Chapter 01. A new turn of events.

"Run Draco!"

He was running, as fast as he could, though he didn't remember why. Snape's command was still in his head. He didn't know how long he had been running but he couldn't stop, not yet, he hadn't reached the place he was supposed to be; he hadn't a clue where said place was but he had to get to it, and he must do it soon because he was about to collapse from exhaustion. Still, he kept running, he was getting close, he could feel it.

Harry Potter was wandering in the night between the ashes and debris that long ago had been Godric's Hollow. He didn't know what he was looking for, maybe some kind of signal that told him what he had to do, or maybe he just had wanted to enjoy his depression in peace.

He was alone; he had escaped from Bill's wedding because it didn't seem right to be in a party when Dumbledore's death was still too fresh in his mind. No one seemed to understand this, his need for solitude, for grief, all of them insisted in wanting him to look happy and The Burrow had become an asphyxiating place.

Everything had seemed to go downhill since Dumbledore's burial for Harry. Hermione and Ron had been planning to accompany him to his uncle's house in Surrey, he had have to go there one last time and he had been hopping to stay as little as possible, but when they had arrived to King's Cross station his family hadn't been there; Mr. Weasley and Mad eye Moody had took them to Grimmauld place, which was the last place Harry had wanted to go, and there they had found out that Privet Drive had been completely wiped out of the map, inhabitants included.

No one knew how it had been possible; they supposed that Dumbledore's wards around Potter's family's house had crumpled when the elder wizard had died. It hardly mattered. The fact was that Privet Drive had ceased to exist.

The disturbing part was that Harry had felt worse for Mrs. Figg and her cats than for his family, everybody had given him condolences without him really registering what the big deal was, but he had felt greatly relieved when the tears had come at last that night. He had wept for his family and had felt human again.

Anyway, he had thought that he could start his search for the horcruxes sooner, but he had not counted on the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore may be gone for good, but the Order didn't break apart and some of its members thought that the main priority was to keep Harry safe, in a place where he could continue his training.

Hogwarts was for the moment out of the question, the castle had surprised them all when it had closed itself the moment the last student was out of it, the few teachers that had pretended to stay behind to take care of things and Filch had all found themselves being pulled out of the building and couldn't get back inside, no matter how hard they had tried. It had seemed like only the house elves had been allowed to stay with two exceptions: Kreacher and Dobby had appeared in Grimmauld place the following day, the first because he wasn't a Hogwarts' elf and had felt the pull of the house that was the home of the family he now served, the fact that said family currently consisted of Harry Potter was a nuisance that gave the elf continued cause of complain; Dobby was there simply because he had wanted to follow Harry Potter, and he could do it because technically he was a free elf.

The Order had wanted Harry to stay in Grimmauld place, but the boy had adamantly refused, he hadn't wanted to stay there, even though it was his property now, he just wasn't comfortable in the big, dark house.

So, he had ended at the Weasley's, and The Burrow had been subjected to severe security measures and constant vigilance since then. Harry was starting to feel caged. Another thing to add to his growing annoyance was that he had discovered that no one was looking for Snape, he had had the hope that the Order would hunt the bastard down, and he felt frustrated that no one really cared where the man was or what he was doing, they seemed to have contented themselves with the knowledge that Snape couldn't reveal the Order's headquarters' location.

It had turned out that Albus had exchanged his post as secret-keeper for the fidelius charm with someone else before the tragic night of his decease, which made many Order members to wonder if perhaps the old man had known what would happen to him, at that turn of events they decided that they couldn't risk to be mistaken about what happened that night and even the ones that were more outraged by Snape's treachery didn't lift a finger to try and find him. Harry couldn't believe that they were going to let Dumbledore's death go unpunished, but that was clearly what all of them were going to do.

To make things worse, everyone was avoiding talking of Voldemort and serious problems in front of Harry, these past weeks all he had heard about was of Bill and Fleur's wedding. He was tired of being treated like a child, he had a quest to initiate and he felt like he was losing his time. On the day of the wedding, Harry had decided that he wouldn't wait for Ron and Hermione, he had have enough time to think about it and he had wanted to go to Godric's Hollow alone.

And there he was, looking at the shattered remains of his lost childhood, wondering what he had expected to find, he had been so sure that he had to go, that this would be the place to start his quest, but now he didn't know what to do next.

He was looking at the star filled sky when he heard noise behind him, he turned, wand in hand, to see what it was. The night was pitch black but he could distinguish movement, something was approaching, he could feel it; he got down of the mound of debris on which he had been standing and waited for the thing to get nearer.

It was someone running by the sound of it, a dim silhouette was being slowly recognizable from the dark, and whichever he or she was probably hadn't notice Harry yet, even when the boy had his wand lit. Harry waited expectantly until the person was near enough for him to distinguish white-blond hair; the figure of a well known boy made itself clear, he was running towards Harry but gave no indication of acknowledgement.

Harry was utterly surprised to see Malfoy there, for a moment he thought that someone had discovered him, but he had been careful in his escapade and his travel, he was sure nobody had noticed him, besides, Malfoy seemed to be alone and was clearly going to collide with him if he didn't make his presence known soon. Harry took a step forward and shouted.

"Malfoy!"

The blond froze a few steps away from Harry, silver eyes wide opened in surprise, recognition slowly making its way in his brain. The two boys stayed like that for a couple of seconds, eventually Malfoy seemed to remember that oxygen was a necessary supplement for life, but had some troubles to breath and get out of his shock at the same time.

"... P-Pot..."

There wasn't enough air in his lungs for him to finish the word, at that moment his legs remembered that they were indeed exhausted and Malfoy fell to his knees and hands, panting.

'No! No, no, no... Why? Of all the people in this world why do I have to find Potter?'

He made a desperate attempt to collect himself and stop trembling, to not seem so weak, but soon realized the futility of his efforts; he simply wasn't going to be on his feet again any time soon. He was slightly aware of the other boy approaching him, he still heard a worried voice calling his surname before his brain shut down and his body finished its short trip to the ground.

Harry was starting to panic, he tried to shook Malfoy's still form a couple of times before convincing himself that the Slytherin was out and not likely to wake at his frantic calls. He tried to calm down and remembered that Malfoy had been running, maybe someone had been chasing him, Harry looked around, straining his ears trying to catch any noise that could give away Malfoy's pursuers. Nothing. The night was as still and silent as when he had first arrived.

Harry looked at the unmoving form again and scowled, wondering what he should do now, as much as he despised Malfoy's beliefs he wasn't about to abandon the blond in the middle of nowhere when he clearly needed help. The question was where he could take the Slytherin and how he was going to manage a trip on his broom carrying Malfoy's still form? He could apparate quite well, but he had never attempted to do it while carrying someone else and he preferred to not attract Ministry attention just yet.

Finally he decided that he could take a little help and lifted his wand to call the Knight bus, the vehicle was still operating with an Auror aboard to enforce security. Harry greeted at the sour looking man currently taking Stan Shunpike's place and got himself and Malfoy in the bus, trying his best to be ignored by the Auror at the back of it. The bus started its crazy race, and the driver asked.

"Where to kid?"

Harry thought about it for a moment, then remembering that Malfoy had gone off with Snape imagined that the blond would know where the man was and that the Order should be informed of it, that way they wouldn't have excuses for not get into action. He told the driver the direction of muggle London that were closer to Grimmauld Place and the driver only nodded in comprehension.

Harry still had to walk a while to get to number twelve Grimmauld Place, because of the heavy wards surrounding the property that would only let a few chosen people to get throw them on feet. Eventually he arrived to the big old house and entered, he made all the way to the living room and had time to deposit Malfoy on a couch before a frantic and worried Lupin appeared and grabbed him by the arms, turning him almost forcefully.

"Harry! Merlin Harry where have you been?"

"Easy Remus. You're hurting me."

"Harry that was very stupid of you! Have you had any idea of how worried we were?"

"Jesus Remus I'm not a child! I can take care of myself well enough!"

Harry managed to free himself with some difficulties; he hated the way everybody seemed now to worry about him. Lupin tried to cool himself.

"Don't do that again Harry! Merlin. I have to call Molly and tell her you're all right!"

Harry saw that Remus hadn't noticed Malfoy's body yet; he sighed and pulled at the werewolf's arm.

"I'm sorry Remy, I wasn't in the mood for parties and I wanted to be alone."

"That's ok Harry; just tell someone where you are going to be when you want your solitude, ok?"

"Ok. Well, don't you think we have to call some members of the Order?"

"Sure, to tell them that you are fine and... Oh."

Lupin's eyes finally landed on the blond boy's unconscious form and Harry was hard pressed not to laugh at the surprised look on his friend's face.

"Malfoy! Harry what happened?"

"I found him, I don't know where he came from, but he just collapsed in front of me."

"Where?"

"Near here." Harry was unwilling to confess to Remus where he had been, the man seemed to accept his answer.

"Are you sure he was alone Harry? They could have been spying us."

"Yes, no one had followed us." Harry wasn't so sure of that, but he supposed that if someone had seen Malfoy with him they should had been attacked.

"Well, maybe he could give us information. I'm going to contact McGonagall and Moody; we'll see what they think. Why don't you return to The Burrow?"

Harry considered this, and decided that he wanted to be there if they were to question Malfoy, and he wasn't going to let them keep him uninformed this time.

"I'll like to stay Remy, I found him and I want to know what will happen to him, besides, he was running off when he crossed me and he just collapsed, he may be hurt or maybe wanting to hide."

"Mmm. Nothing to do with wanting to know where Snape is?" asked the man, knowingly.

"A little." Harry accepted. "Don't you want to know?"

Remus sighed and threw a suspicious glance at the blond boy, they had already sheltered a spy, he didn't want to take another chance, but Harry had told him that Malfoy hadn't wanted to murder anyone, he was still a boy and Lupin doubted that someone so young could ever consider killing someone in cold blood if not forced. Then again that was what he had thought about Snape.

"You'll take him to one of the rooms and I'll call the Order and a healer, maybe Madam Pomfrey. Make sure to take his wand."

"Ok."

Harry called Kreacher and ordered him to prepare a bedroom, when the elf saw who their new guest was it was more than happy to comply; Harry only sighed and levitated Malfoy to the bedroom, careful not to bump him on the stairs. Once there, Harry took Malfoy's shoes and cloak looking for the boy's wand, but he didn't found it and he frowned in annoyance, he had been sure that the last time he had seen Malfoy the blond had have his wand. He searched more thoroughly for it without result, finally deciding that Malfoy must have lost it. Harry was thinking about what could possibly happen to the Slytherin for him to lose his wand, then his eyes rested on Malfoy's left wrist, curiosity got the better of him and he grabbed the blonde's arm, pulling away the sleeve and looked. The wrist was clean; apart from a few scratches it was free of any trace of the Dark Mark. So, Malfoy wasn't a Death Eater after all, that was a surprise, but Harry found himself being glad for it; after all Malfoy could be fond of the dark arts, but he wasn't a murderer.

His discovery left him thinking again. Malfoy had been alone, clearly exhausted and without wand; that seemed to reinforce Harry's theory of the boy running away, he asked himself what had happened. Malfoy stirred in his sleep, his brow frowning a little in unease, he moved to his side and blond hair covered his face. Harry watched him, waiting to see if he would wake but no such luck, Malfoy continued sleeping now in foetal position on his left side, Harry couldn't help but think that the boy looked so vulnerable like that, he covered the still form with the blankets and was about to left the room when the door opened and Madam Pomfrey made her way in.

"Mr. Potter! How glad to see you're all right."

"Yeah, well, there was nothing to worry about in the first place."

The mediwitch huffed, not sharing Harry's point of view, and hurried to the boy in the bed. Harry wanted to know if something was wrong with Malfoy, he had just taken the unconscious boy from the street and was feeling oddly protective, but someone took hold of his arm and pulled him out of the room, Harry turned annoyingly to found himself face to face with Moody.

"Well, well Potter. Found something interesting it seems. Right?"

"Um, yes."

Harry looked around the corridor; Remus was also there, along with Ron, Hermione and Ginny.

"Harry!" said Hermione "What happened?"

"Besides from finding Malfoy running in the night, nothing interesting Hermione." He answered, not looking forward to the unstoppable questions they were about to throw him.

"Dude! Where did you go anyway? And has the git tell something useful?"

"No, he had been pretty much out all this time." Said Harry; ignoring his friend's first question. Moody let out a sarcastic laugh and said.

"It may be better to have him here; when he wakes up we can make him some questions. Why don't you lot return to where you're supposed to be?"

"Yes Harry." Said Ginny, taking the boy's arm. "Mom is worried about you."

"But, I want to be here when Malfoy wakes up, I have some questions too."

"I seriously doubt that the boy wakes this night, and even if he does I think that a few members of the Order should question him first, and make sure that he's truly alone and not dangerous."

"He doesn't have his wand with him." Insisted Harry. "And he doesn't have the Dark Mark either, I checked."

"That's not guarantee of his intentions Potter. We must be sure that he's not bait."

"But..."

"Harry, come on." Said Lupin conciliatory. "You know we can't take any chances now, and you can come here whenever you want, I'll keep you informed."

Hermione and Ron contributed to take Harry over to the fireplace and convinced him of going back to The Burrow; Harry gave up after making Remus promise that he would contact him if Malfoy regained his senses and took the floo after Ginny.

Later that night, Madam Pomfrey declared Malfoy in good health and that his unconsciousness was due only to over exhaustion, she believed that the boy must have been running for hours, she said that they must let him rest and have some fortifying potions when he waked and left. Tonks arrived sometime later and she and Lupin took residence in one of the upper rooms, leaving Moody to inform the members of the Order he thought should be warned of the events.

As soon as he was alone, Moody made his way to a room that used to be the study in the big house, he locked the door, making sure that not even those two troublesome house elves could come in and put fire in the fireplace, he threw a special blue powder in it and waited a moment until the flames took a bluish colour and a hooded figure appeared in it. Moody smirked, knowing quite well that what he was doing was pretty dangerous, but the man that had handed him the powder had assured him that no one would be able to track or even to know that he was making contact with someone, and he deeply trusted that man, they have no other choice anyway, he approached the fireplace and acknowledged the figure.

"He's here, he's safe for now. Tomorrow I'll make sure Potter stays too."

There was no answer, Moody wasn't expecting one, the figure only nodded and disappeared, the fire took its normal color again and Moody extinguished it, then he left, he still had to fire-call some people of the Order, he had to ensure that the Malfoy boy would be left alone after that.