52Chapter 40
Harry's POV
Early the next morning, Snape woke them up just before Madam Pomfrey came in to check them over one last time, before sending them off to the Great Hall for breakfast.
Draco had grumbled as his godfather shoved a pile of clothes at him and told him to get dressed. Harry had chuckled, watching the two of them, then of course Remus came in and did the same to him.
Though all his amusement faded as him and Draco stood dressed, wands and school bags in hand at the Hospital entrance looking at each other. Neither were happy as it was time for them to go their separate ways. Every instinct in Harry screamed at him to stay close to his mate.
He looked around the room, seeing that they were alone he grabbed Draco and pressed a quick kiss against his mate's lips. Draco moaned and Harry was pushed backwards a few steps until he hit a wall. His heart raced as Draco pressed closer, warmth pooled in Harry's stomach and he wrapped his arms around his mate's waist. There was a low chuckle from Draco before the blonde pulled away.
"As badly as I want to keep kissing you," the blonde leaned forward and laid a quick kiss in Harry's lips, but pulled away before Harry could return it, "we need to go." Harry groaned and dropped his head.
"I don't want to," he muttered.
"I know," Draco said gently.
Footsteps coming towards them had them moving further apart.
"What are you two still doing here?" Madam Pomfrey asked when she saw them.
"Nothing," they said together, both turning towards the door and walking out. Harry's stomach flopped when Draco headed down a separate hallway. He hesitated as he watched Draco walked away. Then with a deep breath he forced himself to continue towards the Great Hall.
Whatever way Draco went Harry wanted to hex his mate, because it seemed Harry entered the large room first. It fell silent when he walked in and he could feel every person in the room eyes on him. Included the Professor at the staff table. Professor Mcgonagall and Sprout gave him a welcomed smile, while Snape barely looked away from his plate. The headmaster face smiled but it made Harry felt cold. He quickly made his way over the Gryffindor table. Ron and Hermione scooted apart making room for him on the bench between them. He gritted his teeth and sat down.
He barely reached for his plate before his friends started talking.
"Harry, can you tell us what happened?" Hermione asked leaning into whisper in his ear.
"Yeah mate,'' Ron said shoving eggs into his mouth. "Tell us about it?"
Harry looked down at his plate trying to rein in his anger. Did they really think that he wanted to talk about it? If he had really been kidnapped and possibly tortured for two months, why the hell would he want to talk about it with his friends. Especially right after being rescued..
"I don't want to talk about it," he mumbled. Hoping the frown and dropped gazed would hint that he didn't want to talk about it.
"Oh it's okay, Harry," Hermione said condescendingly. "Talking about it will help. It would be good for you to get it out." Harry slide his eyes over at her, trying not to glare at the way she was speaking to him. She had done it before, but he never really noticed how superior she sounded when she spoke to him. He looked to his right, Ron didn't seem to care, he was just nodding his head to whatever she said while eating everything in sight. Harry sighed.
"I don't want to talk about it," he said more firmly. Poking at his food, not feeling hungry anymore. He heard Hermione let out a frustrated breath.
"Hey Harry," a quiet voice said from behind him. Harry turned his head to see Luna. He gave her a smile, he pushed his plate away and got up to give the younger girl a hug, "Hey Luna."
He put his hand on her back and tried to lead the Ravenclaw away from the Gryffindor table, but it seemed Ron and Hermione weren't going to let him. Both his ex friends got up and followed behind him.
"Luna," Hermione said grabbing the other girl's arm. "I saw the article your father wrote about Sirius Black." Harry stopped, Luna easily stopping with him. "While I'm sure Sirius is grateful it doesn't seem wise to draw more attention to him. The man his in hiding and now he is going to be on people's minds. It will make it harder for him to remain unseen." It was nice to know she used the same 'I know better,' tone with everyone. Harry thought.
But out loud he said, "What article?" He saw Ron and Hermione look at each other. There was a flash of worry in the bushy brunette's eyes before she turned to him.
"The Quibbler released an article about a week ago, talking about Sirius." Hermione shot Luna a displeased look. "It accused the Ministry of mishandle his case." She tisked, "While it was a lovely article, all it accomplished was antagonizing the Ministry." Harry felt bad for the way she was talking about Luna, trying to make the younger girl feel bad about the article.
"Did they?" He asked raising his brow at Hermione. She gave him a confused look.
"Did they mishandle Siri's case?" He asked looking her in the eyes.
Hermione stopped and actually seemed to think about her responds. "That's not the point," she finally settled on. "The article put Sirius back in the forefront of everyone's minds. He is going to be in ever more danger now."
He knew what she was doing. And it pissed him off. She was trying to distract him by telling him that Sirius was in trouble. Make him forget about what the article said and focus on the harm it could do to his godfather. He wanted to snap at her, scream at her for being a horrible person instead he turned to Luna.
"It's okay. I bet Sirius loves that someone is looking out for him. He never minded a bit of trouble anyways." Hermione huffed but Luna gave him a blinding smile.
"Now," he turned to look at his housemates. "I need to go to the dorm and then I'll meet you in potions,'' he told Hermione." Looking back at the Ravenclaw, "can we catch up later?"
"Of course Harry." With that he hurried away from the other three.
Once he made it into the common room, he had to stop and look around. How different the large room felt now. Not just different from his time in the past but different from his first five years here. This room had been his safe haven for so long but this time instead of walking in and feeling welcomed he felt his skin crawled. He bit his lip to stop from tearing up at the monumental loss. Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had ruined this too.
Not wanting to dwell on it, he quickly rushed up the stairs and into the 6th year dorm room. Thankfully it was empty. He went over to his bed and found everything was back to where it had been before his and Draco's unexpected trip. He wondered if everyone had just left his stuff there or if the headmaster only returned it the night before. He shrugged and pulled a shrunken trunk out of his robe pocket.
Sirius had been the one to buy and pack it but Remus had handed it to him last night before he left the hospital wing. He told Harry they didn't trust the headmaster not to have spelled or warded Harry's belongings that had been left behind so they bought him new ones. All he had to do was switch out the trunks and give the old one to Remus when he saw him. The werewolf had promised to go over the map and cloak as soon as possible and get them back to Harry.
Harry quickly threw everything laying around his bed into his old trunk, shrinking it, he put it in his pocket and placed his new one in its place. Then he opened the new trunk to find his potions textbook and rushed out of the dorms and towards the dungeons. He didn't want to be late on his first day back.
While he wasn't late he was the last one in. And he almost let out a relieved laugh when he saw Dean sitting next to Hermione. The other Gryffindor went to get up when he saw Harry rush into the room, but Harry quickly shook his head and moved next to Blaise who had the only empty spot next to him.
"Hey," the Slytherian whispered.
"Hey," he replied with a smile.
As Snape announced the potion the class would be making, and ordered them to get to work, Harry could feel the class' eyes on him.
"Your housemates are staring at us," Blaise stated as the Slytherin started up the fire below their cauldron. Harry shrugged, not really caring. "They'll get over it." The other boy snorted.
Harry walked to the supply cabinet at the front of the classroom, gathering everything they would need for their potion and rushed back to their table. He was hoping to avoid anyone that might want to talk or lecture him. Even so he had to act like he couldn't hear Ron's angered hiss as the redhead tried to get his attention.
Turned out Blaise was easy to work with. The taller Slytherin was good at potions but not a perfectionist like Draco or Severus. Which helped when Harry made his only mistake. Instead of getting annoyed or frustrated Blaise pointed out how to fix it and went back to what he was doing it. It was a nice change and Harry decided he would rather partner up with Blaise from now on instead of having to deal with Hermione or Dean, who were the only two friends he had in potions this year.
He felt a little bad after him and Blaise turned in their potion, Dean called out to him but Harry rushed out of the classroom and hid in a dark corner until he heard the hallway was empty. It was just he didn't know where Dean's loyalties stood. Was he really Harry's friend or was he just anyone person pretending? He knew he shouldn't just lump Dean in with the others but it felt easier than chancing it and finding out he was wrong.
He sighed and peeked around the corner. Seeing it was empty he quickly made his way to Defense.
Lucius POV
He was resting, not hiding, in his guest quarters when someone knocked on the door. He groaned. There were only two maybe three people that would seek him out, Draco was in class and no doubt the werewolf was in his own rooms, that left Severus.
"Come in," he called out, standing to pour the other man a drink.
"You should have told me," Sev scolded as he stormed into the room. His old friend stopped and stood in front of him. Lucius could tell Severus was fuming and he didn't need to ask what the brewer was talking about.
"Would you have believed me?" He asked looking up at his mate.
Sev's mouth opened and then slammed shut. The other man took a deep breath, "I do not know. But at least I would have understood."
Luc sighed, "Sev," he stood up and reached out to touch his mate's cheek, the other man didn't hesitate to close his eyes and lean into his hand. "I had to magic away my memories so I wasn't tempted to change anything. How could I have told you and expected you to not have the same temptation." A large part of him sung in pleasure when his mate leaned into his touch. They rarely allowed themselves theses small touches. It was too painful, knowing they belonged together but couldn't be. The welcoming pleasant touches only reminded them of that. So they resisted, at least they did until instinct and desire override their less primal driven minds.
"And what do we do now?" Sev whispered.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
Severus scoffed opening his eyes to glare at him. "You son is the mate of the boy-who-lived, whom our Lord wants dead. I know you, Luc, you're loyal to the Dark, but not more so than to your son. Which means you have already started to plan? So, I ask again, what do we do now?"
He stared at his mate for a second before smiling softly.
"For now, nothing. I do not know what Potter or Draco have planned but you are right, I will stand with my son."
He frowned when Severus stepped away from him.
"Lucius, you would be taking on Our Lord, whom we have sworn loyalty to. He is violent and dangerous." Lucius tried not to acknowledge the worrying feeling growing inside his chest.
"I know," he said meeting his mate's eye so the man knew he meant it.
"You would also be taking on Dumbledore. He carries a lot of weight and most listened to his opinion or advice, those who don't listen to our Lords."
"I know," he said again, he wanted to reach out and pulled Severus close to him, because the more the potions master talked the more Luc began to worry. Would Severus side against him?
"This is idoitic," Severus said in a low voice, almost like a growl.
"Sev?" He questioned moving to stand as close as he could to the other man, without touching him, "are you with me?" the question was whispered, as if he didn't have the heart to say it any louder.
His mate glared at him, "Of course I'm with you, you idiot! I'm just pointing out how stupid this is. And that we will be on our own. Only Potter and his friends at our side, against two of the strongest wizards alive." His mate took a breath, "I am just wondering if we have enough allies to win."
Lucius smirked, "I think our Dragon and his mate, are a dangerous duo. Draco is intelligent, strong, and cunning, Potter is stubborn, smart, and more importantly angry. Plus both Dumbledore and Tom have giving him the means to take them down. They placed him on a pedestal, the whole wizarding world knows his name, whether they praise him or fear him. They gave him fame, which gives him power, the very power he can now use to destroy them." Severus tilted his head as if he was thinking over what Luc has said.
"Dumbledore, maybe, however I believe Tom will not be done away with by public opinion or wizarding law."
"Then we will kill him," Lucius said, feeling one hundred percent certain that if the time came he could kill the man he once swore to follow. It would hurt, as he once viewed Tom as a friend but that was a long time ago. Somewhere along the years he went from Tom to Voldermort to my Lord, that distance would save him from him from feeling any guilt, afterall if it was between Tom Riddle and his son, Lucius Malfoy would always choose his son.