Liar Lair
Harry Potter has had one hell of a night, or really, one hell of the last two years. Because the giant secret room under a three-headed dog and almost dying his first year wasn’t enough for Voldemort, the giant git naturally had to find another secret to Hogwarts and exploit it like it was his right. And, because he really forgets to think things through, he had found himself almost dying in a secret room all over again, at least this time it was because of a giant snake and not a trusted professor. A giant snake, and a bloody diary of all things. Kept under lock and key- not a normal key of course, more like a password that was rather simple for a parselmouth like himself- and distributed by Lucius Malfoy no less. The same Malfoy that kicked and hit Dobby right in front of him and once again, because he rarely thinks his ideas over- he should probably work on that- he’d snuck the elf a sock and freed him, almost gotten cursed, and managed to anger the man who wanted to kill him most, well most after Voldemort himself.
So yes, Harry had been having one hell of a twenty-four hours, in which he decided he really hated secrets. Which is why he is where he is now.
See, he hadn’t meant to follow Draco Malfoy, he really had wanted to go and sleep for a bit before getting his head chewed off by McGonagall, but the boy looked suspicious. Who did he think he was, walking by himself and rather quickly, after Harry has just landed his father on his ass? Certainly he was up to no good, Draco Malfoy didn’t just take walks. He was going somewhere, and Harry had his invisibility cloak, so why not follow the boy. If he was up to something, he would be stopped, and if he wasn’t, then Harry could sneak away and go to bed.
Needless to say, he hadn’t expected to follow the boy to the Astronomy tower, or for him to lock the door and whisper “You can come out now”.
The last thing Harry had ever expected was for Dobby to appear right before him and bow to Malfoy.
“Really! What were you thinking? You know it’s dangerous to come into the Slytherin common room, what if someone else had seen you? You could have gotten hurt!”
Did he hit his head too hard last night? Was the poison still affecting him? Surely Dobby and Draco-
“Dobby is sorry, Master Draco, but Dobby has news!”
Malfoy raises an eyebrow, but then the elf is holding out a sock and a smile is breaking across Malfoy’s face. It’s weird to see him so happy, but the fact that it’s over a freed elf is even stranger.
“You have a sock? Are you….?”
Dobby nods, tears in his eyes, “Dobby is a free elf!”
Draco cries with delight, “Oh Dobby! That’s wonderful! Where will you go? What will you do?”
It’s that exact moment that everything comes crashing down and Dobby throws the sock on the floor, wailing and beating his head into the floor. “Dobby is a stupid elf! Dobby doesn’t know! Dobby has no home now! Nowhere to go! Dobby will die with no wizard to protect him! Dobby is-”
“Stop! Dobby quit it!” Malfoy yells, thankfully getting the elf to sit up right as he hands the sock back to its new owner. “You haven’t done anything wrong, there’s no need to punish yourself anymore. For anything. We’ll think of somewhere for you to go, where no one can hurt you and you can still serve those who please you.”
Dobby meets his former master with tears streaming down his face. “Master Draco will have no one to protect him either….he will have to deal with Master Lucius alone…”
Malfoy gives him a wry smile, “Nothing we both haven’t dealt with before. I’ll be alright. I would invite you to check on me freely, but I can’t risk your safety for that.”
“But Dobby wishes to help Master Draco!”
The room goes quiet and Harry swears he sees kindness in Malfoy’s eyes from his hiding spot. It must be his cloak playing tricks on him.
“If you wish to help…” Malfoy begins, “Then stay here. At Hogwarts. I’m sure Dumbledore wouldn’t mind, and it’s the safest place in the world. Plus you could see me and Potter whenever you wished.”
Dobby’s tears stop. “Master would speak to Dumbledore for Dobby?”
“Of course!” Draco smiles, “It’s the least I could do after all your help this year, even if most of our hard work failed. Ah-no! Dobby, Potter is safe, even if we couldn’t stop him from coming, no one died, it’s fine.”
The elf pauses from where he was about to begin his head smashing once more and smiles. Harry, on the other hand, is suddenly very confused and very tired. Maybe he should have gone to Madam Pomfrey for his head trauma, the scene before him couldn’t be happening. As soon as he thinks what the hell am I witnessing there’s banging on the door.
“Draco! I know you’re in there! Open this door at once! If I have to unlock it so help me-”
Malfoy turns to Dobby, “Get out of here. I’ll find Dumbledore and talk to him later, stay in the kitchens until I find you.” The elf looks like he wants to protest, but Malfoy shakes his head.
“Go, Dobby. I’ll be fine.”
He shoots the disappearing elf a smile and Harry watches the cold look Malfoy usually wears fall into place before he opens the door and Lucius Malfoy strides in.
A click of a lock is heard and Harry really wishes he wasn’t so curious all the time.
“You. Insolent. Brat .” The elder Malfoy spits, and to Harry’s horror, the man raises his hand and pushes his son to the floor.
“What the hell has gotten into you?! Helping Potter on the Quidditch field? Reporting the Mudblood’s fall? Staying out because you’re worried ?! This is not how a Malfoy acts! It is the action of a traitor! You have three seconds to explain yourself or I will curse you into the next life!”
Draco Malfoy doesn’t look bothered in the least by being pushed and threatened by his father, a sign that Harry wishes he didn’t know so well by now. This was a common occurrence, given the way he calmly responds.
“Well, Father. Attacking Potter in public, in the middle of the game, no less, roused suspicion that you were the one hurting him, all the Gryffindor’s teammates were looking at you, and I couldn’t bear to have that stain across your name, nor my house. I assumed that by going to Madam Hooch, it would look less like our fault, and it did.”
A lie, a complete and utter lie, Harry had been there, his entire team thought Malfoy had been the one who cursed the Bludger, not his father.
“As for Granger, I was seen when I found her, by a Hufflepuff, you know how annoyingly loyal they all are, if I hadn’t come clean, they would have found a way to blame the attacks on me, which you’ve told me numerous time was not allowed to happen.”
Another lie, the game that had been canceled was Hufflepuff verses Gryffindor, everyone in either house had been at the game, there wasn’t a single empty seat.
“As for my late night wandering, I was checking to see who had gotten into the chamber, curious is all, and I was discovered by Snape and McGonagall, Snape didn’t believe my innocence, so he had me come with him, and McGonagall is easy to fool once feelings are involved. Snape covered for me, and I agreed with him to lower her accusation.”
The last one he could almost believe, but he knew McGonagall, she would’ve chewed his head off then and there unless something was true. She didn’t bend to liars, he knew that from personal experience.
Lucius Malfoy apparently did not know. Any of it, for he looked over his son thoughtfully, and then brought a steel-toed black boot over the boy’s stomach and stepped.
“Seeing as you were mostly helpful,” the man begins, ignoring his son’s withering and gasping, “I will refrain from cursing you. However, it is time for you to stop making these little mishaps.” He dug his shoe deeper into Draco’s stomach, Harry couldn’t turn away even though he was begging to.
“When you come home, we will be beginning your training, and make no mistake, you will soon see this as a kindness.”
Before Harry could wonder what ‘this’ is, Lucius swiftly brought his boot to his son’s head, the boy going limp, much to Harry’s horror. He waited until Lucius grumbled something about having a disgrace for a son and left before he moved, tentatively stepping to Malfoy’s side until he was kneeling beside him.
The side of his head was beginning to bruise, but he was breathing which was a good sign. Harry made sure to carefully inspect the rest of him, no doubt his ribs were going to bruise too, the whole situation was really extremely strange, but somehow Harry felt like he had been meant to see it, after all if he hadn’t been there, Malfoy would have laid in the room for hours.
Or maybe not.
Footsteps rush up the stairs, Harry barely has enough time to throw the invisibility cloak over himself before Dumbledore is in the room, frowning at the sight of Malfoy. “This is not how I hoped to find you upon my return,” The headmaster looks so sad, stricken with something Harry thinks he feels too.
He picks Malfoy up in his arms, very carefully placing the boy’s head in his lap, and waits as Fawkes comes flying in, crying all over Malfoy’s face and stomach, only to burrow down and rest his head on Malfoy’s chest. Soft grey eyes open moments later, a pale hand comes up to stroke at Fawkes’ head.
“Headmaster? When did you get back?”
“Not soon enough, it appears. How does your head feel?”
Malfoy looks off to the distance, which happens to mean him locking those soft grey eyes on Harry’s. For a moment it’s like everything falls away. He can see every emotion in those eyes looking at him, and then they fade away before Harry can identify them.
“I feel fine, how long was I out?”
“Not long. I found you shortly after Mr. Malfoy left. I do have to ask, how long has he been abusing you?”
Malfoy sits up, calming Fawkes’ protests with a few well placed scratches. “Since summer. It’s not usually this bad, and he never does it when Mother is home. Usually it’s not bad, nothing I can’t handle. At this point I more or less expect it.”
“Draco….” Dumbledore sighs, “It’s impossible for me to remove you without raising suspicion, I am sorry.”
Malfoy laughs bitterly before looking back to the old man. “It’s fine. Like I said, nothing I can’t handle.”
They quietly look at each other, as if daring the other to say something. After a few minutes Dumbledore gives, “We should make our way to the Great Hall. The victims will be joining us tonight, we’ll finally have the school back in one piece.”
That brings back Malfoy’s smile and a giddiness in Harry that outshines the confusion. Hermione would be with them tonight. He could ponder over his discoveries later, after he’d gotten the hell out of there and seen his friends.
“It’s about time, don’t you think?”
----------
The last thing Draco Malfoy expected to be doing on his train ride back home was dreading it and being stared at by Harry Potter, who had, for some unholy reason, decided to pick the cart across from his for the train ride home.
“It’s weird, isn’t it?” Blaise asks, looking up from his book. “I mean Potter hasn’t stopped looking at you the entire ride.”
Draco shrugs, “If I ignore him, maybe he’ll go away.”
“That’s never worked well in the past and you know it, that’s exactly how we ended up with Blaise in here.”
Pansy ignores Blaise’s glare in favor of smirking at Draco, who also hits her with a glare.
“Maybe I didn’t try hard enough. Perhaps you’d like to help me test that theory?”
Crabbe and Goyle make faces at that, Pansy just laughs. “Don’t be like that, darling! You know I’m just teasing.”
Blaise makes a snide comment in response that Draco ignores so he can slam his book down and glare at Potter.
Green eyes stare into his, searching, looking for something. Draco merely hardens his scowl which scares the other boy into looking away. Blaise whistles.
“Now that’s scary. I bet you could make a first year pass out with that one.”
“ Really ?” He responds, “I think it would work on a nosy second year as well.”
“Hey! We're in our third year now.”
“Not until spring, there’s still a few months left you know.”
Draco chills at the thought. His mother would be in France yet again for the majority of summer, meaning Lucius would…..Merlin he didn’t want to think about it.
Pansy and Blaise grabbed his hands, Crabbe and Goyle met his eyes.
“Hey.” Pansy starts softly, “It’ll be over soon.”
Blaise gives him a warm smile, “We’ll owl you constantly, you won’t miss us that much.”
But oh, bloody hell, would he.