Chapter 12
Unappreciated Help
Things seemed almost peaceful for a week as far as Draco could see. No one attempted to beat him up, and the insults and dark looks began to let up. He began to think that maybe the Slytherin’s had grown tired of the sport.
During his evening meal in the Slytherin common room Draco was surprised to see Pem come flying through the open window. He had a small piece of parchment attached to his leg. Draco opened the note and smiled as he read.
We have far too little time together. Meet me at the Room of Requirement 10:00pm. Ask for what you did last year. I’ll be waiting.
ValDraco had hoped to be able to spend some more time with Val, but was curious why she would choose the Room of Requirement. And how did she know what he had asked to get into the room? “Potter must have told her about it. I wonder what other things Potter has told her.”
But all the same, he would meet her anyway. At the appointed time Draco snuck out of the common room and made his way to the seventh floor corridor outside of the room he seeked. He thought to himself that he needed a place to hide something as he paced in front of the empty space in the wall. The door appeared immediately and he showed himself into the room. He did not necessarily enjoy being in the room again. It signified his worst mistake during his time at Hogwarts. But all the same if Val wanted to meet there he would do so. “Val.” He called out to the large room. He wondered where she was, though, when there was no answer. The room was huge and crammed with things that people had wanted to hide. He walked over to some of the items and started looking threw them.
When he heard the door open he didn’t immediately look around. “You ought to see some of the things that people want to hide in here.” He called out.
“We’ve seen.” A mocking tone said behind him. Draco closed his eyes shaking his head for a moment and then turned slowly. He could see eight Slytherin boys standing just inside the doorway. They all had their wands drawn and ready. “Well boys, what brings you here?” He said sarcastically.
“I think you know, Malfoy.” The largest out of them all said.
“Don’t you think twice is enough?” He asked in a bored tone.
“Well you know what they say. The third times a charm.” The larger boy said again smiling a wicked smile.
Draco immediately pulled his wand and then sent a charm flying at the largest boy. “Petrificus.” The boy dodged the charm, but another behind him was struck and fell to the floor, like a large statue petrified. He then dodged behind a stack of books as the others launched their own spells at him.
Draco spent the better part of fifteen minutes dodging in and out of the stacks of hidden items, and firing curses and counter curses at his attackers. He was peeking around a large shelf trying to get a good idea of where the others were when the shelf went crashing to the ground. He ducked but it was too late as the larger boy shouted. “Stupefy.” Draco felt the curse hit him, and was on the floor stunned, while his own wand rolled a few feet away.
He was so close. He had cursed five out to the eight boys, and was sure he could have handled the rest if that shelf hadn’t fallen giving his position away. The three remaining tormentors pulled him to an open place in the room, and as the stunning charm wore off he heard them talking about him.
“He deserves far worse than what we’ve given him up until now.” The largest boy said with an evil gleam in his eye.
“If we do the Cruciatus curse on him, we’ll end up caught. You know that. And I don’t particularly want to end up in Azkaban with my dad.” One of the other boys argued.
“Well then this time, we’ll just have to make sure he won’t forget whose lives he’s been playing with. And we’ll do it the muggle way.” The larger boy said placing his wand in his robe.
Draco tried to move, knowing he was in for the worst beating of his life. But at that moment they noticed him moving. The two smaller boys picked him up by the arms and held him still.
“Three on one, huh. I guess I can’t blame you for playing the odds.” Draco said sarcastically.
“You don’t deserve fair odds, traitor.” The largest boy said drawing a fist back and striking Draco in the gut.
When he got his breath back he choked out. “I told you, I wasn’t the one who ratted your folks out.”
“Who else could it have been?” The boy smirked and them stuck him in the ribs. Draco heard the loud crack and knew a rib was broken, as the pain coursed through his body.
“I don’t know.” He whispered, closing his eyes as a cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
“Wrong answer.” The boy said motioning to the ground. The other two dropped him and started kicking his ribs on either side.
Draco had known pain in his life, but had never seen anyone so intent on being malicious. He knew deep down, that they might actually kill him this time. He could feel as even more of the ribs began to crack, and he tasted the unmistakable taste of blood in his mouth.
“Petrificus.” Someone yelled from behind the Slytherins and one of the boys froze in his spot, in mid kick. His frozen body fell backwards.
The other two flew around, drawing their wands again. “Expelliarmus.” Was the next charm, and then “Levicorpus.”
Harry stood back seeing one of the boys hanging in mid-air and the larger boy standing wandless staring at him in disgust. “What are you meddling in this for, Potter. It’s none of your concern.”
“I may not like Malfoy. But three on one, and by the looks of the others laying around, it started as quite a few more, is just despicable.” Harry said pointing his wand at the bully. “Now do you want to join them?”
The boy shot Harry a dark look and then walked around him and out the door. Harry let the other boy down that was hanging in mid-air and he too took off out the door. Harry walked over to Malfoy, who was still lying on the floor on his stomach. “Come on, Malfoy. They’re gone now.” He pulled Draco over on his back and saw the look of agony cross his face.
“Leave me alone, Potter.” He gasped between oxygen-starved breaths.
Harry could see the blood running out of the corner of his mouth, and hear the gasping. “Sorry, Malfoy. Val would never forgive me if I left you like this.”
“I promise I won’t tell her.” He said then was wracked by a coughing fit, which doubled him up in pain.
“I guess you can’t tell her, if you’re dead, now can you?” Harry said shaking his head. “Sorry, no. My conscience couldn’t take it.” He stood and placed a levitation charm on Draco and watched as his body floated into the air.
“d**n you, Potter. Don’t drop me.” Draco gasped.
Harry thought about dropping him, just for being so ungrateful, but instead levitated him out the door and down to the Hospital Wing. Madame Pomfrey was in quite a distressed state when she saw Draco, after Harry placed him in one of the beds. Harry slunk back to the corner, hoping she would forget he was there. “I don’t know why you students insist upon trying to kill each other. It is beyond me.” She said moving around and checking broken bones. But she had not forgotten that Harry was there. “How did this happen, Mr. Potter?”
Harry looked to Draco and could see the panicked look on his face. “I’m not sure, Mam. I found him like that.” He lied not mentioning the Room of Requirement or the Slytherin boys who were still there petrified. He knew it would be several hours before the Petrificus Totalus curse wore off on them.
“Mr. Malfoy?” She asked. She remembered the row they had, had the year before and how Draco had ended up in the Hospital Wing, injured seriously. “Were you two dueling again?”
Draco knew he could pin it on Harry. It would be easy to do, and for a moment he considered it, but Harry had been the one to stop the beating. “No, he wasn’t there.”
“Then who did this?” She asked.
“Just some boys. I’m not sure of their names.” Draco answered. Harry’s eyebrows shot up in a quizzical look. Draco was covering for them.
“Well you will still need to talk to the Headmaster and your Head of House.” She said giving him a potion for the pain. “Mr. Potter. You need to get back to your dorm room. Dumbledore will want to know why you were out after hours, too.”
“Yes, Mam” Harry said walking out the door. But a few moments later after Madam Pomfrey had bound Draco’s ribs, and mended any internal injuries, the lights went out, and Harry snuck back into the Hospital Wing.
“Mufliato.” He whispered pointing his wand to her office.
Draco was lying on his bed staring at Harry, with a distinctly uncomfortable look on his face.
“Why did you help me?” He asked when Harry didn’t speak immediately.
“I wasn’t lying to those Slytherins when I said the odds didn’t suit me.” Harry answered. “They looked pretty vicious to me. It looked to me like they were actually trying to kill you.”
“They might have been.” Draco answered cryptically. His eyes avoided Harry’s.
“You’re the one who turned their parents in, weren’t you?” Harry guessed what was behind the beatings.
Draco glared at him, not answering.
“You know. I was wondering about that when we saw the paper. I knew it had to be a student here. But I never figured you to pass information to the Order.” Harry said staring at Draco, thinking the situation through. “Unless something was in it for you.”
“There’s nothing that I could want.” Draco said bitterly.
“You know Val told me that Snape has been half way decent towards her since she burned him with that potion. I figured it was just Snape worried about what Dumbledore would say about his outburst. But Snape doesn’t strike me as the type to worry too much about what others think. But maybe if he had information to pass to the Order, he might consider changing his attitude towards a certain student. But Val wouldn’t have any information to give him” Harry suggested in an offhanded manner.
Draco scowled deeply. Why was it that Potter could seem to read what was in his mind? They were nothing alike. The only thing they had in common was Val. But as he thought on the subject he realized that as far as Val was concerned they were very like-minded. “You mention a word of your theory to her, and I’ll hex you into next week, Potter.” He threatened.
“She’d appreciate the fact that you are willing to take beatings for her.” Harry said knowing he had guessed correctly.
“I’ve been doing that for a long time now.” Draco said quietly remembering all of the times he had stopped his parents from mistreating her. He’d received a few decent beatings when he defied them the hardest to keep her safe. “But that doesn’t matter now. If she knew what was happening she would just feel guilty. She’s finally happy. Let her stay that way.”
“You don’t think she has a right to know what’s going on. I’ve heard too many adults say they were only keeping information from me for my own good. It didn’t make it right.” Harry countered.
“You heard me, Potter. She doesn’t need to know about this. It’s my secret. You have no right to tell her.” Draco said angrily.
Harry thought for a moment. “And you are just going to let them get away with it.”
“I have to. If I rat them out the next time they will kill me.” Draco said defensively.
“It looks to me like they were going to do that anyway.” Harry said, wondering why he even cared.
“No, they were just teaching me a lesson. It got out of hand, though.” Draco said letting the old sarcasm enter his voice again. “Why don’t you just drop it? Your life would be a lot easier if I died anyway.”
“One of these days, you’re going to need someone’s help, Malfoy. I sure hope there’s someone there to give it to you.” Harry said bitterly, vowing not to give a d**n who used him as a punching bag anymore.
With those words he left the hospital wing, and headed back to Gryffindor common room. As he entered through the Fat Lady’s portrait he remembered why he had been in the Room of Requirement to begin with. He had wanted to search for the Half Blood Prince’s potions book. But it was too risky to try again that night.
He knew he wouldn’t tell Val why Draco had been beaten. He had no doubt in his mind that information of the attack would be all over the school the next day, but he would not tell Val what the reason was behind it. He had to respect the fact that it was Draco’s secret to keep, and in doing so he was only hurting himself.