What's Owed by ruth7019
Summary: Catastrophic events culminate in an unexpected kinship between some of Hogwarts’ most tenacious foes, while inciting bitter battles between best friends.
Categories: Parental Snape > Guardian Snape Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required)
Snape Flavour: None
Genres: Drama, Humor
Media Type: None
Tags: SuperPower! Harry
Takes Place: 6th summer
Warnings: Character Death, Profanity, Torture
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 33 Completed: Yes Word count: 241917 Read: 215252 Published: 30 Oct 2009 Updated: 06 Aug 2013
Chapter 28 by ruth7019

Disclaimer: JK Rowling's characters.

The Owlery, Hogwarts ...10:20 p.m.

Wide eyes flickered within the stone room like thousands of golf ball-sized lamps, but a bulbous pair of pale blue ones upset the saffron-tinted uniformity. Standing next to Hedwig at one of the tower's glassless windows, Luna scratched the spot above the owl's beak-a thing Harry claimed Hedwig loved. But instead of hissing happily like she typically would have done, the owl stared out into the night, coldly focused on what she had been bid to do.

In February, she delivered a note to Dumbledore from Hagrid. The headmaster's face had darkened with concern as he read of the half-giant's failure to win over the Adar Llwch Gwin, but it took only a moment for him to come up with an alternative scheme. Snow still lay thick upon Hedwig's wings and her talons had barely gripped Fawkes's perch when Dumbledore ordered her to marshal a massive parliament of owls and ready them for battle.

Over the following months Hedwig mined every hayloft and tree hollow across the country, scouring areas as far north as the Shetland islands, and as far south as Falmouth. By the beginning of April she had more than exceeded Dumbledore's expectations. No one in the castle had noticed the influx of birds because few used owl post anymore.

Shortly, Hedwig hooted and leaned forward, eyes glued to the lake.

"I see them, too," Luna said as white-masked figures darted away from the lake's shore, heading toward the castle. She counted: five, twelve, twenty-seven. "I think it's time."

Hedwig bobbed her head up and down as if in response. Luna gave one last stroke above the owl's beak.

"Do be careful, lovely girl."

Hedwig gently nicked the Ravenclaw's finger, then spread her wings. Holding them aloft, she looked to her left: Packed in tightly from floor to ceiling, barn owls and diminutive scops owls eyed her expectantly; to her right, majestic eagle owls perched at attention, their ear tufts and bright orange eyes giving them a fierce, haughty air; swiveling her head to peer behind her she regarded long-eared and short-eared owls crowded in alongside hawk owls and tawnies, their flood of brown broken up by one other snowy owl, a handsome, but savage-looking male.

Luna stepped back. Straw and the bones of small rodents crackled beneath her feet. The noise agitated a few of the birds and the restless rustle of feathery bodies filled the room. Hedwig sounded a sharp hoot, calling them back to order, then she shot out into the night.

Luna's hair whipped about her face like gossamer as the others followed, the lash of their wings oddly silent, like death. As the last of them left the tower, she hurried up to the window. She leaned out and let loose a piercing whistle, following it with a, "Creakcreak!" sound.

In the distance, Hedwig answered back with the same.

*WO

Corridor, Dungeons, Hogwarts ...10:37 p.m.

Harry and Draco stopped when they heard a scream; when a man spoke, they stared at each other, wide-eyed.

"...absolute embarrassment to Pure-bloods everywhere, Longbottom."

"Nevi -" Harry began before Draco clapped a hand over his mouth and pulled him back against the wall.

"Wait!" He hissed into Harry's ear.

"It's a pity my late sister-in-law didn't exterminate your entire family when she had the chance. It would have been a mercy, not only for your feeble-minded parents, but for Pure-blood Britain as well."

Neville chuckled hoarsely. "Says the man whose Pure-blood son is being raised alongside Half-blood, Harry Potter by the Order's super-spy, Severus Snape. You want to talk embarrassing, Malfoy? My Gran must have laughed her h-hat off when I t-told her!"

Neville laughed-full-throated, belly-gripping laughter that, to Harry, sounded far too genuine to be normal.

"Foul, useless, blob of shite!" A thud and a pained grunt sounded. "Give me the password to the Slytherin common room!"

Neville gasped. "What makes you think I know it?"

"You know it because you've befriended those gutless little turncoats Parkinson, Nott, and Zabini."

"And Draco. I don't know if he thinks the same of me, but I consider him a friend now."

"Well, how unbelievably stupid of you. I can almost understand his attachment to Potter-after all, the boy has a modicum of infamy in our world, but what have you to offer? Nothing. You've nothing beyond the Longbottom name which, these days, rates as much esteem as my old house-elf." Lucius laughed. "Draco, a friend? My son would just as soon piss on you than befriend you."

"Before maybe, but he's different now, ‘specially when it comes to you. Up until this year, to hear him tell it, you might well have invented magic. ‘My father this, my father that.' He never shut up about you... Whatever you did to turn him against you must have been pretty awful."

"I did what was necessary, and I have suffered more than he will ever know because of him and his mother. He knows nothing of sacrifice."

"He knows. He gave up everything to get away from you, didn't he? And he'd die for Professor Snape; I even think he'd take a curse for Harry."

"More the fool, him." Lucius snorted derisively. "Calling on a lover of Mudbloods to ‘rescue' him from his home, discarding his birthright and place of prestige in wizarding society as if it had no more meaning than a bit of rubbish... You think my son brave for behaving the way he did."

"I do."

The click of boot heels indicated Lucius was moving about.

"When the Dark Lord rose again, my wife decided she didn't want Draco to receive the Mark. Stupid woman, she might as well have spat in the Dark Lord's face. Reject the highest honor he bestows upon his followers? And to what end? He would have killed us all! So in a show of fidelity, of sacrifice, for my lord -" The footsteps halted "- I killed her."

Draco made a small sound like an injured kitten. Harry didn't look back at him, but he gripped Draco's hand when Draco grasped his.

"Sacrifice?" Neville snarled. "Sacrifice?! Your own wife?! Merlin! The smartest thing Draco ever did was to get out from under your black-hearted thumb! I don't know how he stoo -"

"Crucio!"

Harry and Draco charged around the corner.

Neville lay rigid on the corridor's floor, mouth open in a soundless scream, his eyes rolled back to stare helplessly, unseeingly. Lucius towered over him, lips a bloodless line against his teeth, eyes red and glassy with rage. Harry roared. He thrust his right hand out and sent the man flying into the wall. Lucius lost his grip on his wand and it ricocheted off the floor into the air. Draco Summoned it as Harry moved his index finger in a tight circular motion, binding Lucius in rope.

In a mad scramble to put distance between him and Lucius, Neville kept collapsing to the floor when he tried to get to his feet. Harry went to squat beside him, to try and calm him. Gray-skinned and sweaty, Neville looked half dead as he slumped against the wall.

"M'...f-fine." He stammered through chattering teeth. His hand shook as he dragged his shirt sleeve underneath his nose, coating the grimy, grass-stained material red. He rolled his eyes up to look at Harry. "W-where's Malfoy?"

"Tied up behind me. How long you been down here?"

Neville coughed. "Dunno, ‘bout ten, fifteen minutes or so?"

Draco paled. "He's been casting curses on you all that time?"

"No, just once, before. I told him to kiss my arse when he demanded I tell him how to get into Slytherin. That made him a bit mad, I guess."

"What are you doing down here?" Harry said.

"Pansy, Theo and me, we were on our way to the broom sheds when they blew up. We almost -" Neville gestured weakly with his hand.

"Yeah," said Harry.

"After that, an Auror, yelled at us to head for the castle. We did, but then we got separated. Once I made it into the castle, I started looking for McGonagall, anyone from the Order. That's when Theo's Patronus found me, saying someone was trying to get into Slytherin. When I got down here, Malfoy stunned me."

When Neville tried shifting to sit up straighter, he gasped and clutched his hip.

"Let's get you to Pomfrey." Draco began to lift the boy up.

"I'm all right," Neville said, brushing him off. "I don't need the hospital. I need to find out what's going on in Slytherin."

"So do we," said Harry. "We were following Dad down when we ran into -" he waved a hand "- this."

"‘Dad'?" Lucius said, sounding as if he had a hairball lodged in his throat. "Draco, tell me you are not calling that filth -"

"And if I am?" Draco had inherited his mother's lithe build, but everything else was Lucius, right down to the acidic scowl on the boy's face.

"He is a traitor and a liar and he -"

"And he's a better man than you!"

"Mind your tongue, Draco!" Lucius snapped. Draco fused his lips together in obedience so quickly, Harry marveled at the sight. Lucius continued: "You are myson, of my blood, you bear my name, yet you would defend him to me? How dare you! You know of Severus's... proclivities, that he would sooner screw a -"

"YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" Draco leapt to his feet and stormed over to Lucius. "DON'T CALL ME YOUR SON! AND DON'T YOU DARE SPEAK OF HIM, EVER!"

"I don't dare speak of him? You know what he did! He betrayed -"

"He saved my life! And what did you do? You killed my MOTHER! She was your WIFE! You soulless, evil, evil..."

Harry hurried over to Draco to grasp the Slytherin's shoulder; Draco shook him off. When Harry took hold of him again, Draco hung his head and let him. Knowing words would ring hollow, Harry didn't say anything. Instead, he squeezed gently, unleashing a tiny lick of healing magic, and the tension in Draco's body eased in a slow ripple. After a moment, he swiped at his eyes and smoothed his hair back off his forehead.

"Let's go," he said.

Harry went to help Neville to his feet.

"What about him?" Neville eyed Lucius as though he was a fly-infested pile of goat pellets.

Harry considered the bonds around the man and added a few more, continuing until Lucius looked ready to star in a remake of the old Muggle horror movie, The Mummy.

"He's not going anywhere," he said coldly, and they started away. Soon he and Draco were running, with Neville performing an awkward hop-skip between them to keep up.

*WO

Near the Whomping Willow, Hogwarts ...11:01 p.m.

Rabastan and Rodolphus Lestrange invaded Hogwarts via Hogsmeade. The village's train station sat near the lake, an absurdly strategic place to access the grounds, provided none of Dumbledore's people were lodged there, and their men steered clear of the Forbidden Forest's edge. When they met with no resistance on the lake side of the station (not even a bloody guard dog) they piled into the small boats reserved for transporting first-years and started for the shore. However, once they reached the middle of the lake they met with a nasty surprise: the giant squid, thousands of brittle-fingered grindylows, and an army of screeching Merpeople, all working to hinder their every move.

In a fit of arrogance, the brothers had concluded that, like the forest creatures, those in the lake wouldn't stick their noses into wizarding affairs. But as the giant squid dragged boat after boat and man after man under the water, they realized their mistake. They quickly ordered their remaining men to abandon the boats for the lake's craggy shore-the part of the shore that bordered the dreaded southeastern edge of the forest.

Those few that made it hauled themselves from the water, exhausted. Unaware of how close they were to the forest's edge, their numbers thinned even more dramatically as something lurking within the forest's depths began picking them off. Later, while being questioned by Aurors at St. Mungo's or Azkaban-depending on their condition-several claimed to have seen their comrades plucked out of the night by long, hairy, insectile legs-spider's legs.

For now, Rabastan shot out his arm, preventing his brother from moving forward. They were alone, having been separated from their men by a curious infestation of owls. A snowy white one had been in the lead, steering the onslaught of feathers, talons, and sharp beaks, driving many of their men right back against the forest's edge.

Wondering why the hell Rabastan stopped him, Rodolphus slapped his brother's arm out of the way and growled at him. "What in bloody hell -"

"Quiet!"

"Rab, we -"

"Can't you hear it?" Rabastan jutted his head forward, and cocked his right ear into the darkness. The sound was coming from above, but it wasn't owls; the birds had shifted direction, turning on a dime to head east into the forest.

Rodolphus opened his mouth to curse his brother an idiot once again, but then he heard it too, a low-pitched whizzing of something slicing through the air followed by a thunk as it punctured the earth-and flesh. Rodolphus gaped as black-cloaked, white-masked bodies began falling around him without trace of spell or curse having interfered.

He dashed to one of the unmoving bodies, Rabastan on his heels. He cast a muted Lumos, then began to drag his wand the length of the body, starting at the head. He had just passed the neck when he spied a short arrow. Adorned with a red, green, yellow, and blue fletching, it protruded neatly from between the dead wizard's shoulders. Puzzled, Roldophus looked north, toward Hogwarts.

He squinted, spotting something atop one of the towers that stood out in front of the castle. He squinted harder, then with a growl of irritation, he conjured a pair of Omnioculars. Once he got them focused, he stared, disbelieving: House-elves, rows of them. Clad in Hogwarts tea towels, they stood along the battlements of the West Tower. Rodolphus nearly laughed because they had miniature bows and arrows. A centaur with a palomino body and white-blond hair stood at the center, though his own bow and quiver lay holstered across his back. His job seemed to be to signal the little devils when to fire.

Like bug-eyed Jacks-in-the-Box a row of the vermin fired, then ducked down as another row popped up to take their place. It went on and on like that until all six rows of thirty had taken a turn. It was bloody effective.

When something whirred by Rodolphus's left ear, so close it nicked his lobe, he turned to Rabastan. "Put out that light, you damn fool!"

"Nox!"

Rodolphus raised his wand toward the tower. He knew he was too far away to kill any of them, but the blood trickling down his neck and the sight of dead men piling up around him enraged him.

"Avada Kedavra!" He roared. Green light arced through the sky. Considering his position, it travelled an admirable distance until it struck something that squawked. That something then spiraled down to land with a heavy crunch.

"What the devil was that?" Rabastan asked.

Rodolphus lookedskyward. He didn't see anything. "Doesn't matter. Where is Bagman?"

"How the bloody fuck should I know?"

As the eldest, Rodolphus had always looked after his brother. They came from an old Pure-blood family obsessed with purity and power. Their parents had been in Slytherin with Tom Riddle and had the distinction of being the first of his Death Eaters, which meant that the majority of their time had been spent in his company, leaving their young children to be raised by a string of governesses. But Rodolphus was strong-willed and detested strangers bossing him and his brother around, thus he had essentially raised Rabastan alone. And now, as he had oftentimes before, he wanted to clobber the man senseless.

"You were supposed to make sure he did his job of corralling some thestrals for the Dark Lord's exhibition!"

"How in ten hells was I supposed to keep up with him with those bloody owls gutting us? Eh? Ask me, that spineless, blubbering thief should be nowhere near this fight! He's about as useful as an ice cube in hell!"

"I didn't ask your opinion, I asked why -" Rodolphus's rant was interrupted when an arrow pierced his throat, entering through the back and continuing until its point protruded out of his Adam's apple.

Rabastan stared, unblinking, even as an angry starburst of blood coated his face. "Ro!" He screamed.

Rodolphus collapsed, his fingers clawing at the arrow in his neck. Rabastan let out a sound like a pained bleat and followed his brother to the ground. Kneeling next to Rodolphus's twitching body, Rabastan grabbed at his brother's robes and pulled, determined to get the man in to a sitting position.

"Ro," he growled, squeezing his fingers against his brother'sneck, trying to staunch the unrelenting flow of blood. "Ro, breathe..."

Rodolphus's eyes rolled, connecting with Rabastan's. His lips, shiny with blood, moved in a soundless grimace as he jerked, gurgled, then fell still.

"Ro?" Rabastan shook his brother. "Ro, breathe! Come on, brother... Please! D-don't leave me! You can't leave me!" Clutching Rodolphus to his chest, Rabastan howled, then he grunted, falling sideways as a spell nailed his right shoulder.

When he fell, his grip on his brother loosened so that they landed facing one another. Rabastan stared into his brother's eyes. They shared the same hazel eye color, the same black hair color, and the same lady-killing smirk. Growing up, they'd always had to deny being twins as Rodolphus was two years older than Rabastan.

"Lestrange." Someone growled. "Fancy meetin' you here."

Rabastan tore his eyes from his brother's dead gaze to look up at the stocky, malformed shadow hovering over him. ‘Mad-Eye' Moody. The crusty old cunt, Rabastan thought.

"Come to collect me for Azkaban?"

"Oh, no," Moody said in a low voice, "no, there's a special place in hell for scum like you, scum who murder their victim's by flayin'em alive... the way you did Tonks and Podmore. I tracked your signature, Lestrange. Your magic has a distinct foulness to it."

"Ro thought it was a bit of... overkill, so to speak, even scolded me for it, but I thought it was brilliant, a masterful bit of magic, but I wonder... Why, so worked up about it, old man? Were you sticking it to the little purple-haired bitch?"

"Not the way I'm about to stick it to you, boyo."

"Fuck you," Rabastan managed, just before the ex-Auror muttered: "Avada Kedavra."

*WO

Slytherin Common Room, Dungeons, Hogwarts ...11:40 p.m.

Harry didn't expect the ruckus that normally filled the dungeons, but this eerie, unnatural quiet unsettled him; he didn't know if it was a good sign or bad that the corridor was so deserted. Even Peeves or the Bloody Baron lurking about would be a welcome commotion. Then he stumbled.

"Harry?" Neville grabbed his elbow.

Draco was several paces ahead. He stopped when he realized he was alone. He looked back to find Harry doubled over, his head in his hands. Grimacing, Neville had stooped down to be level with him.

"Harry? What's the matter, mate?" Neville awkwardly patted Harry's shoulder.

"Scar... hurts..."

"Potter? What's this? What's wrong?"

"His scar's hurting. It means -"

Harry moaned and slowly straightened up. "He's close, I think."

Draco looked confused. "Who? What are you two on about?"

"He-Who-Must-Not... V-Voldemort," Neville said, face pinking. "Harry's scar's always bothersome when V-Voldemort's close..." Neville's eyes widened. "Or if he's trying to get into Harry's head. He's not -"

"No," Harry said, when he could manage to look Neville in the eye without seeing white spots. "He hasn't tried that since last year."

"Then he must be here..." Neville looked around as if Voldemort might jump out at them any second.

Harry rubbed at his forehead. "I don't know. We need to keep going, though."

"You sure you're up to it?" Draco said, worry pinching his features.

"Don't exactly have a choice, do I?"

Draco's lips thinned and he gave a curt nod. Harry and Neville followed him around the corner to a stretch of bare, damp stone wall.

"Antitheton." He muttered and a stone door concealed in the wall slid open to reveal the Slytherin common room.

Ten wands and a room full of grim, frightened faces welcomed them as they stepped inside. Gregory Goyle stood at the fore of the group, though his wand seemed the shakiest of the lot.

"Draco?" He lowered his arm and dragged his feet up the stone steps.

"Greg, where's my dad?" Draco asked; Goyle's heavy brow furrowed in confusion.

"Professor Snape." Neville prompted. "Where is he?"

"Oh...gone," Goyle said. His deep, gravelly voice sounded strangely spacey, like Luna's. He had a long, bloody slash running from the bottom of his left ear, curving around under his chin; Harry wondered if the boy shouldn't be under Pomfrey's care.

"Gone where?"

"Dunno. He was here for a while. I saw him..." Goyle trailed off. His eyes wandered off to a shadowy corner near the low pit where study tables sat.

"Saw him, what?" Draco said, with uncharacteristic patience.

"He, uh, he was hurt, I think..."

"Hurt?" Harry barked. "Are you sure?" When Goyle kept staring into the corner, Harry gripped the boy's shoulders, hard, and shook him. "Goyle! Snape..."

"He grabbed his wrist," Goyle said, "- his left wrist... Then he left."

"When, Greg?" Draco asked.

Goyle shook his head listlessly. "...Five, ten minutes ago?" He looked away from the corner to make eye contact with Draco, who flinched. No one could ever accuse Goyle of being an emotional sort, so that he looked seconds away from bursting into tears unnerved Draco more than if he had witnessed the boy gutting a dog.

"Crabbe's dead!" Goyle blurted. "H-he's DEAD! I've never seen a dead person! Never seen -"

Draco, Harry, and Neville's eyes were immediately drawn to the shadowy corner that had riveted Goyle since their arrival. They had to shift forward to see it-a Crabbe-shaped lump shrouded in a green and silver brocade drape stained with a massive amount of dark liquid. Draco exhaled heavily and his eyes slid closed. Crabbe had been a cruel, mindless, sycophant, but Draco had known him since they were toddlers.

"Is-is Pansy here?" Neville's voiced cracked with fear. "Did she make it back all right?"

Goyle said, "I was sitting with Hannah Abbott at the match. She's a nice girl, you know? Real nice... She talked to me about -"

"Goyle!" Neville nearly yelled. "Pansy, Theo, Blaise! Are they here?"

"They were... Blaise and Theo left, again. Pansy's having a hard go, though. She saw it... She saw those werewolves attack Vince!" Goyle's voice increased in volume and pitch, and then horribly, he started crying.

"Neville," Harry said. The other boy nodded, then limped down the steps to take Goyle's elbow. He led the Slytherin to a high backed chair occupied by a dazed second-year softly whimpering for her mummy. Neville murmured something to her and she rose to curl up next to a sleeping first-year boy on a blanket on the floor in front of the fire.

After settling Goyle in the chair, Neville crouched beside him. Every few seconds Goyle's head bobbed up and down in a ragged fashion.

"Neville?" A small voice came from the curved stairway which Harry knew led to the dorms.

"Pansy!" Neville winced as he bounced to his feet. Pansy flew into his arms, clinging to him, her body trembling with sobs.

"Let's go," Draco said to Harry and they exited the room.

*WO

Corridor, Dungeons, Hogwarts ...12:11 a.m.

Draco. And Harry Potter.

Seeing them had been unexpected. Oh, Lucius knew he was likely to face them at some point during the battle-he just hadn't expected it to be so soon. He hadn't seen Draco since that ragged passel of Weasleys invaded Malfoy Manor disrupting Draco's initiation ceremony. They had made Lucius look foolish, had made him vulnerable to suspicion and the Dark Lord's whims. That had been a long, terrible night. And he had the scars to prove it. A virtual map of them crisscrossed his back and legs. But soon he would induce his own scars, make others vulnerable to his whims. He would have his revenge.

And though he hated it, he had to admit that Longbottom had been right on one count: Lucius no longer knew his son. The ungrateful little bastard had bargained on strangers instead family, had chosen death over life. It stung, but it was nothing compared to what he, Potter, and every other fool who dared defy the Dark Lord would soon feel.

With that in mind he began to chant, focused on loosening the bonds binding him.

*WO

A Secret Passage, Hogwarts ...12:38 a.m.

Harry palmed the wall's uneven stones. A passage should be there; he'd seen it on the map. Draco, convinced the route would be ill-lit, claustrophobic, and worst of all, filthy, balked at Harry's promise of a "quick and easy" way to the ground floor. He suggested (demanded) that they make their way back to the Entrance Hall the old-fashioned way, but Harry refused, insisting the passage would be faster.

"Ah ha!" He crowed when a hole in the wall cracked open, expelling an arid, moldy breath. He coughed and fanned the stink away. "Lumos Maximus."

As Harry aimed his wand into the darkness, Draco stretched to peek over his shoulder.

"Right," he said. "I'm not going in there, Potter."

"We have to..." Harry directed his wand around, scoping out the passage's condition.

"We most certainly do not. This is rubbish. We could have been upstairs by now! You taking all this time looking for this stupid -"

"Rats."

"What?" Draco squeaked and leapt onto Harry's back. "Where?"

"Not real ones, you girl!" Harry growled and shook the boy off. "It's just really... dirty."

"Well of course it is! It's probably blocked off from some cave-in or something, making it completely unsafe! I'm NOT going in there, Potter!"

Harry had to admit, the boy had a point. Other passages had been blocked off by cave-ins, and this one didn't look all that promising, but he still wanted to try.

"Just trust me," he said, swatting at a clump of spider webs to clear them from the entrance. He poked around a bit more, shuttling a rotting side table that looked as if rats had gnawed at it off to the side with his foot. He didn't want Draco seeing that.

"I do," the Slytherin said quietly, making Harry jump.

Harry turned to look at him, momentarily confused. "You do what?"

Draco grimaced, as if about to confess that he was secretly lusting after Millicent Bulstrode. "...Trust you."

Harry snorted. "You utter Slytherin."

Draco drew his shoulders back and stuck his chin in the air. "Yes, well, there had better not be anything remotely rodent-like in there."

Harry grinned. "So, you'll be staying here, then?"

"Shut it you... How's the head?"

Harry rubbed at his scar. "All right, now, actually."

"And the shoulder?"

"Huh?"

"From that spell. When you were flying to get me?"

Harry frowned and shrugged the injured joint. He'd completely forgotten about it in the ensuing chaos.

"S' fine. Like it never happened."

"Never happened? It should have knocked you flat."

"I don't know... I didn't even think about it ‘til you mentioned it."

Draco stared. "You think it has to do with your magic?"

Harry shrugged again, oddly annoyed. "If it does, why didn't my leg heal on its own after Hogsmeade?"

"You were out of it, scared."

"I was scared tonight, too."

"Mm... worried about Granger, Weasley -"

"And you. Look, could we not do this, again?"

"There's no need to get snippy."

Harry sighed. "Draco, I wasn't going to let you fall."

"I know."

Harry snorted and turned to proceed farther into the passage. "Right. Now, come on."

"I wanted... I just wanted to say... thank you."

"Ooh, that must'a hurt." Harry giggled, then scowled when Draco poked him in the side.

As they walked on, deeper into the dark, Draco said softly, "You think he's okay?"

The light from Harry's wand burned white hot for an instant before he looked back at the Slytherin.

"He'd better be."

*WO

The End.


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