A/N: I'm hoping there's only three or four more chapters left in this arc of the trilogy, including this chapter.
I will say a few things before we begin however, the main hint that something was up was Luna's necklace. A) It started glowing the moment "Colin" entered the Burrow. The Unspeakables thing was a red herring (for the most part). B) Luna's mother told her that it would protect her. And C) During Ron & Luna's conversation, the necklace glowed more when Luna used her legilimency, thus the clue that the mind arts were involved (as will be explained shortly). Draco's involvement wasn't nearly hinted at as much, other than the fact of convenience that Colin entered the story the same time that Draco exited it. Many of you accurately caught on that I never explicitly said that Draco was dead.
There was one other clue I forgot to add, which was that of Draco's necklace, given to him at the start of the Wizengamot meeting by Caliban. If I had mentioned that (entirely my fault for forgetting it till after I posted the last chapter and re-read where I had come from) then it might have been a bit clearer. The carved dark mark on Colin's arm was another potential giveaway, though that led down the generic death eater road.
Again, this is probably a shorter chapter than I would like, but I'm moving towards a climax here. Essentially this is the second part of Chapter 29, with a final confrontation set to begin next chapter.
Chapter 30: Draco's Choice
Draco stared for several moments into the mirror, a myriad of emotions running roughshod through his subconscious. He recognized the face that stared at him in the mirror as Draco Malfoy. He knew that it was him, but why he was wearing that face was entirely a mystery. He was Colin Creevey! Not Draco Malfoy!
Wasn't he?
Caliban made sure that the boy's wand was securely in his grasp before releasing the bodybind. The moment Draco felt his body released from the curse he lashed out with a hard right cross towards Caliban, something which Caliban caught hard on the jaw before firing back a bolt of mental energy that leveled Draco and shattered the mirror that he had conjured. Draco struggled to his feet, and stared daggers through Caliban. "What trick are you playing at?" he yelled out in anger.
Caliban merely grinned, "It's no trick. Quite to the contrary as a matter of fact, as I've released my little "trick" that I had on you." Draco heard enough, and once again charged Caliban, catching him off guard with a mixture of the martial arts he had learned at Potter Manor and simple schoolyard fighting that he had picked up from Crabbe and Goyle. Caliban dodged most of the strikes, but caught a hard kick to the gut that drove the wind out of him. Deciding he had enough, Caliban moved swiftly, grabbing Draco by the throat with a vicelike grip and holding him there. "I see you need to have your memory jogged." Caliban threw Draco against a hard tree and pulled out both of the wands he was holding. "Crucio!" The unforgivable shot out of both wands, driving Draco to his knees in blinding, searing pain. Caliban forced him completely to the ground, pouring all of his malice and hatred into the spells, causing Draco to cry out in anguish. He finally relented, and left Draco lying in a heap on the ground, arrogantly tossing his wand down on the ground in front of him before kneeling down and pointing his own wand at Draco's head.
"Perhaps this will help. Memoria Cubus!" A pale gray light shot out of Caliban's wand and hit Draco square on the temple. Time seemed to come to a standstill for Draco, as a flood of images came roaring to the forefront as the memory charm was lifted. After several seconds and many deep breaths, Draco turned over and stared at Caliban. Struggling to his knees, Draco stared a hole straight through Caliban.
"What did you do to me?" he asked, his voice dripping with venom.
Caliban merely laughed. "It's really quite simple when you think about it. If there was one thing that I learned from my father, it's that you always have to have a Plan B. You…were my Plan B…and my Plan A for that matter.
"I anticipated your explosion at the Wizengamot. You see I had suspected that Potter had obtained some kind of political power due to the fact that Bellatrix didn't inherit the title of Head of the House of Black. If that had been the case, then I knew you would likely try to impulsively take him, with no regard for the consequences of your childish actions. And sure enough, so you did foolishly get yourself thrown out of the legislative body. But you were still of value to me, as a spy of sorts. Of course I could never get you close enough to Potter to get any valuable information on him, so I had to improvise.
"Enter Colin Creevey, a young muggleborn wizard and his family. Colin was close enough to Potter, or at least his friend the young Weasley girl, that he could work as a substitute. So before your meeting I went on a little hunt, for him and his family. His brother and parents I killed on the spot, but Colin put up some fight. In the end, he died, like he was fated to.
"Remember the necklace I gave you before your meeting, the one that hasn't left your neck since?" Draco glared down at the simple chain that hung around his neck, a simple locket of Colin and Ginny now accompanying it. "That particular chain acted as an anchor for my legilimency. You see, after your failure I knocked you unconscious and performed a complete memory charm on you, and then imprinted young Colin's memories onto your mind. From there, I simply cast a glamour projection spell on the necklace, which coupled with my own mental strength, projected an image of young Colin. That was why your memories were incomplete, because I could not retrieve all of Mr. Creevey's memories before I killed him. Your headaches were also a direct result of your own occulumency fighting against my legilimency, trying to overcome the illusion." Caliban closed his eyes as Draco fought against shock and disbelief, "It was a risk to be certain, I had no way of knowing if the occulumency shields Potter and his friends had would hold off my image, but alas my own training and skill in the mind arts surpass even the heir of Ravenclaw herself."
Draco seemed to sputter out, "You…you know about that?"
"Of course I do. Once I knew which houses Potter was the heir of, it was merely a matter of scouring the ancient texts before I found the truth of his lineage." Caliban backed away as Draco stumbled to his feet, before continuing, "The unfortunate truth is that for some reason I cannot directly read you now. No matter…I'm always game for doing things the hard way. I want you to tell me the location of Potter Manor."
For the first time Draco smirked and laughed, his mind still blanked by the new information and lingering pain of the cruciatus. "And what makes you think I'd help you? After everything you've done?"
Caliban chuckled, "Silly boy, look down at your arm." Draco did so, and saw the Dark Mark once again firmly emblazoned there. "That mark is a sacred oath, a sign of your loyalty to the Dark Lord even if you have switched sides in your own mind. Once that mark is branded onto your arm, forever more will you be labeled as a Death Eater. Perception is reality Draco, not yours but that of the wizarding public in general. To them, you are nothing more than a fool who tried to kill their savior in the middle of the Wizengamot chambers. The Ministry is on full alert to arrest you and snap your wand on sight." Draco's face fell, but he tried to hide the fear in the veracity of Caliban's speech.
"And what do you think that Potter will do when he learns the truth? Or his friends? Or…" Draco's face fell dramatically, and Caliban smirked, "I see then. There's a "her"…must be the young Weasley wench."
"Don't call her that," Draco spewed out, ready to charge Caliban again despite the fact that he could barely stand. Draco's hand picked up his wand and pointed it right at him.
"Come now," Caliban said smirking, flashing a bright gem in his hand, "We both know what will happen if you try that old trick again." Draco's wand fell. "As I was saying, what do you think they will do when they find out the truth? They won't believe your story…you're Draco Malfoy, a mortal enemy of theirs for the last five years.
"The way I see it Draco, you have two choices. You can ignore me, maybe you'll even get away, but if the Ministry doesn't find you then Potter will…and then you will have something to answer for. Either he'll annihilate you or the Ministry will send you to Azkaban for the rest of your life. Or…" Caliban lowered his head and stared straight at Draco, "You can do this one last task for me, and I will free you from your burden."
Draco's breath caught. "What are you promising?"
"I'm saying if you help me catch Potter and bring him to the Dark Lord, then I will remove the Dark Mark from your arm. You can then go on your merry way to wherever it is you want to go. Disappear into the muggle world, go to Australia, whatever. In fact…I can even give you a family." Draco sat wide-eyed as Caliban continued, "What if I told you that your mother…your real mother….isn't actually dead? What if I told you that I took pity on her and spared her life, merely modifying her memory to match circumstances?" Draco glared.
"You're lying."
"No, I'm not. Her name is Miranda Breyerson…I acquired her from a man named Charles van Houtan in a pub called the Dragon's Head just outside of Manchester. I can take you to her; give you the family you no longer have here…" Caliban moved closer to Draco. "Or not…the choice is yours. So I will ask you one last time…Where is Potter Manor?"
/ - / - / - /
Hermione was in a quandary emotionally. On one hand, she was joyed with what she had just found out. On the other, she was nervous as to what that meant for Ginny. Either way, she could barely wait to tell Harry…that Colin and Ginny were going to get married soon.
She generally considered it a good thing and moved on. She had flooed back to Potter Manor and was waiting for Harry to get back. She was curled up in the library searching through a tome Luna had given her concerning possibilities for what Luna had called the Heir of Merlin, but could not find anything concrete about this supposed prophecy. That Luna was a junior unspeakable caused her no worry.
She heard a whooshing sound from the library fireplace and immediately stood up and closed the book when she saw Harry emerge from the floo, wiping the ash off of his shirt and pants. The grimace on his face clued her into the answer to her next question, but she asked it just the same. "Did Remus and Tonks find anything?"
Harry shook his head and slumped down in his chair, Hermione sitting on the edge and draping her arm around his neck. "Absolutely nothing. Remus has a few leads, but nothing concrete. He said he still had a few books to go through, but that Sirius had thrown out or destroyed so many of the dark ones that it was likely the secret died with them." Harry let out a long sigh and leaned forward, his fingers clenched together as he mired himself deep in thought. Hermione rubbed his back, trying to ease the tension that was building in his muscles.
"We'll figure it out Harry," she said optimistically. "After all, when is there been anything we couldn't figure out if we tried hard enough?" Harry smiled a bit, but his face quickly turned grim once more.
"The problem is how many more people will die between now and the time that we do figure it out?" Harry sighed, standing up and slowly walking across the room, "While everything they've done has been a tragedy, in one sense we've been lucky that they haven't tried to attack Hogwarts, or Diagon Alley or the Ministry again. But how long will that luck hold out?"
Hermione stood up, approaching him slowly, "What are you suggesting Harry?"
Harry swallowed and looked at her with a mixture of frustration and sadness, "We need Dumbledore. He's the only one who knows how to beat Voldemort." Hermione nodded, but bit her bottom lip as if deep in thought. "What is it?" Harry asked, immediately clued in to her action.
"It's just that…how do we know that he will try to manipulate us with that information? What if he lies to us about that?" Harry walked over and rubbed Hermione's arms, looking her dead in the eye.
"It's a risk we'll have to take. Maybe if it's outlined as a cost-loss sort of thing. He stands to lose just as much if Voldemort wins as we do. I don't think he'd jeopardize that in favor of searching for some long lost heir." Hermione nodded, and Harry hugged her, enjoying the feel of her against him. They stood that way for several moments.
"By the way, I have something to tell you," Hermione said, breaking away and smiling up at him. "Ginny told me that Colin proposed to her and that she was going to tell him yes!" Harry smiled back at her and led her to the couch, the two of them laying down and moving close to one another.
"That's great for the both of them, they deserve happiness." He sighed contently and then asked, "When do you want to get married?"
"Soon," Hermione said with conviction after thinking about it for a couple of moments. "I want to be married soon. It feels like years since you asked me." Harry chuckled at this and planted a soft kiss on her forehead. "But seriously, we should do it soon. Nothing huge, just a small ceremony with our friends."
"I hope the press doesn't get wind of it, the last thing we need is a huge event like that. It would provide too much of a target." He paused a moment before adding, "We should have it here at the Manor…or one of my other properties that's under the Fidelus Charm."
Hermione moved upwards and turned to stare at Harry, a naughty glint in her eye. "Have I mentioned you are a very clever man?"
"I'm getting married to a very clever witch," he responded while smiling, "Something must have rubbed off." Hermione giggled, and the two of them began to kiss each other in slow, yet intense motions. The mood was quickly interrupted however by a frantic pop.
"Master Harry Potter sir!" Dobby exclaimed, dancing back and forth on his heels with great worry, "There's someone approaching the front door!" Harry broke away from Hermione and the two of them glanced down at Dobby and then back at each other. Grabbing their wands, they rushed out of the library as fast as they could towards the front door.
The door swung open and they rushed out, waiting to see who was approaching. They stopped when the recognized two figures slowly strolling forward, seemingly without a care in the world.
"YOU!" Harry yelled as he recognized the man, the one who had killed Molly, stop dead in front of him. He glared even deeper when he saw Draco Malfoy standing next to him, his gaze pointed downwards and not looking at anyone.
"Mr. Potter," Caliban said with a snide grin on his face, "I told you we would meet again. And I never…ever…miss an appointment."
A/N: The confrontation between Harry & Caliban will take up the next chapter, hence why this chapter is shorter.