Chapter 13
"Draco?"
"What is going on?" Filch yells. He pushes through the crowd. "Who did this?"
Draco steps back.
"It was you, wasn't it?" he asks.
Draco shakes his head.
Reggie nips at him.
"Haha. Look out, Mudbloods," he yells.
Harry's jaw drops and he steps away from the hanging cat.
"Harry Potter, you did this," Filch says. His voice cracks.
Draco sneers.
His chest heaves with each inhale. Water splashes into his shoes. He grabs the wall, but it's damp. He slips down and lands on his hands and knees in a puddle. A hand touches his shoulder. He slaps it away and push himself further into the wall. Reggie nips at his hands.
"Neither Mr. Potter nor Mr. Malfoy have the power to do this," Dumbledore says.
Mr. Filch grumbles.
Draco tries to focus on the scene, but his vision is muddled. Noises are ricocheting in his head and distorting. Someone is saying his name. He tries to focus on it but it's getting further. Water soaks through his robes and sticks them to his skin.
"Draco, come back."
He groans.
"Yeah. It's okay. Really. We explained everything. No one is in trouble."
He reaches a hand forward. Another hand wraps around it.
"Ron. Hermione, and I are here," Harry says.
Two hands rub my shoulders.
"Honestly, embarrassing," someone says.
Harry tries to pull from him. Draco groans. He sighs and moves closer.
"Alright, let's get you back to the dorms," Harry says.
He nods.
Dumbledore says, "We should discuss this in my office."
"No. We're tired. Nothing will change if we talk tonight. Tomorrow but we'll be more awake and comfortable," Harry says.
He opens his eyes. "Gryffindor?"
Harry turns to him. "Yeah."
Ron wraps an arm around his waist. Draco wraps an arm around his shoulders. Harry does the same. They help him up and down the hall.
"I can walk," he says.
"Can you?" Hermione asks.
He puts more pressure on his legs, but they buckle.
"If I sleep another day and a half, I swear to Merlin, I will go on a reign of terror," he mutters.
Harry smiles. "Seeing as one of us two is the heir of Slytherin, how do we know you haven't already?" he asks.
He laughs. "I suppose we don't, but we all know I would take credit for any chaos I cause."
Hermione says, "True. He may be sneaky, but he would own up to this."
"Can we ask what happened back there?" Ron asks.
He sighs. "I'm not sure how to explain it beyond a panic attack. It reminded me of something else that happened in my life, and I guess I freaked out."
Ron nods.
Hermione pats my back.
"How much of the blood on your hands is yours?" Harry asks.
He flexes his fingers. "On the right all of it. On the left all of it is the chicken blood from the wall," I say.
"How do you know it's chicken?" Hermione asks.
He shrugs. "Intuition?"
"You're so weird," Harry mutters.
He rolls his eyes. "Thank you, Harry."
"Anytime."
They lower him onto a chest. Harry cleans his hands and Ron helps him change into new robes. Hermione split to go to the girls' dorms.
"Okay. I think we're good," Harry says.
Ron nods. "Why didn't we go to Madam Pomfrey?" he asks.
Harry's jaw drops. "I forgot."
"That's fine. I just want to sleep somewhere comfortable," he says. His eye lids droop.
Harry nods. He throws the blankets on his bed back. "Get in."
Draco climbs into the bed and lay on his back. Harry climbs in after.
"Why is the heir of Slytherin in here?" Seamus asks.
"Which one?" Ron asks.
He scoffs. "The real one."
Ron stares at him.
"Malfoy," he says.
"I live here now," Draco says. He rolls onto his side to face the other boys.
Harry says, "It's true. I found him wandering one day and decided to bring him back. If I train him right, he could be a good house elf."
Draco nods. "Just tell me what to do, master," he says.
"In that case, is Harry the heir of Slytherin and Draco carrying out the dirty work?" Ron asks.
Harry shrugs. "You'll never learn my secrets."
Draco says, "Nor mine, unless my master gives permission."
Ron and Harry laugh.
The other first-year boys are not impressed. They stare at them with glares or roll their eyes.
"I'm going to sleep," Draco says.
Ron nods. He gets in his bed and covers up.
Harry yawns. "I shall join you."
He only sleeps for a regular six hours. He sits beside Harry and does the work he has been sleeping through. It won't be hard to complete all the work but it's tedious. Harry wakes up when he's almost through the last bit of homework for Herbology.
"G'morning, Draco," he says.
Draco smiles. "Morning."
"Why's it so quiet?"
"I put a silencing charm over the bed. The others are loud," he says.
"I guess you wouldn't have heard the snores before. You were pretty dead to the world. Feeling better today?" Harry sits up and grabs his glasses.
Draco nods. "I woke up in a reasonable time and I feel rested. You need to get up soon though. Quidditch starts in an hour, and you need to eat breakfast."
Harry nods. He leaves the bed and gets ready for the day. Draco takes the silencing spell down. The room is full of shuffling and cloth moving. The curtain around the bed opens.
"Harry and I are ready if you are," Ron says.
Draco nods and puts his stuff into his bag. He pats his shoulder to invite Reggie along. Reggie coos and sits on him.
"Why are you taking everything?" Harry asks.
Draco straightens Reggie's feathers. "I'm going back to Slytherin for a bit. They'll be fine with it because they think I am the heir of Slytherin. I want to see if the real one is there. You three can look around here for clues and I can ask Cedric and Lara to check their houses," he says.
"Why not stay with us and let Blaise, Pansy, and Millicent check Slytherin?" Ron asks.
Draco opens the dorm door and walks down the stairs. "I love them, but they have the intuition of a slug sometimes and they're typically causing minor problems not checking if the people around them might be trying to commit genocide," he says.
"So, you don't trust them?" Harry asks.
"On the contrary, I trust them with my life. I just trust myself more and they probably don't want to deal with it. I doubt any of them are the heir," he says.
Hermione jogs to them. "What are we talking about?"
"If I should go to Slytherin to see if there is evidence of the heir there or if I should stay in Gryffindor. The heir can be anywhere, but I feel like it's usually either Gryffindor or Slytherin causing problems. Lara can easily check to see if any of them are suspicious, and Cedric is well connected in Hufflepuff so he can check there. You three have this place covered so I thought I would check Slytherin," he says.
She bites her lip but nods. "It'd probably be for the best. It could end badly. It seems like they don't like you much."
He shrugs. "I'm not the legacy they expected but I think it could be helpful. They'll either think that I am the heir or know I am not. More people will be willing to talk to me," he says.
"True, but it could still be bad if they hex you or something," she says.
Draco shrugs. "We can risk it. I'll send Reggie to get you, if need be," he says.
Harry and Ron share a look. Hermione nods. They leave through the painting and go to the great hall. Draco's group of friends sit around him at the Hufflepuff table.
"Did you just banish the Hufflepuffs?" Cedric asks.
Draco nods. "They can make new friends," he says.
Cedric laughs and sits.
"We need you to check around Hufflepuff for the heir of Slytherin. I know that it might seem counterproductive, but the heir might not necessarily know they're doing it, or they were just placed in a different house," Draco says.
Cedric eats a bite of food and slowly chews. "So, you think the hat got it wrong?"
Draco shakes his head. "People change so they could be older, or they have enough qualities of each that the hat didn't know for sure and asked," he says.
Cedric nods.
Lara pokes his arm. "I'm guessing you want me to do the same," she says.
Draco shakes his head. "That would be counterproductive. You need to check Ravenclaw," he says.
Lara slaps his arm.
Draco smiles.
"Okay. I'll look around," she says.
"How will we know?" Cedric asks.
Draco swallows his food. "Look for suspicious behavior like nervousness, drowsiness, going to parts of the castle they shouldn't be in. Just trust your gut," he says.
Cedric nods.
"Why were you in a silenced area?" George asks.
Draco rolls his eyes. "To avoid other people bothering us but we're done now," he says.
"I can't believe we were ignored for that long without realizing," Fred says.
Draco laughs. "You have a tendency to not notice things," he says.
Harry leaves the group first.
"Good luck, Har," Draco says.
Harry smiles.
They get up and leave.