Black Truth [READ DESCRIPTION]

chapter twenty-eight

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Black Truth, Black Wings

The Room of Requirement had made itself into a cave. The walls were limestone, with a low ceiling and a moss covered floor. The room was very small, so small in fact that the three people inside the room had to duck to avoid hitting their heads on the ceiling. The cave was what the room thought of as the perfect place to speak of secrets, and so the three Gryffindors settled down as comfortably as they could against the cold stone.

"There's something wrong with Draco" Harry said, looking down at the moss as if it was the most interesting thing he had ever seen.

Neither Ron nor Hermione were fooled by his antics. Ron, though, was puzzled at Harry's words. "But he seems…er, fine to me. Well… he doesn't act any differently than he normally does."

"No, he's more nervous than usual" Hermione observed.

"Exactly" Harry said. "It's like he's planning something that he doesn't want anyone to find out. And it started after he got that letter."

"But that was a week ago!" Ron protested.

"Yes, and he's received two other letters from his father, both as false as the first one" Harry explained.

"False letters?"

"That's all he'll tell me about them. That they aren't really from his father."

Hermione frowned as if thinking. "But why wouldn't his father write to Malfoy?"

"If he couldn't," Harry replied, looking up at his friends for the first time since the conversation had begun.

"But why couldn't he write to Malfoy?" Ron asked. "He's done it for five years, so what's different now?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know. Draco doesn't know. And no one who knows is telling."

"Harry, what does Draco think is going on?" Hermione asked. "What exactly does he say?"

"About the letters?" Hermione nodded. "Well, he says that there are certain things his father always puts in a letter, certain phrases, the way he signs his name, and so on… I don't remember the exact details. And he says that all these things are missing from the last three letters."

"But hasn't he done a spell to make sure that it's his father's handwriting?" Hermione asked.

"First thing he does. It's his father's writing, but not his father's style."

"Has there been any other… blood… on the letters?" Ron asked.

"No. Not since the first one."

"I think I see what he thinks" Hermione stated. "His father has always written to him, and so if something happened… like for instance, if his father got hurt, then the absence of letters would tell him immediately that something was wrong. But there isn't an absence of letters. Yet, these recent ones are very different from what he's used to. There are, as he says, certain elements missing to them."

"And then there's the blood" Ron added.

Hermione nodded. "Yes. I think that Lucius Malfoy is trying to tell his son that something is wrong."

"Then why doesn't he come out and say it?" Ron asked.

"We must assume for some reason that he can't."

"But what's going to stop Lucius Malfoy from doing something?" Ron looked skeptical.

"Voldemort" Harry spoke suddenly.

"But we'd know if You-er…Voldemort was doing something… wouldn't we?" Ron asked.

Harry was silent. He didn't know what Voldemort was doing. After all, he hadn't had a vision since he'd bonded to Draco.