Кассандра Клэр - Draco Dormiens

Harry was quite aware that he was raving, but McNair did not seem to mind. "This is quite a fine boy you have here, Lucius!" he said, turning to Dracoś father. "You must be proud of him."

"He was a very unpromising baby," said Lucius Malfoy without a trace of emotion.

"Weak and sickly. I told my wife that in the good old days of the Malfoys, a child like that would have been left on a windswept crag to die, but she would insist on keeping him."

McNair laughed, but Harry was fairly sure that Lucius Malfoy wasn´t joking.

Narcissa came back in with the tea-tray. McNair went over to her and said, "Sorry, Narcissa, I´m going to have to take this with me. Got to go. Business." He took a cup off the tray and winked at Dracoś father. "See you tomorrow, Lucius," he said, and Disapparated.

Draco sat in the darkened library, his face in his hands. His elbows were propped on an open copy of Most Potente Potions, which seemed ironic to him, since it was on account of Polyjuice Potion that he was in this mess in the first place.

His mind kept running down options, but none of them seemed workable. He could send an owl to his dad, explaining what had happened, in which case Lucius Malfoy would realize that the boy he had in his house was Harry Potter, and would kill him. He could work on reversing the spell, which would turn Harry back into Harry, and Lucius would see who Harry was and would still kill him. He could go down to Malfoy Manor himself and try to spring Harry, which would be a brave and spectacular move in many ways, but if his dad caught him he would think Draco was Harry and he´d wind up being murdered by his own father.

It did not occur to Draco to go to Dumbledore with his problem. He was still a Malfoy.

The library door opened, and a girl came in, carrying a wand. "Lumos," she said, and the room was suddenly bathed in light. Draco looked up, blinking.

It was Cho Chang.

"I thought I´d find you here," she said, sounding satisfied.

"And I thought I got rid of you on the Quidditch field," said Draco.

Far from seeming affronted, Cho smiled. "That was before I realized you were playing hard-to-get," she said.

"So you´re back for more abuse, are you?" said Draco. "Women."

"I was feeling guilty," said Cho, "about the way I´ve treated you. Telling you that you were too young for me to date and that your hair was too untidy, well, that wasn´t really very fair of me."

"You´ve been a bad girl all right," Draco agreed. "Maybe you should go off by yourself and think about what you´ve done wrong. Take as much time as you need."

Cho came closer and perched on the side of the table, running her wand tip gently up and down his arm. "I know you don´t mean it, Harry," she said, "You´re just hurt, and I respect that."

Draco threw his hands up in disgust. "Look at you!" he said. "I bet you Harryś been running round you for years, carrying your books, sending you flowers, and all you´ve done is ignore him. Now here he comes along and is an absolute bastard to you, and suddenly you won´t leave him alone!"

Cho stared at him. "Do you realize you´re talking about yourself in the third person?" she said.

"Er," said Draco.

"Excuse me," said a voice. Draco looked up. There was someone else in the library with them. "I hope I´m not interrupting, but — " It was Hermione.

"You are," said Cho. "Go away."

"No!" said Draco. "You´re not interrupting anything." He stood up with such haste that he knocked a pile of books to the floor. "Hermione-" Cho glanced from him, to Hermione, and back again. Then she raised an eyebrow and smiled coolly. "So that's how it is, is it?" she said. "Finally given up on me and decided to settle?"

"Harry and I are not dating!" Hermione snapped, her eyes flashing.

"Feel free to fight over me, girls," said Draco, settling back in his chair. "And perhaps a bit of hand-to-hand combat might not be amiss?"

Cho glared at him. "You really are an arrogant bastard under that whole modesty act, aren't you?" she snapped.

"Yes," said Draco. "Now go away."

Cho grabbed her wand and stormed out of the library, slamming the door behind her.

Draco turned nervously to Hermione. "She just really, really likes me," he said, shrugging. "I can´t explain it." Instead of responding, Hermione strode over to where he was standing, crossed her arms, and stared at him.

Draco had never been stared at like that before. It was like she could see right through his head to the back of his skull.

"Hermione, don´t," he protested, before he could stop himself. "Look, I´m sorry about what I said before."

"You´re not," Hermione began.

Draco interrupted her. "Look, I´ve told you I am sorry, what more — " "No," snapped Hermione, brushing this aside with an impatient wave of her hand, "I don´t mean you aren´t sorry. I mean you aren´t — you aren´t him."

"Aren´t what?"

"Aren´t Harry," said Hermione. "You´re not Harry Potter."

Draco stared at her. He suddenly felt very tired. "Of course I´m not," he said.

"I´m Draco Malfoy."

For a moment, they just stared at each other. Then Hermione lunged at Draco, who, totally unprepared for her assault, was knocked backward. He landed on the floor with Hermione on top of him, hitting him with both fists. "WHERE IS HARRY?" she screamed. "What did you do with him? Where are you keeping him?

You can´t have killed him, you need him to keep making Polyjuice Potion-" "Hermione-" Draco was making not the slightest effort to protect himself as she slammed her fists into him. "I swear to you, I haven´t hurt him-" "Liar!" She grabbed him by the neck of his robes, yanked his head up, and then whacked it back into the stone floor. Draco saw stars as she fumbled in the sleeve of her robes and pulled out her wand. She aimed it at his heart. "If you hurt Harry, if you sliced off his fingers to make your horrible potion-" "Look," said Draco, fighting to stay calm, "I did not give your speccy little boyfriend so much as a haircut. Although he could use one. I haven´t been making Polyjuice potion. This is the same potion from Snapeś class, it just never wore off."

Hermione was shaking, but her grip on the wand did not falter. "You expect me to believe that?" she said.

Draco looked at her. "My father taught me Dark magic, you know," he said.

"Don't change the subject, Malfoy."

"Put a truth spell on me," he said. "I´ll show you how to do it."

"Thatś advanced Dark magic," said Hermione, looking very white, "Its use is strictly controlled by the Ministry-" "Fine," Draco said, reached up, and grabbed her hand where it held the wand pointed at his heart. "Veritas," he said.

A jet of black light shot out of the wand and hit Draco in the chest. He had seen his father use the Truth Spell on plenty of people before but had never imagined how it might feel. Now he knew, and knew why it was considered Dark Magic — he felt as if two enormous silver hooks had been driven into his chest, just under his ribs, and was ripping it open, leaving his heart bared.

"Ask me quickly," he said, through gritted teeth. "It hurts."

Hermione stared down at him in shock, but she still had her wits about her.

Quickly, she said, "Harry, is Harry all right?"

"Yes," said Draco. His voice sounded odd and strangely transparent, even to his own ears.

She blinked. "Why is it that you´ve taken on his appearance?"

"When we drank that potion in Snapeś class, we didn´t turn back when everyone else did. Harry thought I had done something to the Potion, but I hadn´t. He didn´t believe me — he hit me — I hit him back and knocked him out. Then I realized that everyone thought I was him. I played along with it."