Chapter 06. Looking for Answers.

At night, Draco was sitting on his bed with the mysterious book he had found in the library. Harry had forbidden him to take anything out of the library, but what Potter didn't know wouldn't harm him, and the blond was tired to have to sneak into the drawing room when nobody was around. He had spent a couple of nights trying vainly to decipher the text and was growing frustrated. He had failed to recognize the language and all the books about ancient runes in the library were entirely useless.

He hadn't managed to find anything about the Rainbow Dragons either, there was not a book on magical creatures that mentioned them, but Sally had been helpful on that issue and had told him a little about her species. The Rainbow Dragons were the only kind of dragons that could use and tame wild magic at their will. They bonded with certain wizards and gave a boast to the wizard's inherent magic, but the wizard should be strong already, as the bond with the dragon required a lot of energy to be complete. Draco was a special case; the bond with his dragon had had to be done when he hadn't even been borne. It had taken a very special kind of magic to do it and the effort had practically ended Sally's mother's life.

Sally had explained as best as she could why the bond had to be done, although she was not sure of the reason why they had been running away from the wizards. She had been a baby at the moment and there had not been enough time for explanations, but she understood that her father had been betrayed by his wizard and killed. Due to that betrayal, her mother hadn't been able to open the door to their own world, and so they had been stuck. The only way for Sally to survive had been the bond.

Another world... Malfoy was most intrigued by that. Where did the Dragons come from? Sally wasn't really sure. She had never visited that other world that her mother had mentioned. She did know that there was something preventing the door between both realms to be opened, and that was a really bad thing because it meant that Sally's magic will eventually drain out. She was by no means an adult yet, in fact, in dragon years she was still a child, and she could feel the bond with Draco growing stronger and demanding more energy from her.

Sally knew that she was not strong enough to maintain the bond, when the magic lent by her mother at the moment of creating it disappeared, it will drain hers. Sally will eventually ran out of magic and die, and since the spell to protect her would not allow for her to get out of Draco's body and take her corporeal form until the door between the worlds can be opened, then she would take Draco with her. She was certain of that.

The Slytherin was most unhappy with that bit of knowledge. He didn't want Sally to die and he didn't want to die either. So he was trying to get more information about the Rainbow Dragons, their world and the stupid door to it. So far he had only succeeded in recognize several emblems of old families in the book. He supposed that members of those families had been bonded to the Rainbow Dragons.

Some of the crests he recognized were of pure-blooded families, but there were many of blood-traitors ones. The "impure" lines, as his father called them. Apparently blood purity was not that important to the Dragons. There was the occasional crest of some lost family line and others that had changed upon the years, he even found crests from other countries families. Draco only recognized those because his mother had insisted in him memorizing every original emblem of the most prominent and influential families, saying that it would help him in the social and political life.

Draco had been pleased to find the Malfoy crest in the book, though he was presently at odds with his father's choices in life, he was glad to see that he had came from two strong family lines. It certainly helped his wounded pride.

But still he continued to know nothing about how to deal with the bond. He laid on his bed trying to find a solution. The Potter's, the Longbottom's and the Weasley's crests had been in the book, Sally had not found any trace of a bond in any of the members of said families so far, but maybe the relatives would have some knowledge, even without an actual bond. Sally was adamantly against that idea, her instinct told her that no one should know about her existence, only those bonded to another dragon could know.

Then there was Mad eye.

Draco thought about that. Moody had been the only adult with the magical signature of a bond, but the man had not been seen since Harry's birthday party and frankly Draco didn't like him, the ex-auror gave him the creeps. Besides that, what if the man was the traitor? Sally never met the wizards bonded to her parents, so she wouldn't know if Moody was the one that had betrayed them, and the same could be said about every other wizard or witch with a bond.

Draco groaned, how was he supposed to know who to trust? He and Sally needed help and he didn't have the slightest idea of where to look for it!

The blond sighed and rubbed his temples. He felt tired and a bit thirsty. He supposed that a glass of water would be good. Draco thought briefly about calling for one of the elves, but he wanted to refresh his mind, so he quietly got on his feet and out of the room.

He walked down the hallway and noticed that the door to the drawing room was opened. Malfoy wondered if Potter was still awake and reading old newspapers or researching dark spells. The blond knew that the Gryffindors were looking for something but didn't know what it was. He stopped out of the drawing room, noticing that there was light coming from the library.

He considered to go and offer his help if Potter was reading alone, he was curious to see if he could convince the Gryffindor to share his little secret. The Slytherin smirked as he felt Sally encouraging him to go find the black-haired boy. It amused him that Potter had managed to impress Sally so much, she was almost as obsessed with the golden-boy as he was. He just hoped that the precarious friendship that they had started had the chance to grow stronger. The blond really wanted to get to know Harry, even if his crush with the boy was hopeless, he'll content himself with only friendship.

Draco approached the library silently, he had expected to see Harry sitting on an armchair, but he couldn't see anyone. Soon he distinguished voices coming from behind a couch. His heart sank upon realizing that Potter was not alone. The blond hesitated, thinking that maybe it was best to go unnoticed, but his curiosity got the better of him and he continued his advance, straining his ears to listen what was being said.

"... must go check it."

"How about tomorrow? It will be a full moon, and professor Lupin is going to be locked down in the cellar. Tonks will be at the ministry all night and we can put a silence charm around Malfoy's bedroom and no one will notice we're gone."

"Yeah, it's not far, we should be back the next morning."

"But Harry, shouldn't we tell someone where are we going?"

"Hermione, we have already discussed this. They'd ask too many questions and they'd insist in someone accompanying us. I'm not going to tell them what this is about. Dumbledore said I should go about it carefully, if somehow Voldemort takes notice of what we are doing, our job will be more difficult."

Draco narrowed his eyes. What was the trio planning? And wait. Someone mentioned the full moon?

"I suppose you're right. But would it be ok to leave Malfoy alone in the manor? Remus won't be in any condition to watch over him."

What? Not bloody likely! They were not going to abandon him in the same house with a werewolf in a full moon night! Not even if said creature was going to be confined in the cellar with binding spells and behind heavy wards! He would not stand for it!

"Malfoy will be fine. He won't even notice that we're gone." Said Harry's nervous voice.

"Yeah, and we can put locking charms in his room, just to prevent him from wandering out in the night." That was Weasley's voice.

Well, that was the last drop! Malfoy was going to give the so called golden trio a piece of his mind! He was about to charge into the library when he felt the vibration of a spell surrounding him. It was so odd that he stood frozen in the spot for a second, trying to process what it was, and almost missed Moody's presence at his back.

"What the...?"

"Leave them be Malfoy. They need to occupy their minds on something or they would start worrying and insisting on leading attacks themselves."

Draco turned around slowly and shifted uncomfortably under Moody's eyes.

"So, you know what are they looking for?"

"Aye. It keeps them occupied and away from the main conflict."

"But, isn't it dangerous?"

"Ha. Of course it's dangerous, but they are well prepared for it. It's an important task and someone had to do it anyway. Besides, we'll be watching them closely, making sure that they stay alive."

Draco assumed that Moody was referring to the Order when he said 'we' and sighed, turning to look in the general direction of the couches again. If Potter knew he was being watched and purposely kept aside from the mayor events of the war by his little project he wouldn't be very happy. Moody chuckled strangely and continued talking.

"I personally would have preferred someone more experienced to do the task, so it could be finished faster, but it was difficult to find another way to convince Mr. Potter to stay hidden and away from trouble. At least he's too busy to go hunting You-know-who down."

Mad eye turned away and started walking down the hall, Draco followed.

"Why would he do something as stupid as that? I know he's a Gryffindor, but there has to be some limit to reckless courage."

"Ha. Not when the boy's convinced that he's the only one that can stop that maniac."

"What?"

They were now at Draco's door and Alastor stopped to face him. The bubble of the silence spell was still around them both.

"There's a prophesy. One that not necessarily has to be fulfilled, but You-Know-Who is convinced of its truthfulness. A bit idiotic if you ask me. Whoever thinks that the future is a certain thing?"

"So... this prophesy says something about Potter been able to defeat the Dark Lord?"

"He or Longbottom. You pick one."

Malfoy's mouth twitched slightly. His first thought was:'We're all doomed.' Then he remembered all the past years at Hogwarts and how time after time the Dark Lord had tried to rid himself of Potter without success.

"Mph. I think that the Dark Lord has already picked."

"Indeed." Moody grinned and Draco started to feel a bit nervous. "But that's not of our concern. While they're gone tomorrow we can occupy our time discussing a few things if you like."

Draco bit his lip, not sure if he wanted to ask Mad eye about Rainbow Dragons. Inside him, Sally was insisting that he asked about the man's dragon, she was anxious to know if there was more of her kind around. Draco didn't want to pressure things with the ex-auror, not until he was sure of the man's intentions. It was better to keep his guard up.

"What would you want to discuss with me?"

Moody gave him a toothy smile, which did nothing to ease the boy's fears.

"Your dragon has awakened recently. I can feel it inside you now. Such power. It has been a while."

Draco paled slightly and started to occlude.

"How could you...?"

"Ah, when you have a bond, you can sense others that have it too. You can only hide your dragon from other people, those who don't know about the Rainbow Dragons' existence or think them a myth."

"Oh."

Draco considered what to tell Moody. He didn't want to mess things up. He couldn't afford to be talking to a traitor. Alastor looked at him thoughtfully for an instant.

"There's a book that should be in the library or another room in this house. A special book."

"One that only I can read? I have seen it."

"It would be a good idea to read it young man."

Malfoy made a frustrated gesture.

"It'll be a lot easier if I knew the language it's written in!"

Moody scowled and then grinned in comprehension.

"Ah, figures that the Blacks would have one of the few books in the ancient languages instead of one of the English copies!"

Draco gaped and then muttered some foul words about self-righteous old families that didn't think about getting important written material in their own language. Mad eye looked amused at his frustration, but then he turned around and started to walk away.

"We'll have to work on that tomorrow. Don't tell anyone that I was here."

The boy watched the man go and felt the silence spell been lifted. For a second he didn't know what to do. Sally was asking why the man hadn't stayed to talk more and Draco had to explain to her that Moody didn't want to risk being overheard by the rest of the inhabitants of the house. Sally was a little upset by that. The blond sighed and entered to his room again, trying to reassure his dragon that they would have a long talk with Moody the following night.

"I'm not sure this is a good idea Ginny. Harry's still upset with you."

Ron and his sister were walking along the hallway to the training room. Ginny wasn't supposed to train with them, but she pleaded with Ron to accompany him, saying that Moody wasn't going to be present and she wanted to see how well they were doing. Ron had accepted only to make her stop pestering him, but he was starting to have second thoughts about it. Harry needed some more time to forget what Ginny had done on his birthday.

"I have already apologized to him a thousand times yesterday Ron! I understand that he felt upset because of what happened to his family and I really wasn't thinking about that. And I'm sorry. I want to show him that I meant him no harm I only wanted to protect him! And I need to be by his side, he's not going to avoid me anymore! I'm going to show him that I'll be right there when he needs me. I'm going to give him my full support on this war!"

Ron sighed in defeat. Ginny was stubborn, and after all, she only wanted to be with Harry. Ron didn't understand why the two of them weren't together if they were in love. Sure, Harry had told them that it was to protect Ginny, but Ron couldn't understand the lack of communication between the two. They needed to spend more time together, even as friends, that way they both could show their love to each other and Ginny would still be safe. He decided to talk with Harry about that.

They entered the training room just when Harry was driving Malfoy to the floor and immobilizing him, holding an arm against the blonde's back.

"Ow! Holy shit Potter! Get off me!"

"Get a grip Malfoy. You're distracted! What's the matter?"

"I'm not distracted you asshole! I'm crap at muggle fighting and you bloody well know it!"

"Language Malfoy, language." Harry admonished playfully, Draco was not amused.

"Fuck the language!"

"Oi, hello guys, we're here!" Said Ron cheerfully.

Hermione smiled at her boyfriend from her spot at a far corner of the room, where she had been previously watching the boys spare. Her eyes widened slightly when she spotted Ginny and turned to see Harry nervously. The black haired boy had turned to the door grinning upon hearing his friend's voice, but it faltered at Ron's sister.

"Ginny. What are you doing here?"

"Well, I thought that maybe I could make you company today. Moody's not here after all and I wanted to see the training."

Harry transferred his glare to Ron, who looked apologetic.

"Mmm... She only wants to watch? She's gonna behave Harry."

Quite frankly, the red-head thought that his friend was overreacting a little. True, Ginny had been tactless and had said some very bad things, but she was sorry. And Harry sure understood that Ginny was young and a bit thoughtless and must forgive her for a little mishap; after all they loved each other. Right?

Harry looked from Ginny to Malfoy. The blond was looking away from them, busying himself with a scar on his elbow. Harry turned to Ginny again.

"Fine, if you apologize for your behaviour on my birthday."

Ginny gaped at him.

"Harry, I already apologized to you yesterday..."

"Not to me Ginny. I think that you owe Malfoy an apologize too."

Draco straightened his head at once and looked wide eyed at Harry. Ginny was appalled.

"What? Harry I..."

"I don't need her apologizes Potter." The blond interrupted. Harry sighed and turned to look at him.

"Why not Malfoy?"

"One. I don't think that she's sorry in the last. And two. I don't need it and certainly don't want it!"

Harry bit his lip, not quite knowing what to do. Ginny lifted her chin in defiance at the blond.

"Well, I suppose you don't mind if I stay here with my boyfriend."

"Ginny, I'm not..."

"Why would I give a damn where you stay? You can ogle at him all you want." Draco hissed at the red-headed girl, privately fuming about the injustice of her been able to call Harry her boyfriend.

"I'm not..."

"Good. You see Harry? You don't need to worry about Malfoy."

"I'm not your boyfriend!"

Everyone stared at Harry, who seemed intent on making that particular point clear. Ginny pressed her lips together and said in an annoyed tone.

"Not yet officially, I know, but once this war is over we..."

"Let's leave it at that for now Ginny. We are only friends."

Ginny wanted to protest but Hermione dragged her to one corner of the room, telling her to be patient. Harry looked quizzically in Malfoy's direction, but the Slytherin had turned around and was doing his best to ignore the rest of them. Ron looked confused and a bit annoyed, but thought that Harry probably didn't want to accept his feelings for Ginny in front of Malfoy; after all they still didn't completely trust the blond. The red-head accepted his own reasoning and glared at Malfoy's back for good measure before going to reassure his sister.

The training session was a bit tense, but they managed to loosen up by the end of it. Once they were finished, Harry hurriedly escaped before Ginny could get a hold of him and Malfoy disappeared in his room, not having any desire to get in the middle of whatever was going on between the Gryffindors. Hermione finally convinced Ginny to give Harry his space and not to pressure him. The Weasley girl left for her home unsatisfied, but promised to return the next day to see if her Harry was in a better mood.

The rest of the day passed by quietly. Remus arrived before sunset and Harry quickly led him to the cellar, which looked more like a dungeon, and closed the door after making sure that Lupin had taken the wolfsbane potion that Moody had acquired for him. He put on the wards that would make impossible for anyone to enter that part of the house and returned to the kitchen to have dinner with the rest of the guys.

Malfoy was a bit nervous and Harry thought that it was because Lupin was staying. He tried to calm the blond, assuring him that it was safe and that Remus was not going to cause any harm. The Slytherin just looked at him incredulously.

"Potter, you realize that the man is a werewolf, right?"

"He's a good man Malfoy. And he's not going to get out of the cellar, it's well warded. Besides, he has taken the wolfsbane; the human in him is going to be conscious. There's nothing to worry about."

"Easy for you to say. You..." Malfoy bit his lip. He was just about to give into the temptation and accuse the other boy of been planning to leave with his two sidekicks. But if the others realized that he had spied them, they'd want to know how much he had heard and they may decide to lock him in his bedroom and not let him out anymore. "You apparently have a preference to associate with unpalatable individuals."

Harry rolled his eyes at him.

"If it makes you feel better I'll ward your room. Ok?"

"I really will feel much better if I had my wand with me."

Harry looked like he was actually considering the idea, but Ron intervened at that moment.

"Not bloody likely Malfoy! We barely trust you without a wand. We're not about to give you a weapon. Besides, your wand is lost. I really doubt you would see it again."

Malfoy glared at the red-head and resumed his dinner unhappily. Harry sighed and tried again to reassure the blond.

"The hall is going to be warded and I'll give you a dreamless sleep potion if you want."

"I'll pass on the potion. I prefer to be able to wake up in case I have to run like hell."

Ron chuckled at the idea and Hermione rolled her eyes. They finished dinner quickly and then Harry accompanied a still nervous Malfoy to his room. Once the blond closed his door, the Gryffindor magically warded and enchanted it with a silence spell; he then headed to the library to join his two friends.

"I don't think he'd want to get out of the room all night. I hope the silencing spell would be enough for him not to wake up."

"We should have slipped the dreamless potion in his tea." Said Ron. Harry frowned at him.

"No, I don't want him paranoid from now on. I want him to trust us."

"Why would you want that? I don't understand."

"Look, it's already hard for him to be locked in here. I want him to feel at least more comfortable, this way we are getting along fairly well and had avoided extra tension."

Ron shrugged and started to walk towards the corridor.

"Whatever you say mate. I'm going for our cloaks."

Harry picked up the parchment with the map and notes they had prepared for their little adventure and studied them a last time. He didn't notice Hermione looking intently at him until she spoke.

"Why are you so concerned about Malfoy's well being?"

Harry turned to look at her and shrugged.

"I just don't want him to feel like he's a prisoner. We're supposed to be helping him."

"Yes, but why?"

Harry looked confused and Hermione elaborated.

"I understand that you feel the need to fulfil Dumbledore's wishes, that you pity Malfoy for his mother's situation, and maybe you're still feeling a bit guilty for having attacked him with the sectum sempra, but you're doing enough by letting him stay here. You don't have to... worry so much about him."

Harry was flabbergasted.

"I know... I... I'm not worrying too much! Well, maybe I feel it's my responsibility to worry about him. I want to show him that he's free to do whatever he wants and that he doesn't need to follow his father's footsteps. I want him to trust me."

Hermione bit her lip worriedly.

"Harry, you are aware that we really don't know why he ended up here? He's tolerating us because he wants to live but that doesn't mean that he really wants to change. He's still Malfoy."

"He's already changed 'Mione."

The girl narrowed her eyes at him and Harry felt the need to explain.

"I don't know how to explain it; it's only that he feels different... somehow he has changed... he's not the same."

Harry looked at his friend, willing her to understand. Hermione sighed in defeat after a while.

"Well, he has not apologized or anything like that, but I suppose that he's trying not to be nasty. I'll give him that much."

Harry smiled at her. Ron returned at that moment and the three got ready for the excursion ahead.

Malfoy laid awake on his bed, still fully clothed and entertaining himself feeling the many changes in the magic of the house. He was still amazed at the intensity of the energy in the place. He could now distinguish an ominous and heavy feeling in the house, marking it as a dark place, but not less powerful because of it. Draco had wondered if Malfoy manor would feel any different. It was not as old as the Black's manor, but it had been inhabited by powerful wizards, so its magic should be pretty strong too.

Draco closed his eyes and focused on the waves of energy emanating from the walls, and tried to picture the entire house in his mind. He could feel clearly the heavy wards at his door and other wards in the lowest level of the manor. That should be where the werewolf was. There were also wards surrounding the whole property, Malfoy suddenly felt the magic of those wards shifting, as if making an opening, after a few seconds the energy reassembled itself and the wards were the same as before. Draco supposed that the trio must be gone.

The boy tuned off his perception of the house as much as he could and started worrying about his meeting with Mad eye. He didn't have to wait long, a few moments later he felt the magic been disrupted again and he stood up gingerly. A minute or so later, the wards at his door were lifted and Moody entered.

"Good defence here. Obviously no one wanted the werewolf to be wandering around. Come on kid. We're going to have a walk."

Draco followed the man warily, flinching slightly at the noises coming from the cellar. They arrived at the kitchen and Moody lost no time to walk to the shelf that concealed the mysterious secret door and get it out of the way. The boy was shocked to see the wall disappearing at Mad eye's touch.

"How...?"

"It's enchanted to recognize our energy. Only the bonded ones are able to open it."

Draco looked cautiously at the opening. He could see stairs leading down into a dark space.

"Where exactly are we going?"

"We're taking the fastest route to the chamber. I'm sure you had already been there, unless Potter had caught up to you before you could reach the portal."

Malfoy's mouth moved for a second without sound. He couldn't believe it.

"The... chamber..."

Moody raised an eyebrow at him, obviously not seeing what the problem was. Draco remembered the corridor and his curiosity to know where it came from, since the tunnel he had discovered practically interrupted it.

"You mean that... all I had to do was come here and... and touch the damned wall?"

"If you had entered this way, yes."

Draco could feel the anger rising in him.

"Then why the bloody hell I had to dig a hole in the goddamned garden?"

Moody now looked amused.

"I don't know, frankly I was kind of surprised that you chose to do that."

"I didn't choose it! I kind of felt compelled to do it! While in all the times I slept-walked over here I never felt the need to touch the wall!"

Alastor actually chuckled at that bit of news.

"It must have to do with where you spent more time. Or maybe the magic was just stronger in the garden, after all no one had visited it since Mrs. Black died."

Draco was really offended and crossed his arms in annoyance. Moody started to climb down the stairs, still chuckling. The boy followed unhappily, mumbling foul words about stupid houses sending the wrong signals, and stupid house-elves that didn't inform him of easiest ways to do things.

They arrived to the chamber quickly and Draco completely forgot his complains in favour to be shocked about the incredible amount of magic that struck him when he stepped through the portal. The place reeked of power. Malfoy closed his eyes and felt the ancient magic run through him, acknowledging and accepting him. He felt Sally responding to it. She was happy. This was home. Draco opened his eyes again and looked around him. The place essentially hadn't changed at all since the last time he had been there, but now he could see the columns shinning with a million colours and several shades of light danced before his eyes. It was beautiful.

He was so absorbed in the joy and relief the place inspired into him, that he didn't notice that they had company. He never looked the dark figure approaching until he heard a familiar voice.

"About time Moody! I was starting to think that you had gotten lost!"

Draco froze. Panic and fear took hold of his mind and he didn't hear Alastor's dry reply to their new companion. It was not possible. This man couldn't be here! The boy slowly turned around to face two black hard orbs, which looked down to him with the same severity as always.

"Professor Snape."

"Draco."

Malfoy wanted to run and hide. Why was Snape here? Was this all a trap? A tall woman with long brown hair and dark eyes was standing beside the potions master. She smiled to him and offered her hand.

"Come boy. We have much to talk about."

Sally liked the woman. She urged Draco to talk with this people, assuring him that they meant no harm, though how in hell the dragon could possible know that, was a mystery to the boy. Draco gulped and took the offered hand, praying to the gods that he was not about to be returned to the Dark Lord.