The Night We Met

Chapter Twenty

The teachers were starting to pile so much homework on them that the Easter holidays weren't nearly as much fun as the Christmas ones. Even though first-year coursework was nothing compared to O.W.L.s, it was hard to relax when Hermione was always next to Draco, reciting the twelve uses of dragon's blood or practicing wand movements. Yawning, Draco spent most of his free time in the library with her, throwing himself into much different research.

The scare about Voldemort possibly coming back had shocked Draco into a stupor; if he really was coming, Draco had to be prepared. He knew he had until fourth year at the latest, but because he didn't remember exactly how he returns, only that Potter had showed up at the end of the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament carrying Cedric Diggory's body, he had very little to go on.

So Draco started researching in the restricted section, late at night, using Harry's invisibility cloak. He was usually quiet enough to not wake him when he headed out. But he was starting to quite literally fall asleep in class, and he knew that he wouldn't last this long. The problem was, unfortunately, that no one in their right mind would let a first-year wander about the Restricted Section in the daylight. He would have to wait until at least third-year to even try going in there in the daytime. So here he was, almost dozing on the table as Hermione, Ron, and Harry worked on their extra homework.

One thing he had been doing recently was going through old Daily Prophets; when Draco had gotten to Hogwarts the first time, he had no idea of anything that had really happened in the First Wizarding War; the only knowledge he had was the stuff he heard from his father. He was looking through the ones from October/November 1981, when Voldemort was defeated, and a lot of the stories reminded him of what had happened before, in the near future. Draco felt he had to completely understand how Voldemort was defeated the first time in order to figure out how Potter did it the second time, and how he came back. But why did the Dark Lord fall? It hadn't been just because of Baby Potter's prowess. And how is he still alive to return?

Unfortunately, the newspapers didn't give him much, and Draco felt he had to hide them. It made him slightly guilty, in a way, to be researching his friend's parent's murders; what if Harry found out and it put a rift between them? And nobody could help him. He couldn't trust anyone. Not when Snape was going after the Stone, and Dumbledore...was just Dumbledore. Those twinkly eyes gave him the creeps; it was as if the man knew everything about him. And all the other teachers were so far up Dumby's ass that it'd be quite foolish to tell any of them. Not that Draco wanted to.

But there was one teacher he wouldn't mind talking to, about the other problem he was having. The problem of Sirius Black. Why had he been in the Mirror, when Draco had never seen him before? He remembered his aunt had killed him, in the Department of Mysteries when his father got arrested. His aunt's words danced across his eyelids while he slept, and emblazoned upon them were: I killed Sirius Black. Why had she killed him? Why had Sirius Black been fighting on the side of the Order? There was no other conclusion that Draco could think of other than the fact that he'd been innocent. In fact, he wouldn't mind going to McGonagall to question her about this. He was still working on his argument, but perhaps if she knew, as she was a member of the Order in the future, then Black could be released.