Кассандра Клэр - Draco Sinister

"If you´re saying what I think you´re saying," said Harry in clipped tones, "I don´t believe you." He shrugged. "I just don´t."

"Really?" said Draco, smiling, catlike. "Then why isn´t your little lie detector going off? Your…Sneakoscope?"

Harry looked down wildly. It was true. The Sneakoscope was completely silent.

"Sorry, Potter," said Draco. "These things happen."

"Sorry?" said Harry in a strangled voice. "Sorry? Is that all you have to say? Why didn´t — why didn´t one of you tell me?"

Draco shrugged. "We just couldn´t agree on how to break it to you," he said. "Eventually Hermione decided you were just better off not knowing. Maybe she was right," he added, looking at Harry dubiously. "You don´t seem to be taking it all that well…"

Black spots were dancing in front of Harryś vision. He could remember being so angry only a few times before in his life, usually at Voldemort. Heś lying, he told himself — but then why didn´t the Sneakoscope go off? — Hermione wouldn´t do that — but then why didn´t the Sneakoscope go off? — I always thought I would be the first — the only — this explains why sheś been writing to him all this time, a letter a day, I knew it wasn´t normal —

"Hey," said Draco, and his voice sounded like it was coming from very far away. "Remember, Potter. Control, control control —"

BANG!

The snow globe on the desk burst like a bomb, spraying water and bits of synthetic silver snow all over Lupinś papers. The nymph inside the snow globe screamed. Draco grinned as the windows cracked, and the wineglass on the table shattered into shards. Let him be angry enough, he prayed. Let him be angry enough -

CRACK!

And Draco ducked his head as the adamantine case in his arms fissured and split in half with a sound like rending bones. It worked!

He dropped the case, and the sword with it, letting the fragments of adamantine shower to the floor around him like hail, and seized hold of the front of Harryś shirt.

"I´m lying!" he shouted, over the sound of shattering glass and howling wind. "I´m lying!"

Harry looked at him wildly. "You´re what?"

"I´m lying! Of course I´m lying! Now stop it!"

"You´re just scared," said Harry, narrowing his eyes as a paperweight flew across the room and thunked into the wall beside Dracoś head. Draco got the distinct impression that Harry was in some way enjoying the havoc he was wreaking.

"Don´t be an idiot!" howled Draco. "You think if I slept with Hermione I wouldn´t have been gloating about it way before now?

And when would we have had the time? You two are always together. Be logical, Potter!"

"What about my Sneakoscope?" shouted Harry stubbornly. "Why didn´t it go off?"

"Because itś in your jacket upstairs!" yelled Draco. "Pillock!"

There was a sudden silence, broken only by the faint tinkle of the last bits of broken glass settling on the floor, and the tiny, furious voice of the nymph in the snow globe cursing at both of them. Harry didn´t hear it; he was looking at Draco, shocked. "But why-?" He followed Dracoś gaze down to the floor of Lupinś office, now covered with water, shredded bits of paper, and shards of broken casing. The sword lay at Dracoś feet; gleaming and silver as it had been the night that they had found it. Draco bent down and picked it up in his left hand, curling his fingers around the hilt. He raised it and held it out, showing it to Harry, who stared at it. "Oh," said Harry, as realization dawned. "Oh." He looked wearily at Draco. "You miserable bastard," he said, but there wasn´t much energy in it.

"You couldn´t have thought of some other way?"

"Sorry," said Draco unrepentantly. "You said before we should use whatever means were to hand."

Harry shook his head. "I hate making things easy for you," he said.

"I really hate it."

"Like taking candy from a baby," said Draco, grinning, then looked down at his hands, which were bleeding, shot through with bits of broken adamant from the shattered case. "Well," he amended, "a very large, very angry baby."

"I´m way too tired to start beating on you, Malfoy," said Harry calmly. "But rest assured I´ll get you back for this."

Draco couldn´t tell whether he was kidding or not. "I´ll look forward to it," he replied. "Now come on, letś get out of here before Lupin gets away from Fleur and comes back." He shuddered. "Or worse, they come back together."

When they returned to their dormitory room, they found Ron and Ginny kneeling on the floor next to the cauldron. Ginny was carefully removing something from it. She turned, hearing them enter, and gestured them over.

The Charm she had made was nowhere near as beautiful or as deadly-looking as the one that Lucius had created. This one was a bit lopsided, not so much a perfect circle as something of an oblong.

Draco eyed it dubiously.

"Itś not done yet," said Ginny. "Here." She thrust it at Draco. "You hold it. I´ve got to do the last bit of the spell."

He held the Charm in his hand while she pointed her wand at it. A long tendril of red hair fell down over her face as she began to speak, and she impatiently brushed it aside. "Ullus res muta. Anima irreti. Sanguinum ad vitrum transmuta!"

There was a flash of light, and the Charm flipped over in Dracoś hand.

"Itś done," said Ginny.

Draco stood up, looking at the Charm, which, like the other one, was transparent, although this one held a lock of his hair instead of a tooth. Now there are two objects in the world that could kill me instantly, he thought grimly. Hermione has the first one. Who in my life do I trust enough to give this one to?

He could feel the eyes of the other three on him as he walked toward the window, holding out the Charm in front of him, and paused there, looking out. Then he shut his eyes, letting everything fall away as he had learned to do when he was a child, locked in the wardrobe in his bedroom. He could feel the charm beating in his hand like a tiny heart, and although he knew it was no more than his own pulse that he sensed, he concentrated on it, holding the charm, tightly, tightly…

A round tower surrounded by trees. The walls were ancient stone, and black in places, as if the tower once had burned. There were no birds. Images in quick succession: a bare room with straw on the floor, a man with a hand made of silver, a hallway lined with tapestries, and Hermione, her dark eyes frantic with worry, looking at him.

Where are you? Where are you?

He opened his eyes, turned, and met Harryś steady gaze across the room.

"South," he said. "We go south."

References: "I've been called a lot of things in my life," said Draco, looking at the plate. "But never a vicious, cold-blooded piece of toast." [B]This line is, very famously, from Buffy: "I may be a cold-blooded jelly doughnut but I have impeccable timing."

"He must not have been reading his Evil Overlord handbook," grinned Sirius. "Rule 54: 'I will not strike a bargain with a demonic being, then attempt to double-cross it simply because I feel like being contrary.' From The Evil Overlord List!

""You must at least believe that there is a natural balance to all things," said the demon. "For every profit in one thing, payment in some other thing. You will profit greatly by the use of this sword, but first it must be paid for." — This speech is an altered version of Pluto's speech to Orpheus in the play of the same name by Ted Hughes. From Orpheus:

"Nothing is free. Everything has to be paid for. For every profit in one thing, payment in some other thing. For every life, a death.

Even your music, of which we have heard so much, that had to be paid for. Your wife was the payment for your music. Hell is now satisfied."

Orb of Thessala: This is an actual mythical object. It was referenced on Buffy, so I'll mention it here.