Кассандра Клэр - Draco Sinister

Sirius' attempt to be stern and disciplinary was summarily ruined by the fact that when Draco, Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny walked into the anteroom at Malfoy Manor, holding their broomsticks and looking wary, Sirius burst out laughing. "Draco!" he exclaimed.

"What are you wearing?"

Draco looked down blankly, then back up again. "Charlie's clothes," he said.

"Ha!" said Sirius, or something very like it, and proceeded to fall about laughing.

"I think he looks sweet," said Narcissa, who had been standing beside Sirius on the stairs with her arms folded. Unable to suppress a smile, she uncrossed them, walked down the stairs, threw her arms around Draco, and kissed him on the forehead.

"Mum!" he exclaimed, looking only marginally less horrified than he had when confronted with Salazar Slytherin.

"Those trousers can't be comfortable," she said. '"They're so…"

"They're fine," he said, through his teeth.

Meanwhile, Harry was looking at Sirius in astonishment. He had rarely seen Sirius laugh so hard. Sirius caught his glance, and saw the surprise in it and the anxiety as well. He stopped laughing, came down the stairs, and stood looking at Harry for a moment, noting with a pang that Harry was now nearly as tall as he was.

"Hallo, Sirius," said Harry, looking nervous.

Sirius stood still, looking at his godson, seeing Harry's green eyes widen with anxiety behind his glasses. Then he leaned forward, and as Narcissa had done with her son, kissed Harry on the forehead.

"Welcome home, Harry," he said.

It took several hours of everyone talking over everyone else in loud, excitable voices for Sirius and Lupin to even begin to sort out the story of what had been going on.

They were all in the library (except for Narcissa, who had remained downstairs to talk to the Aurors who had come to pick up the last of Lucius' Dark Arts collection.) It was early afternoon now, and the stained-glass windows threw dizzying patches of colored light over everyone as Hermione, the last and the most reluctant to speak, told them what she could remember of what had happened to her. Lupin stood with his hands clenched on the side of the desk while Sirius listened with his eyes narrowed and his fingers templed under his chin.

When Hermione had finished, Sirius lowered his hands to the desk and shook his head. "Well," he said. "You've all been through quite a bit. And you've all," he added, "been very brave, if somewhat over-impetuous. But I think you also know that this — situation — reaches far beyond you. It's very, very serious."

Hermione closed her eyes. A terrible pounding headache had begun just behind her forehead. Vaguely, she heard Sirius say, "The real issue of course, is whether that actually was Salazar Slytherin, and if so-"

"Of course he was Slytherin," said Draco, in a tight voice. "Who else would he have been?"

"That is the question," said Sirius. "We can't discount that this could be some plan of Voldemort's. He might think that the name of Slytherin would strike such fear into the-"

"That wasn't Voldemort," interrupted Draco, again. "Voldemort would have killed us if he'd had us right there like that. He wouldn't have let us go."

"The Dark Lord wouldn't have wanted you," put in Ron, rather unexpectedly. "He would have wanted Harry. Maybe that's why he let you go. If he'd kidnapped Hermione, he would have expected Harry to show up. Not," he added, with distaste, "you."

"Right," said Hermione, irritably. "Because Voldemort reads Witch Weekly and knows all about my love life."

"Besides, I've met Voldemort," added Draco, in a rather tense voice.

"And that wasn't him."

"Sometimes," said Ron, leaning forward and looking at Draco with mock earnestness, "you know, villains, they actually disguise themselves. In fact, they're known for it."

"It was Salazar Slytherin!" shouted Draco with sudden and unexpected violence. "Doubt all you like, he will make you regret it-

"

He broke off.

Everyone was staring at him.

Harry was the first to break the silence. "Malfoy," he said. "Are you feeling all right?"

'I'm fine," said Draco, although he looked startled.

"Are you sure?" said Sirius, looking at him with concern.

"You'd better tell them, Sirius," said Lupin, suddenly. He had been very quiet up until that point and was looking uneasy.

Sirius glanced over at Lupin, and then back at Harry and the rest.

"Tomorrow, Professor Dumbledore and Cornelius Fudge are coming here to talk to you," he said, to all of them. "As I said before, this is a serious situation. Perhaps we can leave further speculation until then-"

"I'm sorry," said Hermione suddenly, and stood up. "I'm not feeling well." She was aware of Harry glancing up at her, and of the room swinging around her in a coruscating blur of colors, but mostly she was aware of the pain in her head. It felt like two hot red pokers were pressed against the backs of her eyeballs. "It's my head."

She was vaguely aware of a murmur of voices, and of Harry's voice in particular. She heard herself tell him that she was fine, just tired.

She heard Lupin say something in a worried tone about shock and stress, and she heard Sirius say that she should lie down. Then she was aware of a hand on her arm, and that the hand seemed to be attached to Draco. "I'll show her where one of the bedrooms is," he said. She thought about protesting, but her head hurt too much. She heard Harry push his chair back, and then heard Sirius say, "Harry, wait just a minute," and was, guiltily, briefly thankful that Harry couldn't follow her.

Draco turned her towards the door. Her vision cleared a little as they crossed the room. As they passed by Lupin, she saw him recoil sharply back from Draco. She blinked in surprise, glancing back over her shoulder. Now why would he do that? she wondered, as the library door closed behind them.

"Harry, would you not fidget for just one second?" said Sirius exasperated.

Harry made a concerted effort to sit still. He was worried about Hermione, she had looked extremely pale and ill just now. And, of course, sending her off with Malfoy to look at bedrooms didn't sit too well with him either.

Sirius looked at Ron and Ginny. "I owled your parents this morning," he said.

Ron and Ginny let out identical wails of horror. "Sirius!" said Ron, looking betrayed. "How could you?"

Despite himself, Harry felt a small smile creep across his mouth. Ron wasn't used to the new, more parental Sirius; he was used to a Sirius on the run from authorities, a Sirius who lived in a cave, ate rats, and never, ever, owled anyone's parents.

"Well, I haven't heard back yet," said Sirius.

"Maybe the owl got lost," said Ron, hopefully. "Maybe it couldn't find them on holiday."

"Ron, owl post doesn't go missing," said Ginny, irritably.

"But, in the meantime, you can dream," pointed out Sirius.

"And we might as well tell you, Harry," said Lupin, walking over to the desk and looked at Harry with his arms crossed, "that you've been expelled from Magid school."

Harry made a sort of choking noise. "Expelled?"

"Well," Lupin pointed out gently, "you did break about thirty school rules, run away while classes were in session, and destroy school property."

"Expelled," Harry repeated, looking horrified. Then he glanced up at Lupin, and asked, "Is Malfoy expelled, too?"

"Er, yes," said Lupin, blinking in surprise.

"Good," said Harry, with immense satisfaction.

"Really, Harry, is that all you care about?" said Sirius, looking amused.

"Well," said Harry. "Actually. Yeah."

Sirius looked at him and said, "Harry. If you really hate him, you don't have to live here with him, you know."