Harry Potter and the Parliament of Dreams - 16. Between the Darkness and the Light

It was just after dinner on the second Wednesday in October at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and most of the hallways and corridors of the school were empty. A redheaded young man looked over his shoulder again as he paused outside the secret door. He didn’t see anybody so he opened the secret door and stepped in. Another redhead looked up and smiled at his entry.

“It is about time you got here George,” Fred chided lightly.

“I had to shake off Ronniekins. He was trying to follow me again,” George smirked at his twin.

“Again? Was he that hard to shake?” Fred asked slightly alarmed.

“He has been getting much better lately. It’s almost as if he had help,” George grumbled.

“Perhaps we shouldn’t have told him about our error with Colin? Even though it did work out, he almost hurt Harry in the process.”

“We were there. Nothing would have happened. I think he is getting suspicious about everything we are up to now that we told him one thing,” George frowned at his twin.

“Perhaps we can talk to Hermione? She might be willing to keep him a little busier.”

George laughed before replying, “Are you kidding me? Little Miss Rulebook herself? I think she is at least half the problem we’re having with Ron.”

“I’ll try to talk to her. Now, about dates for ourselves for the Yule Dance?”

“Must we bring a date?” George grumbled again.

“Dumbledore stated quite plainly that all students that wished to attend must bring a date.”

“Oh Fred, you are so beautiful to me! Will you be my date?” George batted his eyelashes at his twin.

Fred smacked him on his arm, “Don’t go there, you nutter! That’s my job!”

“You’re no fun,” George winked at him. “We are supposed to share.”

Fred just shook his head. “Think about it, would ya’ Georgey.”

George smiled at his twin’s use of his name and nodded. He went over to the workbench that encompassed most of their secret lab and started to mix some ingredients for a new potion he had in mind.

Fred looked around the lab, sighed, and then exited through the secret door.

*  *  *

Across the hall from the entrance to the library, a section of wall slid away to reveal a secret door. The door then opened and Fred emerged from the passageway. As soon as he was clear, the door closed and the wall section slid back into place. Nobody noticed his arrival. He glanced around before casually sauntering into the library. He spotted the brown, bushy hair that he was looking for immediately. He took the long way around so that he could approach her from behind.

He walked up behind her and dropped his left hand on her shoulder. She started and then looked at the hand.

“What do you want, Fred?” Hermione asked.

Fred, with a puzzled look on his face, dropped into the seat next to her. “How did you know I’m Fred?” he grumbled.

“That’s easy,” she said lightly, “you see, both you and George have different freckle patterns on the back of your hands.”

“What do you mean?” Fred asked, looking incredulous. He thought he knew of all the differences he had with his twin.

Hermione reached over and pulled his hand over to her. “You both have a big dipper-like pattern on your left hand. Your pattern points towards your pinkie. George’s pattern points towards his ring finger,” Hermione explained patiently, while tracing out the pattern with her finger. She blushed when she realized how intimate the gesture was.

“I see,” Fred said, coloring lightly from the contact. He pulled his hand away.

“You wanted something?” Hermione prompted after a few moments of uncomfortable silence.

“Did you ask Ron to follow us?” Fred asked bluntly.

Hermione blushed brightly and then stammered, “Why?”

“I thought so. Please call him off,” Fred demanded politely.

“Why?” Hermione asked suspiciously.

“He’s our brother and we don’t want to have to embarrass him too much. We are working on several projects that are nobody’s business but our own.”

“And if I don’t call him off?” Hermione asked, her eyes narrowing.

“Then Ronniekins will bear the brunt of all of our jokes and our tests. We would prefer to use other people, but he has become a real nuisance and brother or not, he will pay for it soon.”

“You wouldn’t,” Hermione gasped.

“Spying on people has consequences Hermione. If you do it, you have to be willing to pay the price. We certainly have enough times,” Fred added darkly as he got up and left Hermione staring after him.

*  *  *

Every single person that knew Draco Malfoy knew him to be impatient. He always got what he wanted when he wanted it, at school at least. That is why the current situation completely defied all logic.

Like nearly every other day since he started Hogwarts, Draco was sitting in an abandoned classroom with Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. It had started by an order from his father, of course, as most things had for Draco.

Crabbe and Goyle were not the world’s gift to academics. They were both below average students, with Crabbe being the dumber of the duo. Draco, thankfully, was well above average. He just was not perfect like Hermione Granger. When the big tally card was marked up, he was the number two student in the fifth year. Every single Ravenclaw took this as a personal affront, of course. The Slytherins were proud of him, but that was tempered by the fact that Granger The Mudblood had beaten him out. Lucius had always seen fit to take that out on his hide whenever he was home.

It became painfully obvious to Draco early on that if he didn’t tutor his two bodyguards, they would both fail and be tossed out of Hogwarts. Draco was a hard-arse when it came to the academic tutoring, but they were the closest things to friends that he had for his first four years.

The lessons were never talked about. It was all done by unspoken agreement really. It was just understood between the three of them. Draco would tutor them so they could pass. They would act as his grunts and follow him everywhere. Draco never showed any sign that he assisted them when they were outside of the classroom. The only person that even knew for sure about the tutoring was Professor Snape. He had pulled Draco aside one day and they had talked a little bit about it. Snape had been the one to provide them with this particular classroom, in fact.

Draco stopped reflecting and watched Goyle as he tried to transfigure a mouse into a teapot for the fifth time. This time the teapot had whiskers and was still squeaking.

“You do know what a bloody teapot looks like, don’t you?” Draco snapped.

“I’m sorry Draco,” Goyle rumbled.

Draco sighed, yet again, managing to calm himself. “You need to picture the result you want and not what it looks like now. When you do that, the two images merge and you get that,” Draco explained calmly, pointing at the still squeaking mouse-pot. He casually waved his wand at it and it turned back into a mouse.

“Try it again. This time, picture only a teapot in your mind. Hold that image.”

Goyle concentrated hard, his forehead crinkled, before waving his wand. This time, the teapot came out gray-brown, like the mouse had been. No whiskers and no squeaking.

“Better. This time, picture a nice, white teapot,” Draco said as he turned the teapot back into a mouse.

Goyle again concentrated hard and waved his wand. A white teapot sat where the mouse had been before.

“Good. Now turn it into a blue mouse.”

Draco turned around and walked to the other end of the classroom where Crabbe was trying to improve his summoning charm. Professor Flitwick had told them that it was very likely to be on their O.W.L.S. and it was an important charm to be proficient in. Crabbe had failed that part of the Charms class last year. Flitwick reminded the class that it would be important in the upcoming week as they discussed advanced summoning charms.

“Accio book!” Crabbe rumbled out as he flicked his wand.

The book on the table rattled a bit, but did not otherwise respond.

Draco walked behind Vincent and grabbed his arm. He demonstrated slowing the exact flicking motion, moving Vincent’s arm properly.

“Accio, not akio. Try it again,” Draco said as patiently as he could.

The larger boy managed to cast it properly at last. The book floated slowly too him.

“Good. You’ll need to practice to increase speed and distance, but I think you might actually have it.”

Vincent smiled a genuine smile, feeling happy that he finally got something to work.

Draco went over to a table in the corner and worked on his own homework, ignoring the others for the time being.

Crabbe looked over to Goyle. Gregory smiled back to him and held up a cute blue rat, and shrugged. Crabbe nodded and then turned back to practice his summoning charm.

*  *  *

Back in the library, Hermione was still hard at work. Several hours had passed since Fred had visited her. She had waited until almost all the people were out of the library before completing her real mission. As soon as most were gone, she approached Madam Pince and handed her the signed permission sheet for the restricted section.

“Why do you want that book and how did you get the Headmaster to sign the note for you?” she demanded.

“I’m working on a special project for Professor Dumbledore,” Hermione shrugged like it was no big deal.

Hermione was, in fact, doing genealogy research on Wizarding families, trying to find out more about Harry’s background. The problem was that the most useful book was locked in the restricted section, since it used the same spell they used to detect all wizards in Western Europe. The book tracked all wizards’ genealogy all the way back to the time of the four founders of Hogwarts. It was exactly what she needed, but she had had no way to get to it. Until, that is, she ran into Professor Dumbledore just after dinner. She had explained her dilemma and research to him. Dumbledore had looked at her strangely for a moment before nodding. He had pulled out his wand and waved it. The signed paper she needed appeared in his hand. He handed it to her and wished her luck. There was a distinctive glint in his eye, but she hadn’t paid much attention to it at the time.

Madam Pince directed Hermione into a private study area that was reached only through the restricted section. Hermione sat down and got right to work on her study. She started by finding “Harry James Potter, 31 July 1980.” That took a few minutes and she only got it by tapping her wand on the book and speaking his name.

She stayed there taking notes in a small journal until Madam Pince chased her out an hour later.

*  *  *

Friday morning started normally enough. Fred and George emerged from their seventh year dorm together. The only thing that either one was wearing was a towel. They walked quickly and quietly all the way to the shower room and they entered the end shower, which had the two showerheads. They both tossed their towels back at the same time, looking very much like mirror images of one another.

Fred took the shower on the left and George took the one on the right. They both turned the taps on to produce hot water, but by no means super hot. Fred sighed out loud as the hot water washed over his lithe form. He stood at 5 feet 10 inches. Already he was three inches shorter than Ron, and Ron was still growing. Both Fred and George were well developed, due to their Beater positions on the Quidditch team. Both twins were relatively smooth, having large red pubic bushes.

“So?”

“She didn’t say whether she would or not,” Fred answered.

“What was your impression?”

“I think she will give in. We could play a joke on Ron today to encourage it, but I don’t think it’ll be necessary.”

“Good. We need to work on our little surprise. It is going to take a lot of work to have it ready by the time we graduate.”

“We can do it though,” Fred replied. “We’re the joke kings after all.”

“Indeed we are,” George smiled back at his twin.

Both boys completed their cleaning and headed out of the stall, just in time to bump into Harry.

Harry checked Fred out and smiled, “Good morning Fred, George.”

“Good morning ‘arry,” Fred started and poked him in his belly. He then trailed his hand down and snatched Harry’s towel off from him, leaving Harry naked before them.

“Hey!” Harry protested.

“You can’t embarrass us like you can Ron. We know we look good,” George smiled widely.

Harry blushed pink as Fred leaned in, his lips touching Harry’s ear, “Besides, you already have a lad of your own. There is no reason for you to be looking in other pastures at all the grazing bulls. Though I admit I wonder what you find attractive in the personality of Draco Malfoy.”

George smiled as Fred sauntered away without waiting for an answer. “He loves to tease guys that find us cute. You’d think he’d have a better pastime, but, what the hell, whatever works, right?”

Harry nodded confusedly. George smiled and then left the shower.

“George?” Harry croaked out.

George stopped and turned to look at him.

“How did you guys know about Draco? Fred asked about him the other day and I told you a little more, but it was obvious that you already knew something.”

George smiled broadly, “I can’t let you in on all our secrets. I am glad to see that he is more behaved now though.” George walked away without giving Harry a chance to say more.

Harry went over to the shower tap and turned it to lukewarm. He was there a few minutes when he heard two other voices enter the shower with him. It was Seamus and Colin.

“Good morning Harry. I’m really sorry about the other day… oomph,” Colin started to say again for almost the thousandth time.

Harry was about to say something when Seamus clamped his lips over Colin’s, cutting off further apologies. Harry smiled at Seamus and Seamus winked back.

Harry cleaned quickly and left, not wanting to watch the little show that Colin and Seamus were now putting on. It appeared as if Seamus had somehow inhaled one of Colin’s tonsils…

*  *  *

Professor Minerva McGonagall was sitting in a chair across the desk from Albus Dumbledore. It was a few minutes before breakfast was due to start.

“I don’t like it one bit Albus,” she snapped for the third time since the discussion started.

“So you have said repeatedly. It came in quite handy for Sirius Black, didn’t it?” Dumbledore asked a little crossly.

“It did, but three of those wizards are underage. And Percy works for the ministry.”

“Draco and Harry both have books on how to do it. Would you prefer they learned it on their own or with a little supervision?” Dumbledore asked testily.

Minerva sighed. “If you feel that strongly about it, then I will train Percy. He can train the other two.”

Dumbledore sighed as well before replying, “We will train only the two boys for now. It might be worth our while to include Justin in our special training that we are giving Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Potter at some later point. In addition, since we have no students in Hufflepuff right now, this can only work to our advantage. We might even consider training Zavien Higgs from Ravenclaw.”

“A Higgs in Ravenclaw, I still can’t believe that,” Minerva smiled.

“His older cousin made a most excellent Seeker for Slytherin, before Draco Malfoy took over. He approached us to help, if you recall. He works very much behind the scenes, and is the quintessential academic.”

“That’s true. The Order will be meeting on the 24^th. It would be best if we had our student members there so they can finally see what they are fighting for and who their friends are.”

“I agree. See to it that Percy Weasley is trained to become an Animagus immediately.”

Minerva bowed her head in acknowledgment of the order and turned to leave the office.

“Minerva,” Dumbledore said, causing her to pause, “everything will go according to plan.”

She continued on her way out the door. Dumbledore sighed as he got slowly to his feet. He was feeling his years a lot more recently.

*  *  *

The Double Potions class had crawled by that morning and everyone, even the Slytherins, had rushed out of there so they could get to lunch. Harry had been moody. Snape took only five points off though. For some reason, shortly after he removed points, he went to the very front of the room and did not move from there for the rest of the long class.

Harry only picked at his food before starting a conversation about Quidditch. Harry felt a sudden pain in his scar and his body lurched forward as his mind drifted off to wherever Voldemort was.

“You stupid fool,” Voldemort hissed. “Do you know what you have done?!”

“My Lord?”

“Your bloody damned son!” Voldemort roared.

“I raised him to follow you, my Lord,” Lucius groveled.

“No. You beat the boy senseless so many times that he’ll do whatever you don’t want just to spite you,” Voldemort roared.

“What can I do, my Lord?” Lucius groveled again.

Voldemort ignored him and turned his wrath toward the senior Crabbe and Goyle. “And you two puppets managed to produce equally deficient offspring. I am told,” he waved around a piece of parchment, “that your sons have continued to follow Lucius’ son. According to a letter from Pansy Parkinson, both boys resumed their support of Malfoy after less than a day of ignoring him. I’d kill them, but they aren’t even worth the effort!”

“I’m sorry, my Lord,” Goyle rumbled.

“My apologies, my Lord,” Crabbe rumbled.

Voldemort sighed at the idiots that he had surrounded himself with.

“Potter has somehow managed to connect himself with your son,” Voldemort returned his attention to Lucius. “It could have been a side effect of casting Legilimens on your son while Potter was in my head, but there is no research in the area. Damn Potter to hell!” Voldemort roared again.

“Is there something I can do, my Lord?” Lucius groveled.

Voldemort’s red eyes narrowed and he aimed his wand at Lucius and yelled, “Crucio!”

Lucius started to twitch terribly.

“HARRY!” Harry jerked suddenly away from Voldemort’s lair.

Harry opened his eyes and found himself looking at Draco across the Great Hall. He reached a shaky hand forward and grabbed his glass of juice and downed it in three large gulps.

He felt nearly normal again in another few minutes. He suddenly realized that Draco was sending calming feelings to him. Harry thought, “Thanks Dragon.”

“Your welcome. What?!”

Harry’s face registered shock. On the far side of the room, Draco looked similarly shocked.

“This is new,” came Draco’s drawling tone in Harry’s head.

“So it would seem,” Draco heard as he saw Harry shrug on the other side of the room.

They both went back to eating lunch when they noticed that they were receiving odd looks from their companions.

*  *  *

Just after dinner, Harry was sneaking along a corridor deep in the castle. He was joined a moment later by another boy of about the same height. They fell into step together without talking or even acknowledging the other boy. They walked for some time, stepping through various secret passages and hallways until they came to their training room.

Percy Weasley was sitting on the sole table in the room with his feet dangling and wand twirling in his hand. He looked up and smiled when Harry and Draco entered the room.

“Good Evening, Mr. Potter, Mr. Malfoy.”

“Hi Percy,” Harry smiled at him.

“Weasley,” Draco nodded shortly at him.

“Professor McGonagall informed me today that all three of us are going to be trained to be Animagi. Justin and perhaps others may join us at a later date.”

At the mention of Justin’s name, fear and then anger flashed through Draco’s eyes. Harry, who felt the emotional turmoil through the link in addition to seeing it, clamped a reassuring hand on Draco’s.

Percy smiled weakly, “Draco… Justin really is sorry about that incident. He really wasn’t himself.”

“Percy’s banging the Hufflepuff,” Draco drawled waspishly.

“Draco, stop being in insufferable git,” Harry snapped, inadvertently sending a sharp sting of anger barreling down the link to Draco.

Percy, who was blushing ferociously at Draco’s comment, went pale as Draco recoiled away from Harry as if he had been struck hard. Draco fell hard to the floor, as Harry recoiled from a backlash and fell the other way.

Percy rushed over to Harry first. Harry sat up and was rubbing his temples. He seemed ok, so Percy turned to Draco. Draco was also sitting up and wobbling.

“I guess that’ll teach you not to get in a lover’s quarrel,” Percy said knowingly.

“Shut it, Weasley,” Draco hissed.

“Just making an observation, Malfoy. No reason to be yourself about the whole thing,” Percy smirked back.

Draco looked taken aback and then angry again. He was NOT used to getting slammed by a Weasley.

Harry looked momentarily amused before turning a sour expression towards Percy.

Percy raised his hands in defeat before returning to the table he was sitting at previously. “If you two are quite done? We have a short lesson tonight,” Percy stated, sounding very like McGonagall. “And for the record Draco, I’m straight. Justin just needed someone to talk to and I was there in the hospital wing at the time.”

Draco stopped glaring at Percy and he went to stand next to Harry. He did not look at either Harry or Percy.

Harry stood still for a few moments before dropping his hand on Draco’s shoulder and pulling him in close. Draco looked surprised into Harry’s emerald eyes. Harry smiled and they started to lean in to kiss when Percy cleared his throat. Their attentions both snapped forward again.

“To get on with it then. I have a quick spell to cast on you. It’s used to determine what your best animal form will be. I’ll start with Harry.”

Percy pointed his wand at Harry and whispered the command word. A very large panther illusion leaped out of Harry and sat on the ground before him.

Harry looked quite surprised. “I thought that’d I’d be like my father. He was a stag.”

Percy looked at the cat, but made no comment. He then cast the spell on Draco. A very large panther illusion, of a much lighter color leaped out of Draco and sat looking at the other illusion.

“That is most surprising,” Percy finally commented as the images faded away.

“It was my understanding from the research that I did over the summer that most wizards natural Animagus form is small. Professor McGonagall, for example, is a housecat,” Draco asked, looking slightly alarmed.

“It is true that most people have small forms. Very powerful wizards have larger forms or they might have more than one form.”

“Is there a danger to having a larger form?” Harry asked.

“According to the book I have on Animagi, yes,” Draco replied looking a bit worried.

“Don’t worry you two. We will have all the guidance we need.”

“That’s comforting,” Draco drawled, a light sneer on his face.

Percy stared at him with the McGonagall look until he wiped the sneer off his face.

“Since you both have books on the subject, I suggest you go read them. It probably would not hurt if you two made up for earlier too.”

Percy left, leaving Harry and Draco staring at each other.

Harry pulled Draco into a tight hug. Draco was passive for a few moments before returning the hug. They held each other for a few minutes without saying anything. The link was wide open between them and they simply allowed themselves to fully share each other’s feelings.

They left an hour later, feeling better and more comfortable with each other. They arrived back in their respective dorms, just in time for curfew.

*  *  *

Later that night, found an odd event occurring on the top of the astronomy tower. Standing alone, hands on the railing and shoulders tense, a man in his late thirties stared at the moon. The moon hung heavily in the sky that night. It was little more than a half-moon, but very bright, nonetheless.

The man’s head was tilted back to stare directly at the moon. Emotional turmoil was palpable around him. His demeanor did not change one iota when he sensed the approach of another.

“Staring at the moon again, Wolf?” Severus bantered, his tone uneasy.

“You’re not welcome here right now, Potions Master,” Remus growled.

“Remus, what’s wrong?” Severus asked alarmed.

Remus did not reply right away. Severus went back through his memories of all his dealing with Remus. Their most recent animosity went back a year and a half ago when he had confronted Sirius Black in the Shrieking Shack with the Gryffindor Trio in witness.

Severus and Remus had exchanged many owls and more than a few visits to work out the trouble that incident caused in their friendship. Sirius Black always brought out the worst in Severus. Remus’ wolfish behavior at the moment would be indicative of Sirius being involved in the problem.

Severus stood silently watching Remus’ shoulders rise and fall several times before he finally responded.

“I miss Padfoot and I worry about what is ahead for Harry. I am the last one left now, of his parents close friends. He has his own burdens on top of the increasing responsibilities of being the Lord Black. No one has fulfilled that role in years and it’s going to demand a lot of his attention.”

“Potter will be able to handle it. He’s not alone.,” Severus replied, not mentioning Sirius at all.

“Harry has so much riding on him already,” Remus sighed, his shoulders drooping again.

“The little hero will handle it,” Severus said his tone in a strange place been snide and pride.

“Severus? Is there nothing better you could be doing?” Moony demanded sounding exasperated.

“I was trying to talk to a friend that looked down,” Severus replied, sounding hurt.

“I don’t mean it like that Sevy,” Moony said as he spun around to face Severus. Remus eyes had an amber glow to them, not unlike a wolf’s eyes at night.

“I’m trying. You know how hard it is for me,” Severus replied in a way that sounded very much like a whine.

“Stop your whining. I accept you didn’t like Padfoot and are not fond of Harry. You just have to accept that I did and that I am.”

Severus frowned, “I accept it.”

“I never asked you to,” Remus replied, turning back to look towards the moon.

“Don’t stay out too late Remus. It is getting cold up here,” Severus said just before turning and walking slowly to the stairs down.

*  *  *

Harry was just about to follow the last person up the stairs from the common room when George came down and dragged him off to a corner.

“Harry, I need to talk to you. We have been trying to get you alone for a few days now. Between your secret mission and secret boyfriend, you are impossible to catch.”

“I’m not on a secret mission,” Harry protested.

George crossed his arms and stared at Harry, his expression clearly stating his disbelief.

“You wanted something?” Harry prompted after a few moments of uncomfortable (for him) silence.

“Fred and I messed up a potion that we snuck to Colin Creevey. We gave him a confidence booster, but something backfired. That was why he was more aggressive than usual. The end result was what we were after though. We’re sorry that you had to go through that,” George spoke with a monotone voice, his usual cheer absent.

“That makes sense then. It’s okay George. I understand.”

“Thanks Harry.”

“Your welcome. Now, I really need to get to bed.”

“Good night then.”

“Good night.”

*  *  *

One of the most difficult missions any spy could undertake was spying on your own people. Even with Minister Fudge acknowledging the return of Voldemort, people were still tense. There were obvious Death Eater spies at the Ministry. There were also the not-so-obvious spies.

Harry Potter had told Albus Dumbledore all the names that he remembered from the cemetery that night. Those people had, quite suddenly, found themselves Ministry in name only. Their duties were virtually eliminated and their protests were ignored. Most of them, Lucius Malfoy included, went back to their homes and proceeded to do business their way.

Nymphadora Tonks and Kingsley Shacklebolt were sent to the ministry in order to find any moles that Voldemort had managed to leave behind. Tonks enjoyed her partner most of the time. The two had worked together a lot since Tonks had become an Auror.

Thursday morning found Tonks sitting at her desk in the Auror Department at the Ministry of Magic. Her hair slowly rotated through a range of colors as she watched the comings and goings of people, while looking to be doing paperwork.