Chapter 03. The library.

Draco lay awake in bed, staring into the ceiling and thinking that the bed really needed some draperies; the headache was still a background of his thoughts, but it was easily ignored.

The previous day had been a complete shock to him, first he had discovered that he had spent four entire days unconscious, then he found out that he had been obliviated and had lost a good few months of his life, the last thing he remembered clearly was being in a bathroom opening his hearth to a ghost. Of course the adults, and later on Potter and his troublesome friends, had seen fit to acquaint him with the major events that had taken place since his last recollection.

He vaguely remembered having been in the Hospital Wing; Potter had explained their fight in the bathroom and had apologized again for having cast the 'Sectumsempra'. Malfoy didn't have a clear recollection of that, Weasley had insisted in defending Potter, saying that Malfoy had probably started the whole fight. Draco had only shrugged at the suggestion; it was probably true anyway, what Potter had been expecting? He had interrupted Malfoy while the blond had been busy wallowing in self misery, of course he hadn't been about to receive his nemesis with open arms.

They had told him too about the Death Eaters' attack and Dumbledore's death, which he was still trying to assimilate. It seemed that he had succeeded on fixing the damn cabinet and got the Death Eaters inside Hogwarts. Potter had related, in all its glorious details, how Malfoy had taken away Dumbledore's wand in the Astronomy tower and his doubts at casting the killing curse, how the Headmaster had offered him help and the arrival of the Death Eaters. In the end it had been Snape who had done the killing, Draco hadn't realized how thankful he was that it had not been him the one to cast the 'Avada Kedavra' until he had been alone in the bedroom again and had cried his relief on the pillows. At least he wasn't a murderer.

Obviously no one had any idea of what had happened to him in the time between his escape from Hogwarts and his encounter with Potter. Malfoy sighed and turned to his side, facing the door. They were now finishing the second week of July, which meant he was of age now. Usually, as the only heir of his family, he would have had a big party to which all the important wizarding society would have attended, and his parents would have announced him officially the heir of all the Malfoy's states; the pureblooded families also had the tradition of announce the heir's engagement that same night. Draco was sure that nothing of that had happened, there had been no party, no announcement and no engagement; that last bit wasn't so bad.

He wondered briefly where Severus Snape could be, and then tried to force his mind to remember something to no avail, he only got the faint feeling that he had been running blindly for sometime.

At that point the bedroom curtains magically opened themselves to let the morning light into the room. Draco sighed in annoyance; Potter had placed that charm the night before to ensure that Malfoy would be awake in time for breakfast. Bloody boy-who-lived thought that just because this was his house he could order the habits of everyone within it. Malfoy sighed again thinking about Potter.

He was determined to not let himself crack again in front of Potter, the fainting had been bad enough, and he didn't want the Gryffindor to think him weak. He had wanted to try and make amends with Potter since he had returned to Malfoy Manor at the end of his fifth year and had learned some things about the Death Eaters and what it was like to serve the Dark Lord. He had been terrified, he would never forget the day the Dark Lord had entered the manor and taken him away, he had thought about Potter then, and had wondered how the Gryffindor could have survived to be in the monster's presence and still be sane.

The Dark Lord had demanded Draco's obedience and forced his mark on him, Malfoy had had no other choice but to comply, he knew that the Dark Lord wouldn't kill him if he disobeyed, there were much worse fates than dying, with that comprehension he had started to hate his father for having been a faithful servant of this thing.

When the past school term had started Draco had been resentful towards the entire world and angry at everyone who could have stopped Voldemort long ago and hadn't done it. Potter had been on the list too. He had believed then that his chances to try a different approach to the raven-haired boy had been nullified, but now it seemed that he had another chance, a big one, there would be no Slytherins in this house, no society, no family, no reason to be the Malfoy heir, he could be whatever he wanted and he wanted to be just Draco, thought he still wasn't sure if he could trust Potter and his friends or the rest of the adults that he had met up until now, but he wanted so badly to just let everything go and forget the mess that had been his life since the damned 'Lord' had returned and his father had been even more distant and strict than ever.

Draco turned to lay on his back again, and looked at the window, he calculated it should be around nine, he supposed a good bath would do him good and was about to get up when he remembered something. Groaning he lowered his eyes to the borrowed electric yellow pyjamas he was wearing.

That had been the most traumatic thing the day before; to realize that he had no money, no clothes of his own and that his wand was lost only the Gods knew where. Weasley had had a field day with that, and Malfoy had been short to strangle him, but had been very surprised when the red-head had actually offered to lend him some night clothes, they belonged to one of the Weasley twins and Malfoy had been twice surprised when he felt that the fabric was silk, Potter had said something about the twins having a successful business. Malfoy however cringed at the colour, it could be silk but money clearly did nothing to improve the Weasleys' taste.

He sat on the bed thinking about how nice it would be to have at least some decent clothes when someone knocked at the door and almost immediately Potter entered the room.

"Good, you're awake! I suppose you'll want to take a shower, I brought you some clothes."

Harry dropped some of his own clothes on the bed, along with a towel and clean underwear. Malfoy threw a pained look to the jeans, t-shirt and sweater that lay in front of him.

"To think that I'm forced to wear the rags you call clothes Potter." He said dispassionately.

"Well, you can always have the twins' clothes. I think they left some fuchsia and orange attire in their room the last time they stayed here."

Malfoy looked horrified at the suggestion and then narrowed his eyes at the Gryffindor.

"I hate you Potter." The black-haired boy had the nerve to grin at the blond.

"Feeling's mutual Malfoy. The bathroom is two doors to the left, don't take too long."

Harry got out of the room still grinning, leaving Malfoy to dwell in his own misery for the moment.

Harry walked down the corridor feeling oddly satisfied, they had feared that they would have to deal with Malfoy's foul mood and spoiled boy attitude, but so far the blond had been keeping his head down, he was being very accepting of the few demands they had put upon him, which consisted of helping them with the house when needed, to aid in whatever they required of him, to stay away from their private businesses and to not insult Harry's friends or Harry himself, Malfoy had rolled his eyes at that last request but had showed no other indication of disagreement. The only critical time of the day had been when Ron had joked elatedly about Malfoy's now moneyless state, which the blond had not taken well and had actually reached for a non-present wand, ending up very frustrated by his inability to properly hex Ron.

Aside from that, Malfoy had been pretty subdued, and Harry's friends thought he was still shocked by his new situation, but Harry knew that something had changed in Malfoy, he could almost feel it, maybe it was only wishful thinking on his part, because he had been willing to approach the Slytherin since he had discovered him crying in the bathroom and had been really pleased to discover that the blond wasn't a Death Eater, he didn't trust him completely but was willing to give him a chance, after all he had offered his help, maybe it was possible that they could be civil to each other.

Besides, Harry was curious about Malfoy, he had been doing a lot of thinking about many things that Dumbledore had taught him and had realized that he never had made an effort to understand the Slytherins better, and he had found himself wanting to do just that. Now he had a great opportunity to do it, Malfoy could be of much help for him, and he was anxious to start training.

Draco grumped to himself while he climbed down the stairs to the parlour, he wasn't an expert on muggle clothing but he was sure that they must have better things than the ones he was wearing at the moment. He hadn't put on the sweater, he didn't bear wool very well, it itched. The shirt and jeans felt odd, they were a bit oversized, that seemed strange, Potter was only an inch or so taller than him, and they had about the same body built, but he felt as if he was swimming in the T-shirt, and was painfully aware that the jeans were hanging from his hips, there wasn't any danger of them falling all the way to the floor, but he still felt highly uncomfortable. He should have asked Potter to shrink them; the bloody bastard surely did it on purpose, so that Malfoy would have to ask him a favour. Draco wanted to hide in his bed and die, but was also determined to show the boy that he could be civil with the rest of the world and that he wasn't a spoiled child anymore, after all he was now legally an adult.

He arrived to the main parlour and was about to descend to the kitchen when he caught sight of the big curtain that was concealing something behind it, possibly an old portrait. Malfoy looked at it curiously, the day before he had been told that this was Potter's home, which seemed strange, he had always assumed that the Potters would have a mansion like his own, but he hadn't expected it to be so unkempt nor had he expected it to look so familiar, even one of the house elves had recognized him. He had recognized the other elf later, it was his old house elf Dobby, figures that the creature had ended with Potter.

Still, there was something in that house that was nagging at Malfoy's mind, and he couldn't put his finger on it. He hated that feeling; it was getting on his nerves. He looked at the curtain again; maybe it was a family portrait? Maybe it was being restored or something like that? Draco was curious, he approached the curtain and opened it a little to give a peek. He regretted it immediately when a loud shrieking scream, that could very well be that of a banshee, threw him to the floor; he covered his ears and put his head between his legs, already cursing whoever had the idea of putting that portrait there.

"Who's in there? Strangers! Blood traitors! Scum! Who dares enter the House of Black? Who are you?"

The voice suddenly lowered a bit, and Malfoy risked to lift his head and looked at the face of a very ugly old witch, the portrait narrowed her eyes at him and for a moment seemed to be in shock.

"You..." she muttered.

'Wonderful' Malfoy thought sarcastically. 'Even the mad portraits recognize me'

At that moment Lupin, Potter and Tonks came running into the parlour, the portrait started screaming again, Malfoy cursed and tried to stand.

"Vermin! Scum! Get away from this House! The House of Black is pure!"

With a great effort, Lupin and Tonks finally succeeded in closing the curtain, glorious silence fell within the parlour for a few precious seconds until Weasley and Granger came running down the stairs.

"What happened?" asked Ron, Remus half smiled at him.

"Nothing, Malfoy now knows why this thing is covered with the curtain."

"Oh"

"Malfoy are you ok?" asked Harry, while Draco was still cursing the house inwardly; his headache was back full force.

"You should put a bloody warning Potter! Or even better burn that thing!"

"That's a good idea." Said Ron glumly, not happy at all with the interruption of an otherwise lovely morning.

"We've tried, Malfoy, but it's resisted everything we've thrown at it."

"What kind of people has a portrait like that in the main parlour anyway?" said Malfoy glaring at the curtain, Tonks looked at him curiously.

"You didn't recognize her?"

"Should I?" asked Draco lifting an eyebrow to his recently introduced cousin.

"Oh, well, maybe not. It's only that I had assumed that you had met her before she died, but I suppose you should have still been a baby then."

Malfoy looked at her in incomprehension, his brain still ached and refused to cooperate, so he only shrugged and all of them went to the kitchen to have breakfast.

Draco munched on his pancake automatically while his mind was in quiet speculation, the headache had been put back into submission again and he was starting to put together some things that the portrait and Tonks had said, everyone else was chattering happily about research and various spells Lupin had promised to teach them.

After a while Nymphadora looked at the thoughtful face of her cousin and asked cheerfully.

"Something on your mind Draco?"

The boy scowled and answered without looking at any one in particular.

"This is the ancestral House of Black" he concluded, understanding now why it seemed so familiar, he had known it in its better times. "It was the House of my mother's family. How come it is yours now, Potter?"

Harry turned green eyes at him, Malfoy turned to the Gryffindor too and their eyes were locked in a stare, Harry shuddered inwardly, there was something different in Malfoy's eyes, they seemed to be cold and emotionless as always, but there was something else, Harry was sure, if he could only specify what it was... Ron's annoyed retort at Malfoy distracted him.

"That's not of your business Malfoy!"

Draco didn't turn to Ron, he remained looking at Potter.

"It was only a question." He said absentmindedly, incapable of turn away from Potter's eyes.

"Well, just keep your mouth shut then!"

"Ron, don't be so rude!" said Hermione trying to avoid a fight.

"Oh, please Hermione! He has no business asking anything!"

"Sirius left it to me as heritage." said Harry, interrupting Ron's rampage and still looking only at Malfoy's eyes, the red-haired boy looked open mouthed at his friend, the blond Slytherin didn't break eye contact with Harry.

"Sirius Black? Were you related?"

"Now Malfoy..." started Lupin, sensing a rather painful subject coming around, he was interrupted by Harry.

"He was my godfather."

Malfoy lifted an eyebrow at this.

"I was under the impression that he was a murderer and had betrayed your parents."

The blond ignored the frantic looks everyone was throwing at him, Harry didn't waver, and he continued talking to Draco as if both of them were the only ones in the table.

"He was declared innocent after his death, not that it would do him any good then, but he was innocent and as he had no children he named me his only heir."

"I see. So, you've taken possession of the house recently then."

"Curious, are you?" asked Harry amused, Malfoy shrugged.

"Just understanding why the house seemed so familiar. I visited when I was a child."

Harry smiled at this, ignoring the awed looks everyone was giving them, Ron was looking at him as if he had gone mad, the rest were surprised that he and Malfoy were having a civil conversation and had talked about Sirius easily enough.

"So, you know this house."

"A little, I remember some things about it."

"Good, maybe you can tell us how to open some doors or if there are hidden rooms. Kreacher hasn't been much help."

"Maybe, if you can find some decent clothes for me."

Harry grinned at Malfoy, this was not the boy he knew at Hogwarts, at least not entirely, but he wasn't about to complain for it.

"Deal"

They both continued eating breakfast, ignoring the fact that the rest of the table was still in shock, Ron blinked and stated his confusion.

"What the hell...?"

Remus smiled and shook his head amusedly, then continued talking with Tonks about matters of the Order. Ron was scowling at Malfoy.

"And do tell me, what do we need your help for?"

"Ron, please." Harry warned, he was starting on good terms with Malfoy, and he wanted it to remain that way. However, his friend was glaring at the blond who smirked back.

"Well, have you found the library yet Weasley?"

Hermione's eyes widened at this.

"There's a library in here?"

"Oh no." muttered Ron, suddenly regretting having opened his mouth.

"Yes, there's one, with some of the most ancient books on dark magic if I remember well." said Malfoy looking satisfied with himself. Hermione was fascinated.

"Harry, we can start our research right here!"

"I think we would have to check out that library and be sure that it's not dangerous." said Lupin seriously, Malfoy shrugged noncommittally.

"I suppose some of the books must be forbidden. This house was home to some powerful dark wizards after all."

They finished breakfast hurriedly and started their quest for the library; Ron was not happy to have to trust Malfoy and tried to talk Harry out of looking for a dark library that wouldn't be of real use to them. Harry ignored him, he was going to fight against a very powerful dark wizard, it would be helpful to know what kind of spells he could expect, knowing how dark magic functioned maybe he could spot its weak points, or at the very least make strategies to defend himself from it.

They entered the drawing room and Draco stopped, seeing the mess that was spread in the room, there were papers and many artifacts out of their cabinets and lying around.

"You're not much for order, are you Potter? What do those two house elves do all day?"

"Hey! We have had difficulties with some of these things, the house elves couldn't touch the majority of them, besides they were well ordered, but someone decided to steal them and now that they had been retrieved, we have to put them back into their proper places."

Malfoy smirked and then went right in front of the tapestry that had the Blacks genealogy on it; he scowled at the burned names and turned to Tonks.

"I suppose you were one of those."

"Oh, I don't really care, Aunt Walburga could burn the tapestry all she wanted, and I'm still standing."

Malfoy half smiled at her, he always had wished to meet his cousin, then he turned his attention to the tapestry again and looked for one of the first names on it, one Phineas Black, he put his thumb over it and felt a pinch, then retired his hand and nursed the little wound absentmindedly while the wall of the tapestry moved to reveal an ample reading room, with two tables, chairs, armchairs and couches, behind the furniture there could be seen many shelves full of books. Hermione's eyes widened in awe, she stepped inside the library, already eying the books hungrily, Ron made a groan of resignation and followed her, Lupin and Nymphadora following close behind.

"What did you do?" asked Harry, noticing the tiny drop of blood that was left in the tapestry.

"The door only opens itself to members of the Black family; you have to give some blood in order for it to recognize you."

Harry scowled in annoyance.

"Is there any way to change that?"

"No, but you can have the wall removed if the magic of the house lets you. After all it's yours now."

'Yes' thought Harry 'It's mine now and it's time to make a few changes around here.'

He followed his friends and looked while Lupin made a few spells to detect possible traps or dark spells that could have been active on the books. Once the werewolf was sure that opening the books would be safe Hermione was the first to grab one of them, making the others smile.

There were plenty of books of dark arts, a few of history and many of potions, magical animals, plants, herbs, rituals both dark and light, even some novels and short stories, Remus was taking note of some of the books that he deemed important and the rest were sorting out what could be useful.

Draco was wandering through the shelves, reading some of the book's titles, when he saw Weasley taking out a heavy book and taking it over to one of the tables. He could distinguish the image of a dragon head in the cover and a shiver ran through his spine, he walked over to where the red-head was ready to open the book and he had a sudden urge to stop him, though he didn't have a clue of why.

'No, don't let him read it! He must not read it!' Draco was only partially aware of the words that were replaying in his head, he was so focused in approaching Ron that he didn't notice Harry getting in his way, and he stumbled into the dark haired Gryffindor.

"Hey! Careful Malfoy! Look where you're going!"

Draco was about to retort, but Weasley interrupted them.

"Harry! Come see this! Do you think Hagrid would like it?"

Harry approached his friend, Malfoy close behind him; the three boys looked at the open book. It was an illustration book of dragons, the pictures didn't move and they had vignettes that said the species of the dragon illustrated. Draco saw the book and felt like a fool, realizing that he had intended to take it from Weasley; it was only a common book after all; but why had he felt so nervous when the red-head had grabbed it? Almost as if Ron had been threatening something? He didn't like that sensation; he had been practically thrown into a panic over a book! Harry's voice brought him back to reality.

"I don't think so Ron, it has little information, and you know that Hagrid isn't one to like a book that doesn't bite you."

"True."

They lost interest in the book and Draco offered to return it to its rightful place, the two friends left him in favor of looking for more interesting material, the blond took the book and walked towards a shelf to left it. He didn't know what to think, he looked at the cover before putting the book on the shelf, he had never seen it before, there was no reason to feel so apprehensive over a simple book. Draco opened it to reassure himself, the first of the illustrations showed a dragon that he had never heard about, a Rainbow Dragon; it had a stylized figure, long, translucent wings, and its scales were of many bright colors, it gave the impression to be almost ethereal.

Draco scowled at the picture, he had seen something similar before, he just couldn't remember where, he wished that the book had some description about the creatures. He turned the page and almost yelped in surprise, there were no more illustrations, there was text. Draco turned more pages, looking for the rest of the dragons, there was nothing, no more plates, only text, diagrams and hand-made drawings, many of them didn't even resemble dragons. But Weasley had looked through almost the entire book and there had been only dragons, he was sure of it!

Malfoy breathed deeply and tried to think, he stared at one of the pages and realized that he couldn't understand what was written, upon closer examination he could see that the words were from an unknown language, he scowled while he turned more pages, some of the symbols he found were ancient arcana, a dragon appeared once in a while and some of the drawings represented people.

Malfoy continued turning the pages, almost at the end of the book he started to recognize some symbols, there were emblems of ancient wizarding families, he bit his lip and suddenly came to a halt, there, in one of the drawings, there was a wizard ridding a huge dragon, the crest of the House of Black above him, Malfoy stared at it wishing he could understand the words, Granger's voice startled him.

"Malfoy. What are you doing?"

He turned to see her suspicious scowl at his side.

"Nothing Granger. Just looking at a book."

"Mmm. May I see it?"

Before Draco could do anything she had taken the book from him and stared at the pages, her scowl transformed into a look of surprise.

"I didn't know you were so fascinated by pictures Malfoy."

Draco narrowed his eyes at her and looked at the book, it had returned to be a simple illustrations book, Malfoy took it back from the girl.

"It's nothing of your concern Granger."

The girl eyed him suspiciously while he retrieved the book on the shelf.

"You know Malfoy? I don't think it's a good idea to have you around, I don't believe that you have changed or that you are willing to help us, but Harry seems to think that you deserve a chance to redeem yourself, so I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, for Harry's sake."

Draco barely turned to see her, he was doing a great effort to control his temper and he answered her slowly.

"Redeem myself. And whatever do I need redemption for Granger?"

She opened her mouth to answer, when Harry's voice reached them.

"Hey guys! Come look at this!"

Hermione turned away and left to find her friend, Malfoy watched her go and then, after giving another quick look at the book he went after her.

Harry had found an archive with copies of the Daily Prophet and letters from various members of the Black family, they decided to go through the newspapers that documented the first war, hoping to understand the methods of the Death Eaters, Harry was anxious to start, so each of the teenagers grabbed some newspapers and started reading, Draco joined them and tried to take the Dragon's book out of his mind. Remus and Tonks left them at it and went to do other things; Harry had asked them not to tell the other members of the Order anything about the library, he didn't want it to become a public source of information, Lupin had respected his decision and didn't comment.

They read to one another some of the articles in the newspapers and became increasingly nervous, by super time Malfoy was sure he would have nightmares and it wasn't even night yet, Granger seemed to think likewise because she suggested a halt for the day, Harry frowned but he too needed a break and they went to eat, leaving the wall open.

After lunch they wandered through the house, it turned out that some of the sealed doors would now open up at Harry's request; Malfoy explained that the magic of the house was acknowledging him as the master, and if he had taken over the house sooner he would have complete knowledge of its secrets by now. Harry was not happy about this, but recognized that he was the one that hadn't wanted anything to do with the house.

Other doors needed an incantation to be opened, which were provided grudgingly by Kreacher, when Harry asked the elf why he hadn't said it before; the creature defended itself saying that master had not ordered him to tell anything related to the house.

Harry was annoyed but he was forced to recognize that he hadn't required the elf's help at all, truth be told, he despised that particular elf, the thing had had a big part in Sirius' demise and Harry didn't want the creature to be around him more than it had to, he would have preferred to be rid of it but he couldn't allow for the treacherous elf to make its way to Bellatrix Lestrange and told her things that could be important, it was safer to have Kreacher around under vigilance. It would be even better to have it dead but Harry knew that he would never bring himself to be that cold blooded, even towards a creature he truly despised, as far as he was concerned Voldemort's kill would be the only one he was willing to perform, and perhaps Bellatrix's and Snape's.

There were two secret doors that Draco knew about, one leading to a potions lab, and the other was in the wall surrounding the garden, it was like a portal that led into a forest, Hermione immediately took note of it as an escape route and the group decided that they would explore the forest later.

Harry now asked the old house elf if there were any other hidden doors, the creature wasn't happy to have to answer, it even looked at Malfoy, who ignored it, then Kreacher told them there was another door behind a shelf in the kitchen, but he didn't know how to open it They went to investigate and were surprised to see that there were no indication of any kind of door behind the shelf, they supposed that a password was needed to open that particular door and they had no idea of how they could find that password, so they left that door alone, figuring that they would be lucky if they ever get to know what was behind it.

Remus and Tonks left the House after dinner, advising everyone to behave, Hermione and Ron made sure that Malfoy and Harry were each in their respective rooms before disappearing together into another. Draco didn't mind them so much, he was starting to think that their fuzziness over Harry was funny and a bit annoying; no one seemed to realize that Potter wanted them to stop worrying about him.

All in all they had managed to spend the day in civil companionship, Weasley and Malfoy mostly ignoring each other. Granger had been watching the blonde's every step, but had relaxed a little when they had found the secret doors. Potter had been friendlier, Draco had thought it strange that the Gryffindor who had been his nemesis since first year at Hogwarts now wanted to help him; more so, Potter was doing his best to get him to open a little and talk.

Draco was somewhat confused, he hadn't expected that Potter would be so willing to accept peace between them, the blond found himself wanting to show the Gryffindor the part of him that people barely saw, but he was still unsure if the golden trio will accept him, after all it had been six years of rivalry and nastiness, six years of being the Malfoy heir around them, it was expected that they won't forgive him easily.

Malfoy lay on the bed thinking about it, he knew that his past wouldn't disappear and that he had no chances to be accepted in Potter's little group of friends, but maybe they'll let him to hang around, just close enough to watch, he had longed for years to have the chance to make things different and the last one had been such a nightmare that the only thing he wanted now was to not feel so lonely. Being a Malfoy had meant to keep the world apart, to not have anyone to turn to, and Draco had been painfully shown that in the long run it didn't pay of.

Draco turned around, facing the door, he was still fully clothed, the jeans and T-shirt now fitted him well enough thanks to Tonks. He wasn't sleepy yet; there were so many things in his head: Potter, Potter's friends, this house, the book. Malfoy scowled as his mind wandered back to the book and wondered about the language. It was obvious that it had some especial kind of magic to change the way it did, but why was he the only one who could see the text? Maybe the book recognized him as a Black like the family tree had done, he could show it to Nymphadora and see what happened.

'No, that's not a good idea. Don't show it to anyone.'

Malfoy frowned at his own thoughts, not really sure of why he was thinking them in the first place, it was as if he felt that the book was something he should keep secret, even if he didn't have a clue of what it was about.

Draco grew restless and sat up in the bed, he didn't like not to be sure about something, maybe if he looked for the symbols that he remembered having seen in the book he could get a better idea of what it was about. More so, he really wanted to find some information about that dragon on the first page, the only one that apparently was part of the real book. He made his mind and taking his school cloak he got out of the bedroom and headed towards the drawing room and the library.

It was dark, he wished he had his wand to light it up, but he found his way easily enough, as soon as he entered the drawing room he saw that there was light in the library, a lamp was turned on illuminating a figure on one of the couches, Malfoy approached silently and was surprised to see Potter there, he had been half expecting to see Granger reading some boring book. The dark-haired Gryffindor was enthralled in the newspapers and didn't notice Malfoy's presence.

Draco looked at the boy for some moments, noticing the worried frown on his face. He had had a crush on Harry Potter since fourth year. During the tournament it had been easy to realize that Potter had grown up and made some well toned muscle. Draco had been awed by the boy's agility and his wits to conquer each one of the tasks, he had been shocked when the tournament finished and Potter had come back with dreadful news and carrying a dead body. Malfoy admired the strength of the boy; it had been so hard to say those harsh words on the train back instead of what he had really wanted to say.

He had tried to hate Potter, he had put his best effort onto it to please his father, it had never been good enough, Potter seemed to have a special kind of charm and the more Draco wanted to hate the boy, the more he had felt attracted to him. He sighed in frustration, it was no use to think about it now, Potter was out of his reach and there was nothing he could do to rectify that, it was better to forget it. He coughed slightly to make his presence known and green eyes stared surprised at him.

"Malfoy, what are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question Potter."

"I asked first."

Draco shrugged and walked towards the couch beside Potter's.

"I couldn't sleep, thanks to all those creepy stories." He said signalling the newspapers with a movement of his head. "I figured that you wouldn't mind too much if I looked for something better to read."

Harry looked at the blond for a second and then shrugged.

"You can read all that you want, but don't take anything out from here."

"Sure."

Malfoy went to find something about magical beasts and returned to the couch, the boys read for sometime in a companionable silence.

The streets of Knocturn alley were darker than usual; you couldn't distinguish one building from the next, there was no one in sight except a lonely figure of a man that stumbled along the deserted sidewalks. He walked with some trepidation and came to a halt in front of a low door of what seemed a building without windows, one hand touched the door and it opened immediately, letting the stranger in and then slammed shut.

He found himself in a long corridor and walked towards the door that could be seen at the end of it, a dull clunk emphasizing each step, he reached the door and opened it easily, entering a dark room, full of shelves and cabinets with a variety of artefacts and bottles of all sizes, some of them contained strange liquids or unrecognizable substances, there was some armchairs at the far end, in front of a low fire in the fireplace that gave some light to the room. The man walked over there and sat in one of the armchairs, after making himself comfortable on it he turned to look at the other one, currently occupied by the slender frame of a witch who seemed to be in her late forties, her long fingers were holding an empty cup of tea that she was analyzing, her dark eyes lifted to look at the newcomer.

"Alastor. Not yet?"

"Patience Salamanca, he has just arrived, he needs some time to adjust."

"Patience. I have plenty of patience, but the others are growing restless, they ask if you are sure that the boy would fulfil his task."

"He would, he has no option."

"There is no way to get things to go faster?"

"Unfortunately not, as it is we are lucky that it had already started."

The woman nodded and left the cup on a nearby coffee table and reclined in her seat.

"We had been waiting for years Alastor, now we will retrieve what was rightfully ours, we will have our revenge."

"Of course we will. We only have to make sure that the house would be left mostly alone the majority of the time. That would give the boy the space he needs to act."

The witch gave him a toothy grin and waved her hand dismissively.

"Don't worry about it; I'm sure that your precious Order would find plenty to do in other places."

Moody smirked back at her and stood to leave.