Samsara's Curse (Drarry Slowburn)

PEEVED

Draco mindlessly fidgeted with the Circle Key, deliberating on what to do next. They knew Samsara had to be a wizard at some point, but they were clueless as to how that era of his life came to an end. Did he curse himself like Draco had? Was he bitten? If that was the case, then by whom? So much of Samsara's life had been buried in the long, forgotten history of the Middle Ages. Draco almost regretted going with Harry and seeing where the Circle Key led. It seemed that the more they looked into Samsara's past, the more questions they had and less answers they found.

"So what now?" Draco inquired. "Is this the part where we go home?"

Harry laughed, "That would be too easy."

"Well, I don't take it you plan on asking around for information on someone who lived a thousand years ago," Draco said sardonically, folding his arms. "All the people who knew him are dead now."

A lightbulb flickered in Harry's mind. "Peeves!"

Draco turned around, expecting the poltergeist to be making a mess of the Slytherin common room, but he wasn't there. He raised a curious brow, taken aback by Harry's unprovoked shouting, "What about him?"

Harry swished the Cloak into the air, and it fell over the both of them slowly, "He practically came with the castle. If Samsara attended Hogwarts, he would be able to tell us!"

Before Draco could protest and profess what a horrible idea that was, poking holes in his feeble logic, Harry grabbed him by the hand and rushed into the Slytherin dungeons. They were fairly deserted aside from a small handful of students, but that's what the Invisibility Cloak was for. They passed by them, unnoticed, which Draco was the most grateful for. He didn't have the energy to answer all the questions they might have thrown his way. Why did you fake your death? Have you and Harry been together this whole time? Are you drugging him with Amortentia? How did you end up falling in love after hating one another for so long?

While he didn't mind talking about Harry and how fond he had become of him, answering all those questions to strangers was another issue entirely.

They ambled through a stained glass tunnel depicting kelp and ocean water, dodging students as they encountered them, past an enchanted portrait of a bard, and through a hallway lined with humming suits of armor. Stepping into the Bell Tower Wing, they heard a discordant cacophony of music (if you could even call it that) coming from the upper floors of the castle. There was no doubt in either of their minds that Peeves was the culprit.

"Follow the sounds of chaos?" Harry proposed.

Draco nodded, preparing to run, "Sounds like a plan."

They rushed up several flights of stairs, all of which Harry never missed since graduating. Sufficiently winded, they barged into the vacant music room, spotting Peeves in the middle of a hysterical giggle fit.

Harry removed the Cloak and shoved it into his bag, trying to capture the focus-challenged specter's attention, "Peeves!"

The poltergeist dropped a large podium from twelve feet in the air, and Draco cast a cushioning charm to stop it from being destroyed upon impact with the floor. Peeves cackled, not caring what either of them had to say. He flew off into the rafters and phased through the ceiling.

After detecting the staircase, Harry looked at Draco wearily. "More stairs," he lamented.

Draco pulled him along, practically dragging him, even though it was Harry's bloody idea to track down Peeves. Ear-splitting bell tolls rang through the air, and Draco swore he felt his bones vibrate. As they halted to cover their ears, a whoosh of cold wind flowed through them—it was the Bloody Baron on his way to scold Peeves for disturbing the peace. Again.