"An unbreakable vow!" Draco exclaimed, in outraged termsz88;

"What's an unbreakable vow?" Harry asked; it didn't sound good

z88;

"It's a promise and, if you break it, you die!" Draco replied "it's illegal to make children do it!"

z88;

"Not illegal, merely, in most instances, immoral" Snape drawled "However, you two have managed to uncover a fifty year old crime implicating no less than, I shall say it again, two of the world's most dangerous wizards."

z88;

"What was the crime?" Harry asked, still trying to catch up

z88;

"Breaking out of Nuremgard, you nit." Draco exclaimed. "How did he do it, though?"

z88;

Snape rolled his eyes "Again, for the sake of you not asking Madam Pince for texts on wizarding prisons, I expect he managed it by a. building his own prison and b. being an unregistered phoenix animagus. People feel that it is somehow right to lock the villain in the tallest tower of a prison- or the deepest dungeon- and, if the gaol is one which the evil wizard built himself, they will not imprison him elsewhere- there is an essential rightness in the irony of locking up a man in his own lockup. Grindlewald was nothing if not intelligent; Nuremgard is in the middle of the stormlands, making apperation unwise and flying in impossible, has no dungeons, one exceptionally high tower (preceded by about a thousand stairs, mind you) and the one cell in said tower has a door which also locks from the inside; it would put even the most active minister off visiting. There are wards of course, very powerful ones, but phoenixes are notoriously difficult to keep in or, indeed, out. 'Fawkes', as Professor Dumbledore calls him, has often delivered messages to my home, which even a house-elf would not be able to enter. Oh, and as for food and sanitation, I would be incredibly surprised if Nuremgard's kitchens are not staffed with either the Grindlewald or Dumbledore family house-elves, who keep their masters' secrets and probably make a great play of bringing up trays of food and down empty plates three times a day."

z88;

"Wow..." Harry exclaimed.

z88;

Snape smirked "I expect that they found the plotting all incredibly amusing. However, discovery would not be a laughing matter."

z88;

Harry nodded "Yeah, okay"

z88;

Draco looked suspicious "What do you mean "ok"?"

z88;

"I mean I'm willing to take the vow. This isn't some stupid little game, Draco. Dumbledore was asking Grindlewald to look after the muggleborns but..." Harry frowned at Draco "But if I was you, I'd close the Chamber. If he catches you..."

z88;

"What do you mean!"

z88;

"You're Slytherin's Heir!"

z88;

"No I'm not!"

z88;

"What?! Well, you know who it is"

z88;

"No I don't" Draco looked panicy "Father told me the less I knew, the better..."

z88;

"Draco..." Snape said queryingly

z88;

"As I said, I don't know anything." Draco suddenly looked incredibly nervous.

z88;

"Your father, however, does know something."

z88;

"Why are we talking about this in front of him" Draco exploded angrily "Potter's the enemy."

z88;

"He is not 'the enemy', he is a little boy, just like you. A foolish, meddling, too-clever-by-half child, who sees the world in black and white and does not have the first idea of danger. Just like you, Draco."

z88;

"You've always treated him like an enemy!" Draco continued, determined to deflect the conversation from his father.

z88;

"Potter and I have our differences..."

z88;

"Yeah, because of his Dad and Evans" Draco said smartly.

z88;

"Evans?" Harry asked, knotting his brow.

z88;

"Yeah, Evans was Severus' best friend and James Potter stole him and got him killed. That's why he hates you."

z88;

Snape had gone white. "Draco, hold your tongue!"

z88;

//Evans// Harry thought, that name is so familiar //Evans... Wait, Aunt Petunia's wedding certificate. Harry had polished the curly silver frame about a million times. Petunia Evans... that would make his mum... Lily Evans?//

z88;

Harry looked up as Snape, his green eyes wide. Suddenly he realised that Snape, for all his apparent blood supremacist sympathies, had poured all his scorn on pureblood James Potter but never said a word, not a single word, against Lily.

z88;

//He loved my mum. He protected me because he promised my mum//

z88;

"I'm sorry Sir" he heard himself saying "I'm sorry that... that Evans died."

z88;

Draco looked at Harry skeptically, suspecting a trick "Why are you sorry?"

z88;

"Because losing your best friend must be terrible." Harry retorted.

z88;

"You don't care!" said Draco scornfully

z88;

"Yeah I do. I'd even be sorry for you if your dad died."

z88;

"You would not! And he wouldn't be sorry about you!"

z88;

"Actually" Snape said quietly "Lucius was very sorry when Evans died. He would have saved h… Evans, if it was possible."

z88;

"From the Dark Lord?" Draco exclaimed

z88;

"Evans was simply in the wrong place, at the wrong time." Snape looked over at Harry. Suddenly, he noticed that, although the boy's face was thinner than Lily's had been, it was definitely heart-shaped, not the narrow bullet that James' head had been. And the eyebrows, that long, gentle curve was clearly more of the Evans shape, now he came to look at the boy properly. For the first time, the eyes, those heartbreakingly green eyes, not only had Lily's form but Lily's expression.

z88;

"I doubt, however, that Evans would have wanted to be anywhere else." Snape finished.

z88;

Draco looked confused. Something had happened, something deep, a change which changed everything. But what?

z88;

"Back to your father, Mr Malfoy" Snape said coldly "I gather you have eavesdropped enough to understand that he is involved with the Chamber of Secrets?"

z88;

Draco hunched his shoulders.

z88;

//He's just a kid// Harry thought //a scared kid//

z88;

"Out with it Draco."

z88;

"In front of a Gryffindor?"

z88;

"A Gryffindor you have given every reason to believe that you are implicated. Yes, in front of a Gryffindor!"

z88;

"He just said it would open and Dumbledore would be kicked out and then it'd close again and I was not to get involved." Draco said stiffly.

z88;

"And what did he say to your mother? What did your mother say to him?"

z88;

Draco bit his lip "There's a book, a diary I think. And I think a girl's involved. A pureblood girl. Mum didn't like it, she said it was one thing if mudbloods got killed but there weren't enough pureblood families left, even if they were blood traitors. Dad said that was the idea, the girl wouldn't let mudbloods be killed, Albert would have taught her all his blood-traitor ideas."

z88;

"Albert?" Snape asked

z88;

"It might have been Arthur? It was the name of a king, I think."

z88;

Snape steepled his fingers, pressing their tips to his eyes "I see. Yes, I see."

z88;

Draco swallowed "But then, kids started being attacked... they aren't dead, though. Daddy was right. And now Dumbledore is going to be sacked and Daddy will help you to become headmaster, Sir."

z88;

Snape opened his eyes "I can see, now, that Unbreakable Vows are unnecessary. Draco, I do not wish to be headmaster and I am certain that you can now appreciate just how dangerous this Chamber of Secrets business has become, to your family and, indeed, the school. You may wish that muggle-borns were not allowed to attend Hogwarts but you do not wish them dead and, believe me, it is a miracle that deaths have not occurred as yet."

z88;

Draco swallowed "But the bloodtraitor kid..."

z88;

"Is obviously under some powerful enchantment and cannot control her actions! Did you not know that chickens have been slaughtered, viciously hacked to pieces? What little girl in her right mind would do that?"

z88;

Draco paled "But was has that got to do..."

z88;

"Last time that the Chamber was opened, the flock of chickens was also killed. Now, Draco, do you understand the danger of mentioning anything that I have told you to anyone? Even your parents?"

z88;

"Y...yes Sir."

z88;

"And, Potter, you will not imperil your friends by mentioning to them the events of today!"

z88;

"No Sir." Harry said respectfully.

z88;

"Good. Now, for your detentions..."

z88;

"Detentions?!" Draco exclaimed, dismayed.

z88;

"Yes, detentions, for being out of bounds. You will both report to me at 6 o'clock on Tuesday evening to learn Occulmancy."

z88;

Draco's eyes were wide as saucers.

z88;

"What is Occulmancy, Sir?"

z88;

"The art of hiding information, Potter. Various people, myself, the headmaster and the Dark Lord included, can, in simple terms, read people's minds when necessary. Of course, there is a world of difference between the Headmaster's definition of necessary, which is so rare as to be never, and the Dark Lord's, which is when he cannot be bothered to speak his question."

z88;

"The Dark Lord is dead!" Draco exclaimed

z88;

"No, Draco, he isn't" Harry said quietly "And he doesn't treat his followers very well, he left Quirrell to die."

z88;

"That was Quirrell"

z88;

"Who was the only person he trusted to help him. He didn't let your father know he was alive, did he?"

z88;

"Well, no..."

z88;

"Occulmancy, 6pm, Tuesday." Snape rapped out "Go to bed, it's past ten!"

z88;

Surprised at the lateness of the hour, the boys scrambled to their feet. "I will walk with you Potter, I have a meeting with Professor McGonnagal".

z88;

Harry nodded "Oh, and Draco?"

z88;

"What?"

z88;

Harry held out his hand "We're going to be stuck in detention for the next few weeks..."

z88;

"Months" Snape interrupted laconically

z88;

"So, lets just try to get along. Or we might end up in detention for real."

z88;

Draco hesitatingly took Harry's hand "This doesn't mean we are friends"

z88;

"Maybe not" Harry replied "But not enemies, either."

z88;

As Harry and Snape walked up to Gryffindor Tower, Harry was surprised at the easy companionableness. It was a shame, really.

z88;

"Sir?"

z88;

"Yes Harry"

z88;

"If... if nothing was supposed to happen this evening, I'll have to act the same way in class, won't I. And you too?"

z88;

There was a pause.

z88;

"Yes, I suppose so."

z88;

"Would it be okay, do you think, if I, well if I wasn't as rude."

z88;

"You were never rude, Potter, just a smart-alec who answered back. Perhaps with some provocation"

z88;

"Do we have to be enemies, Sir?"

z88;

"You would be safest if I was not considered to be your ally."

z88;

Harry sighed.

z88;

"But perhaps" Snape said with a half-smile "we could slide into civility and agree that any outward sign of ill-will can be taken as... shall we say insincere."

z88;

After he had bid the Potions Master goodnight in the hallway, Harry wandered into the common room.

z88;

"Hey mate" called Ron, looking up from his rather blotchy essay "where were you?"

z88;

"Bumped into Snape, got detention, yada, yada, yada. He gave me one for next Tuesday too, the git!"

z88;

"Aww!"

z88;

Harry bounced up the stairs to his dormitory and pulled out his essay; blotchy, short and written in a large, rather scraggly hand. He grabbed a fresh roll of parchment, his best pen and his potions text.

z88;

"What are you doing?" Ron asked, as Harry sat down beside him.

z88;

"Making sure he doesn't have an excuse to give me another detention" Harry replied pertly "Hermione's lecture showed me I was dead wrong about 'the science' bit."

z88;

Ron laughed "She's too clever by half, our Hermione"

z88;

"Yeah" Harry smiled. He bent his head over the essay; every carefully rounded letter, every detail of which would prove that he was his mother's son.