Chapter 8
There was Voldemort, looking at himself through an ancient mirror, his skin looked normal, just like when he first saw his mortal body in the chamber of the secrets all those years ago. His skin was looking healthy and less scaly, his dark curls falling in place over dark, cold eyes.
He was looking like the pureblood Harry knew he wasn’t. In any case, he was as poorblooded as Harry himself. Maybe he was better, because he was conceived out of love, true love; and not from a delusion that ended up with a man raped, a woman dead and a kid killing half of the wizarding world.
Beside him was a woman with asian features. Her face was beautiful and the little make-up that clung to her face was well done in shades of natural white and red painted lips. She looked like a Queen would. And he might have believed she was. But she was standing side by side with Voldemort.
She leaned over Voldemort and opened her mouth to show him a row of piercing teeth. She kossed the cold-hearted man in the neck and transformed herself into a huge anaconda or something. A snake. Scaly, ugly and very big.
“Hello, Harry,” Voldemort said and he caught his reflection in the mirror, right behind the ugly creature, son of a dementor, that was Voldemort in this very sickly form. “Long time no see.”
Harry took a step back and he reflection mobed with him. He moved and wiped his wand out of his holster.
“Such trivialities don't work here, child,” a feminine voice sounded inside his head.
The snake coiled on her body and measured herself with Harry’s height.
“Go, Naggini. Feed yourself with this one's soul." Slow, slurred words made goosebumps break on Harry’s skin.
Harry saw Naggini throwing herself at him from Voldemort’s side. He readied a spell in his tongue, but when she was a few paces away from her, she burned in blue fire.
The mirror shattered and he woke up gasping for air, his heart beating erratically inside his chest.
“Mr. Potter,” Madam Pomfrey’s voice cleared his mind from the last traces of the nightmare he was trapped in minutes ago. Hours ago. He wasn’t sure. “Mr. Potter.” A hand shook him out of his dreams and jerked him back in the land of the awaken.
“Madame Pomfrey?” He rasped out, his throat parched and his hands cold.
“How are you feeling, boy?” she asked him, passing him a vial of something that looked like preserved poop.
“Good,” He stated softly, eyeing the potion with distrust.
“It’s vialed chocolate,” she stated softly, a smirk on her lips. “I like to scare those that think landing in my ward for fun every year shall be tradition.”
Harry groaned.
“Did I fall from my broom again?” He asked, passing her back the vialed chocolate.
Such a disgusting idea that one.
“Think again,” she says. “I need to know how much damage was inflicted to you by young Black.” She mumbled under her breath, looking behind her. “Why can’t it be someone else? Why does the bad news always have to start with a Black?”
“Beats me.” Harry responded in an attempt to make her soften. She arched a well manicured eyebrow at him. “I mean, Sirius cooking is bad news to me.”
Madame Pomfrey smiled softly at him.
“Tell me that someone else fed you during the Holidays,” she asked softly.
“Mrs. Weasley did. Cookies included.” Harry replied back with a smile. Until flashes from last night peared back at him from some corner in his head. “Draco was sick yesterday.”
“What else do you remember?” she huffed the question under her breath and Harry had to bite his tongue to refrain from laughing.
“My magic felt odd,” he stated again, looking at the other person sleeping behind Madam Pomfrey’s body. "Still feels a bit off."
There Draco was, his white-blond hair falling over his forehead, but looking better than yesterday. A girl with white-blond hair was beside him, but no Luna in sight. This was a girl younger than Luna. Smaller in height and weight than Luna.
“We are waiting for Molly and Arthur to arrive to set this straight,” Madame Pomfrey stated softly, taking Harry away from his staring. “There are a few things you need to know, Harry.”
It made the blood run away from his face.
“More?” He asked. “I must have been some cursed dude in my past life, trully.”
Madame Pomfrey stopped in her watching, her fingers tapping softly against the vial in her hand.
She sighed a heavy breath.
“Aren’t you right kid…”
Fuck me sideways.
"Come take a shower, child. It will do you good." And juat like that I am following her to the bathroom attached to the medical wing.
Draco swam up to the surface od his consciousness, battling against the tiredness that was settling against his bones. The sound of his mother’s words and a comfortable, warm weight on his side helping him fight.
His focus fading in and out of reality.
Come play with me, Dray. A small voice broke into his head.
Leave Draco to sleep, honey. He is sick. He needs to sleep to get better. A masculine voice said.
All of that flashes from a past dream. It was nice, knowing that whoever visited during his very bad days was still visiting him in England for his bad hours as well.
He still wasn't sure if they were real or not.
“I already told you so, Newt,” his mother was furious. “Bennu isn’t cutting it up for Draco anymore.”
Newt sighed heavily.
“Bennu is not a remedy, Cissy. Bennu is an extension, an anchor to Draco. He needs two of those, Bennu was his first, now he needs to find his mate to be properly… Restored.”
“Where is he supposed to find that mate?” she hisses her question.
Maybe, trying to not distrub the other sick children in the ward.
“I don’t know, Cissa.” He started with a firm voice. “But he knows. He is the one with the curse.”
“I can’t…” her voice broke in the haste.
“I can deal with this. Me and Xeno can handle this. We don’t need you in British soil putting Draco in more danger than what he is already.” He said softly. “Go. I will look out for him.”
Her soft lips kissed Draco’s skin, taking the comfortable weight with her and she walked away, her heels clicking against the hard rock of the castle.
“Stop pretending to be asleep, kid,” Newt Scammander said softly. A chirping sound coming from his arm. “I brought you a friend.”
When mercurial eyes opened up, they fell immediately on the small bird on Newt Scammader’s arm.
“Bennu!” Draco cooed and sat up quickly. Too quickly.
“Careful,” a second voice told him, helping him to stay upright and not topple over with the dizziness that invaded his head.
“Harry!” And then, his world was righting on its axis. Until… “Did I miss classes? Are you going to pull me out?” he looked up at Newt and pleaded with his eyes. “I want to stay. I'm happy here and I am awake more than a few hours per week.” He pouted the words in a way he knew would melt Newt's resolutions.
Make him talk with his Mother.
Newt nodded, passing the small bird to Draco’s hands.
“No one is pulling you away. You are doing way better now then in the past,” he said looking straight into Draco’s eyes. “I just came because your school called. You are missing an important part of your regimen. You fainted yesterday and it altered part of your core.”
Draco nodded softly.
“Bennu’s tears,” he whispered softly.
“Two drops every month, Draco. We had this discussion,” Newt stated softly. "And you promised."
“Sorry,” Draco mumbled against the soft plumules of baby Bennu. “I didn’t want to put him under pressure. He is just a little baby again.”
Newt sat down on the infirmary bed Draco was occupying, carding a hand through Draco's hair. “You are allowed a pet. Let that pet be Bennu.”
Draco pursued his lips.
“It’s going to be weird.” He started softly, his finger playing with Bennu’s soft feathers. "Everyone has owls. I will have Bennu. And he isn't a messenger."
“Head Master has a Phoenix pet as well,” Harry said, hia words soft, even if a bit rushed. “Everyone knows. It’s not gonna be weird.” His hand landed on Draco’s knee and he smiled up at the blond. “The only weird thing you might encounter could be Hermione’s curious mind. She might ask you to let her study him for a while.”
Draco laughed with his belly and his whole body.
“It doesn’t surprise me coming from Hermione.” He stated with fondness.
“How are you feeling, Mr. Black? Dizzy? Nauseous? Fevered? Confused?” The matron started.
“Hungry,” he stated softly.
That caught the matron in the back foot, because she whirled around to eye him.
“Hungry?” She repeated his words in question form.
Draco nodded, looking down at Bennu in his baby form. His plumule were well groomed and he wasn’t looking so decrepit anymore.
He was looking as handsome as a cotton ball.
Madam Pomfrey looked at Harry with hooded eyes.
“Fine. I will instruct the house elves to bring you food from the kitchens. Mr. Potter shall eat with you.” She instructed with a hard voice. “Mr. Scammanader, stand up, please. Harry, dear, take your hand away from Mr. Black. Please, set the bird down.” She nodded softly and then, she was casting on Draco once we was away from any other magical signature.
Her magic turned red, then pink. It tasted like metal in his mouth and made the air heavy around him.
“How bad?” Draco asked her.
She looked at the stats pulsing over his body.
“You look better than yesterday when you tried to attack half of the professor in here,” she stated softly, matter of fact.
Draco picked Bennu up and rubbed the tip of his nose against the bird's beak.
“I did what?” Draco shrieked, scaring the small Bennu, making the little phoenix to chirp in discontentment. He pecked Draco’s hand hard. “Ouch! Sorry, Bennu.”
“In your defense, Mr. Black, you were trying to protect a treasure,” She stated softly.
“Treasure?” Draco asked, eyes growing to the size of saucers.
Madame nodded toward Harry. Draco cheeks heated instantly.
What was wrong with his beast?
“... From the very bad professors in the castle.” She started softly. “Please, both of you, try to eat now. You both have to meet with the Headmaster, Heads of House and your parents.”
Harry paled.
“What? Did we break any priceless vase hidden in this school?” Draco asked when he saw Harry’s face paling.
Madame Pomfrey laughed in his face.
“No, such a thing child. But Minerva owes me a few galleons, doesn’t she, Harry?” she winked in Harry’s direction.
Harry groaned and hid his face in Draco’s knee.
“My Head of House is going to kill me. I made her a few galleons poorer.” He moaned against the sheets.
Newt laughed, doubling over.
Harry and Draco were walking through the deserted hallways of Hogwarts while their peers attended classes. They both were dragging their feet. They both were dressed in the proper uniform, without their robes. Harry was lost in thought and Draco was cuddling Bennu close to his chest.
“Harry,” the soft call of his name pulled him away from his musing and he focused on Draco. “Forgive me.”
Harry stopped for a second and looked inside Draco’s eyes.
“For making more problems for you,” the blond stated softly, his index finger ruffling Bennu’s soft and small feathers.
Harry put his hands on Draco’s shoulders, urging the Ravenclaw to look up at him. Once those pretty, stormy eyes were focused on him, Harry stated his beliefs.
“You made no problem for me, neither did you create more troubles. I am always in a different one,” he stated, squeezing Draco’s shoulder softly, trying to reassure him. “It will be okay. Whatever it is that the grown ups has to tell us, we are going to be okay.We will remain friends, right?”
Draco looked down and nodded, his blond hair falling away from his ears.
“Friends?” He asked softly, feeling a knife stabbing his heart.
He didn’t want to be friends with Harry. A few things were a bit crazy inside his head, but he remembered flashes from last night, when he transformed out of fear into his beastly form. To protect Harry from the dark magic lingering to the Professors.
Especially from Albus Dumbledore’s body.
Until last night, he would have accepted Harry’s friendship. But not now.
Still, he nodded and brought Bennu closer to his chest, where the Ravenclaw crest was stitched to his jumper.
“Friends, “ he mumbled, the word tasting like ashes in his mouth.
He dislodged his shoulders from Harry’s grip and waited for the other to guide him toward the Headmaster’s office. Once Harry was leading them again, he permitted himself to revive the events from last-night in his head. One more time. The feeling of wrong clinging to him, the feeling of wrong coming off Harry in waves. The feeling of wrong coming out of Headmaster Dumbledore's bosy in waves the size of a tsunami.
The laugh of Amycus CArrow invading his head at the end.
He collided against Harry’s back when the other stopped and Bennu chirped his discomfort.
“Are you okay?” Harry asked him, softly. His blue-green eyes falling on Draco.
Draco rolled his shoulders.
“Sore,” he lied through his teeth.
“Do you… Want to sit down for a bit?” Harry asked him, thoughtful and unarticulated. "You look pale."
Draco shook his head no.
“I don’t wish for us to miss more classes than the ones we already did,” he stated softly. “You read no book during the summer holidays. If you fall back, Hermione will murder me in my sleep.”
That made Harry snort.
“You and me both,” he said softly, mumbling a word to open the Headmaster’s office.
Snail stairs opened up for them and they both climbed them. Harry slowing down every so often to glance back at him and make sure he was okay. His lips pursued to one side in discontent, the corner of his eyes tight with worry.
Still, up they went.
Harry rapped his knuckles against the wood and waited for it to be open. Inside were seven adults, Hermione, Luna and Ron. He saw Mrs. Weasley and a man he was sure was Mr. Weasley, his Uncle Newt and his Uncle Xeno, Madame McGonagall and his Head of House, the small, nice sir that is always happy to explain more to him, were there as well.
“Welcome, boys” The Headmaster said, opening his arms in a very pureblood way. A Dumbledore, indeed. “Sherbet lemons?”
Draco gagged inside his own mouth.
I prefer to eat my own finger, thank you. Draco thought with despair.
“No, thank you, Headmaster, we just had breakfast.” Harry rebuffed softly. Grasping Draco from the shoulders, he helped the blonde to move away from the door.
The room felt wrong to Draco and his skin was crawling with bugs that were only in his head. He was sure it was dark Magic.
“Yesterday we had an incident regarding Mr. Black and Mr. Potter,” the Headmaster started. “As you all know, Young Draco is under a curse that has been gotten better in British soil.” Draco was ready to puke his stomach out. He scooted closer to Harry, nearly hiding himself behind the other wizard.
“What kind of curse?” Molly asked softly. “We knew he was sick, but Xeno never told us from what.”
“Draco is a maledictus,” Newt said without beating around the bushes. So much for a shy magiczoologist. “I cursed him when he was a toddler.” The statement extracted a round of gasps from the room. “I cursed him to save his life after a Carrow casted the cruciatus curse on him for a whole minute.”
“Those heartless bastards,” Molly said with venom.
A bout of nausea cursed through Draco’s body and made him sway in place, his hand fisting Harry’s jumper tightly, while the other tried to keep Bennu safe.
“Are you okay?” the bespeckled wizard asked him softly, over his shoulder. Dark tresses of hair falling over the skin of his forehead and his round glasses.
“Dizzy,” he mumbled.
More, like ready to puke his gut out.
“Want to sit?” Harry asked him in a whisper.
Sit? Ahahahahaha.
He might murder someone if he was separated from Harry now. In cold blood.
“No,” he mumbled back, barely a whisper.
“‘Kay,” Harry offered him, keeping his eyes on everyone around the room. His heart beating hard against his ribcage and filling Draco’s ears with that sound. A beautiful sound in Draco’s opinion.
“Last night, an infinity nexus happened between the two of them for reasons unknown to us, still,” the oldest wizard continued. “Madame Pomfrey stepped in and severed the connection, unknowingly prompting Draco to acquire his maledictus form.”
“What is that form?” Mr. Weasley asked.
“A water dragon,” Xenophilus said softly.
“Those are extinct,” Minerva said.
“He is very much alive,” Newt said in a harsh tone, hand waving in Draco and Harry's direction.
“Cutting an Infinity Nexus shouldn’t prompt a maledictus to acquire his cursed form,” Minerva pitched in.
“Unless he thought Harry was in danger,” Newt said softly. “Water dragons are highly protective of those they consider family. The last of them that was studied showed fierce standing defending their younglings and baby Draco back then.”
Headmaster rounded his desk and stopped at the corner.
“Did you feel in danger, Harry? Was something else going on you didn't tell us about?” He asked softly.
“I was just keeping Draco company at the hospital wing while Luna, Ron and Mione went to fetch dinner.” He stated surely.
“So, Young Black is unstable?” Head of Ravenclaw House chimed in, softly.
“His core is stable,” Newt said from his post near the door. “He isn’t a hazard.”
“So, Draco,” the Headmaster asked, walking toward the boys. The blond’s stomach roiled inside his body, his blood growing cold, his instinct kicking in. “Was Harry in danger? Madame Pomfrey said something particular about Harry and you…” He took a step forward and Draco took a step back, dragging Harry with him. Bennu between the both of them. “He said that you and Harry have a similar bond due to both of you being cursed and surviving.” One step forward and Draco one step back. “I know for sure that some maledictus feel more than common wizards.” Dumbledore took a step forward and Draco took another back, dragging Harry with him.
“Draco…” But Harry wasn’t objecting, not really.
“What’s going on?” Molly asked whomever could answer her.
When Draco felt the wall against his back, he sidestepped Harry, passing Bennu to him and stood by the other’s side.
“Just like Naggini, always in tune with her master,” Dumbledore said.
“You can’t compare Draco to Nagini, Albus.” Newt said angrily. "They are nothing alike."
“Who is Nagini,” Madame McGonagall asked.
“Aren’t you, Draco? Syncing with your master?” He asked softly and reached for Harry.
In a moment, Draco was launching himself toward the Headmaster, changing his human form for his beastly one. Baby blue scales covering his dragon form, his wings flapping softly and his talons showing sharp claws.
He roared against the Headmaster’s face, floating between the old man and Harry.
“Holy shit,” Head of Ravenclaw said, going for his wand.
Dumbledore wiped out his wand and Draco grew furious in his maledictus form.
“Draco, slow down, kid. No one is trying to hurt your Harry.” Newt said softly.
But Draco didn’t bat an eye in his direction. Smoke came out of his nose in warning.
“Dray,” Luna’s soft voice made him look in her direction. “Do you like Harry?”
Draco raised his snout in the air. Silly question his sister was asking.
She giggled at his antics, still his eyes were focused on the Headmaster.
When he looked at Harry, the wizard was cradling Bennu in his arms, eyeing the situation with analytic eyes. It broke his heart seeing mistrust inside those beautiful orbs. Nonetheless, when Dumbledore tried to walk closer to Harry, Draco sprayed him with cold water, straight out of his dragon mouth.
“Fine. Not going closer to Harry,” the wizard stated, taking a few steps back.
Draco came back to his human form, still standing between Grindelwald's lovers and Harry.
“You hate Albus?” Molly asked, her voice small.
Draco didn’t answer her.
“Headmaster, you have a year until your death. You can do better explaining to your friends,” he stated softly, taking Bennu from Harry’s arm. “Including Harry. I will know if you passed your disease to him by touch.” He walked out of the room, leaving a pregnant silence behind.
He didn't have anything else to say. Dumbledore said it all, he was syncing with his Master and soulmate. He will know if Dumbledore touched him, just like Voldemort tried to touch Harry in the morning, through a shared conection that made zero sense to him.
A connection he was determine to severe as soon as possible.