Be Careful
100: What Tales You Tell
By Anne B. Walsh
Keeping his right shoulder to the fore and showing off his best fashionable slouch, Draco advanced on the little company who’d just come in from the Hog’s Head. To Harry’s credit, he wasn’t backing away, though his face showed all the distaste and confusion Draco had been expecting.
First point to me. Now to keep it moving quickly enough we don’t fall through the cracks.
Draco glanced sideways at Neville, who nodded in confirmation and laid a hand on the wood paneling of the Room. Hermione squeaked and Ginny stared as a stone wall sprang up behind Draco, cutting him and the other five off from the DA. Draco leaned back against the wall, propping one heel on the other foot’s toes. “Fancy meeting you here,” he drawled. “Have a good trip?”
“What’s your game, Malfoy?” Harry asked, his voice tight with anger.
“Same as yours. Surviving this bloody war.” Draco swung his foot idly back and forth. “And giving my side of it all the help I can, within reason.”
“Which doesn’t explain what you’re doing here, since we’re on opposite sides.”
“Opposite sides? Really?” A reasonable facsimile of the expression Abby had used when he’d caught her raiding his chocolate stash a few weeks ago served Draco well here. “Oh, that’s right, you won’t have heard. See, I changed my mind over the summer. Decided I liked your side better.”
Harry folded his arms and gave Draco the flattest stare he’d ever encountered, even from Snape. “Pull the other one.”
“No, it’s true.” Draco started to sit down on the floor, but stopped halfway due to the sudden sprouting of a chair. “Thank you,” he said to the wall, then returned his attention to Harry. “I never did a lot of thinking about what side to be on, you know. Got born to one and stayed there. But sometime last July, it dawned on me that one of the sides in this thing had a bit more tolerance for amusing personal foibles like not wanting to kill a man just because I’m told to. Or not wanting to kill anybody at all, for that matter. It just happened, by bad luck, to be the side I wasn’t on at the moment. So I had to change.”
“And you just did it.” Harry snapped his fingers. “Like that.”
“Not exactly like that. There was work involved.” Draco grimaced, remembering some of the times he’d lost his temper or his manners. “As much as I adore work. But I had some help, and it didn’t take me long to work out I could do things no one else could. Since I didn’t bother to put up signs or hang out flags to let everyone know I’d swapped sides, all my parents saw—and all their Master saw—was that stupid Malfoy brat finally making something of himself, being useful for a change. They wanted to encourage it. So I had pretty well a free rein.” He grinned, letting his eyes flick back to Luna for an instant and feeling a surge of warmth in his chest from the happiness in her face. “I learned all kinds of interesting things.”
“For instance,” Harry prompted, starting to look as if, somewhat against his will, he wanted to hear more.
“For instance? Oh...” Draco leaned back in his chair and reached into his pocket, drawing out the diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw. “Horcruxes.”
The word rocked Harry and Ron both visibly back. Hermione covered her mouth. Ginny sighed and shook her head. Luna had a fist to her lips to stifle giggles. Draco winked at her and twirled the diadem on one finger. “Pretty, isn’t it?” he said, pretending to admire the way the tarnished silver caught the light.
Harry recovered his breath enough to speak. “How do you know that word?” he demanded.
“Mostly from you,” Draco admitted, dropping the diadem into his lap. “You talked about it enough, out in that tent of yours.”
“You spied on us?” blurted Ron.
Draco shrugged. “Everybody needs a hobby.”
Ginny burst out laughing. Hermione looked as if she’d like to, but didn’t quite dare. “That’s how you knew where we’d been,” she said. “So that you could tell people on Potterwatch, to stop them worrying.”
“Potterwatch?” Harry yelped. There was no other word for the tone of voice he’d used, and Draco wished he’d remembered to bring his camera.
I’ve been trying to get him to look like that for the last seven years.
“Reflection was you?” finished Harry. He seemed to be unsure whether he wanted it confirmed or denied.
Draco cleared his throat. “Coming to you live from the Room of Requirement, this is Where Harry Potter Is!” he proclaimed in his Reflection voice. “He’s here safe and sound, home again at Hogwarts and glad he made it!”
“But Reflection was...” Harry trailed off and turned, as did the rest of the group, to look at Luna, who gave them all a cheerful smile.
“In case you needed any more proof,” Draco said into the silence. “Do you really think she’d agree to marry a Dark wizard?”
Ginny looked over her shoulder at him. “This is the daughter of the editor of The Quibbler we’re talking about,” she said. “I wouldn’t put anything past her. Besides, you might always have turned her.”
Draco snorted. “When was the last time you saw anyone convince Luna of something she didn’t want to be convinced of?”
“Er...”
“That’s what I thought. Besides, if she’d gone Dark, why didn’t she just run off to her Master that first night you were together and let him know where you were before the Fidelius went up?” Draco tossed the diadem into the air and caught it again. “Evil is all about instant gratification. Trust me on this.”
“Trust you,” Harry said hollowly. “Har, har. Very funny.”
“You’ve been doing it without knowing for the past year,” Draco pointed out. “I’ve been able to see you since the day you headed into the woods.”
“Prove it.”
“Ask him.” Draco hooked a thumb at Ron. “Or hasn’t he told you who was there waiting for him when he walked out?”
Ron gave a reluctant nod.
“She knows it too.” Under cover of pretending to toss the diadem to Hermione, Draco nodded to her. I didn’t forget about you. We’re coming to that bit. “I stopped her in Hogsmeade to ask a favor.”
Harry turned and gave Hermione a look usually reserved for horklumps and similar specimens. “Is that why you were delayed that day?” he asked venomously. “Hanging around with the enemy?”
“He’s not the enemy anymore, Harry!” Hermione snapped back. “Haven’t you been listening? He’s helped us all year! Who do you think Luna’s friend was, the one who made sure she wasn’t hurt among the Death Eaters, the one who sent us that box with the cup and the fang? Why do you think Snape never bothered to go looking for Ginny after she disappeared? And just in case you need something else to get it through your thick skull, let’s not forget I owe him my life!”
What was that word Ray taught me the other day? Ah, yes. Draco drew an invisible tally mark in the air with his forefinger. Potter, you poor sod, you’ve just been owned.
Harry swung back around to face Draco, his face mulish. “So you’ve been helping us along,” he said. “How do I know you won’t suddenly decide you’d rather go back to your Dark Lord and press your Mark to let him know we’re here?”
Oh, this is going to be good. “Press my Mark,” Draco repeated, tucking the diadem back into his pocket and standing up. “That might cause me some difficulty. You see...”
His hand went to the catch of his robes. Instantly, Harry’s wand was out and trained on him.
Draco sighed. “Yes, Potter, it’s true,” he said in a long-suffering tone. “I really am so sexy I could kill you just by taking off my robes.”
Ginny snorted laughter into her hand. Ron and Luna didn’t bother covering it up. Hermione smiled and touched Harry’s arm. “It’s all right, Harry,” she said quietly. “He won’t hurt us.”
“How can you be so sure?”
Hermione glanced at Draco, then back at Harry. “Trust me.”
Reluctantly, Harry lowered his wand.
Draco snapped open his robes and let them drop from his shoulders. The jeans and short-sleeved shirt he was wearing underneath (with some malice aforethought, he had chosen a tee printed with a picture depicting lion, eagle, and badger all sleeping on the coils of a basilisk-sized snake) did nothing to conceal the fact that he’d removed his prosthesis before coming out to meet the travelers.
Because nothing says “Welcome home” like a one-armed man.
“Hard to press what I don’t have,” he said, turning to display the place where his left forearm wasn’t.
“When did that happen?” Harry asked, his voice losing its suspicious edge for the first time.
“Christmas Eve. Closest call I’ve had so far. Oh, and Weasley, just by the way...” Draco glared at the taller boy. “The next time you kill something, would you mind making sure it’s actually dead?”
Ron blinked several times. “The snake did that to you?”
“No, he did it to himself,” said Luna, bringing everyone’s heads around a hundred and eighty degrees to focus on her. “He used Fiendfyre, because the snake was biting him there and the venom would have killed him. Like Hermione.”
“So that’s how you knew what to do,” Ron said, nodding.
“Christmas Eve.” Harry’s gaze was distant, looking into the past. “I saw through his eyes. A boy and a girl, disappearing in flames. He thought it was me and Hermione.”
“No such luck for him.” Draco rolled his shoulders. “Though I doubt anyone would have been happy if he’d caught me and Luna instead. Especially after we’d just got done taking out one of his precious Horcruxes. Speaking of which...” He drew the diadem back out of his pocket and held it up. “I believe this is what you’re here for.”
“I’ve seen that somewhere before,” said Harry, frowning at the diadem. “I just can’t remember where...”
Draco let the diadem slide down his arm, bracelet-style, and pulled out the Half-Blood Prince’s annotated Potions text. “Marking the spot where you left this, perchance?” A flick of his wrist sent the book spinning across the room to Harry. “Some good stuff in there. Just don’t try any more of those spells on living targets when you don’t know what they do, all right?”
Harry made an obscene gesture in Draco’s direction.
“I’m missing something,” said Hermione.
“Oh, you mean he hasn’t told you about this one?” Draco grinned. “Well, it all started in the sixth floor boys’ toilet...”
“Save it,” Harry snapped. “Are you going to wear that thing on your arm all day, Malfoy, or do you have other plans for it?”
“What, this?” Draco shrugged the diadem back into his hand. “I suppose I could just give it to you, but that’s so boring. No, I have a better idea. Let’s duel for it.”
“Duel for it?”
“You know, back to back, five paces away, turn, bow, cast, last one holding a wand wins? No snakes this time, I promise,” Draco added. “You’d just talk it into biting me anyway.”
Harry nodded slowly. “Give me a minute to think about it,” he said.
“No rush. Take your time.” Draco set the diadem on his chair and leaned back against the wall as Hermione and both Weasleys closed in on Harry and began to talk at once. Over the curve of Ginny’s back, he beckoned to Luna.
She came eagerly, sliding her arms around him and rubbing her cheek against his chin. “I was so worried when I Saw you were hurt,” she whispered. “But Neville did the right thing for you. I don’t know how to thank him enough.”
“That makes two of us.” Draco eased her to one side as the soul flask caught between them, then sucked in a breath, remembering. “Luna, I need your help. Can you run out to my hammock—anybody can tell you which one it is—and get what I left there? And on the way, can you call Dobby and have him power this up?” He pulled the cord of the flask off his own neck and hung it around hers. “Mum’d never forgive me if I forgot that.”
“Good thing I hugged you, isn’t it?” Luna giggled once, kissed his cheek, and slipped out a door in the wall which hadn’t been there a moment before and wasn’t there a moment after.
“Yes,” Draco answered her anyway, watching the place where she had vanished. “It’s been a very good thing for me.”
Now as long as I can win this duel, everything should go just fine.
The huddle across the room broke up. “Would you Vow to fight fair if I asked you to, Malfoy?” Harry said, coming to the center of the room.
Draco throttled back his momentary offense at the question. With the way I’ve treated him in the past, he’s got every right to ask. “Yes.”
“Then I don’t have to ask.” Harry held out his hand. “I’ll duel you. Fairly.”
“As I will you.” Draco met the hand with his own. They shook once, firmly, and let go.
“Who’s going to hold it?” Ginny asked. “None of us are exactly neutral here.”
“True, but one comes closer than most.” Scooping up the diadem from his seat, Draco turned and held it out to Hermione. “Will you?” he asked.
“Will you destroy it if you win?” she countered.
“Yes.”
“Then I will.”
The diadem passed from right hand to left.
“Why bother dueling if you’re both going to kill it?” asked Ron.
Draco shrugged. “Call it a grudge match. I’m leaving for good after we get this war thing settled, and Potter always seems to win whenever we duel, so I want to see if I can’t beat him at least once before I go.”
“Fair enough. What’re we waiting for?”
“For Luna,” said Ginny, shifting the sword of Gryffindor in its scabbard across her back. “She deserves to see it.”
“Where’d she go?” Harry asked, looking around.
“Here I am,” Luna answered for herself, shutting the door behind her and holding up the object she was carrying. “I thought Draco might need a hand.”
Draco turned around and thumped his forehead against the wall.
Just in case I still had any shreds of dignity left...
Author Notes:
Silly Draco. You don’t need dignity where you’re going!
That’s right, I’m back! Did you miss me? I missed you, every single one of you, dear readers. Have a wonderful holiday, and more story is on the way soon!