Fate Set Right

Chapter 43

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February 24, 1996

Harry had been quiet all day, and if Ron was to be believed, even stayed behind to speak with her dad after class. So, when he asked all of them to meet in the Room of Requirement before dinner, Aurora had a feeling it was important. Maybe it would be about the nightmare that had made him scream loudly enough that Fred and George claimed to have heard it in the seventh-year dorms.

The Room of Requirement provided a simple space, though she snickered to herself at the round table with a throne-like chair. Harry went to it, his head down, looking like he was miles away. Ron sat beside him to his right, Draco on his left, and Aurora joined him, Neville beside her. Ginny and Luna couldn't seem to decide where to sit, giggling before settling so Luna was a buffer between the siblings.

After a few minutes of silence, Ron leaned around Harry to look at Draco, the two of them silently arguing over who should be the one to snap Harry out of his mood. In the end, it was their gesturing that did the trick, and Harry mustered a small smile before clearing his throat.

"I've had secret Occlumency lessons with Snape."

"How bad are your headaches?" Aurora asked quietly.

"They aren't that bad, actually," Harry said. "The lessons were to keep... Riddle out."

Aurora frowned, but it was Neville who asked, "Out how?"

"It's not like what happened to Gin. Snape says that I'm linked to him through my scar. We didn't know until not too long ago that it isn't possible to-to block him out. I guess I'm getting pretty good at Occlumency. Kept Draco out. Can keep Snape out for a while, too. But nothing I do can keep out Vold—Riddle. I had a vision last night. Maybe it wasn't a 'vision' so much as a...reflection of what he's doing. And... he's after something in the Department of Mysteries."

"We knew that already," Ron said. "'S why Dad got attacked."

"Yeah, but whatever it is... I don't think just anyone can handle it. There was a man, Rookwood, one of the ones that escaped Azkaban. He told ... him that Bode wouldn't have been able to go for it. Even under Malfoy's Imperius curse."

Draco snorted and shook his head, but Aurora could see the nervous shame in his eyes.

"It's not like you did it," Ron mumbled, glancing at Malfoy as if he were too scared to make eye contact.

Draco shrugged one shoulder. "No, but it's the name, isn't it? I get that my father believes in blood purity, and our ancestors did as well. I get that they wanted to preserve the old ways. But Imperiusing a man to get a weapon for a psychopath? Sending him to his death when he couldn't do it? Despicable."

"You're not your father, Draco," Harry said, and the blond raised his head to look at Harry incredulously. "No one here is ever going to think that. Even if we still call you Malfoy, it doesn't mean we're thinking of you two as one and the same."

Harry gave Draco such a warm, earnest smile that Aurora felt uncomfortable, feeling like she was invading a very personal moment. She wasn't the only one either, and it seemed the boys had no idea what was going on around them as they remained frozen for a moment.

"So, what do you think it is?" Neville asked, and that broke the connection.

"I don't know," Harry said. "I talked to Snape about it. He said there was a meeting last night, that he was there, that... someone was punished for some bad information. He seemed relieved I lost contact with Vol—Riddle before he did anything about it. He also said he was fairly certain he knew what the Dark Lord was after, but he couldn't say. Not until I perfected my Occlumency."