Hi!
To confirm - I make no claim (obviously) to the characters below, but am really happy to have had the chance to play with them and make something that is, I hope, enjoyable to read.
I will also admit that this is my first story so please let me know what you think. I am very open to constructive feedback and comment on the story so please, if you have time and would like to please, either comment or drop me an email on phill2818 at hotmail .co . uk
OnwardsÉ
Harry Potter and the Unforeseen Hero
Chapter Eleven: Caradoc Dearborn
The place was dank, mildewed and the ceiling was low with wooden beams that were much too low for the occupant of the room. The overall effect was a small dark room that had fallen into severe disrepair. In the middle of the small space was an open fire with a few gleaming red embers still glowing in the grate. A dark figure loomed in the corner closest to the door and was pulling a hood deep over his head that masked his face. With one cursory glance around the room a hand snaked down to pick up a small travelling bag and the figure exited the ramshackle cottage before turning back and muttered "Incendio". The hooded figure gazed momentarily as the cottage caught flame before turning on the spot and disappearing into thin air.
Moments later and with a small crack the figure reappeared feet crunching in fresh snow powder that covered the hill. No longer alone a woman with shoulder length matted hair sat perched on a handy flat rock that served as a seat.
"Bellatrix, you received my note then?" the faceless voice called in greeting
"Clearly" she offered in return as a succinct summary of her presence
The two moved closer together but clearly remained on alert of the others presence.
"Did you bring the items I outlined?"
"I did. Tell me why they are needed?"
"Come now Bella, the Dark Lord mostly held you in high esteem please don't insult our combined intellect by expecting me to provide you with information I clearly won't"
"Fine!" It was not so much a response as a maniac scream that softened into a silky, dangerous whisper "Then perhaps you may tell me how the plan progresses?"
"The plan progresses on track. I am grateful for your assistance"
"I offer my assistance to the Dark Lord and not to you!"
"But of course Bella, we both know that you do not care for me but as we have already discussed this is very much for the Dark Lord. How goes your recruitment of our former allies?"
"The recruitment has met with mixed success some of our older allies have rallied immediately to our cause, others have sought an estrangement and others have flatly refused to meet with me. It is difficult of course with so many loyal followers residing in Azkaban. The numbers would greatly increase if we could secure their release"
"I see. Please continue to give this your upmost attention. We will not be ready to act for sometime yet, the work I am currently undertaking is difficult and slow but your efforts are greatly valued. I will contact you again with further requests in due course. We will need as much support as possible at this time to ensure security and support for the work"
"I understand". The dark haired witch rose from her feet and turned to look into the hooded face before offering a slight inclination of the head in the figures direction.
"Until next time then Bella"
______________________________________________________________________________________
The month of September had now given way gracefully into October and the days where noticeably drawing in and the collective student body had taken to spending more time within the Hogwarts castle. Despite this the house Quidditch teams could often be found practicing of an evening and the first match between Gryffindor and Slytherin had taken place.
The Gryffindor team could only be described as `going through a transition phase' and had clearly not recovered from the loss of Harry, Ron and the Weasley twins from its ranks. Ginny had taken up the captaincy with gusto but despite all the energy she was channelling, the team was just not strong enough particularly the beaters whose role it was to dictate the pace of the game. Consequently Slytherin had flattened the faltering Gryffindor team 180 – 20. Harry had found living with Draco to be a wholly unpleasant experience despite the fact that Draco hadn't even attended the game, as they had met with Cuffe that weekend. As it was Draco had gloated shamelessly about the green team's success. Eventually Harry had lost his patients with the ordeal and had taken to reminding Draco that the Slytherins had never beaten Gryffindor whilst he was on the team: even when he, Draco, himself had been playing. The two had not had sex that night and sulked moodily with their respective backs to each other in the bed.
The pace of studies had somewhat surprised Harry, Ron and Draco, as well as Pansy who had taken to attaching herself to the other three. The studies had not been difficult per se and Ron had surmised that a year of practical magical experience meant that they could rationalise and make sense of the theory aspects to a greater degree than before. However, having said that, the weight of homework that they were now expected to complete was according to Draco "fucking ridiculous" largely owing to the fact that this one semester term was a highly compressed NEWTS curriculum.
In between classes and homework were the interviews with Cuffe. Bizarrely, despite being the most fervently against the idea Harry had since confided in Draco that he was finding the process therapeutic, an exorcism of the weight that they had all been carrying around on their shoulders.
So between classes, homework and interviews little time remained for the three (four if Pansy was there) to do much other than eat, sleep and shag; or shag in the case of Harry and Draco. It was with some surprise therefore when Ron had come banging on Draco & Harry's door a short while after the two had turned in, admittedly early!
"OI! I have news!" and without waiting for an invitation to enter he had barged into the room
"Hey!" Harry called in indignation as he pulled a bed sheet over his and Draco's naked form
"Sorry" Ron spluttered and turned a shade of puce that Vernon Dursley would have been proud of
"If you wanted to see me naked Ron, all you had to do was ask" Harry thumped Draco lightly on the arm
"Owww!" The blond called in mock pain "I was just saying he didn't have to barge in on you about to give me a good" but he stopped catching the glint of danger in Harry's eye
"You said you had news" Harry deftly changed the subject in his attempt to draw attention away from Draco's last comment
"Yeah! McGonagall has asked me to act as Captain for the Senior Hogwarts vs. Current Hogwarts game!"
"Cool! Excellent – well done mate!"
"Naturally Weasley I will be anticipating your request for me to act as Seeker" and he turned to the red head expectantly
The red head looked awkwardly between his two friends "Yeah I had forgotten you both played Seeker. I will let you know Malfoy. I guess maybe we will have to have tryouts. Anyways I will leave you two to what ever you're doing" and he pulled the door closed behind him
"Scared Potter?"
"What that you might be able to catch a snitch before me? Ha! You wish!"
"We will see Potter. Let's just hope your Seeking is better than your technique in bed!" Automatically the blond rolled over to avoid the retaliatory action that would be heading in his direction.
The week had seemed to bumble along nicely after Ron's earlier news. Harry had rather savagely taken revenge on Draco for his comment, who hadn't been complaining at the time, but found that he was truly sorry for his remark having spent the preceding day or two limping. Pansy only smirked after watching Draco hobble down the stairs that morning for breakfast.
Harry found his mind wandering in lessons on Friday looking forward to the meeting with Cuffe and had been mentally organising the next instalment of their tale. Finally Saturday morning had crawled around.
"It feels like we are spending an awful lot of time with you Mr Cuffe" Ron smiled pleasantly as the threesome trooped into the familiar meeting room in the Hogwarts Library.
"Ah but that is so often the case is it not?"
"What's that?"
"That two people's view point can be of mirror opposites! I for my part feel pained that we meet so infrequently. Your experiences and story is completely enthralling. I have already started to write it up in the mean time. I did have a question to kick start the day if you might indulge me?" the old journalist looked pointedly in Harry's direction.
"ErmÉsure why not?"
"Its nothing arduous I assure you! You mentioned that one of the main methods for distracting yourself whilst on this trip was some kind of muggle audio device. The reason I am interested is because it personalises things. Our audience should, I think, understand that this isn't some fantasy novel but a real experience that you all struggled through and whilst at face value the music device is of little importance it just adds depth to this writing"
"Oh sure that's easy! It was one of the few things I was ever given by relatives. Their idea of a joke I think because I came down for my birthday, not the year that I ended up running around St Mungo's and springing people from Azkaban but the year before, and I had a present! Now if you knew my relatives you would know this to be a pretty unusual thing so anyway, I open it and it turns out the thing doesn't work and its old an battered! It's broken, a Dudley cast off I think! Without boring you I decided to keep it because it was the closest I ever got to something nice from them. Anyway it came up in conversation whilst I was at The Burrow and Hermione took it from me and she and Mr Weasley got it working again I was so chuffed!
Not that I had anything to go in it but then I get another surprise Mr Weasley has kept a load of these CDs – he is obsessed by muggle things you see and tells me to borrow them and take the ones I want" Harry wiped the faintest hint of a tear from his eye.
"They are the closest I have ever got to a family" Draco coughed
"They are the closest I had gotten to that point and they are still like my family but obviously I now have Draco too" Harry reached over and flicked a stray lock of blond hair from covering his eyes.
"Fascinating so Arthur Weasley obsessed by muggle contraptions! Well I suppose he did have a flying car so that would explain that one!"
"Yeah Dad has always had a thing for muggle contraptions. Merlin knows why!"
"Ah well it is interesting to note but perhaps you would like to continue now with your story?" Cuffe said
"Of course but just before we do the three of us were talking before hand and we figured that what we are about to tell you next, it will make more sense if we explain upfront what we discovered later" Harry said
"Sure ok?"
"As you probably know after The Ministry had fallen they placed Pius Thicknesse in charge. What you may or may not have known is that they arrested or seized anything related to Harry." The journalist wore an expression of muted surprise that faded quickly into begrudging acceptance of the inevitability of this new fact before scribbling himself a note to the effect
"Of course it was all done covertly, they didn't want the public finding out and asking difficult question's so soon after Thickness had usurped Scrimgeour. So yeah Harry's volt at Gringotts, his home and all its contents in Grimmauld Place seized, plus they even arrested Mum and Dad for questioning! We wont spoil the surprise but this is piece of information will help you make sense of a certain situation we found ourselves in not long after we started out ÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉ.."
The bedroom if you could call it that was small and compact. It had two beds in close proximity to each other with a rickety looking cabinet in-between. Either side of the room was a small chest of draws and a mirror. Harry had slumped down on the bed to the right of the door and closest to what he had assumed to be a small ensuite bathroom.
A magical window lay in the middle of the wall that the beds backed onto. The window, Harry assumed, mirrored the weather above ground; currently it was pitch black with a few twinkling specs of light from the stars. He reached down into the carrier bag, handed to him before Ron and Hermione had crossed to the other room, and extracted a rather careworn `diskman' CD player. Harry was pretty sure Ron's room wouldn't have two single beds and he was also pretty sure that his two best friends would be having a better time than he who was stuck with his school nemesis. To his credit however Malfoy had been very careful not to be as much of an arsehole as he had been at school.
"So that's it Potter you're going to ignore me?" Draco commented as Harry switched his Eurythmics disk for Michael Jackson's History
"Not ignoring you, just don't have anything to say" Harry replied
"Figured as soon as we got here you would be asking me about the Horcrux"
"Sorry to disappoint but we have just been attacked and it is like" he glanced at his watch "11. I'm tired and no offence but I am stuck in this tiny little room with you. You can't expect me to pretend that the past six years haven't happened and now we are going to be best buddies"
"I wanted to be friends remember Potter you were the one who shunned me!"
"Don't get started on that shit, you were rude to the only person who had ever been nice to me. What was I supposed to do?"
"I don't get you Potter" Draco commented before rolling over with his back to Harry
Taking the opportunity Harry shucked off his jeans and socks before climbing into bed and pushing the headphones into his ears and shutting his eyes. A short while later Harry's eyes opened sensing movement in the room and he caught an eye full of Draco Malfoy's toned chest and muscular legs as he pulled off his clothes and climbed into bed. The moon had chosen that moment to dip out from behind a small cloud and the light reflected in what could only be described as a sensual way on the blond's milky white skin. Closing his eyes tightly Harry cursed and rolled over to face away from Malfoy and ignored the tent that had appeared in his boxers.
Harry had, of course, known for sometime that he was inclined to favour both boys and girls. Having kissed Cho Chang as well as his stormy relationship with Ginny he was very confident in his acceptation that he was not gay but then there was the Gryffindor dorm room or the times he had seen his fellow Quidditch players in the shower after a match that confirmed for him that it was not just the `fairer' sex that floated his broom stick.
Sure, Draco was an attractive guy you would have to be blind not to notice it, his blond hair and the way he exuded confidence but you couldn't get away from the fact that he was over confident, a jumped up arrogant arsehole but still a hot bodyÉ the irony was not lost on Harry as his music moved seamlessly from track nine of his current CD to track ten and the falsetto tones of Michael Jackson telling him to `Beat It' which given the pressing hardness in his boxers was exactly what he wanted to do.
The summer sun was streaming in through the window and cast a piercing light into the bedroom and he could hear water running not far from where he was laying. Feeling groggy and very disorientated the raven-haired boy sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes just as the water switched off and a very wet Draco re-entered the room with a small towel wrapped around his waist.
"What's the time?"
"Just after seven"
"Why you up already?"
"Been for a run and needed a shower. Didn't mean to wake you"
"You went for a run!?"
"Yeah you know Potter one foot in front of the other quicklyÉ runningÉ even you must know what running is!"
"Yes of course I know what running is. Why?"
"I used to run all the time but obviously recently that hasn't been possible and the doctor said I should try to do some exercise to build the muscle back up"
"Not very safe for you to go out on your own though is it?"
"You can come with me next time; protect me from all those wild creatures in the forest?"
"Funny Malfoy"
"Oh well open offer" and he swept from the room
When everyone was finally assembled around the cramped kitchen table, Ron taking some rather forceful waking from Hermione, everyone looked expectantly at Harry.
"Right well we all know why we are here. It's all about getting rid of Voldemort. Obviously Malfoy is here because he has information that can help us. Before we worry too much about the others lets hear what he has to say and then work out how to get rid of it. Malfoy?"
"I am going to start at the very beginning so you understand. For my part I join much later than the information I am about to impart. As you know my father was detained in Azkaban" Ron snorted
"Perhaps you prefer I keep this information to myself Weaslebe?"
"Carry on Malfoy. Ron I want to hear this please!" Hermione snapped at the red head
"My mother went to visit him and she came back a very different person. She told me that Father had come to worry about our standing with the Dark Lord and its potential consequences. I didn't really understand why at the time but it seems the combination of my father's failure at the Ministry, my failure at Hogwarts, my Fathers possession of certain information, that I will explain in a moment, and the Dark Lords perception that my mother was of limited value to him, after all she is not another Bellatrix, that we had become superfluous.
Because of this situation he believed it important that I be made aware of certain information, again that I will explain in a moment, to act as insurance. I think he had hoped it would be used to help bolster our position with the Dark Lord. However, the Dark Lord seemed to disagree and the rest, in relation to what happened to me and my family, you know. My father mysteriously dies in Azkaban, I am left for dead in the spot that I failed my task and my motherÉ" his voice cracked and he cleared his throat "and my mother is in St Mungos with next to no chance of getting out. So as you can see the Dark Lord was fairly successful in accomplishing his aim. If it hadn't been for you Potter he would have done an even better job"
"'Chosen one' here, it's my job to piss him off and generally thwart his plans" Harry grinned and it even earned a flickering of a smile from Draco.
"So I suppose you want to know what this information was?"
"Please"
"It was a memory. My father had secured a memory in the Malfoy blood volt. Only a direct blood descendent can access such a volt. So Voldemort or even Mother could not access it even if both my father and I died. I am the first Malfoy in living memory that has accessed the blood volt prior to my inheritance. I retrieved a memory from the volt and I think it's that that you will be interested in"
"Go on"
"My father knew the most about the Dark Lord's Horcrux's. He was given one to protect and thinking about it I expect his failure also went against the Malfoy family too. The Dark Lord was kind enough to inform my father about the location of one other Horcrux and I can tell you where it is and what it is.
The item is located in a shop in Hogsmede and you will never guess where. It's in Zonko's. From what I could work out from the memory the Dark Lord had few `past times' at school but he seemed to spend time there and often acquired things to hurt or embarrass people at school. I can also tell you the item is a silver thimble but I have no idea why. I can also tell you how it was createdÉ. Voldemort needed to kill someone in order to create the Horcrux and I think, but I don't know, that he only used powerful witches and wizards to create them. I am confident though that the person sacrificed for the thimble was Caradoc Dearborn and the memory indicated that he was very magically powerful, hence my suggestion. He put up a big fight and almost killed Bellatrix before Voldemort intervened and restrained Dearborn. The creation of the actual Horcrux was quick I was surprised. Once he was restrained it was over in a minute or less. Do you guys know who this Dearborn was?"
"I do" Harry confessed I even have a picture of him.
"You do?"
"Yeah, well not here at least, unless Hermione brought it. My photo album that Hagrid gave me in first year?"
"Oh yeah I have it Harry. Sorry I didn't give you all your things yesterday but I packed all of your stuff in The Burrow before we left. I just had a feeling about yesterday it was weird. But yeah I have your stuff but I didn't want to go rummaging around in the bag. I will get your stuff for you later?"
"Yeah sure but can we have the photo album?"
"Accio Harry's photo album!" Hermione called into her small bag that didn't seem to leave her side and when it popped out she passed it over to Harry who flicked through the pages to a picture Hagrid had described several years ago.
Harry pointed at a happy looking man who was smiling and waving in the picture. "That's him. It's a picture of the original Order of the Phoenix"
"Yeah that's the guy in the memory. All I can say is he definitely knew how to fight. I know it was only a memory but it was really impressive"
"Do you know where in the shop it's located?"
"Yeah I know where in the shop it is and I also know it's under many enchantments but I can't tell you what enchantments because it was Father's memory and he just observed Voldemort place a number of protective spells about the item"
"Well that's not much fucking use" Ron interjected
"RON" Hermione snapped
"He just fucking told us practically everything about the Horcrux what's your problem?" Harry said glaring at his best friend. He still didn't have much time for Malfoy but the guy had pretty much laid everything out that they needed
"Yeah except the most important information"
"Cant give you what I don't have Weasel" Malfoy replied glaring at Ron
The rest of the day was spent examining the information Draco provided and creating maps from their memories of the shops layout and discussing in detail the possible protection the Horcrux may have.
"By the way I am assuming you guys know how to actually get rid of this thing when we get it out?" Draco enquired of the group.
"Ermmm well" Hermione bit her lip
"Hang on wait a moment. I get it in the neck from the red haired weasel about not being able to hand you this thing on a plate and you guys don't even know how to get rid of the thing once we have it? Is that right?"
"We haven't gotten that far yet!" Hermione replied defensively
"Fucking amateurs"
"Oi! Don't fucking start Malfoy!" Ron jumped to his feet and reached into his pocket for his wand
"Put it away Ron" Harry whispered rubbing his hands into his face trying to clear the weariness "its not going to help. Malfoy look we would have done more work on this but saving your arse came up. This isn't going to help the situation. We don't know. We have to find out. Simple"
Hermione had begun extracting books from the impossibly small bag and was stacking them on the table.
"How does such a small bag hold so much?" Ron asked, perhaps a little dumbly
"It's this clever thing called M A G I C" Draco replied sarcastically
"Wanker"
Hermione handed out books to the other three in a bid to distract them all from fighting with each other. The day turned into crimson, then into a dusky haze and finally into darkness as they all researched the issue occasionally speaking to seek clarification or discuss an idea until Ron finally piped up "I'm starving!"
"Make some food then Ron" Hermione quipped not even bothering to look up from her book
"You know I can't cook Hermione"
"Nor me" Harry chipped in
"And do you really expect me to be able to cook?" Draco raised an eyebrow but nobody bothered to question this. It was obvious that a boy living in a manor filled with house elves was not going to be knowledgeable in the art of food preparation
"Well" Hermione started in the voice she used to wound "It may surprise you stereotypical boys that cooking is hardly my strong point either! And! Whilst we are on the subject of domestic affairs I am not going to be doing all the cleaning around here!"
"We need a house elf!" Ron complained and Hermione scowled at Ron clearly the impending need to learn domestic chores such as cooking and cleaning would not dampen her viewpoint on elfish rights and her dedication to S.P.E.W the society she had established at school.
"What?" Draco looked confused
"Well Harry has a house elf? He could cook and clean? Best chance we have of any half decent meals being as none of us can cook" Ron pointed out
"You have an elf Potter?" but Hermione clearly could not contain herself any further
"Look Ron I am sure that we will manage perfectly adequately without the need for a house elf tidy up after you"
Harry had visions of the argument stretching long into the night with no further work accomplished and felt it would be better to intervene "Yeah I have an elf. Look lets not worry about that now. I will do us tinned soup and then we can worry about elves and cleaning tomorrow it's getting late!"
"Well I think I am going to call it a night" Hermione finally conceded defeat on the day two hours after Harry had presented them with some lukewarm soup and Ron was only to happy to snap his book shut and with a wink at Harry followed Hermione into the bedroom opposite his and Draco's
"Yeah night you two; don't do anything I wouldn't" he called after them and pushed the book away from him. "I can't look at that anymore" as Draco looked questioningly at him
"Do you want a drink?" Harry asked as he got up and moved into the small kitchen area
"I don't get you Potter" Draco repeated his sentiments from the previous night
"What's not to get?"
"Well one minute you are almost being nice to me and the next your headphones are in and you can't even talk to me"
"You actually want to know the answer to that?"
"Yeah go on try me"
"Because I don't understand you Malfoy. You have been nothing but spiteful, nasty and frankly an arsehole to me and my friends for six years at school and then it turns out when I actually have to spend sometime with you that you might be half decent after all. I mean how do I begin to mesh those two things together? I mean why were you like that at school?" Harry place a glass of juice down in front of the blond
"Hey you didn't shake my hand remember? Not the other way around!"
"Yeah but you had just insulted the one person who had ever been nice to me up until that point. What was I supposed to think? Oh this guys so nice because he can insult people!"
"I was used to getting things my own way. Used to having whatever I wanted and you said no! To me! I was shocked I guess. Nobody had ever said no to me before"
"Sorry to spoil the party?"
"I am certainly not saying I want you to be my friend but what I am saying is people can change you know"
"I'm learning this, slowly, Malfoy"
"Whether we like it or not we are stuck together for a while longer. Why don't you call me Draco?"
"Right MalÉI mean Draco. I can't just forget everything that's happened but I'm willing to try and give you and a friendship a chance" and he reached out a hand across the table to the blond who grasped it firmly
"Don't worry Potter, I am not expecting you to suddenly like me, I have after all been forced upon you, but maybe it gives us a chance to see if we can not kill each other for once"
"Well Draco I guess as I'm calling you Draco you should call me well better call me Harry"
"Right erm, Harry" the blond said as if trying it on for size
"Well I think I am going to turn in"
"I best get changed then; don't want you catching any cheap thrills whilst I change"
Harry froze comically halfway between sitting and standing `Oh my god he knows I saw him last night. Shit, shit, shit, shit!'
"You coming Potter? I mean Harry" Draco turned to look at Harry
"Erm yeah sure, coming" he stuttered