Кассандра Клэр - Draco Sinister

"Harry," she said. "How are you feeling?"

"Weird," he replied, turning to look at her. "Like someone switched a light on in the back of my head."

"You look a little different."

"Great. Am I starting to look like Malfoy all of a sudden? Wouldn't that be ironic."

"No, you don't look like him. You look…more yourself than you did before, actually, if that makes sense."

She was conscious of Lupin and Sirius sitting at the desk behind them, too far away to hear what they were saying, but she knew they were studying Harry anxiously. It had taken hours of attempts at getting the spell right before Harry had suddenly clapped his hands to his temple and said, "Stop. Stop. It's working." Then he had gotten abruptly to his feet, walked over to the window, and stared out.

"It doesn't make sense, but that's fine," he said, uncrossing his arms.

He put a finger under her chin and tilted her face up, looking into her eyes. Hermione felt her stomach plummet — it was both pleasant and also frightening to be studied so closely, especially by Harry, who could read her every expression as easily as he could read Parseltongue. "You want me to tell you where he is," he said. "Don't you?"

Hermione said nothing, and Harry removed his hand from her chin.

"Well, I don't know where he is," he said. "I can tell you he isn't feeling very well, and I can tell you he's freezing cold, and I can tell you he's thinking about…" and he smiled suddenly, wryly. "Ginny.

Well, isn't that interesting."

Hermione winced, only very slightly, but Harry saw it.

He frowned. "You don't like hearing that, do you?"

She felt a cold tightening in her stomach. It was a familiar feeling, one she had gotten used to over the past few days, an icy sort of twisting. It was odd, she thought, the induced love for Draco that she felt didn't manifest itself in her head or her thoughts, but in her body, knotting her stomach muscles, tightening like a band around her heart. It was constant, as if someone had lodged a cold anchor in her stomach, so constant she had nearly gotten used to it, except for times like these, when it twinged. "Harry… you know…"

"I know," he said, and added abruptly, "and you know, don't you, that if we can't take this spell off you, there's no way that our relationship is going to last?"

Hermione looked at him, appalled. "But you said — "

"I know what I said. But let's be realistic. I'm not going to spend the rest of my life with someone who is always going to be in love with someone else. I deserve better than that, God, anyone would deserve better than that."

"Nobody said anything about the rest of your life," said Hermione, and instantly regretted it. "I'm sorry," she said, quickly. "It's just that," and her eyes widened, "you sound like him, like Draco, you sound just like him again…"

"What, and you don't like it?" he shot back, turned, and walked back towards Lupin and Sirius, throwing himself down in an armchair and stretching his legs out. Which, Hermione thought, was how Draco sat. Arggh.

She followed Harry over to the desk, and sat down next to him.

Sirius and Lupin, who had been in whispered conference, turned to look at them.

"Let's do this," said Harry.

"Right now?" asked Lupin, laying down the papers he had been holding and looking at Harry over his glasses.

"Why not right now?" said Harry flatly. "You said he was in danger.

He's not going to be in less danger in an hour, or two hours."

Lupin and Sirius exchanged looks. Hermione knew exactly what they were thinking: Harry's acting oddly, isn't he?

You bet he is, she thought darkly. Harry's harsh words back at the window had shaken her. She knew that when he was linked to Draco, as he had been under the Polyjuice potion, he tended to say things that were unpleasant.

He also tended to say things that were true.

"All right," said Sirius, coming around the desk to sit by Harry.

"We've worked the second stage of the spell out. It shouldn't be too difficult to do. Remus?" he added, glancing up at Lupin, who appeared to be lost in thought.

"Oh…yes," said Lupin, slowly gathering up some papers and coming around to Harry's side of the desk. When he took his wand out, Hermione saw to her surprise that his hand was shaking. She wondered if he was worried about Harry, and felt a sudden cold stab of fear at her heart.

He held the wand forward, and put the tip of it to Harry's forehead.

Harry looked up at him with steady green eyes. "All right," said Lupin, "now, Padfoot, you be ready too. Imago moli-" he began, paused, seemed to hesitate, and started again, "imago moli-"

There was a clatter as the wand tumbled out of Lupin's hand and he suddenly fell back, heavily, against the desk. Harry looked up in alarm. "Professor, why did you-"

Sirius interrupted him. "Remus?" He looked at his friend, the flicker of surprise on his face turning quickly into alarm. He set down the book he was holding and came to stand by Lupin, putting a hand on his arm. "Remus, are you-?"

Lupin raised his head, and looked at Sirius. "The Change," he said.

"What, now?"

"It shouldn't be now, not by my calculations, not until tomorrow night. But I know what this is, Sirius." Lupin looked up, and Hermione could see the lines of tension at the corners of his eyes and mouth. "Take me downstairs and lock me up," he said.

Sirius hesitated.

"We talked about this," said Lupin, with an edge to his voice. "The dungeons…"

"But it's too early-"

"Sirius."

Sirius, arrested in mid-speech, shut his mouth and looked at Lupin with worried, dark eyes. Lupin looked back, frowning, and stood up.

Hermione was reminded rather oddly of her parents when they didn't want to fight in front of her.

Sirius shrugged. "All right," he said. "All right — look, you two, I'll be back in ten minutes. Don't go anywhere."

"Can't we do the spell first?" asked Harry abruptly. "I think-"

"When I get back," said Sirius, an edge to his voice, and Harry fell silent. The moment they were gone, however, he turned to Hermione. She was taken aback by his expression — his eyes had an odd sort of light in them, and his jaw was set stubbornly. "I think we should do it," he said.

"What, right here on the desk?" asked Hermione with a wan smile.

"You know Lupin said it wasn't very sturdy."

"Don't try to distract me," said Harry, but he almost smiled. "You know what I mean."

"Do the spell? Send you through to where Draco is? Harry, that is not a good idea."

"You can do it, Hermione, I know you can. The complicated part of the spell is done already, all you have to do is say the words and send me through."

"I can send you through," she said. "But it'll take Sirius to bring you back."

"Sirius will be back in ten minutes!"

"So why can't you wait?"

"Because I can't!" yelled Harry, and Hermione tensed; Harry almost never yelled at anyone. "It's important," he said, "and we're not just talking about anything here, we're talking about whether he lives or dies."

The cold anchor in Hermione stomach gave a wrenching twist.

"I trust you," said Harry. "I trust you even though lately you haven't given me much of a reason to trust you about anything. Why can't you trust me?"

Hermione hesitated, then slowly, and with a consuming sense of reluctance, reached for the parchment that Sirius had left on the desk.

He was back in the fencing-room at Malfoy Mansion, facing his father across the flagstones. They had been practicing already for an hour and he was deadly tired, sweat stinging his eyes, clothes drenched in it. His muscles felt like overextended rubber bands. His father, of course, seemed hardly to have tired at all, but then, Draco thought resentfully, his father wasn't a thirteen-year-old boy using a weapon far too large and heavy for him. I just want this over, Draco thought despairingly, but he knew his father wouldn't stop the practice until he had either disarmed his son or made him bleed.