November
Early November
It was early morning, and Draco was making his way to the forbidden area in a way that was now habit, Athebyne stalking at his side primly. When they reached the place where smooth, grey walls turned a rotten looking black and green he stopped.
Pulling a piece of chalk out of his pocket, Draco bent and marked off the edge if the healthy stone with a cross and date on the floor. Then he glanced further along the corridor at the marks from earlier days.
The strange numbing rot was spreading faster than ever. Its current rate was almost a hands-length a day. By next easter the Owlery would need to be relocated to another tower unless they could halt its progress. Nothing Draco or the castle could throw at it seemed to make a blind bit of difference. It was time to ask for help, and there was really only one person who he trusted to figure this mess out.
"Fuuuck" Draco said aloud - rather justifiably he thought.
"How long has this been happening?" Hermione looked at his markings on the floor and scribbled something on her parchment.
"Hard to say" Draco replied "it spreads unpredictably. Sometimes there is no growth for days, then it might suddenly grow a foot or two in a week. I've trying to locate the epicentre, but the spread outwards is different in every direction and over multiple floors, so it's impossible to pinpoint exactly. I don't even know when it started, because I don't know whether it started small, or whether whatever caused it meant it covered a large area from the beginning. Unfortunately Filch kept absolutely no notes and mentioned nothing to the Headmistress about it."
"What other effects have you noticed?" Hermione asked, leaning in to scrape at the black fuzz with the tip of your wand.
"It eats magic. Wards stop people entering, but the rot just eats through them. If I throw spells at it it just absorbs them. The magic of the Caretaker - well it's somewhat hard to explain but let's say that I'm connected to the castle itself, and the castle walls become almost an extension of my body once I tap into that connection. The rot numbs out sensation in the infected areas entirely."
"At first I thought the rot was just interfering with our connection, but I now think it has to be more than that. We've had five incursions by various beasts in the last month alone. They came through the damaged areas and the castle didn't even sense it or stop them until they crossed into a healthy area. It's more like the castle is gangrenous. But the impacted area is now so large I'm not sure cutting away is possible, even if it would be affective."
"I've been through the restricted section, but I can't find anything that sounds even remotely familiar. This is unheard of. We need to stop the spread, and we need to stop it soon. We've got a perhaps months eight months at most before the situation becomes truly dire."
Hermione nodded, then pulled off one of her dangling glass earrings and transfigured it into a small jar, which she then used to catch the sample of rot she'd finished scraping off.
"Fine. Leave it with me. I agree this is... concerning. I'll come to your office if I find something."
"Thankyou Miss Granger"
"Draco, just call me Hermione for goodness sake."
She marched back to the main corridor before he could reply.
"Well, after all that, that didn't go so badly" Draco said to Athebyne. The cat just looked at him, then flounced away.
Mid November
Draco lay on the roof of the building, gazing at the night sky. The night was clear and crisp and full of thousands of stars. Athebyne was curled next to him, a warm, vibrating weight. Draco opened his mouth wide and huffed, sending his breath curling out of his mouth like dragon smoke.
A quiet cough caused Draco to sit upright and turn to search out the noise. Across the roof an achingly familiar head of scruffy hair was silhouetted against the light of a nearby window.
"Malfoy?" Harry stood up and shambled over, picking his way clumsily over the mossy tiled roof.
"Potter"
"Can't sleep?"
"No"
Draco had been jarred awake by the castle, but it had turned out to be a false alarm. He'd tossed and turned for a bit but all the adrenaline was still buzzing in his system, wanting something to do.
"Me neither. Bad dreams. I keep having the same ones night after night." Harry waved his hand "they stopped when I was travelling, but now they're back. I think it's being back here in Hogwarts. It always felt safe, like home, but it's not the same now."
Harry was gazing up at the stars, his expression vulnerable. Draco felt an almost overwhelming urge to reach out and touch.
"Sorry. Don't know why I'm telling you; you probably don't care."
"That's not true Potter. I understand you didn't have the best relationship with the other version of me" Harry snorted at that "but in my world it was different. We didn't get the best start of things, but the other Harry ended up being one of my closest friends"
"Somehow I can't picture that" Harry turned, and their eyes caught.
"Well it's true. Look - I can't go into detail - McGonagall has ordered me to keep quiet - but Harry and I ended up fighting on the same side. We were different people but we balanced each other out. We made a good team. Before it all went to shit" Draco cut himself off and looked away
"It's bloody weird. You look like him, you act like him mostly, but the other Malfoy was always so angry at me all the time. It drove me completely mental how petty and mean he could be, like he was nice to all his friends, and he pretty much ignored everyone else, but he went out of his way to be cruel to me all the time."
Draco sighed
"Sounds familiar. When I started Hogwarts I was a selfish, spoiled little brat who I was used to having everything I wanted, when I wanted it. And from the first time I met Harry I wanted him to be my friend rather desperately. Harry - being Harry - wasn't interested in the offer given the way I went about it. I didn't react well. I can't imagine it was much different here"
Harry looked troubled
"It's not your fault, you didn't do anything wrong. If a self-centred little prick had come up to me in the first year and expected me to fall all over him in adoration, I would have been a lot less polite about saying 'no thanks' than you probably were."
"Anyway" Draco demurred "you need to get back to bed. You're going to be exhausted in the morning. Do you think you can sleep now?"
"Maybe. This was weird, but good. Thanks Malfoy"
Late November
Draco sat propped up in the hallway, blood spilling from between his fingers. His side and leg throbbed in pain, and his head was spinning. The Skrewt had caught him a glancing blow with its stinger, ripping into clothes and flesh. Down the corridor, Rodrick was flattened against the wall, Athebyne in front of him, her fur erect.
"It's fine, I'm pretty sure it's dead" Draco prodded at the curled body and grimaced when his boot came away slimy.
"Rodrick, please run along and fetch Madam Pomfrey, you know where her rooms are yes? Make sure you tell her to bring an antidote for Skrewt venom"
The boy nodded then ran off in the right direction, thank goodness.
"You'd better follow him Athebyne, I don't trust him not to get lost - again" Draco ordered, Rodrick's irritating ability to bumble into trouble was becoming serious problem
Draco closed his eyes and drifted for a while, feeling the impact of venom and blood loss sapping his energy. Then someone was shaking him and he awoke to green eyes in a concerned face.
"Harry..." Draco reached up to grab the hand that was shaking him. It was warm and strong, not a dream.
"Let me through Mr Potter" Madam Pomfrey was puffing, revealing that she had come in a hurry.
Harry stepped aside, but didn't let go of Draco's grasping hand, instead transferring the grip into one that threaded their fingers together. Despite his pain, Draco felt a dart of adrenaline rush through him. Poppy cast a few spells on him, and then pulled some potions out of her bag and applied them to his wounds.
"Please do me a favour and levitate Draco to the infirmary for me Harry, it's a bit far for me and I'm all puffed out. I've knitted the wound together but it needs resting so that it can heal properly" with a huff, Poppy straightened and then turned to look at the nearby corpse. With a curl of her lip she banished it, before marching down the corridor ahead of them.
"What happened?" Harry muttered quietly at Draco as he gently levitated him, then sent him floating after Madam Pomfrey.
"A bloody huge Skrewt got in" Draco said tiredly "there's something wrong with the castle, the wards keep failing. Hermione's looking into it but no progress so far. It turns out that the large number of relatively helpless magical children in Hogwarts is a tempting lure to all manner of beasties, and suddenly the pantry doors are wide open. I've been managing so far, but my usual spells just bounced off the Skrewt, and it didn't help that I was tired and distracted."
Harry made an annoyed noise "have you asked McGonagall for help?"
"She's got enough on her hands. It's my job - and I was managing fine"
"Until you weren't. Look - I'll talk to some of the other Eighth years, we've got plenty of time to help with patrolling and lots of us have enough DADA experience to manage just fine if there are attacks. You don't have to do it all alone."
Draco wanted to argue, but he was too tired to even keep his eyes open. With a sigh, he relaxed and let sleep claim him.
The next day he awoke in the school ward to the sight of Hermione sitting cross-legged in the chair by his bed, Athebyne curled in her lap.
"Good! You're awake. Harry was worried, but Madam Pomfrey said you'd be right as rain after a good sleep. How's the side?"
Draco sat up gingerly, expecting stomach to complain, but it only ached a little. The movement caused his blankets to pool around his waist, revealed his bare chest and torso. Draco peered at the spot where he'd been gored. All that remained of the ugly wound was a faint red line running parallel to his hip bone.
"It's good" Draco turned and look at Hermione, who appeared to be blushing and was everting her eyes. Draco felt himself flush in borrowed embarrassment.
"What brings you here?" he asked
"Right! Are you well enough to walk? I want to show you something" she picked up Athebyne and plopped the cat on the floor, before jumping from her chair "follow me!"
Draco climbed out of bed and pulled on the shirt folded by his bedside. He noted with relief that it was his own undershirt, and had been washed and mended neatly by the house elves.
Hermione had already started off down the corridor, and led Draco down staircases and through corridors to reach the same spot where he had fought the Skrewt the prior evening.
"Look here" Hermione said, kneeling at same spot where Draco had collapsed. His blood still stained the floor, and had pooled in the cracks between the stone slabs, mixing with the dust. Draco wrinkled his nose in disgust.
"Really Hermione? I'll send one of the castle elves to give it a good scrubbing today I promise"
"No Draco - you're not looking properly"
Hermione squatted down and pointed at the paving stones. Suddenly Draco saw what had caught her interest, and wondered how he had not seen it before. The area where he had bled, and for a few inches around it, was free of the numbing rot.
"What? But I tried everything. Cleaning spells, potions, acid. I even poured a whole bottle of muggle cleaning chemicals all over it and nothing! How is it possible that my blood?"
"I've no idea Draco. But I've already taken the liberty of doing a quick experiment. Here - let me show you." Hermione pulled a piece of wood from her pocket and unfolded it into a knife, which she then pressed onto her thumb. Blood welled and she shook it onto a patch of infected floor. Draco watched in fascination, but nothing happened, the blood sank into the rot but the rot remained.
"Now it could be a delayed reaction, but I'm not convinced. Can I borrow a finger?"
"Why not" Draco replied with a sigh and held out his arm, Hermione looked almost gleeful as she ran the sharp knife across his palm
"Bloody hell woman!" blood welled and dripped onto the floor, and before their eyes the rot withdrew backwards away from the blood.
"Oooh!" Hermione said, her face enthralled as she watched "how fascinating!"
"What's happening to it?" Draco asked, intrigued "is it disappearing? or moving?" Draco shuddered all over on the last word - visions of migrant clumps of the rot roaming the school walls dancing through in his mind.
Hermione smirked as she cast a spell over the area.
"It's disappearing Draco, no need to panic about rot monsters"
With a sigh, Hermione straightened up.
"What does it mean though? Why is the rot responding to you and not me?" she muttered idly, then suddenly pinned him with a look "if you make a pureblood comment right now I'll kick you"
Draco held up his arms in surrender.
"I wouldn't dare! But it could be any number of things. Yes - something about my heritage, but it could be something to do with me being caretaker, or from... another place. I've really no idea"
Hermione looked pensive, and then brushed herself off and pulled a small notebook from her robe pocket where she started making notes.
"Yes. Well the answer here is obviously to conduct more experiments. Please go see Madam Pomfrey again and speak to her about a safe way to fortify and extract your blood in large quantities. I think I'm going to need rather a lot"
Draco nodded, and then backed away from her slowly.