lines had begun to trace there way across his face. “If circumstances had been different, if we’d been in the same House, or if there had been less House animosity… we probably would have been friends. I wonder what it would have been like to have Harry Potter as my friend…”
“It seems odd to think that the Sorting Hat determines who will be friends and who will be enemies.”
“That old rag doesn’t decide anything, we have free will.”
“But we chose our friends and our loyalties based on House associations,” Harry pointed out. It felt strange trying to defend himself like this to Malfoy. Had they really been that horrible to each other? He was painfully reminded of the scene he had seen in the pensieve in Snape’s office all those years ago… the Houses really did have a long and bitter history. He wondered if Snape and his father would have been friends under different circumstances. Snape and Sirius certainly managed to get along these days, even if the relationship was somewhat strained… “Maybe if we had all been concerned with the state of Hogwarts instead of our own Houses… a common goal…”
“Don’t try to sound so self-righteous Potter!” Draco snapped, his cool grey eyes flashed with more emotion than he had allowed himself to feel in a long time.
Harry blinked in confusion, not having any idea what Draco was talking about. Hadn’t his main concern always been Hogwarts? As a student it was the only true home he had ever known…
“Dumbledore’s army,” Draco said softly. “Your main loyalty was never to the school, it was to Dumbledore. Just as ours was to Snape.” He snorted, “it’s only a matter of time before we all come tumbling down if this continues. Individual loyalties won’t get us very far.”
“I would have thought that the first conversation would have been the hardest, but this has gone amazingly well,” Harry mused, “Ron will be positively shocked when he hears about it.”
“I’m thrilled to know that I’ll be a subject of conversation,” Draco said dryly. But it felt amazingly good to be standing in the halls of Hogwarts again. Having a normal, friendly conversation with someone who he had never gotten along with before. One step at a time… If he and Harry could get along there was hope for all the future students.
“I have a patrol to do. Would you like to come along? Another pair of ears and eyes is always useful.
Draco gave a short nod of acceptance. The halls were peaceful that evening and the moon bright. In the days that followed they would both recognize it as the calm before the storm.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Transfiguration homework is done!” Serena said triumphantly as she slammed her book down on the carpet in front of her.
“Not too excited, are you?” Nick teased her.
She playfully shoved him from her seat beside him on the thick rug in front of the fire. “Stop working on that, I’m sure it’s fine,” she ordered her sister, snatching her Potions essay from her. “Let’s play cards or something.”
Dierna grabbed her essay back, “give me a few more minutes, I want it to be perfect.”
Serena rolled her eyes, “why bother? You know you have the highest grade in our class.”
“The better it is, the less reason Dad has to try and talk to me.”
Serena sighed, she was tired of trying to argue that point with her twin. She wholeheartedly disapproved of this ongoing silence and the reluctance of both parties to give in. No matter how wrong their father had been it seemed like a very inconvenient time to be harboring so many feelings of ill-will. There was enough of that going on externally that it didn’t need to be going on within the family.
“Here kitty!” Nick called to Sekhmet, who was happily bounding down the stairs from the girls’ dorm. He was staying out of any family fights if at all possible. “What do you have there?” He reached out to grab the red garment that the cat was happily dragging along. She stopped every few feet in her trek across the floor to pounce on it, just to make sure it really was dead. “Oh…” Nick laughed as he got a hold of it.
“Sekhmet!” Serena scolded, her face turning as red as the lacy undergarment the cat had dragged out of her trunk, “betrayed by my own cat…” she wouldn’t meet Nick’s eyes as he handed the bra back, and quickly stuffed it into her school bag. “Mangy beast… I really have to keep that trunk locked. And stop laughing Dierna! It’s not that funny!”
“Sorry,” Dierna said insincerely.
“No you’re not! You too Nick! Honestly, you’re just as bad as she is,” she pelted both her twin and her boyfriend with pillows from the chair at her back. “I hate you both, I really do!”
“Andromache, put down that book and come play cards with us,” Dierna demanded.
The Head Girl hesitated, drawn by the relaxed camaraderie of her Housemates, but also loyal to her studies. “I don’t know…”
“It won’t hurt you to not study for one night,” Nick pointed out, even as he moved over to make room for her.
“I suppose,” Andromache finally conceded as she joined her classmates on the floor while Serena dealt out the cards. She didn’t often socialize with her Housemates like this, she was usually too busy with her studies. But she liked that they still included her and at least asked her to participate in most of their events. At least she didn’t feel left out. She enjoyed the way the Snape twins constantly bickered back and forth good naturedly. And the way Nick tried as hard as possible not to be drawn into the middle of things. It was all so comfortable and relaxed… she truly understood what they were told before they were sorted as First years. Your House was your family.
“I wonder what that light is,” one of the Third years curled up on the wide windowsill close by mused.
“What light?” Serena asked distractedly as she frowned at her poor hand.
“It’s at the edge of the forest, it keeps getting brighter… no, now it’s gone out.”
“It’s probably from the dragon handlers, they have a rotating watch out there to make sure the dragons don’t cause too much trouble,” Nick said offhandedly.
“But that window doesn’t look out over their pens,” Dierna pointed out. “Andromache,” a First year came running down the stairs from the dormitories, “I think Peeves is causing problems. There’s a strange pounding noise coming from the roof.”
Dierna felt her blood chill, something just didn’t feel right. She looked over at her twin with raised eyebrows.
“I’ll go check it out,” Serena pushed herself up off the floor. She noticed that Dierna and Andromache followed her up the stairs to the girls’ dormitory. As they climbed higher up in the tower she noticed the banging that the First Year had reported. Fine particles of dust were sifting down from the rafters, “maybe it’s just something the boys cooked up to annoy us,” she suggested hopefully.
“I wonder if the light is visible from up here,” Andromache pondered aloud as they stepped into the First Years’ room. The pounding was becoming louder, “what’s that at the window?”
Serena stepped over to the watery glass, her reflection distorted and dark in its irregular surface, “it’s hard to see out with all the light in here, douse the candles. She waited while the other girls muttered a quick nox. In the dark room their breathing seemed incredibly loud and the air felt charged. She could feel her scalp prickling as her heart beat erratically. “I don’t see anything…” her sentence ended in a garbled shriek as a shadowy figure dropped down onto the windowsill, the man landed nimbly on his feet and hunkered down into a crouch, as he tried to look into the dark room. She found herself face to face with the white mask of a Death Eater, and too paralyzed by fear to move.
“GO!” Andromache shoved the little First Year back into the hallway as Dierna grabbed Serena. As she slammed the door shut from the false safety of the brightly lit hallway she could hear the glass shattering in the room they had just left. She threw a quick locking spell, knowing that it wouldn’t hold for long, “EVERYONE OUT NOW!” she yelled as students poured out of their rooms. She grabbed a Fifth Year, “make sure all the boys are out of their rooms and in the Common Room.”
She quickly checked the rooms as she followed the frenzied girls down the stairs. She was relieved to see the boys coming down from their rooms as well, and Nick and the Snape twins rounding up everyone in the Common Room. “Everyone needs to leave, go out into the hallway,” she was surprised at how steady her voice was. She was amazed she could still put together a coherent sentence. She knew that their time was running out.
She tried to think clearly above the roar of voices coming from the assembled Gryffindors. Most of the students didn’t know why they were there, but the few girls who had witnessed the scene upstairs were starting to spread terror as they fearfully whispered the horror of what they had seen. The Common Room was nearly emptied, and the pounding from above was increasing. There was no doubt in Andromache’s mind, the Death Eaters meant to come in from the roof of the tower and filter their way into the rest of the school. If they didn’t move quickly they would all be caught, they would all die.
There were gasps as a splintering of wood was heard from above. Frantically Andromache shoved the remainder of the students, none too gently, out into the hall. She would defend the school, but she wasn’t going to let herself be caught in their Common Room!
“What are you all doing out here?” The Fat Lady demanded as she observed the entirety of Gryffindor gathered in the hall.
“Move,” Serena commanded the portrait. She had gotten a good grip of her fear and was now ready for action. The adrenaline was pumping furiously through her veins. “MOVE!” she leveled her wand at the Fat Lady, who quickly scurried into a neighboring portrait, “LAPIDARE!” the portrait hole turned into a wall of solid stone, “that’s only going to give us a few minutes. What do we do?” She looked to the Head Girl for direction.
“They’re coming in at the towers, take the younger years down to the dungeons,” she directed the Snape twins, who were clutching each other’s hands as they trembled. Several of the younger years were openly sobbing, while the older students were either shaking and pale or had adopted stances of grim determination. She hoped that all the students who had Death Eater loyalties had already defected and left the school. They would have to work together now, and if there was a traitor in their midst…
She shook her head, they were wasting time, “the rest of the older students come with me, we’re going to find the staff.”
They broke into two groups, Fifth Years and above following Andromache one way, while Dierna and Serena led the rest of the students down towards the dungeons. Everyone was nervous, jumping at shadows and whimpering at the sound of their own footsteps on the cold stone floor.
~~~~~~~~~~~
