𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐆

Part 6

A leap of faith

Draco sat on Harry's bed, rubbing his forehead with the tips of his fingers, chewing his lip. He could still hear Ron and Hermione in the other room, gathering up glasses, sliding plates on to one another, piling cutlery in a heap on the table. The apparition of Lucius had disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. For a moment he had been there, tearing at his hair, pounding invisible walls, shouting, shouting for Draco. While everyone else had heard nothing, Draco had felt, rather than heard, his screaming, his pleading, his angry and confused calls for his son.

"Draco! It's your face I should see here! You called me! Where are you? Draco! Help me!"

You called me. Draco's heart leapt into his throat. He had stared blankly into the face of the apparition, while the room full of people pulled out their wands and waited. It was rapidly clear that Lucius was not physically present, but it had all the same rather seriously ruffled the guests. Most, not having seen Harry when he was haunted by Voldemort, not having felt the burn of the Dark Mark on their own flesh, had not, until now, been struck with the kind of terror, the kind of knowing, that Draco and Harry had, that Dumbledore had. Tonight they left with sinking hearts knowing with a dead certainty that trouble was indeed brewing again.

Within about twenty minutes the group had become deadly serious, and small groups of the like-minded formed. They spoke in low voices, agreeing or disagreeing about what they had seen. ("I thought he was dead! Was that a ghost?" "He looked mad. All that darkness has driven him right batty." "Looked to me like he was aiming to Adava Kadavera all of us at once, if he could've." "Did you see his eyes? He was crying blood, can you imagine what Voldemort must have done to him?" "I'm surprised he looked that good, given where he's been." "Where has he been?" "He's looking for his son, to help him return his strength." "Maybe Malfoy conjured him to frighten us. Maybe even to kill Harry while he was unawares!" This last statement got several knowing nods in a group by the door, accompanied by shushing and "don't say that too loudly around here!") Shortly after Lucius disappeared again, Harry hauled Draco into his room and shut the door.

"Did you hear him speak, Draco?" He nodded, and sat down. So Harry had heard it to, that figured. Draco had known, on some level, that this moment would come. He had never tried to run from his past, in fact, it was all around him all the time, every day, but tonight it had stood in the living room, and pointed at him, called him, begged him.

"You know what he meant, don't you." Harry looked at him, sitting with his eyes on the floor. "You called him? What does that mean?" Harry sounded angry, but cautious.

Draco sighed. "I didn't call him, Harry. Someone did, someone...whoever stole the charm, they did it...as me."

"As you?" Harry felt stupid, and conflicted. Was this another line, fed to him to make him believe Draco was deserving of his trust? Should be believe any of this? He shook the thoughts out of his head.

"Yeah. Okay, look, I'm going to tell you some things, you probably should have been aware of this some time ago, but it was agreed that perhaps you could be kept out of it. It was classified at the department, I was forbidden to tell you. For the record, I never really thought that was a good idea." He looked guiltily up at Harry. "My work for the ministry involves studying that charm, Harry. We didn't really know a whole lot about it, it was mostly goblin magic, all keys and security. We were looking at ways to break them out of the prison, so that we could see how that could be prevented. You understand?"

Harry nodded. He knows how, and now his father arrives at my apartment, telling us that he let him loose.

They sat in silence for a while. Harry walked over to the window, half staring at his own reflection, and half looking beyond it, out into the quiet night. From this vantage point, nothing seemed wrong with the world at all. He rubbed his chin. "And?"