Revelations
“Stop pacing, Draco, you’ll wake him.”
“I don’t care. Let him wake, at least then we’ll know if he has any internal damage.”
Snape sighs, not nearly annoyed or as understanding as Dumbledore. “For the last time, both Madam Pomfrey and I looked him over, he’ll be as fit as a whistle in a few days. He’s already awoken once this afternoon. He is fine .”
Draco whirls on him. “ Fine?!” he whisper-shouts at the insolent professor rolling his eyes, “ Fine?! He was almost bloody kissed by a swarm of Dementors ! How is that fine?! ”
Snape glares and Dumbledore doesn’t do much but let the corners of his mouth twitch ever so slightly. The headmaster had scarred most of the school with his rage, shooting spells at the beats, sending them running within a minute. Draco would have been terrified of the man next to him if he hadn’t wanted to use a few Unforgivables on them himself. In truth, he had stayed as his friends and the rest ran, frozen in the stands with his eyes trained on Potter to catch the rise and fall of his chest. He had watched in the freezing rain as Potter was carried off to the school, his friends and team behind him, and had been there when Cedric argued that he didn’t deserve the win, that he wouldn’t take it with how badly Potter had gotten hurt. Draco had stayed until Snape found him and told him Potter was fine, that he hadn’t even broken his glasses, and only then did he breathe.
He’d been so scared. So immovably terrified.
“The boy is alive, is he not?”
Potter is alive, asleep on the hospital bed before them. True to Snape’s word his glasses weren’t broken, merely resting on his bedside table with water and various potions. Black hair fanned out over an unbroken face, his lips were even turned up in a smile as though he were having a sweet dream. He looked so peaceful Draco could almost forget, he would if he didn’t see the boy falling every time he closed his eyes. Draco also knows from personal experience that just because someone can sleep with a smile doesn’t mean they’re happy. Especially after being that close with Dementors.
He meets Snape’s eyes with anger that makes the man step back.
“Being alive and living are two very different things, Professor.”
Snape opens his mouth right as Dumbledore rises, silencing them both. “That is quite enough, Draco has a point, Severus. I believe you and I must speak with the rest of the staff about this occurrence. Draco, would you watch over Harry until I can return?”
“What should I do if he wakes up?”
Dumbledore gives him a coy smile, “Do what you think is best for the boy, but remember what he has just gone through. Be kind if you can. Remember that the Truth is sometimes exactly what is called for.”
“Albus! Surely you don’t mean for Draco to tell-”
“I mean what I say, Severus. Hurry up now, the rest of the staff is waiting on us.”
Draco watches them go, old man practically pushes Snape out against his will. Then he turns his attention on Potter, still trying to accept that he’s here, he’s safe, and he’s just sleeping. It’s kind of hard when the boy sleeps like the dead and hasn’t even shifted. Merlin, people who sleep with no trouble make him sick. Honestly! Look at Potter, all resting and cozy under his blanket while Draco is pacing back and forth at foot of his stupid bed. Where did he get off on a good night's sleep? Is this how he always manages to get out of impossible situations alive? Was sleep really all that powerful? Maybe Draco would have to test it out after he got done jumping five feet into the air because Potter finally made a noise.
He groans, sitting up slowly and glancing at Draco through very squinted eyes. “Ron? Why are you wearing a blonde wig? I swear if this is some type of fucked up joke I’m gonna-”
“Not Weasley.” Is all Draco can manage. It seems to be enough because Potter immediately feels around for his glasses. Once they’re thrown on and he can see Draco clearly, he frowns.
“What are you doing here?”
Draco opens and closes his mouth a few times. If he told Potter...he would have to tell him everything. About being a spy, about how he had protected the boy, all the information he knew. It would completely expose him….but. Dumbledore clearly wanted it to happen. Last year, hadn’t he encouraged Draco to befriend Potter? Hadn’t he just told him to be honest? Just because he and Potter had a civil conversation didn’t mean he had to stop being a spy...it didn’t mean anything...him being by Potter’s bedside at two in the morning meant nothing, right?
Before he can make up his mind, the boy in the bed answers for him. “Lemme guess, going to save me from another Dementor attack?”
He could deny it, his chance is right here, he can make up some stupid excuse, it would be so easy to deny it. But Draco doesn’t say a word; he looks away. And that is an answer in itself.
Potter makes some sort of sound between a crazed laugh and a shocked gasp. “You are, aren’t you? Why else would you be here, unless you came to finish the job yourself. That would ruin last year’s work though, wouldn’t it? You don’t make any sense! One second you’re taunting me with my dead parents, and the next you’re standing by my hospital bed? You’re bloody mental! Make up your mind, do you want to ruin my life or save it?!”
Draco keeps his mouth shut. Arms cross, his eyes stare anywhere but Potter. He would walk away if he trusted the other not to do something stupid like follow him or get attacked the second he was left alone. Potter, apparently, does not like his response.
“Say something!” he all but yells, making Draco flinch and finally meet green eyes that are open. Not closed. Potter is sitting, not lying limp on the Quidditch field. Draco sucks in a deep breath.
“You fell.”
His voice is weirdly quiet, but it recoils Potter like he had screamed.
“I thought, we all thought, that you were dead….” the same scene flashes behind his eyes, over and over, but his voice grows stronger. It’s the most emotion he’s felt since he came back to school this year. “You have no idea what your death would do to the wizarding world, do you? You don’t know anything.”
Potter’s anger fades. He looks about as confused as Draco feels, but he does snort a bit, “Well you were there the last time I tried to learn something. Someone wasn’t exactly forthcoming with information.”
Merlin damn the smile tugging as his lips. Footsteps he knows as Snape’s echo from the hallway. Draco closes his eyes, speaking quickly “Look, Potter. You still want to know the truth, right? I promise you, I will answer any question you have. But not here. Not now. When I told you we can’t be friends, I meant it. You have to hate me, and I have to hate you.”
“Why?”
“That,” Draco doesn’t even bother fighting his smile this time, “Is one of those questions I can’t answer right now.”
Potter rolls his eyes, “When can you answer it?”
The footsteps draw nearer, Draco sighs. “When the time is right.”
And then Snape is near enough for Potter to close his eyes and pretend to be sleeping, Draco doesn’t miss the way he tenses up once he leaves the room. He curses himself and promises to talk to Dumbledore the second he wakes up tomorrow. Hopefully he didn’t just make an irreversible mistake, worse comes to worst, they could always Obliviate Potter...but something about that doesn’t sit right with him. LuLu cuddles extra close to him that night.
----------
Dumbledore had almost fucking hugged him when he told the old coot what had happened in the infirmary. Taking that as a good sign, he did finally feel the anxiety wearing away from his bones. For a long time there three potions hadn’t been enough, but he knew four were a little too dangerous. To remind Potter of their agreement, he kept picking on the boy, but he could tell Potter wasn’t really offended anymore. Somehow it made him feel a little lighter.
He was so relaxed after his conversation with Potter and Dumbledore, plus his first restful sleep in ages with LuLu to protect him and a morning of games with his friends, a letter from his mother waiting for him as soon as wizard’s chest was done, that he actually managed to produce a Patronus.
He had closed his eyes and imagined it, him and his mother laughing in the manor, before all this mess, just the two of them talking about some shopping trip. He thought about Potter being alive and almost grinning at him in the hospital wing. He thought about Pansy and Blaise, curled up on either side of him and talking about classes while a fire cackles in front of them. Draco really wasn’t sure which memory caused the surge of happiness powerful enough for a bright light to shoot out of his wand. He was so happy he finally managed to produce something he completely forgot to figure out what it was, until three heads of the same snake stared at him.
“Well...this is unusual…” Lupin said.
“What?” Draco asked, “Is it not good? I thought making a Patronus was a good thing? Did I do it wrong?”
Lupin laughs at him, “No you did it right! In fact it was amazing, you’ve just produced something I’ve never seen before, I’d ask Dumbledore about this if I were you. It’s got to mean something.”
Draco groaned, “Can I do anything that has no meaning? Just once, professor, I’d like to do something and it have no significance whatsoever.”
He probably shouldn’t have said anything, but Lupin just looks at him like he’s lost his mind. “What are you talking about?”
“Nothing, Professor, absolutely nothing.”
Almost like some weird ironic trick of fate, his Patronus had to be abnormal and rare.
“It’s not a bad thing, Draco. Runespoors just have a tad bit more meaning than normal.”
“That is exactly what I’m annoyed about.”
Apparently, he had produced a three headed snake, known to be both associated with the Dark Arts and piece of mind. The three heads each had their own purpose, and the unfortunate wizards who possessed them were destined to suffer, having not one, but three life changing events in store for them. His left snakehead was the decision maker, the middle a dreamer, and the right a critic. Maintaining balance of the three was supposed to be one of the most difficult things in the world, but once it was done it’s power was rarely matched.
It made sense if he really thought about it, and he does drag LuLu to the Astronomy tower so he can muse out loud to her and make sense of the bullshit. He’s already had one life altering decision: becoming Dumbledore’s spy. He had used all three to make that. Draco had dreamed of a life with and without the Dark Lord, criticized every plan to perfection, and only after careful consideration had he chosen. What would his next one be?
Dumbledore had also told him that those with Runespoors had unbreakable mental strength, able to withstand so much before breaking. That would explain how he had survived so long in his father’s house. Merlin, why must everything in his life be so fucking complicated?
December came at an alarming rate between classes, his Patronus lessons, Veritaserum lessons, Quidditch, and his friends growing more and more agitated with his secrets. Dumbledore was forcing Potter to stay for Christmas break so he would be safe from Black, and Draco wished he could share the same fate.
After not receiving a letter from his father for nearly a year, he had gotten one mere note demanding he come home for the holidays. Needless to say he didn’t trust it.
“Although the wards of the castle prevent flooing without permission and no one can Apparate into the building, I can tell you that Honeydukes never closes it’s floo...should you need the information…”
He had almost kissed Dumbledore on the spot.
Speaking of Honeydukes, it’s exactly where he finds himself after exams. They’re due for a train ride tomorrow, but the staff had somehow deemed one last Hogsmeade trip to be safe. Piled in the same table as last time, his group of friends laughs over warm apple cider this time.
Draco had somehow managed to pull mostly Outstandings out of his ass, Transfiguration being his only Exceeds Expectations. While he was disappointed, Pansy had been jealous. Even though her and Blaise had worked their asses off, they somehow wound up with three EEs and only two Os. Crabbe and Goyle were just happy to pass with Acceptables and no Trolls this year.
“I’m serious, Draco, next semester Pans and I are studying with you, dammit! It’s not fair for you to get all Os while your friends struggle!”
“Maybe if you hadn’t spent a majority of your study time flirting, you would’ve done better! And I didn’t get all Os!”
Pansy rolls her eyes, “We’re still studying with you. I’ll have you know one of my two Os was in Transfiguration.”
Draco sticks his tongue out at her, which he regrets the second Blaise plops a grass flavored jelly bean on it.
“You’re a right bastard.” He manages once he’s covered the taste up by nearly burning off his taste buds. Blaise just grins at him, starting up another conversation about how excited he is to meet his mom’s latest boyfriend, the one from summer having proved a tad bit too clingy for the woman.
Draco looks out the window as he speaks, drowning out the story they’ve all heard before and spotting a group of rather suspicious people moving back towards Hogwarts; Mcgonagall, Minister Fudge, Hagrid, and Madam Rosmerta. A few seconds later Granger, Weasley, and Potter followed.
Funny, because he knew Potter was supposed to be back at the school. Half of him wanted to go and let someone know that their precious hunted boy had escaped, but then he saw the mix of emotions on Scarhead’s face.
Harry Potter looked like he was either going to burst into tears or murder everyone within five feet of him. Draco wondered for a moment what the hell could’ve happened, but it didn’t really take a long time for him to figure it out.
Mcgonagall and Hagrid had been one of the few teachers who knew about Black’s connection to the Potters. Fudge was meeting with Dumbledore that night to express some sort of plan about the whole thing. Not to mention that Madam Rosmerta was more of a gossiping school girl than Pansy.
Potter had just found out that Sirius Black had once been his father’s best friend. Draco’s suddenly glad to be going home for break.