black truth - inferiorbeing

7/28/2019 Black Truth - Inferiorbeing

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which it has been seen have feathers softer than silk when happy, and sharp as a blade when angry.Veriae are somewhat like the Phoenix in the sense that they too go through the process of being reborn,which occurs for a Veriae once a month. Instead of burning to ashes and rising from them, the Veriae'swing sprout and then disintegrate into a waterfall of feathers. When all the feathers from the old wingshave fallen off, new wings will sprout (most often during dawn of the next day). Because of this monthlyrebirth, Veriae (like the Phoenix) seem to age up to the point of thirty or so and then stop or age veryslowly in outward appearance afterward, though their lifespan tends only to be twenty years or so longer

than a normal wizard's lifespan.

Veriae tend not to live in a pack, although sometimes groups can be found together, but do develop asystem like a pack system among individual families or groups. One Veriae is the "pack leader" called the"auctor" whom is looked to for guidance by the other Veriae in the group.

Veriae mate for life in a startling process called the Aspectus in which the color of the Veriae's eyeschanges to a mixture of silver and gold. In this state the Veriae can see the aura of every being and plantaround it, including itself. The Veriae will look for the aura that is identical to his/her aura. If their mateaccepts them, they mate for life. If not, the Veriae is likely to kill himself/herself within twenty-four hours.

There have been cases where a Veriae can live without their mate if the mate dies before mating or inchildbirth, but hardly ever in the case of absolute refusal from the mate.

And the book when on, about the traditions of the Veriae in mating, and childbirth, and other things that

Draco was not interested in learning, but the idea that maybe there was Veriae blood in his line was nowstuck in his head. And here in the family tree the final piece clicked into his head in the form of his great,great, great, grandfather. Catalina Malfoy (married to Aurelia Malfoy): a full blooded Veriae, as the secondspell showed. This spell traced the blood through the family tree, showing what was dominant in theperson and what was not. Draco followed the dormant silver line of the Veriae blood down the map untilhe stopped at another name. Lucius Sergius Malfoy (married to Narcissa Malfoy): the second full bloodedVeriae with dominant Veriae blood. Draco's father. And, with bated breath, Draco traced the silver linedown one more step in the family tree. Draco Lucius Malfoy... the third full blooded Veriae in the Malfoyfamily.

And with this realization, Draco felt many other pieces, that he never knew were in this particular puzzle,fall into place. How he had always looked up to is father, long after the time when other boys in his dorm

were complaining about both of their parents. How he had been crushed by the fact that his father was inprison, and not the fact that his mother didn't care. How he had practically laughed out loud when, due tosaid fact that his father was in prison, the entire Malfoy fortune had fallen to him and not his mother. Howhe hadn't cared that his mother had left the Manor in a rage, only been sad because his father hadn'tbeen there to watch... it had been very funny after all. Obviously his father was the auctor of his family.

But that mating thing... Draco didn't like that. Another obvious thing was that his mother had not been hisfather's mate, so it was perceivable that his father's mate had died... and Draco had one guess as to howthat happened and the name started with a "V". The thing that Draco was now upset about was the whole"suicide if your mate doesn't like you" thing. No, that didn't sit well with Draco at all. So, with the absenceof his father, Draco went to the next best person... his godfather.

Half an hour after Draco had come knocking on his door, Snape stood inside Dumbledore's office drinkingthe strongest coffee that could be provided. The other wizard waited patiently for him to say why he wascalling on the Headmaster at three in the morning, looking as if he had just been given a sign that theapocalypse was coming.

"It's about Draco." Snape said at last. And Dumbledore knew that the outward Snape-who-is-a-bastardfacade would soon fall to reveal the Snape-who-is-a-worried-godfather underneath. A side of him thatonly himself, Draco, and maybe Draco's father had ever seen.

"He just came to see me with his Divination homework, you know the one about family trees and such-"

"And he has found out how similar to his father he is?" Dumbledore finished quietly.

"Yes."


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Blood. There was blood everywhere. Blood that he had helped to spill. Yes, all of it must have been hisfault. Sirius, his mother, his father, countless others that had been killed during the summer raids thatthe Death Eaters had launched while he was tucked away in Privet Drive. He had only found out aboutthese when he arrived back at school, and now, three weeks later, it still haunted him.

Darkness seemed to surround him, but this was a different darkness. Not the darkness of hatred that wasfilled with blood... this was almost a comforting darkness, a darkness that felt like... feathers? Silkenfeathers. Wings.

Two arms encircled him as the black wings seemed to cradle his body. "Do not despair Harry," a voicewhispered, "Do not despair."

And Harry slept peacefully.

"Yo, Malfoy!"

Disdainful eyes shifted from where they had been contemplating the wall of the cell to the wizard thatstood at the barred door to this, this cage.

"You got a letter." Then the guard muttered under his breath, "Though why anyone would be sending aletter at this hour is beyond me."

The guard was shaken out of his reverie as the letter was snatched out of his hand and the cell'sinhabitant retreated back into the cell. Muttering inaudibly about manners of prisoners and idiots who sentletters at five in the morning, the guard went on his way back to his post where he had been shaken fromhis stupor by an eagle only a few minutes before.

Lucius looked at the letter briefly before ripping it open. Draco had written it. His eyes seemed to racedown the letter, an emotion that was never seen by the world apparent in his eyes. As he read it Luciussmiled. Draco knew. His pride, his son, was now just beginning to grasp the truth of the road that hehimself had walked. Lucius felt a small pang of regret that he would not be able to help his son becomeaccustomed to this life... until he read the last paragraph. The elder Malfoy smiled in the shadows, and foronce he allowed his emotions through. Beautiful, wings that glistened in the moon-light streaming into thecell from the barred window, erupted from his back and fluttered as if they were happy that their ownerwas happy. The soft rustle of feathers filled the cell as the wings stretched, their wingtips touching theceiling. Lucius looked at his wings thoughtfully. Someday his Draco's wings would be this size, twice thelength of a grown man and powerful enough to support his son in flight, and in battle if necessary. Out ofcuriosity Lucius rolled up the sleeve of his robe and looked at the pale flesh of his upper arm. No blemish,not even a smudge of the Dark Mark to be seen.

Latin translation:

Veriae - made up word with the basic structure of a Latin word

Ater - black (for the black wings)

Veritas - truth (because they can see the "true" aura of everything during the Aspetus), the pl. form being"Veritatis"

Aspectus - sight

Auctor - leader (as in an enterprise) Strangelyit can also mean "founder"(as of a family)"

Catilina - named after Lucius Sergius Catalina who lead a revolt in Rome

Aurelia - common name for a woman in Rome


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Chapter Two: Aspectus

Harry hated Mondays. No, he really hated Mondays. Because Mondays always seemed to start off badly,which set the entire mood of the day to be a bad one. Why? One word: Potions. That was all that wasneeded to be said on the matter, that word. And it didn't help that there were lucky people like Ron whoweren't trying to be an auror and therefore could afford to sleep late on Mondays if they so wished,because they weren't taking Potions. Of course, Ron never did sleep late on Mondays. He figured it wasthe least he could do to give his friend some encouragement before that... there wasn't a word bad

enough to describe that class in Harry's opinion.

And speaking of Ron... it was Ron who was currently dragging Harry down the stairs to the Great Hall forbreakfast as par the normal Monday routine. And like every Monday, Hermione was already there,ensconced in a book. Ron and Harry slid into seats next to her that she had saved for them as she didevery morning, and began loading food on to their plates.

"Oh, Harry, did you hear? No Potions today," Hermione said as if she was commenting on the weather.

Harry's looked up hopefully. "Really?"

Hermione nodded, eyes not leaving the book. "He's not here today. Class was canceled."

Both Ron and Harry turned to look at the staff table and, sure enough, their Potions Master was not there.

I wonder why he's not here," Harry murmured.

"Who cares why he's not here," Ron muttered. "I hope he never comes back!"

Both boys ignored Hermione's, "Ron!" of disapproval.

"But it's strange. He's never 'not here'." Harry persisted.

Hermione sighed. "This might have something to do with it." She handed Harry a copy of the DailyProphet. "Our favorite Slytherin isn't here either," she added sarcastically.

Harry took one look at the headline, frowned, and passed the paper to Ron, while glaring at the spot atthe Slytherin table that Draco would have been sitting at were he in school at the time.

"WHAT?" Ron stuttered, ignoring looks from the surrounding Gryffindors and a few other students whohad heard him.

"Yeah. Wonder how they're going to pull that off," Harry muttered darkly.

"Well, logically, it's within rights to have another trial," Hermione pointed out. "The only real 'trial' afterthe Department of Mysteries issue was a mass trial of everyone they caught. No details were looked intofor every single person. And if, as the article says, Lucius Malfoy doesn't have the Dark Mark... well, it'sharder to convict him."

"But how can he not have the Dark Mark? He's a Death Eater! We all saw him," Ron hissed under hisbreath so only Harry and Hermione could hear.

"He probably planned for it," Harry spoke sullenly. "Being a Slytherin and all."

"The Ministry of Magic may have made a terrible error- oh please," Ron scoffed.

"Well, we'll know by tomorrow I guess," Hermione spoke.

They ate in silence for a while until Ron broke it. "Oh look who decided to grace us with his presence," hemuttered.


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Harry looked up from his breakfast to see that Draco Malfoy had entered the Great Hall and was beinggreeted by his Slytherin groupies. Probably being congratulated or something like that. Harry rolled hiseyes and continued eating.

The Minister of Magic looked very nervous, Lucius decided when he was shown into the Minister's Officewith Snape.

"Minister." Lucius spoke quietly and Fudge jumped slightly.

"Mr. Malfoy. I am dreadfully sorry about the mix-up. The Ministry should have known in your case thatthere would be an explanation. But it did look bad Lucius, all those Death Eaters in the black robes-"

"Fudge," Lucius drawled. "Have you ever seen me wear anything other than black in public?"

"Well, no, but it just looked too coincidental, Lucius. I still don't understand why you would be in theDepartment of Ministries that late at night anyway."

Lucius pretended to be shocked. "Why Minister, you know what it's like living in the public eye. Were it tobe widely known that the Malfoys had an item stored in the Department of Mysteries... well you can guesswhat people would assume."

"Yes, yes. I suppose that makes sense. You won't be opposed to house arrest for a little while, just untilthis whole thing simmers down?"

"Of course not. In fact, arrangements have already been made for my stay at Hogwarts."

Fudge seemed to visibly relax. If Dumbledore found no problems with Lucius's innocence, then there mustnot be any problems. "That's good."

"Good day, Minister." Lucius spoke, and he and Snape left the Minister's office.

After Apparating to Hogsmead, the two sat in silence for the carriage ride up to the castle, until Snapespoke.

"I didn't think the Malfoys had items stored in the Department of Mysteries." He raised an eyebrow asLucius smirked.

"We have the storage space, yes."

Snape frowned. "And may I ask what's in that space?"

"Absolutely nothing. But only a Malfoy can open it so no one's going to find that out."

Snape chuckled. "How Slytherin of you Lucius."

"I try."

"Now about Draco-"

"What about Draco?"

"Calm down, Lucius. Nothing's happened yet. This morning Dumbledore gave him his own dorm, so nostudents have caught on yet."

"Good. Hopefully we'll keep it that way."

"When should he start the Aspectus?"


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Lucius frowned slightly. "I'm surprised it hasn't started already. Traditionally, the Aspectus happens verysoon after the first Rebirth."

"So that's almost a month now."

"Right."

Draco shifted uneasily in his chair, fighting back the urge to massage his temples. Stupid headache. Why

in Merlin's name wouldn't it go away? Was it even possible to have a dull ache in the back of your skull fora full day? And then there was the glitter. Draco was sure of it now, he was starting to see flashes of...well, glittery light out of the corner of his eyes. It was driving him crazy. Bloody glitter, bloody headache,bloody teacher for not letting class out early so he could go relax somewhere. What was she talkingabout? Oh, it didn't matter anyway. He'd figure it out later.

Harry had almost succeeded in forgetting all about Lucius Malfoy's trial until just before dinner when hefound Ron sitting in the Common Room, looking as if Christmas had been canceled.

"Did you hear?" Ron asked glumly.

"What?"

"The trial. Malfoy's not convicted anymore."

Harry looked at Ron as if his friend was crazy. "You're kidding, right?"

"No, Dad wrote me this afternoon. They checked. Malfoy doesn't have the Dark Mark."

"How can he not have the Mark? He's a Death Eater."

"Well, it's not there now. Even Dumbledore said there wasn't an illusion spell on him."

"So are people just going to forget that he was in the Department of Ministries that late at night?"

"Well, that was explained too. Apparently the Malfoys have something stored in the Department ofMysteries that he was retrieving."

"Again... at that time of night?"

"Publicity. Even Dad admits that it's a good alibi. If we had something stored in the Department ofMysteries, we wouldn't want it public either. And Malfoy was given a key to the Department earlier thatday so that he could get in when no one was around to watch."

"I bet that's how the Death Eaters got in then." Harry muttered.

"Yeah, probably so."

"Was it said what it was they were storing?"

"No. And only a Malfoy can open it, so they couldn't even look for trial purposes."

"Well that's a stupid rule."

"Maybe, maybe not. Some families store the bones of their ancestors in there."

"What?"

"Read it in the Quibbler."


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Harry shook his head. "Let's just go down to dinner."

The two joined their fellow students in the Great Hall and Ron filled Hermione in on what his father hadwritten to him. She didn't say anything at first, but any reply she would have made was cut off byDumbledore signaling for silence in the Great Hall.

"I have an important announcement to make. Hogwarts is going to be receiving a guest for a few months.I ask that you all be especially courteous to him during his stay here. He will be arriving later tonight.

Now tuck in."

As the food appeared as it did every night, Harry looked suspiciously at Dumbledore. A guest? Harry hada sinking suspicion he knew who that guest was, but he hoped he was wrong.

"Any guesses who that is?" Ron asked sarcastically.

"Obviously it's Malfoy," Hermione spoke quietly.

"Wonder why he didn't just announce it," Harry wondered.

"Can you imagine what that would have started?" Hermione asked. "I think he was smart not to announceit. Wait until the students' parents are told that he's innocent before telling the school."

"That does make some sense," Ron admitted.

"But does that mean Dumbledore believes Malfoy?" Harry asked. "I mean, Dumbledore was there. He sawMalfoy. How can he believe that Malfoy isn't a Death Eater?"

"Maybe Malfoy's a spy like Snape." Hermione spoke low so that only Harry and Ron could hear.

"If he is, he's sure a great actor," Ron muttered darkly. Then, "You know something strange? Ferrethasn't spoken about it once."

"That is strange," Harry murmured.

Through the pressure in his head, Draco felt his heart leap. So his father was coming to Hogwarts? Ofcourse Dumbledore didn't come out and say that, but it made sense after all. Fudge would want someonelike Dumbledore to confirm that his father wasn't a Death Eater... which in itself was really funny becauseDumbledore knew that his father was a Death Eater. Then again, Dumbledore was the Headmaster of theschool, so shouldn't he have the characteristics of the school's founders? He certainly was smart likeRavenclaw, and he was brave like Gryffindor. The number of Hufflepuff qualities in Dumbledore wasstartling... but Slytherin? Well, he just proved he had Slytherin qualities. Lying to the Minister of Magic.Well, Fudge was an idiot, so maybe that didn't really count.

"Draco?"

Draco turned to look at Pansy, who was sitting across from him. "What?"

"Ummm, your eyes are really silver today."

That got Draco's attention. "Really? More so than usual?"

Blaise, sitting next to Pansy, looked at Draco closely. "Much more so... maybe even a little gold."

Draco's eyes widened. Silver and gold? Oh no. Outwardly he scoffed, "You must be seeing things."

Pansy shrugged. "They're your eyes, Draco."

All through dinner Draco couldn't concentrate. The aching in the back of his skull had spread to histemples, and he was starting to see a strange glowing if he looked at something long enough. Suddenly


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the pain broke. Draco blinked and the world went from normal, to glowy. That was the only way todescribe it. Everything, even the wood of the tables glowed. Some of the students near him were almostblinding. Time seemed to slow; a dull roaring began in his ears... as if he was underwater. The voices ofthe students talking were muffled and seemed far away. And as he looked around the Great Hall, it was

just too much. Many, if not half of the students were glowing like miniature suns of different colors. Blues,violets, greens, whites, reds, all the glowing colors seemed to swim before his eyes before all went black.He only barely heard Pansy's scream.

The effect was instantaneous. There was an uproar in the Great Hall. Those on the opposite side of the

Hall (Gryffindors mostly) had no idea what was going on. Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws also only barelyknew what was going on. And there was almost complete chaos at the Slytherin table. SuddenlyDumbledore's voice rang out.

"SILENCE!" Another instantaneous effect. "All Houses will please return to their dormitories in an orderlyfashion."

Harry frowned. What was going on? Pulling Ron behind a statue just outside the Great Hall, he whispered,"I'm going to find out what's going on."

Ron gaped as he pulled his invisibility cloak out of his bag.

"You carry that with you?"

Harry looked at him briefly before putting it on. "Of course. I'll tell you what I find out."

"Okay mate, but if Hermione tries to bite your head off, don't turn to me for help. This is a bad idea."

"You're starting to sound like Hermione, Ron. I have to talk to Dumbledore anyway."

And with that Harry slowly snuck back into the Great Hall, which was no easy feat, considering everyoneelse was trying to move in the other direction.

About half of the students had filed out when the doors to the Great Hall opened and Snape walked in.Harry almost laughed at the stunned look on the Potions Master's face. Then something seemed to clickas he looked at the Slytherin table (and the Slytherins that were loath to just leave Draco like that) andhe walked a little ways outside the door. He yelled something that Harry couldn't hear to someone Harrycouldn't see, and as the last few students were being escorted out of the Great Hall (again, most of thesewere Slytherins) Lucius Malfoy walked in.

I was right, Harry thought. It was Malfoy that was coming to Hogwarts.

Lucius walked quickly to where the teachers were now gathered around something on the floor that Harrycouldn't see. Madam Pomfrey rose from where she had been kneeling on the floor and spoke.

"He seems for all purposes to be asleep, Mr. Malfoy."

"Of course he is. His body needs time to adjust." Lucius turned to Dumbledore. "When did it start?"

"Dinner."

The elder Malfoy nodded and bent down. When he straightened, Harry caught sight of what, or moreaccurately who, had been on the floor. Draco. Harry felt a twinge of... what exactly? Jealousy? At seeingthe care etched on Draco's father's face. No... sympathy? Couldn't be. Just something. For Malfoy? Therewas something wrong here. Harry shook it off. He couldn't have felt a twinge ofanything for Malfoy. Justcouldn't. The world didn't work that way.

Harry was brought out of his reverie by Lucius speaking. "Where is Draco's room?"

Harry blinked. Draco had his own dorm? He scowled. Money really spoke too much these days.


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"Mr. Malfoy, I think it would be wiser to put him in the Hospital Wing-" Madam Pomfrey started.

"Are you stating that I can not look after my own son?" Lucius cut her off, hissing slightly.

Snape winced, and Harry agreed with him. He had only seen Lucius this furious once... and at that timehe was soooo thankful that Dobby was in-between him and the elder Malfoy. Come to think of it... Harryhadn't even seen Lucius that angry at the Department of Mysteries... maybe the elder Malfoy wasn't asloyal to Voldemort as he thought.

"It's school policy-"

"Have you ever treated a Veriae, Madam Pomfrey? I guarantee you haven't," Lucius snarled.

"Draco is a wizard, Mr. Malfoy, not a Veriae."

Again Snape winced, but this time so did Dumbledore. Lucius smirked.

"You think I don't know what my son is?" A slight ripping sound was heard as huge black wings eruptedfrom Lucius's back. They reached up towards the ceiling of the Great Hall, taller in fact than two fullgrown men. The light of the Great Hall shone off them, as if they were coated in metal. They even lookedsharp, nothing like the wings in Harry's dream.

Snape whispered something in Poppy's ear that Harry didn't hear, but the nurse backed down.

"I'll show you where it is," he muttered in Lucius's direction.

The elder Malfoy nodded. His wings twitched and then receded back into the skin of his back, almost as ifthe feathers were folding in on themselves and dissolving.

Snape and Lucius left the Hall, the elder Malfoy still carrying a sleeping Draco. Dumbledore turned to therest of the teachers present. "We need to have a staff meeting."

Many of the teachers had a "duh" expression on their faces, and Harry almost laughed at the thought ofsomeone else not knowing what was going on for once.

"In my office, now." Dumbledore decided, and the teachers, one by one, walked out of the Great Hall.Dumbledore himself walked past the spot where Harry was hiding and stopped.

"I would like to see you in my office as well, Harry. You're not in trouble but we have things to discuss."


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there is no threat poised from his former Death Eater background. Now Harry, I believe you wanted totalk to me about something other than Lucius Malfoy's sudden appearance."

"Yes. Well, Hermione, Ron, and I wanted to talk to you about the DA."

"You mean about whether I would allow, or even encourage, you to continue it?"

"Yes."

Dumbledore thought for a moment. "I see no reason why that would be a problem, as long as all priorcommitments are met, such as homework."

Harry smiled at this. Everyone in the DA would be pleased to hear this; they really hadn't liked the idea ofholding meetings behind Dumbledore's back again.

"But I have a request that you allow one other student to join you. You need not extend the invitationyourself; I will speak to him about it. And he may not choose to attend anyway, but I request that youextend the option."

Harry's brain clicked and he had a sinking suspicion he knew which student Dumbledore was talkingabout. "You mean Malfoy?"

"Yes, I was referring Draco. He needs to get used to not using a wand, as it will only hinder him inupcoming battles."

Harry nodded, privately thinking that it was okay to 'extend the invitation' as Dumbledore called it,because there was no way that Draco Malfoy would ever step foot in one of the DA meetings.

"So then, Lucius Malfoy was a spy?" Hermione asked.

"No. More like, he's retired now." Harry muttered.

"Mental. The whole thing is mental," Ron murmured, and Harry privately thought, Ron you have no idea.

"So what did he say about the DA?" Hermione asked, to change the subject.

"Oh, yeah, did you ask him?"

"He said we could as long as all 'prior commitments' were upheld or something."

"In other words: classwork." Ron clarified.

"Right. He also... requested we add another member. One who may or may not show up."

"Who would that be?" Ron asked quizzically.

"It's Draco Malfoy, isn't it?" Hermione asked and Ron looked at her as if she was crazy.

"It can't be Ferret, Hermione-" Ron stopped at the look on Harry's face. "It IS Malfoy? You didn't say yes,did you?"

"He probably won't come," Harry muttered.

"You're absolutely right," Hermione agreed, looking pointedly in Ron's direction. "He won't come."

"But what if he does?" Ron asked. "Then we'll have to act all nice-"

"Not if we're dueling him," Harry put in, and Ron caught on to what Harry was implying.


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"I like that idea, Harry."

Draco Malfoy returned to classes the next day, looking for all the world as if he had not fainted, or blackedout, or fallen down gracefully at supper the night before. In fact, Draco Malfoy himself couldn't remembermuch about the blacking out part, so he brushed off any inquiries about his health (along with inquiriesabout why he hadn't been in the Hospital Wing). All was going along like a normal school day for DracoMalfoy so when Ron Weasley happened to brush by him after lunch, he wasn't expecting a shoutingcontest.

For Ron Weasley the day was not going so well. It seemed to be one of those days where nothing wentright and everything that could possibly go wrong did go wrong. And Ron assumed that if he had been inPotions (which he thankfully wasn't) his cauldron would have melted on him, just to make the day worse.And his friends weren't helping either as Hermione seemed never to have a bad day and therefore wasn'tcomforting at all, and Harry seemed preoccupied with dreading his upcoming Potions class to worry abouthow bad Ron's day was. So when he happened to run into Malfoy leaving the Great Hall after lunch andthe little Ferret had the audacity to snipe 'watch where he was going' Ron let it all out.

"Oh, and I'm sure we're going to all have to watch what we do around you now Malfoy, we wouldn't wantyou fainting again." He spoke snidely.

"Shut it Weasel, or you might find yourself blacking out, or should I say knocked out."

"Oh, great comeback. Have you been working on them with Daddy in your free time, because now I bethe has a lot of time to spend on you, and everyone knows that Death Eaters always have the bestcomebacks, don't they?"

Harry gulped as anger began to radiate off Draco, but no one else seemed to notice. "Ron this might notbe the best-" he started in a low whisper.

"Don't you EVER talk about my father that way!" Draco shouted. A small ripping sound was heard and Ronstepped back as two black wings of sharpened feathers sprouted out of Draco's back.

"What the-"

"DRACO! Calm down this instant!" Snape appeared at Draco's elbow.

"Not until he takes back what he said about my father!" Draco hissed, his wings snapping furiously, a lonefeather breaking loose and falling to the floor.

Snape rolled his eyes. "Weasley, apologize. Twenty points from Gryffindor for antagonizing anotherstudent.

As Ron mumbled a completely insincere apology, Harry turned to Hermione and whispered. "When you

get some time, look up Veriae in the library, will you?"

The girl nodded, still looking at the black wings and the slice of stone that one lone feather had carved outof the floor just by drifting to it.


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Chapter Four: Lifemate Sighted

Harry silently fumed as he took his seat next to Hermione for Potions. Still no sign of Malfoy anywhere,and the git had two minutes to get to class. But, Harry stopped himself, why in Merlin's name did he care?After Draco had "calmed down" and the wings had receded, the insufferable prat had left, going in thedirection of the Slytherin dormitories (as Harry's experience from Second Year had taught him), probablyto change his robes. And he'd probably be five to ten minutes late to class but would Snape care? Not atall. So Harry sat fuming at the unfairness of it all.

Harry was so buried in his internal rant that he didn't notice the arrival of Draco Malfoy, or the suddenhush that went around the room as all eyes (but Harry's) turned to look at the young aristocrat. If Dracowas bothered by their looks, he didn't show it, and Harry, finally realizing the blonde's existence in classnot thirty seconds before class began, thought that Malfoy would probably enjoy being in the spotlight.

Draco pointedly ignored the stares from his classmates as he made his way to his customary workplace.He was the only one at his table as he preferred to work alone, which now Draco realized was a goodthing, as he didn't have to worry about working with a partner who was fretting about him sproutingwings every two seconds.

"Well if you would all be so kind as to stop looking at Mr. Malfoy, I believe you all have work to do," Snape

snapped as he entered the classroom in the same manner he had done so since Harry's first Potions classin First Year. "But before you get to that, I am going to assign the next project that you will be working onand your partners."

A collective shudder went around the room. Snape's regular work was hard enough, but when he assignedprojects... well theynormally had the effect that the wooden horse had on Troy. The only two who hadsurvived--much less passed--the last project were Draco and Hermione, who had worked by themselves.Everyone else had been sent to the infirmary for various reasons. Harry himself had enjoyed aninteresting time where his eyes changed colors every few minutes. Really it had made for a quiteinteresting week, where the world was red one minute, then green the next, shifting into purple, and thenblack where he really couldn't see what was going on. Harry personally thought that Snape went throughthe library picking the hardest potions to assign for projects... and Harry wasn't too far off, except Snape

didn't need to go to the library for he had already memorized all the information that was in those booksalready. Harry was shaken from this train of thought when his name and partner's were called out.

"Potter, Malfoy."

Harry fought back the urge to groan and glared in Malfoy's direction, a bit miffed by the fact that Malfoywas looking half in shock at Snape who was ignoring him.

Well this is just great, Draco thought. Not only had his belovedgodfather thought to pair him with Potterof all people, but the same godfather seemed to have found a twisted sense of humor in all this. Dracoscowled at the parchment in front of him on which some witch or wizard had painstakingly copied out allthe information available on the--surprise surprise--Veriae potion which Draco, in all reverence to thebook he'd found it in, had torn out. His father most likely thought the whole thing was funny, as he hadhardly been able to conceal the smirk on his face when he had read the potion's name and purpose. Ofcourse, for wizards who were not Veriae, the potion might be something useful if they were trying to findtheir perfect match. But... he was working with Potter! The whole thing was wrong just because of thatlittle, somewhat unimportant detail. Potter. Just-

Wait... why was he obsessing over Potter anyway? It was just a stupid assignment which would take lessthan a week anyway. And besides... the whole point of this particular project was to be able to identifythe ingredients for potions "in the field" just in case you couldn't walk down to whatever local apothecaryyou lived near. This meant that some of the ingredients for his (and Potter's) potion would be in theForbidden Forest. Oh this would be fun. Draco was starting to enjoy the Forest. His father had woken himat dawn nearly every day for a stroll through the Forest. Draco could remember the smirk that had been

prominent on his father's face when Draco had heard that Dumbledore had given his permission for Luciusto teach his son the proper control and use of his wings in the Forest. Draco was starting to think that thisparticular smirk was his father's form of laughter.


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But the Forest wasn't so bad, once the more hostile creatures had figured out that you could aptly protectyourself at any moment you chose to. The centaurs were, well, they were quite weird at times, yet helpfulat others. They were much more open to him now that he was seen as another of the Forest's creaturesand not just a rogue wizard who happened to be in the vicinity. This attitude irked Draco for some reason,but it didn't really matter, he decided. Yes, it would be interesting when Potter finally figured out that hewould have to go rooting around in the Forest for certain ingredients... scratch that, most of theingredients. This could have some interesting prospects after all.

Lucius paced up and down in front of the fire place angrily. Up. Down. Up. Down. If Snape had everwatched muggle tennis, he would have been able to make a comparison, but since he didn't make a pointof watching muggle sports, he could only watch as Lucius walked from one end of his range of vision tothe other and back again with a forceful stride.

"Stop pacing Lucius, you're giving me a headache." He spoke finally.

The elder Malfoy stopped and instead turned to watch the slightly green flames that were crackling noisilyin the fire place.

"He doesn't get it yet." Lucius spoke finally. "He was so preoccupied over that Potions assignment yougave him to think clearly at all."

"It might not be as bad-"

Lucius turned to fix the other Slytherin graduate with a glare. Snape shut up quickly.

"Not as bad. Just wait until the rumor mill gets working. By morning, the least descriptive story will besomething along the lines of 'The Dark Lord is trying to come up with the perfect mix of blood for magicand so his most trusted family decided to experiment with their own son' and thatwill probably comefrom the Slytherins who have known Draco."

"The Gryffindors will merely stop at 'He's a freak.'" Snape put in helpfully.

"And the Ravenclaws will want to study him," Lucius snapped. "If I didn't already want to ring Weasley'sneck, I surely would now!"

"Which one?" Snape asked sarcastically. "Because I'll help." He paused to hand Lucius a glass of brandy,which the elder Malfoy promptly drank in one shot. "Lucius, Draco may be the talk of the schooltomorrow, but he'll handle it. He'll probably enjoy it, strangely enough. The first real chance he's had touse the full reputation of the Malfoy family, you can't tell me he won't live it up to its full potential. Hewouldn't be Draco if he didn't."

Anything else Severus would have added was cut off by a burning pain on his arm. He hissed, at the sametime as Lucius did, and while his hand went to his arm in an attempt to numb the burning feeling, Lucius

was busy working something off the middle finger of his right hand. Severus blinked as whatever Luciuswas working on came off and flew to land on the floor with a clatter. Small, golden, and circular. Snapelooked at Lucius in surprise as he recognized the tell-tale crest of the Malfoy family that was etched intothe black stone of the ring, the black stone that was glowing a bright red.

"I'm having another one made, but it will take a month or so." Lucius spoke, answering the unspokenquestion. "Until then it would be unbecoming of the head of the Malfoy household not to wear the signetring, don't you think?" Snape's eyes traveled to Lucius's hand where he could see a band of scar tissuethat marked the spot on Lucius's finger where the metal had met skin.

"Are you going?"

"No."

"I'll have to tell him then."

"Forgive me for saying I'm glad it's you and not me."


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Snape smiled ruefully as he made his way towards the door.

"Do you want me to wait up for you?" the question came softly, but firmly from in front of the fireplace.

"Some brandy would be nice," Snape replied equally as softly before he left.

"What are you still doing up, Hermione?" a somewhat tired voice asked. Hermione looked up from whereshe had been curled up in an armchair, reading.

"Couldn't sleep. You?"

"Death Eater meeting. He's feeling rather... destructive tonight. I wonder what made him so angry?" Thelast part was sarcastic.

"Do you think Malfoy didn't go?" Hermione asked softly.

"The Marauder's Map states quite clearly that Lucius Malfoy is currently sitting in Snape's office. AndSnape isn't anywhere on Hogwarts grounds."

Hermione nodded thoughtfully as Harry sat down on the sofa near her. His eyes flickered to a black objecton the table. "Why do you have that, Hermione?"

"Research purposes. Be careful, Harry. It's sharp enough to cut through stone as if it was jello."

Harry frowned. "And Malfoy keeps wings of these in his back?" He picked up the feather gingerly. "'Mione?Are you sure this is thatsharp?"

"Yes. Malfoy was angry, ergo his feathers were sharp."

"Doesn't seem sharp to me."

Hermione's eyes widened as she looked at the feather. Sure enough, the feather Harry held in his handswas not razor edged, but silken. Frowning, she reached for it but jerked her hand away when the partclosest to her reverted back to its razor state when her hand neared it.

"Maybe it doesn't think you're a threat to Draco," she suggested.

"Hermione, are you trying to tell me that these feathers can think?"

"No, but they can feel. They are the Veriae's link to the magical currents running through the Veriae'sbody."

"So these are like the Veriae form of wands?"

"Right."

"Found anything else out that I should know?" Translated: should I be watching out for anything if Iannoy Malfoy?

"I don't know yet, Harry. There are painfully few books about Veriae in the library. This one came fromthe Restricted Section."

Harry's eyebrows rose. "Happy reading, I guess," he finally said.

"It's really interesting actually. Many of our own customs were based after the Veriae customs, such asthe whole 'head of the house' idea, which came from the Veriae Aspectus."

"You're going to need to explain all this, right?"


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"Yes, it's a complicated system. Harry, you look dead on your feet. You should try to sleep."

After Harry had gone into the boys dormitory, Hermione frowned worriedly and re-read the paragraph shehad been absorbed in before Harry came down.

It takes months, and in some cases years, for Veriae to learn to control their wings because just havingtheir wings makes the Veriae prone to rash mood swings. The instinct of the wings is to protect the Veriae

at all cost, and thus for the first few months after the first rebirth the slightest anger may set them off.But it is interesting to note, that while the Veriae may not be able to control the wings, the Veriae's

intended can. The touch of the Veriae's soul mate makes even the sharpest, most angry feathers instantlychange to their soft form so as not to hurt the Veriae's intended.

"Oh my, Harry what have you gotten yourself into now?" Hermione whispered worriedly. Absorbed in herbook, the girl continued reading long into the night.

Lucius Malfoy sat watching the flames sputter and die, and continued sitting motionless after the roomwent dark, his sight now focusing intently on the small charred circle that the ring--currently on hisfinger--had left in the floor.

Dumbledore sat absently stroking Fawkes's feathers, thinking back to when he had first seen thematching aura between the two boys, after Fawkes had pointed it out to him, and wondered how thiswould affect the oncoming war.

Draco Malfoy slept soundly, his eyes flickering to a color of silver and gold underneath closed eyelids, andslept soundly, enclosed in his black aura.

And up in the Gryffindor boys' dormitory, Harry Potter slept soundly as well, enclosed in protective blackwings that kept out all the nightmares.


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Harry groaned as he remembered the cascade of water that had been used to drag him from his bed lastweek.

"-and you never know, maybe Snape will want to cancel class today too."

Nothing.

"Sorry, mate you asked for it."

And Harry yelped as cold water flooded down on top of him.

Draco also was having a hard time getting his own self down to breakfast. His was not a sleep problem,no he had gotten up as he always did, and had gone through his normal morning routine... his was adifferent sort of problem. A dread kind of problem. He had awoken to his second Aspectus, which hadreminded him that this would be a horrible day. All night he was sure that the rumor mill of Hogwarts hadbeen churning, and now at breakfast the finest gossip Hogwarts could offer would be handed to him on asilver platter. Well, not literally, but close enough. Draco entertained the thought of just not going tobreakfast and appearing in his godfather's class for Potions, the one place where he knew he could findsome amount of sympathy this morning. But he was a Malfoy, and Malfoys did not care what peoplethought of them... sometimes he wished he could change some of these rules.

"Draco, get up. You will not be late," his father's voice sounded on the other side of the painting that wasthe door.

"Coming father," Draco murmured, and crossed his room to the door. Opening it, he found his fatherwaiting for him as per the normal morning routine... and for the first time Draco saw his father's aura.

Lucius saw his son blink in surprise and smirked. "Not what one expects is it?"

Father and son began walking towards the entrance to the Forbidden Forest as they did every morning.

"Not really... it's red."

"Imagine my chagrin, waking up to find it's not just any red, Draco. It's Gryffindor red."

"Ouch."

Lucius nodded. "But it's even more curious to see how closely Gryffindor red resembles blood red."

Draco frowned, thinking. He blinked in surprise when he realized his father was right. The color of theLions was close to a bloody red. Strange.

"It's not as bad as some," Lucius commented. "I'd rather have red than... well your godfather's for

instance... or the Dark Lord's."

"Why?"

"Well, your godfather's is pure white. Not a very evil aura that's for sure, and one that doesn't fit hislifestyle at all. And Voldemort's... is... pink."

Draco sputtered in surprise. "What?"

"Not just any pink either, neon pink."

Draco's steps wanted to drag themselves towards the doors to the Great Hall, but Draco was a Malfoy andMalfoys did not ever drag their footsteps, so he was stuck walking slowly but purposefully. But Malfoyrules be damned, he stopped walking as he saw who waited for him at those doors.

"Crabbe, Goyle. What are you doing here?"


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"Waiting for you."

Blunt as ever Crabbe, Draco thought, but he couldn't help feeling a bit apprehensive. They might not havebeen the smartest brains in the school, but they had been his childhood friends and Draco was certainthat, two on one, he would lose against them.

"Look, Draco, there's a lot of stuff being said about you," Goyle started. "But we don't see a difference."

Draco blinked. Then smirked. "Good one, Goyle," he spoke. Yes, they might not have been the brightest

of the bunch, but Crabbe and Goyle were as loyal as any Gryffindors once they had placed their loyalties."Shall we go eat?"

Hushed whispers followed Draco as he made his way through the Great Hall, walking in the self-assuredstyle only a Malfoy knew how to accomplish, completely ignoring what was being said. Behind him,Crabbe and Goyle glared at anyone who looked too long in the wrong way at Draco, and they had theirwork cut out for them it seemed.

Draco wasn't paying attention to all that though, he was scanning the Slytherin tables, noticing thedifferent colored auras. Reds, blues, greens, even a silver, but no black. None. Nothing close to black.Well, there went his first choice of life partner. Not that Draco was looking, mind you, he was just curious.

Taking his customary seat in-between Crabbe and Goyle, Draco caught sight of the staff table and notedwith disappointment that Snape wasn't there. He would have enjoyed seeing the professor surrounded bya seemingly pure aura.

His eyes swept over the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables. Still no black. Tons of yellow, a few differentshades of red, even some weird mix of purple and green, but no black. Maybe his soul mate wasn't atHogwarts?

Deciding, at least for the moment, that his soul mate must not be at Hogwarts since there were only afew chairs left (two of these being the chairs across from an apple-red-aura-Granger), Draco turned hisattention back to his breakfast. The Slytherins were obviously split in their decisions about him, henoticed. One part thought it was a cool idea to have a student with the ability to spear anyone whenangry, even if it was with a feather. After all, it was an interesting kind of power. The other group focusedon the fact that it wasn't pure wizardblood. The two halves of the Slytherin definition, it seemed. Luckily,most of his normal group of compatriots (such as Blaise, Pansy, and Nott) were in the first group.

Breakfast was a meal that always went by too fast in Draco's opinion. Especially on a Monday, and thisMonday was no different. But as Draco stood to make his way down to the dungeons for Potions a flickerof a particular aura caught his eye. Ebony black. A perfect duplicate of his own aura. Draco's eyeswidened as he registered who that aura belonged to, and blinked. The world instantly switched fromglowy to normal, all auras disappearing, leaving only that person sitting at the Gryffindor table. Potter.Harry Potter. He had only seen the aura for a second before his Aspectus had stopped, but... was itPotter's? Draco suddenly didn't like this situation. He didn't like this at all.


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"Actually, I do know that all of these can be found in the Forest," Draco sniped, "Ten o'clock, outside ofthe Forest, Potter. And don't be late."

"No, Ron, we aren't kidding."

"But that's bloody mental! Even Dumbledore wouldn't risk having the Ministry find out about him giving ateaching position, no matter how small, to someone who doesn't have Ministry permission to teach!Malfoy can'thave those kind of qualifications!"

"You see when we get to Defense, Ron." Was all Hermione replied and Harry nodded, silently wondering ifit would matter if the Ministry found out that Lucius Malfoy had taught a class considering that he mostlikely owned that department, more or less.

Hermione was not disappointed in as they entered the normal Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom tofind the same teacher from Potions that morning calmly leaning against Snape's desk. Harry had to admitthat the look on Ron's face was priceless, and yet all that Lucius Malfoy did was raise one eyebrow inamusement while he and Hermione were fighting back laughter.

Class started exactly on time, just as Potions had not, and the elder Malfoy wasted no time in waiting forstragglers. The door slammed shut and was locked by an invisible force and every student except two

turned to look at the door in amazement. Draco had seen this little stunt many times at the Manor whenhis father was making it clear to Narcissa that he was not to be disturbed and that the definition of "not"indeed was the same as it had been for the last hundred years and had in actuality not been changed tothe definition of "maybe not" or "not, unless Narcissa felt it necessary". Hermione was looking at the elderMalfoy, silently storing away the first sign she had been shown of how a Veriae worked with the magicalcurrents around them. But it was clear that anyone not in there seats was obviously not going to attendclass, and much to Ron's chagrin that did not include any Slytherins or Ravenclaws, yet included a fewHufflepuffs and about half of the Gryffindor population of the class.

"Put away what you want," Lucius Malfoy started, watching as students began stuffing books away. "I amgoing to talk and you are going to listen, and you will have to use your own intelligence as to whether ornot you will be tested on what I am going to inform you of by your normal teacher."

Quills and parchment began appearing back on the desks.

"Now I have no idea what in the name of all things magical your Professor has you studying, nor do Iwant to know, Miss Granger so kindly put your hand down."

Harry and Ron exchanged looks. Snape had obviously been taught something by Lucius Malfoy sometimein his life for their lecturing methods to be so similar.

"For this class period we are going to talk about curses and the effects thereof. I won't spend time on theUnforgivables as I've heard those were dealt with in your Fourth Year, except to say that they are

becoming somewhat of a clich. Now those three curses were singled out by the Ministry out of thehundred and seventeen curses that might have been selected as Unforgivables. Why? Because they werepopular. It's easy as snapping your fingers to cast Cruciatus on someone if you hate them, and Imperiusgets to be a walk in the park if you use it enough to become familiar with it. But the rest of the hundredand seventeen are much harder to maintain and have somewhat gruesome effects, therefore they werenot used as often. However, this makes them more appealing as the years move on, as they are notUnforgivable, and the punishment for using one of them on another creature is merely a tongue lashingby some Ministry official who doesn't know what he's talking about to begin with and no amount of time inAzkaban at all. Now, as all of the Unforgivables have a weak spot -- Cruciatus becomes ineffective asone's mind blocks out the pain in order to save one's sanity, the Imperius counts on the fact that yourvictim of choice has little to no will power, and as long as someone else gets in the way of the KillingCurse when its thrown at you, you're safe -- so do these other curses have weak spots that can beexploited if you know what is coming towards you."

"Can you believe he got all 117 curses into one class period?" Ron groaned as he nursed his writing handin the Common Room.


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"You think this is bad? Can you imagine if he were to become the permanent Defense Teacher?" Harrygroaned.

"That was the most informative class I've ever had," Hermione pointed out. "More than half of thosecurses aren't archived in our library except in the Restricted Section."

"Bloody amazing," Ron muttered sarcastically.

"Did you notice that Malfoy didn't write anything at all?" Harry wondered out loud.

"Which one?" Ron muttered from where he had been attempting to wallow in pity for the most certain lossof a limb after all those notes.

"Draco."

"I did," Hermione spoke thoughtfully. "But do you know something even more strange? He was mouthingthe names of the curses two words before his father said them.

"As if he's heard that particular lecture before?" Ron asked.

"Exactly."

"Well I guess that's something I can ask him when I have to meet him to go find bloody potionsingredients in the Forest," Harry muttered. "Might make for good conversation."

Ron patted his shoulder sympathetically before realizing he was using his "injured" hand to do so andreturned to self pity.

"It can't be that bad-" Hermione started to say but the looks from the two boys silenced her.

"You're late Potter," Draco muttered as Harry got close enough to hear him without raising his voice.

"Let's just get this over with," Harry muttered.

"Fine by me," Draco shot back, turning to lead the way into the Forest that he was quite used to by now.Thank you Father, he thought silently as Harry followed close behind him, obviously not having a clueabout where he was going.

Gathering two of the ingredients went fairly easily. Draco led, Harry followed wondering slightly why hewasn't disturbed that Draco knew where he was going and then resolved to think about that later. Butwhen they approached the spot where Draco knew there was a Gorgan tree, Harry suddenly stoppedshort. Draco continued walking for a few steps and then realized that Harry wasn't with him. He turned tosee the boy staring ahead at the downward slope of the ground that was covered in a root canopy.

"I've been here before. We don't want to be going in there."

"Yes, Potter, we do want to be going in here as it is the fastest and most direct route to the last ingredientthat we need and I for one want to get to bed."

"Draco, you don't understand. There are thousands, millions even, of giant-"

"Spiders? Yes I know."

"They enjoy eating flesh - did you know that?"

"I had assumed so. They don't bother with a Veriae, so I never tested my theory."

Harry looked pointedly at Draco, and Draco realized that he had overlooked the slight problem of Harrynot being a Veriae. He rolled his eyes, only slightly visible in the darkness of the wood.


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"Lucky- hiss- too bad- growl- intended-snarl-Veriae."

They left, obviously not wanting to invoke the already angry Veriae, and Harry didn't blame them, butwhat had they been talking about? Harry suddenly wanted to find a way to learn to speak Dragontongue.It was possible to understand it with a bit of studying, just another dialect of Parseltongue after all.

Draco stood in shock after he had entered his rooms and closed the door. What had he done? Why had hedone it? He had protected Harry? He had willinglyprotected Harry? He had been angrythat Harry-bloody-

Potterhad been attacked by wyverns. Why should he even care?

Because Harry's aura matched his- no he didn't know that. He only thought that, only had the slightestsuspicion of thinking that maybe that could have the slightest chance of being the case...

Yeah right. And if Draco Malfoy hadn't resigned himself to the fact that Harry Potter was his intended,Draco the Veriae Malfoy certainly wasn't complaining. In the name of all things magical... why him? Whycouldn't it have been someone - anyone - else?

Draco groaned and threw himself down on his bed in a very unMalfoyish bout of depression (because one,Malfoys never become depressed, and two, Malfoys do not throw themselves onto their beds while, three,wearing clothes that they wore into the Forbidden Forest). Was there even a bright side of this problem?

Oh yeah, if he ever wanted to commit suicide for some reason he could just go have a little chat withHarry Potter.

Hi Harry. Just so you know I still hate you, but you're my intended life partner, so can you hurry and

reject me because I want to die because Voldemort just announced that he's gay and wants to be mybride.

Draco shuddered. Yeah, if he ever wanted to commit suicide, that would definitely be the way to go. Nowall he had to do was pray that Harry didn't figure it out, or if Harry did figure it out (more like if Grangerever figured it out) that Harry had enough common sense to avoid him at all costs.

Yes, that was all... and then there was that little fact that he had to start controlling his emotions morenow, just to make sure he didn't go mental when someone tried to hurt Harry... like sending a bludger athim in the Saturday Quidditch match this week... oh damn it all!


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Chapter Seven: As the Truth is Dragged Out

Ron and Hermione sat in stunned silence as Harry's tirade finished. Ron was the first to recover, turningto Hermione looking puzzled.

"Hermione... is it evenpossible to have a pink aura?"

Hermione frowned. "Yes, I suppose anything's possible."

"Guys, the strange conversation Malfoy started coming back up to the castle is not the point here," Harrygroaned, falling back on to the conveniently placed couch. "Why in Merlin's name did Malfoy help me?"

"I don't know Harry-" Hermione started.

"Probably wants something in return." Ron muttered.

"-And before I was interrupted!" Hermione gave Ron a pointed look and Ron smiled sheepishly, "I wasgoing to say not to dwell on it. You shouldn't be complaining that he stepped in after all. It's better in thelong run for you."

"He didn't demand anything in return right?" Ron asked sharply.

"No. All he said afterwards was that thing about the aura. Then he said nothing. We walked back to theschool and he took the potions' stuff and left."

"Maybe he doesn't realize why he did what he did," Hermione spoke thoughtfully, and then yawned.

Harry grimaced. "Sorry I woke you guys up." He realized that dragging his friends out of bed (Ron literallyfrom his bed and Hermione by yelling up at the girl's dorm) might not have been the nicest thing to do,but he'd been freaked.

"Don't worry about it. I would have done the same thing," Ron admitted. "Well, let's go to bed and thinkon it in the morning."

"Good idea," Hermione agreed, then pulled Ron back as Harry walked into the dorm. "I need to talk toyou. Wait until Harry falls asleep, then come back down."

Ron nodded, not waiting to ask why. Hermione would explain it later as she always did.

Ron came back down to see Hermione sitting on a chair with a book in her hands. "What's up?"

"I know why Malfoy did what he did tonight."

"You mean 'last night'; it's after midnight. But why did he do it?"

"Because of his Veriae blood."

Ron frowned. "You'll need a long explanation for this, Hermione."

The girl nodded. "Don't stop me until I'm done then."

Ron flopped onto a couch and waited.

"When I saw Malfoy's feather fall to the ground that day he went ballistic on you, I picked it up so that Icould research what he was. I was very careful never to directly touch the feather itself because it wasrazor sharp. I found one book which had a description of a feather, but it was in the restricted section soit took a while to get permission to read it. By then the school knew he was a Veriae, but so what. Iwanted to find out more about his powers. But the book didn't tell me that, apparently the Veriae istaught by his auctor... that's the reason Lucius Malfoy is here by the way. Anyway, what the book did tell


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me was the life... cycle I guess, of the Veriae. It also told me of the Veriae's soul mate. It works almostlike the Veela, in that the Veriae also look for their perfect mate. But the Veriae don't sniff out their mateslike Veelas do, they look at the aura of the soul. When they find the person that matches their own,they've found their soul mate. This mate is very important, but not necessarily vital to their lives. If theirsoul mate never rejects them, they won't die and can live without their mate. However, if they tell theirmate and their mate rejects them they die at midnight of that day. Now I was just reading about anotherpurpose of the mate when Harry walked in. The feather of Draco's was on the table. When Harry touchedit, it reverted back to its soft silken form. This is because the Veriae instinct wouldn't want to hurt theirmate in any way."

"So you're telling me Harry is Malfoy's soul mate?"

"Yes. But he doesn't have to bond with Malfoy. He just cannot reject Malfoy openly or else Malfoy dies."

"And Malfoy would never tell Harry, because Malfoy hates him."

"Exactly."

"Then that's okay then, and we all go on as we have."

"But tonight, Malfoy stopped an attack on Harry. We need to be ready for any situation. We're Harry'sfriends and Harry's smarter than he lets on in Potions class, you know. If he finds out himself, we need tosupport whatever decision he might make."

"You mean if he chooses to be with Malfoy. Yeah, I can almost see him doing that."

"You know Harry has the attitude that love is love no matter which gender it comes from, and despitewhat Malfoy has done to him, the Veriae part of him would make sure that Harry is never hurt... byanyone or anything."

"But you're overlooking the fact that Harry hates Malfoy."

"There is also that. I'm just telling you this so that no matter what happens, we can support Harry."

"Of course we'll support Harry. We're his friends. I mean, sure, when he explained his views on love to usthis summer I was a bit shocked, but I can deal with this."

"You're sure?"

"Positive. I mean, hurting Harry's friends hurts Harry, so Malfoy can't start anything with us either right?All we do is ignore him. Easy."

Hermione smiled. "Exactly."

Lucius Malfoy had tuned out his son's ranting hours ago and just let Draco continue talking until he hadrepeated himself three or four times, worn himself out pacing around, and stormed off to his bedroom.Raising an eyebrow at some of Draco's last statements on how it wasn't fair because he wasn't even goingto be punished for being so stupid as to help Potter because it was following Veriae instinct, Lucius juststored the entire few hours away as temporary insanity and returned to his book.

He'd known this was going to happen after all. Why else had he deserted Voldemort? Honestly, Dracohimself should have suspected that Potter was his soul mate after that. Oh well. Draco was, after all, anadolescent, and adolescents sometimes couldn't find something if it hit them on the side of the head,relationships being one of those things. What would come would come, and Draco would never actuallytell Potter that he was his soul mate, so what was Draco worried about anyway?

By Friday morning, Draco had carefully built a manor on the left bank of "denial" and was comfortablyliving in it without any thought whatsoever. The potion had been finished and he'd given the stupid vial tobe tested to Potter, saying to test it if he wanted to but Draco knew it was perfect and had left the room


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before Potter might have swallowed it. So Potter didn't know anything whatsoever about the aura ofDraco's soul and both boys (along with respective friends/bodyguards) were ignoring each other... butDraco was dreadfully wrong about one thing.

On Thursday night, Harry Potter had dumped the entire clear contents of the vial of the completed potioninto his pumpkin juice and had watched everyone's auras for exactly one hour. He'd delightedly toldHermione of her aura (apple red) and had told Ron he didn't want to know (Slytherin green) and had thenlooked at his own to find it was ebony black. Which he thought was fitting, thank you very much... andthen Draco had walked in. Harry had felt annoyance when he realized that Draco and he had the exact

same aura. Who did that git think he was, having the same aura as he? Then his brain had startedworking... maybe it was something about being a Veriae. He still hadn't checked out... er..."borrowed"that book on Dragontongue from the Restricted Section... and a resolution was made to translate exactlywhat those wyverns had said about Draco and himself on Monday. After all, he still remembered veryclearly what the hissing had sounded like... strange what one remembered without really meaning to.

So he had left dinner, had trespassed into the library's restricted section, and promptly spent all nightlearning to speak Dragontounge. He doubted he could really speak it fluently, but he would understand it.There were only a few differences between it and Parseltongue, because dragons were capable of makinga snarling "kh" and "rrrk" sound that snakes couldn't do. So at exactly 3:48 a.m. on Friday morning,Harry looked at the translated sentence one wyvern had spoken to another.

"Lucky boy. It's too bad that you're the intended of a Veriae."

Intended of a Veriae?What did that mean? Hmmm. Hermione had that book on Veriae-people before,maybe she checked it back in. But looking revealed that, no, she hadn't. Well, then he would just have toask her to see it.

Hermione looked at him for a long moment before smiling and fetching the book from her dorm, sayingsomething like, "What's mine is yours, Harry, you know that," and left him to his reading. Harry thoughtthat look was rather odd, but he walked up to his dorm and collapsed on the bed. Merlin, he was tired. Anap would be good right now. He'd skip whatever class he might have this morning and sleep in, thenhe'd look up what that "intended" thing was, and then go down to Care of Magical Creatures. Yes, very

good plan Harry, he told himself. Sleeping sure looked good right about now.

Hermione and Ron were waiting for Harry at the entrance to the grounds, as they always did on Fridays,to walk down to their Magical Creatures class. But they noticed that something was different about Harrythis Friday as he made his way over to him.

"Something wrong mate?" Ron asked.

"Sorta. I'll tell you when we get to class."

Harry's two friends shared a knowing look as they followed Harry across the grounds. Another person too,

had noticed the slight difference in Harry, but was trying to convince himself that he didn't care.

Wonder what's wrong with Scarhead?Draco thought. Well, Potter would tell his friends soon enough, mostlikely in Creatures (Draco stilldidn't know why he himself continued to take that class...). Ah, the joys ofbeing a Veriae... it was rather windy today. One of the things Draco liked about breezes... they were verychatty. He couldn't speak to them himself, but they had the uncanny ability to figure out what he wantedto know. And so, every part of the conversation Potter and his friends had would be heard by Draco.

"You know, then?" Ron asked as they stood away from the other groups that were taking care of theirlatest charge... a mini-dog-looking-thing that had a strange fish-like tail and webbed paws.

"You mean you read the book too?"

"No, 'Mione told me. What are you going to do?"

"What can I do? I like Draco Malfoy as much as you do."


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"Which isn't very much then," Ron met Hermione's glare. "What? I'm being truthful."

Harry smiled softly. "I know you're trying your best to support me, Ron. Stop looking at him like that,Hermione. After all, as long as I don't reject Malfoy over there, nothing bad happens."

"Are you sure about this Harry?"

"Positive. I will not be bonded to Malfoy."

"Thank you Merlin," Ron muttered under his breath, earning another glare from Hermione.

All three started at Pansy's shriek. "Professor! It's Draco! He fainted!"

Hermione turned shocked eyes to Ron and Harry, who shrugged and continued watching the sleeping"mini-dog-like-thing".

"He couldn't have heard us Hermione. He's half a field away, for Merlin's sake. You could hardly see himfrom here," Ron pointed out.

Hermione nodded. "Yes, I'm just jumping to conclusions." But deep down, she wondered if she was

jumping to the right conclusion. "Harry, you know how you always carry your cloak with you?" she asked,emphasizing "cloak" so Harry would know what it meant.

"Yeah, why?"

"May I borrow it?"

"Sure... wait right now?"

"I want to find out what's going on."

Harry shook his head but relented. "Just make sure you don't get caught."

Hermione nodded, slipping into the shadows of invisibility.

Lucius Malfoy burst into the infirmary, wings snapping in anger, followed by a somewhat irate lookingProfessor Snape who'd been sent to fetch the elder Malfoy. All eyes in the room (which included any staffwho weren't teaching at the moment) were trained on the boy lying, deathly pale, on the bed.

"I don't know what happened," Madam Pomfrey said worriedly. "According to Hagrid, he just fainted.There was no cause. He doesn't have any characteristics of being sick... he just won't wake."

Lucius cradled his son's hand in his own, his fingers tracing the vein back up the boy's arm to the pointwhen it was nearest the surface. Draco's blood was as cold as ice. What had Potter done? For the firsttime in his life, the Malfoy facade threatened to crumble.

"Dumbledore. I will be taking Draco to his room," he spoke abruptly, his eyes searching out those of theHeadmaster and then those of Snape. The Potion Master's own eyes widened in recognition asDumbledore gave his permission despite Madam Pomfrey's protests.

After Lucius had left, cradling his son's body to his own as if he would never have the chance to do soagain, Snape spoke. "Don't bother trying to protest, Pomfrey. Draco should at least be able to die in hisroom with his remaining family."

"Die?"

Shrouded eyes widened as Hermione made her way out of the room. Draco had heard Harry. Now all shehad to do was get to Harry to tell him. But would Harry care enough to save him even though that meantpractically chaining himself to Draco Malfoy for the rest of his life?


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Chapter Eight: Flight at Midnight

Lucius stood at the window in Dumbledore's office, watching the rain pelt down mournfully against theglass.

"Nature knows what is coming. It anticipates the death of a Veriae, and it prepares to mourn."Dumbledore's voice came softly from beside him. The Headmaster's gaze followed Lucius's across thegrounds of Hogwarts, towards the Forbidden Forest. "You knew they were destined to be together, did

you not?"

"I did. I was acquiring Draco's schoolbooks when Draco was being fitted for his robes for his first yearhere. I returned before Narcissa and happened to see both Draco and Potter were being fitted in the sameroom, my son chatting away as usual, both surrounded by auras so similar it scared me. While my son didnot recognize the fabled Harry Potter, I did. I knew the Dark Lord would stop at nothing to return, so Ifeared for my son's life. It seems my fears were more correct than I wished them to be."

"You told your son to befriend Harry."

"Yes. But that did not happen. I hope Ronald Weasley is happy with himself today, for at midnight Dracodies. His father's grudge against my family can then be finally put to rest."

"Lucius, your son and your grudge played a large part in Harry's decision."

"But out of the two families, it is the Malfoys who will regret it."

Lucius turned to leave, his face impassive, his emotions only betrayed by a single crystal tear that fell tothe plush rug of Dumbledore's office.

"Can you not help him, Lucius? Draco is strong; he may be able to live through it... even if no Veriae everhas."

"Draco ran to the forest when he woke. I could not even begin to fathom where he has gone."

"So you will give up that easily, Lucius? You will let your son die?"

"Consider my options, Dumbledore, before you condone my actions. Suicide is unbecoming of a Malfoy."Lucius spoke gravely. "If I were to find him, Draco would ask me to kill him."

Harry woke, gasping. Voldemort was pleased, and for the first time in weeks, Harry had felt every painfulmoment. There was no reassuring blackness, no voice to whisper sweet words, and no wings to shelterhim from the pain. Had that... had that actually been Draco, as the book had said? Harry's eyes shiftedover to the clock that sat on his bedside table. 11:30.

That was bad. Wait, why was that bad? Why did Harry feel so empty inside? Like something importantwas slipping away from him... something he desperately wanted to hold on to.

Almost on an impulse of their own, Harry's arms reached for the book that he'd insisted to Hermione thathe read, but he had put down after realizing what it was telling him. Something was wrong, somethingwhich he had ignored when Hermione had tried desperately to explain to him, and now he wanted to findout what.

His eyes hurriedly scanned the headings, to find the page that he had lost when he'd slammed the bookshut. Finding the page number, his fingers dove through the pages, almost as if they knew he had tohurry. As his emerald orbs picked up the paragraph about mates, they widened as the truth of thesituation hit. And it hit harder than a Crucio ever could have.

Draco. Dead. At midnight. Wait... Why did he care? No more Draco, no more insults, no moreunderhanded Slytherin pranks directed solely at him... no more competition at Quidditch... no more... justno more.


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Draco had wronged him... many times in fact. Yet, Draco had been the first wizard he had ever come incontact with that didn't acknowledge the fact that he was... well, different. Draco had extended a hand offriendship to Harry, albeit rudely. But... he hadn't really been rude to Harry... just to Ron.

Ron had started it...

Harry blinked. Ron hadstarted it all. Harry had fallen into the same pit that he accused Draco of beingin... he had taken Ron's opinion of Draco as the black and white of the situation. And Ron's interpretationof Draco had come, not from analyzing Draco, but from what he had heard from his father about Lucius.

Draco was not Lucius. Lucius was not the Malfoy who had saved Harry from the wyverns, nor was he theMalfoy who had fainted after Care of Magical Creatures... where he must have heard Harry's words to hisfriends somehow, nor was Lucius the one who had the same aura as Harry.

What did Harry really know about Draco?

Nothing. Except that Draco knew how to retaliate, and had a fierce sense of pride. Harry had treatedDraco... in the exact same way that he had treated Lucius when Lucius was acting the Death Eater... apart which, from what he had seen of Lucius in the two classes Lucius had taught, had proven an incorrectassessment.

But could Harry piece anything together about Draco? The younger Malfoy did not really judge by

appearances, as he had not even noticed Harry's scar unless he was in the middle of the public eye. InFirst Year, Draco had been paired with Harry for detention in the Forbidden Forest, and had actually heldthe lantern... even though he outwardly complained that the whole thing was "servant's stuff". In SecondYear, Draco had stolen a small present that was obviously meant for another student, yet he had firstasked Crabbe and Goyle (or who he thought were Crabbe and Goyle) if the present was theirs... thusimplying that he wouldn't have taken it had it been theirs. And on through the years... Draco hadprotected his own image in Fifth Year (imagine the scandal if a Malfoy was found to be anything less thana model student by the Ministry) with that horse of a woman, Umbridge. That had been his worst actagainst Harry, yet he hadn't been the one to bring the information about the DA to Umbridge either.

So did Harry want to let Draco die? No, not really. Yet, did Harry love Draco? Not Draco Malfoy, justDraco. The same Draco whose feathers turned from sharp to satin when Harry touched them. The same

Draco who'd stood in-between Harry and the triad of wyverns from the Forbidden Forest with only thosewings and his forming bond with the magic patterns around him for protection. The same Draco who'dtold Harry that Voldemort's aura was pink just to make conversation. The same Draco who had, perhapsinadvertently, stood between Voldemort and Harry with only his wings every night in Harry's dreams...except tonight... because Harry was killing him. So did Harry love Draco?

Harry himself didn't know... yet somehow, something inside him said, "Yes."

As Harry swept from the dormitory with his Firebolt in hand, his clock said 11:50.

Draco's eyes seemed clouded by his aura, as he stumbled forward, wings fluttering violently to help himkeep his balance. It covered him now, his aura... it would suffocate him. He just knew it. The darknesswould suffocate him and he would die, and by now he truly didn't care. Pain lanced its way through hislimbs, as his body protested against any movement. But Draco didn't want to die here. It had been amistake to run to the Forest. He couldn't escape what was happening now. If he'd stayed at Hogwarts atleast he could have begged his father to finish him quickly. Now that would be fitting. For Draco to die theway Harry's parents had, the last remnants of happiness that Harry could have held on to swept awaywith that same beam of green light... the color of Harry's eyes.

Wise eyes watched Draco intently, as the Veriae's aura started to become visible and the pale boy fell tothe ground. These eyes were quickly cast up to the heavens and with a horrified start, galloping hoovesbegan to make their way to the castle.

Why has Dumbledore not seen it?Firenze thought frantically. How could he have let things get this bad?Once Draco dies, Harry will soon follow... the stars tell so and they do not lie. What use was it, teachingDumbledore to read the cosmic signs, if he does not use the skill? Draco must be saved. Or else, theworld will crumble under darkness... a darkness that was fittingly the same color as the fated aura thatnow is threatening to destroy Draco.


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A boy on a broomstick zoomed down the halls of Hogwarts, his thoughts whirling. Draco's not here.WhereisDracowhereisDracowhereisDraco?

The broom was pulled to a sudden stop at a large window, its view overlooking the grounds of Hogwarts.Wait... what was Firenze doing outside of the Forest-

The Forest!

Glass exploded outwards as the boy guided his broom out of the castle, pocketing his still smoking wandas he did so.

"Harry Potter!" Firenze's voice carried upward through the pelting rain. "You must hurry-"

"Where's Draco?"

"In the Forest! You must find him before he dies!"

"I know!" Harry screamed through the rain as he hurled forward towards the looming trees, hand fallingback to his wand. "Point me!" his voice shrieked through the rain, raspy and hurried.

Following the direction given by the wand, boy and broom entered the Forest.

"Draco!"

Clouded eyes opened slightly. What?

"Draco!"

Why would someone call his name? Darkness surrounded him... so sleepy.

"Draco!"

Go away; darkness feels no pain. Draco didn't want to feel pain anymore.

"Draco!"

Orbs of black laced with silver blinked. "Harry?" came the startled whisper.

"Draco!"

Harry landed ungracefully on the ground next to the fallen boy. One could hardly see Draco, cloaked as he

was in an aura of ebony. It'll suffocate him! Harry thought frantically as he dove into the clouded aura.

"Don't die, Draco," he muttered, as he fought through rain and aura to get next to Draco. The wingsseemed to hear what the boy did not, as they began to beat at the aura, working as if to push it away.

Harry managed to grasp Draco as the aura began to disappear. He paled slightly as he saw eyes blinkslowly at him, normally a silver, now an ebony black.

The darkness was going away... why was it going away? Was he dead now? No... but that's Harry - blink -Harry's not dead yet.

"Why are you here?" The voice--was that his voice?--spoke low and slurred.

"Draco, I don't want you to die. Don't die!"

Die? Was he not dead already? No... the darkness was gone now. He was not dead.


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"I'm not dead," the voice spoke again, in that same low and expressionless tone. And the boy's eyesbegan slowly to change colors, the silver working its way through the black, as Harry smiled.


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Chapter Nine: Awaken

Draco's eyes opened to a sight he didn't ever expect to see again: his room. Even more wondrous was thefact that his father was sitting next to his bed and had apparently been keeping vigil, which the worn lookon his face implied. This was something his father had not done since he was six and had come down withsome sickness that he himself couldn't remember anything of except his father raging at his mother thathe wouldn't have his son die from some stupid muggle illness (Draco's mother had been of the opinionthat his father had been over-reacting at the time.).

"How are you feeling?" His father asked quietly as Draco blinked and looked around curiously.

"Strange." Came the answer. And that was the only explanation that Draco could think of. He felt all weirdinside.

"Considering the fact that you survived suffocation, I'm not surprised."

Draco blinked. "Then why am I not stupid?"

Draco's father looked at Draco as if what his son had said could not be processed by his brain.

"When you start to suffocate, your brain starts to die, so why am I not stupid?"

Lucius smirked wryly. "Because you're a Veriae."

"Oh." And that explained that. "So why am I not dead, again?"

"Because your intended got cold feet a few minutes before your death and rescued you," Lucius spokedryly as if this wasn't really what he thought of the matter. "He carried you out of the Forest once youraura had returned into your being and your wings retracted."

Now things weren't computing for Draco. "Wait, Potter saved me?"

"Apparently so, although the why of the matter still eludes me."

"He doesn't love me."

"You're so sure of that?"

"He hates me."

Lucius looked at his son pointedly. He already knew that.

"One night isn't going to change years' worth of feelings."

"Maybe." Came Lucius's response, but the older Malfoy was thinking. Something in what Draco had saidhad triggered a memory of a conversation he'd had with the Dark Lord a month or so before the"Department of Mysteries" incident. Something about impulses... but he couldn't remember why that wasimportant at this moment in time so he returned to Draco, pushing the memory back into the recesses ofhis mind to ponder over later.

"You'll have to see him today."

"We have classes together."

"Not for classes, Draco. You'll need to work things out with him today. He's had long enough to mull itover anyway; you might as well talk about your situation."

"What situation? And why has he had time to 'mull it over'?"


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Lucius's eyebrow rose. "Draco, exactly how much of that book did you skim over?"

Draco at least had the modesty to look bashful. "Everything after-"

"After you found out about the Aspectus and what it meant." Lucius finished with an air ofdisappointment. "You figured you would never have a mate and therefore it wouldn't apply to you."

"Yes Father."

"Well, Draco, then you had better ask Granger for that book back because as of three days ago, when youwere on the road to suicide, you gained a mate and now you must act accordingly."

"Three days ago?"

"You have been sleeping for three days as your body recovered. Normal humans wouldn't have been ableto survive without air for as long as you did, and even in Veriae terms you were much too close to deathto survive and get up the next morning to play Quidditch."

His father's sarcastic tone was not lost on him. "Oh."

"So, now you have a mate to deal with. A mate, who a few moments ago, you said does not love nor evenlike you."

"Oh."

And that summed up Draco's feelings quite nicely.

As Lucius had pointed out, Harry had been given three days of time to mull over his current situation. Andreading that book from cover to cover had given him a lot of time to think... and to berate himself. Well,he'd started berating himself after he'd met Draco's father waiting for them at the doors to the castle... ormore like waiting for him to carry Draco's sleeping form to the doors of the castle. Draco had exchanged

hands and been carried off to wherever it was thought proper by Lucius to take him, and Harry hadwalked up to the boys dorm lost in thought. He'd never gotten there. Ron had been waiting for him in theGryffindor Common Room. The conversation had been awkward to say the least.

"You know, you could have told me Harry," Ron said, looking into the cheerfully blazing fire. "I would

have supported you. I told you that."

Harry frowned. "Ron, I don't know what to think right now... can we talk about this later?"

Ron had agreed, and they both had gone up to bed, not saying another word. Well, Ron had gone to bed.Harry had stayed up, reading and thinking. At about four in the morning, he'd given up on reading andhad just sat on his bed thinking. He'd done it again, and this time he really couldn't say why. At the

moment he'd felt he had been doing the right thing yet looking back on the moment, he felt all confused.The feelings between this night and the now, and that night and the then were identical... sort of. Exceptthis time no one had died. Last time... the last time Harry had given in to his impulses like that... Siriushad died.

I can't believe I did that again, he berated himself. He didn't know what to think, he decided at exactly4:09 in the morning. He really didn't. He'd saved Draco's life, that much he knew, but why? Now that themoment was gone, he could

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