Ma Chérie

After the rest of the school returns in January and Draco goes back to his Slytherin room, he finds himself almost missing Gryffindor Tower- the midnight feasts by the fire and appalling amount of red.
He didn’t prefer it to Slytherin, exactly- it’s so different to the quiet comfort of the dungeons- but he does miss it nonetheless.

Hermione and Ron seem a bit shocked that Draco deigned to stay in Gryffindor, and he enjoys riling them up by telling them he knows the password and will let off dungbombs in their common room when they’re least expecting it.

Sadly, he actually ran out of dungbombs during the summer, when he and Pansy let a whole packet off at a poncy pureblood ball neither had wanted to go to.
Luckily they didn’t get caught, or even suspected, as everyone thought it was Crabbe and Goyle.
Draco only felt marginally bad afterwards for slipping the empty dungbomb packet in Goyle’s pocket and framing him.

Recently, though, when Draco mentions him knowing the password, or, indeed, anything at all about Gryffindor common room, the trio become shifty, the three of them peppering the blond with questions about Slytherin common room and what their password may be ‘in the interest of inter-house unity’.
As if Draco’s going to fall for that. He does wonder what they want the password for, but he isn’t going to tell them anything until they actually tell him what they’re up to.

They don’t, though, and Draco feels a bit sad about it, but quickly pushes his worries over the trio out of his mind in order to focus on his schoolwork (he is not going to let Hermione beat him in Transfiguration), and on keeping his head down after the recent attacks.

Someone that’s not been keeping their head down is Blaise Zabini. Draco’s fellow Slytherin has been talking quite loudly recently about how the attacks are not really that bad, and are what Salazar Slytherin ‘would have wanted’.
He’s been like this since Christmas, and Draco suspects it’s something his ex-death-eater father has drummed into him over Christmas break. Crabbe and Goyle have even taken to following Blaise about like some kind of god, which they used to do to Draco, although he’s not sad about the loss of their company.

He is a bit sad about Blaise, though.
Him, Pansy and Zabini have been friends since they were tiny, and he knows that Blaise’s father is even stricter and a bigger fan of corporal punishment than Draco’s, but he didn’t expect his friend to be acting like this.

Draco is kind of a hypocrite, with how he acts in public, but he makes sure not to mention the Chamber of Secrets or heirs of any kind- he gets enough ugly looks and whispers about the heir being in Slytherin house already.

He just hopes Blaise tires of playacting as his dad soon and goes back to normal. Pansy hopes so too. Blaise is the only one who will let her do their hair in Slytherin- last time, she styled his curly afro into two tiny ponytails, finished with pink bows.

*

It’s early March when Draco finally realises what reckless thing the Golden Trio have been planning since before Christmas.

He’s in his cat form, stretching out on one of the leather sofas in Slytherin common room. Pansy is playing exploding snap with Theo and occasionally scratching Draco’s head.
She doesn’t know the cat is him- she has a theory that he’s Snape’s cat, which is hilarious. Whenever Draco tells her he’s never seen this cat that she’s talking about, she doesn’t get that he’s trying to hint that it’s him, and just pats him on the arm, telling him he’s missing out.

Blaise is sitting on the other side of the common room, looking a bit lost without Crabbe and Goyle, his now constant companions.
He wasn’t really talking to Draco and Pansy at the moment, because they’d told him to shut up about the Chamber of Secrets a few days ago.

Suddenly, the Slytherin entrance opens and Crabbe and Goyle tumble in, looking even clumsier and confused than normal.

Draco flicks his snow-white ears, noticing that the two are whispering furiously before Crabbe elbows Goyle and they walk over to Blaise and sit down.
This is unusual, as Draco has certainly never seen the two goons converse that quickly before, and he knows them both to be terrible at trying to whisper.

He decides to listen in to their conversation, padding over to their corner of the common room and pretending to clean his paws.

It’s obvious almost from the first word Crabbe says that he is undeniably not Crabbe, and the same for Goyle.
Blaise doesn’t notice though, his mind seems elsewhere.
Draco is almost 99% sure who the two actually are when they start asking, rather insistently, whether Blaise is the heir.

Blaise scoffs and tells them,

“How many times do I have to tell you, no. I only wish I knew who it is, so I can give them a medal or something.”

Draco sees Goyle’s hands clench into fists at this, but Blaise doesn’t notice.
Then Draco’s sharp cat eyes notice ginger streaks beginning to appear in Crabbe’s (Ron’s, Draco now knows) hair. A faint scar is starting to show on Goyle’s forehead too.

Salazar, how did these Gryffindor’s have time to brew Polyjuice Potion this year.

To distract Blaise, Draco jumps up on the sofa and digs his claws into it, causing Blaise to shout, and try to pull the white cat off of the sofa.

Ron/Crabbe and Harry/Goyle hastily call back goodbyes as they’re running out the common room. Idiots, Draco thinks fondly.

*

When he’s finally got away from Blaise (now fixing the sofa with Reparo), the bright white cat slips out of the common room to find the Gryffindor trio.

He can track people easily as a cat, and follows Harry’s scent (fresh air, cardamom, fire, treacle tart) to the girl’s bathrooms that Moaning Myrtle haunts. He only knows about Myrtle because Pansy is friends with the ghost girl, often discussing vintage fashion with her and such stuff.

He quickly transforms back into himself before stepping in.

The room smells vaguely like the Potions classroom, and he follows recognisable voices of the trio, ending up at a bathroom stall which the three of them stand in. Hermione’s face is.. a cat? Okay…

The three of them stop arguing about something and stare at Draco.
Hermione coughs out a furball.

“I knew you three were up to something, but did it have to be Polyjuice Potion? You’re lucky you seem to have brewed it right.”

Hermione starts to say something, but Draco puts up a hand and continues. He’s annoyed that they didn’t just talk to him about this whole thing- Blaise was his friend.

“If you wanted to know if Blaise was the heir, you only had to do a simple thing called asking me. I won’t bite.. much..”

Harry smirks at this last bit, Ron looks confused, and Hermione looks… well, like a cat. Hermione says,

“We didn’t know if you would even tell us anything, Draco. With all that stuff you always say about Slytherins sticking together and protecting each other.”

Harry nods, and adds,

“And our Polyjuice was brewed just fine, thank you very much.”

Draco rolls his eyes elegantly at the boy.

Ron now speaks up, still confused,

“Wait- how did you know it was us anyway, or what we said.. I didn’t see you anywhere in the Slytherin common room.. and Pansy can’t have been close enough to hear and tell you.”

Draco sighs- the three are now all staring at him curiously.

“I will keep my evil Slytherin eavesdropping methods to myself, thanks. It’s only fair, considering you three didn’t tell me anything about your little break in plan.”

Harry looks a bit guilty at this. Draco continues, hoping to distract them from wondering how he heard and connecting him with the white cat,

“Anyway, how did you lot know the Slytherin password? I hope it doesn’t involve you all following me under Potter’s ridiculous invisibility cloak.”

Ron and Hermione seem shocked at this, while Harry shoots Draco an annoyed look.
Him and the blond had used the cloak (which was only ridiculous in that it was ridiculously cool) to sneak around at Christmas, finding secret passageways and places for duelling.
Potter had made him swear not to tell anyone about the cloak. He must’ve not told the other two that Draco knows about it.

“Okay, Malfoy. We’re sorry we didn’t tell you. Honestly, I thought you wouldn’t want to be involved- you’ve been so busy with schoolwork and stuff lately..”

Harry trails off and Draco shrugs,

“It’s fine, I’m not upset or anything. Now, we need to get Hermione to the Hospital Wing before she chokes on a furball. I’m not even going to ask why you put cat hair in your Polyjuice, ‘Mione.”

With this, Draco turns and starts walking out of the bathroom, before stopping to wait for the disastrous trio. He hears Ron whisper to Harry,

“Do you think he can turn invisible? Or maybe shrink really really small, to sneak around and eavesdrop on people?”

Draco smiles.

*

It’s halfway through the spring term, and Draco is very worried about Harry. Specifically, Harry’s sanity.

He was walking with the other boy to the Great Hall from their brewing tapestry spot when Harry had frozen and asked Draco if he heard ‘that voice in the walls’. He had then run down the Long Gallery, Draco chasing after him, to stop in front of a puddle of water, a Hufflepuff in their year lying on the floor frozen and petrified. Justin something or other.

Now, hearing voices technically wasn’t that strange, for a wizard, but from the walls? And it was certainly not good that Harry always seemed to turn up where the attacks happened.
And that time, Harry had a Slytherin (himself) with him, which only increased how suspicious he appeared.

People in their year had taken to assuming that him and Harry were both the heirs (somehow), and working together to ‘cleanse the school of muggleborns’. As if.

*

When Hermione is petrified, it’s almost April.

Draco misses his study partner, and his friend.
He often goes to the Hospital Wing and chats to her after lessons, telling her what they learnt so she doesn’t get behind, sometimes with Ron and Harry. Madam Pomfrey told them that Hermione can probably hear them, so that’s something.

One evening he’s down there and he feels so helpless, he knows that the school will probably have to close soon if the heir isn’t found and stopped.
At least the mandrakes are nearly ready to be used in un-petrifying Hermione and the others.

He tells Hermione now,

“I’m going to find out who did this, ‘Mione, and they’re going to pay, don’t worry. Hopefully Ron and Harry have at least some idea.”

He imagines her smiling at his use of Weasley and Potter’s first names. She’s always trying to get him to call them by their first names.
She had even said that Harry was jealous that he called her Hermione but him Potter. He’s sure she just said that just to tease him.

*

The day after his promise to Hermione he’s in the library looking up books with anything about puddles of water, petrified people, and spiders fleeing for the woods.
He can’t find Potter and Weasley anywhere, so has come here to research avenging Hermione by himself.

That is, he’s trying to, when he sees the youngest Weasley (Ginerva, he thinks her name is), looking suspicious a few shelves over, black diary clutched under her arm.

He can just make out the name engraved into the bottom of it before the small girl looks up, sees Draco, and runs off.

Tom Riddle.

Draco knows who this is. He’s heard his father talk to his mother, quietly, about him.
It seems that not many people in the wizarding world know Voldemort’s real name, or perhaps they have forgotten.
Draco’s father knows, though, because he made it a point to know everything about his old Dark Lord, in case he needed blackmail material. Lucius Malfoy did this with everyone he met.
Draco doubted his father would ever have been in a situation where he could blackmail the Dark Lord, but he guessed Lucius liked knowing stuff.

Draco instantly knows that Ginny is the one who’s been opening the chamber- he had seen her around this year, and she was unusually quiet for a Weasley.
Maybe she is possessed by whatever that diary is. Anything previously owned by Voldemort was literally guaranteed to be cursed, he figured.

Without really thinking about it, he drops the book he’s holding and rushes out after the youngest Weasley.

He has to get that diary and give it to a teacher, probably Mcgonagall is his best bet… And where are Ron and Harry???

He becomes a soft white cat and follows Ginny’s scent to Myrtles bathroom.
Why has every weird event this year happened in this bathroom, he thinks to himself.

Ginny isn’t there, but what is, is the worn black diary, Tom Riddle neatly spelled out on the back cover. It looks like it’s been thrown on the floor.

Draco wraps his hand in his school robes before picking it up, in case it’s curse worked by touching bare skin.

He is resolved not to open it or anything, when the pages flip open by themselves, and he feels himself being sucked into it like a gurgling drain, his hands robotically grabbing a quill from his bag and writing his name in it.

Draco tried so hard to cling to consciousness, begging his hand to stop writing, but he drifts away, letting Riddle take control of his body as he falls in and out of a possessed sleep.

His last thought is that Harry bloody Potter better figure out how to save him, and fast.

*

Draco wakes up in a wet, dark chamber. Chamber. The chamber of secrets!

He drags himself up from where he’s been lying (rather undignified) on the floor, and what he sees is very odd.

There’s a massive, luckily dead, basilisk lying across the chamber, a sword glinting with rubies lying on the wet floor beside it, and beside that is Riddle’s diary (it looks like it’s been stabbed).

The only thing that isn’t odd is the familiar sight of Harry Potter, who is clutching his arm and sitting next to the diary and sword.

Draco half-drags, half-slides over to Harry. He still feels really weak, but he’s regaining his energy quickly every minute.

“Harry? What happened? Merlin, you’re bleeding!”

Harry murmurs,
“Hi Draco”, attempting a weak smile.

Draco gently holds Potter’s arm and peers at the wound. If it’s a basilisk inflicted wound, as Draco suspects, then Harry will die pretty soon.

Draco bites his lip, wondering what in Salazar’s name he’s supposed to do, while wracking his head for the antidote to Basilisk venom.

He sighs and tries not to look scared for Harry.

“Why do you always have to- to be- such a hero, Harry?”,
Draco murmurs.

Harry shrugs, giving Draco a small, pained smile, and saying,

“Well someone had to be your prince in shining armour, and it wasn’t going to be Lockhart.”

The blond can’t help blushing at this and murmurs,

“Thanks for saving me, idiot.”

Suddenly, a beautiful red and orange bird flies over to them, Harry crying ‘Fawkes!’ with a grin. It’s a phoenix, and as it cries onto Harry’s arm, Draco remembers the antidote,

“Phoenix tears! That’s the antidote to Basilisk venom, of course.”

“You sound like Hermione”,
Harry says, smiling.
Draco rolls his eyes, although he’s smiling too, thank Merlin Potter wasn’t dead.

“Shut up, Scarhead. Let’s get out of here. Please.”

*

It turns out that the house elf Potter kept complaining about that year was actually Dobby, which wasn’t really a surprise to Draco, in retrospect.
The elf had always been eager to hear stories about Harry Potter from Draco when he was younger, and seemed to have heard something from his father about the Chamber of Secrets possibly opening that year.

Now, Draco definitely had to confront his father about that. He hoped that his dad didn’t have anything to do with the diary.

Well, he knew that if Lucius Malfoy did, he certainly regretted it when his only child and heir was kidnapped by said diary and left to die in the Chamber of Secrets. The memory-Tom-Riddle had been kinda hot though (even from the glimpses he saw between consciousness), Draco thinks, so that made the whole experience a little less traumatic.

Draco was only glad to give his sock to Harry as the boy ran after Lucius Malfoy after meeting with the headmaster, giving Harry a significant look (translated to: use this sock to free Dobby), and Potter had somehow understood.

Harry told him afterwards, giving Draco a worried look, that his father was really angry, but his dad being angry is nothing new.
He knew somehow that Harry was thinking about his scars, and he smiled, more confidently than he felt, saying quietly,

“I’ll be fine, Potter.”

Harry smiled back,

“Oh, so it’s Potter again, is it.”

“Of course. Unless you prefer Scarhead?”

*

He turns into his cat form and curls up on a sleeping Harry’s chest while both boys are in the Hospital Wing, because Harry kept mumbling in his sleep and having what Draco suspected was a nightmare.

He stops tossing about and mumbling when cat-Draco goes to lie on him.

Draco tells himself he’s only being affectionate (ew) because he himself can’t sleep when the Chosen One is constantly mumbling.

He promises himself that he will do his best to protect Harry from any near death experiences next year.