Black Truth [READ DESCRIPTION]

chapter twenty-nine

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Serpentis Draconis

Harry fumed silently as he paced the Gryffindor Common Room. Draco had been missing for over fifteen hours now; how long exactly wasn't known because Harry didn't know when Draco left.

Harry fought back the yearning to hit something, knowing that were he to let out his rage, his two friends would become more scared of him than they already were. As it was, his behavior resembled a caged animal to them.

It was all just so stupid! Sure, if a student was petrified the whole school went on bloody alert, but if a student was just missing, there wereprotocols! Was Draco really missing? Bloody hell, Harry was so sick of hearing another teacher ask that to the rest of them.

Snape had gone to Dumbledore immediately and while Harry was sure that Dumbledore believed them, there was a bunch of legal stuff set in place for just this occasion.

So after rounding up all the teachers at four in the morning, they had begun searching the castle. All of it. Every room. And Harry had been sent back to his dormitory to wait! Then, when everyone realized Draco really wasn't in the castle, as Harry had been telling them, they had to search the bloody Forbidden Forest because apparently Draco had permission to go there because he needed someplace to go be a Veriae for a while where no one could see him, or something like that.

And of course, the centaurs hadn't taken kindly to a group of people gallivanting around in their forest, even if one of those people had been Hagrid, who knew his way around pretty well. Of course, they found that Draco wasn't in the forest, after three hours of searching. Harry could have told them that but they didn't listen, of course.

So now they were thinking that maybe Draco really wasn't in Hogwarts. So they had to go check Hogsmead! Harry, of course, knew that Draco wouldn't be found there. He knew where Draco was. So did Snape and so, he suspected, did Dumbledore.

"Harry, are you OK?" Hermione asked cautiously as she saw her friend had stopped pacing.

"Do I look like I'm OK?" Harry shot back immediately.

"Looks like you're worried sick," Ron observed.

"We should have stopped this searching hours ago!" Harry exploded. "If he'd done something stupid like going to Hogsmead, then he would have been back by now anyway!"

"And he wouldn't have left in the middle of the night," Hermione added.

"Exactly!"

"So what are we going to do about it?" Ron asked.

"What can we do? They obviously don't want us involved," Hermione pointed out. "You shouldn't even be here, Harry. They told you to go wait in your rooms in case he came back."

Harry waved a hand at the Marauder's Map on the table. "I would have known if he came back," he muttered.

"But if they go to find you and tell you that they actually believe you, you won't be there," Hermione continued.

Harry sighed. "Yeah. You're right. I'll see you later then."

"They'll find him, Harry." Hermione tried to be comforting.

"Yeah, even if they have to send Dobby to go open the door to Malfoy Manor for them," Ron joked.

Neither of the two saw Harry stop and smile slightly as he left the Common Room.

Dobby was, as always, ecstatic to see Harry Potter.

"How can Dobby be helping you, Harry Potter?" he asked brightly.