A Throne of Blood and Stars

Chapter Fifty-Six

"Well?"

Draco wrinkles his nose at the parchment, poking it and moving it around with the tip of his wand. "Well," he pauses, looks up from his squatting position at Blaise, who has his arms crossed and an insecure look on his face. "It is not cursed."

"So why won't it burn? Or tear?"

"Whoever sent this to you did not mean any harm. Directly."

"Directly? What's that supposed to mean?"

The blond hesitates. He twists his lips and looks away to Harry, who is standing a few feet away, leaning on the far wall and just observing everything for Draco's safety. Harry nods.

"When I was to deliver the Opal Necklace to Dumbledore, I couldn't directly give it to him, lest my signature be traced and I would have been caught. So I used the Imperius curse on Madame Rosemerta, who was ordered to use the Imperius curse on Katie Bell so she could deliver the necklace to Dumbledore."

Blaise blinks.

"What he's trying to say is that since he used the Imperius curse on someone else to do his work for him, whoever was under the curse was obligated to commit the crime, which in turn makes them innocent," Harry clarifies from his spot. "In that case, whether or not Katie Bell delivered the necklace, she didn't want to hurt Dumbledore directly, as she was forced to do the deed. In that case was different, though, because the object being delivered was cursed. Here, it's not. Someone sent someone else to put the paper here, so even if we were to trace the signature, we'd hit a dead end."

"Right," Draco points to his mate. Then he turns and gives him a beaming smile. "Thank you."

"This is a threat," Ron speaks up for the first time, his eyebrows knitted in frustration. "It doesn't matter where it came from or who it came from. This is a threat to his safety."

"I never said it was not," Draco defends. "He wished to know if the note was cursed. I answered the question."

"Okay," the redhead rolls his eyes impatiently. "But why can't it be destroyed?"

"Seriously," Harry snorts from his space.

"It has a tracking spell implemented into a stasis charm," Draco frowns. "It is impenetrable. I thought you had figured that out."

"Well, I'm not in tune with the magical currents," Ron mocks with a funny voice, which they all choose to ignore.

"Someone wants to track me?"

"Again," Ron says exasperatedly. "A danger to his safety."

The blond ignores the Gryffindor and looks to his best friend. "The note was meant to stay in between your mess of school work. The message on it was a distraction. It was meant for you to panic and carry it around with you in any case you found it instead of disregarding it for one if your papers."

"Well, he found it, and he panicked!"

Blaise furrows his eyebrows at the parchment on the ground. "I should keep it," he reads Draco's mind, eyeing him carefully.

"Have you gone mad!"

"He's right," Harry says, pushing off the wall with his foot and walking closer. "Whoever put this here wants to know where he is at all times during the school day."

"And that's a good idea, how?"

"We stick to Blaise, we have a lead," Harry stares intently at his best friend. "We need to figure out why they're tailing him."