led safely in the gryffindor dormitory, harry potter tossed and turned in his bed, lenhed in the jaws of a nightmare
blood there was blood everywhere blood that he had helped to spill yes, all of it must have been his fault sirius, his mother, his father, ountless others that had been killed during the summer raids that the death eaters had unhed while he was tuked away in privet drive he had only found out about these when he arrived bak at shool, and now, three weeks ter, it still haunted him
darkness seemed to surround him, but this was a different darkness not the darkness of hatred that was filled with blood…this was almost adarkness, a darkness that felt like…feathers? silken feathers wings
two arms enirled him as the bk wings seemed to radle his body “do not despair harry,” a voie whispered, “do not despair”
and harry slept peaefully
“yo, malfoy!”
disdainful eyes shifted from where they had been oing the wall of the ell to the wizard that stood at the barred door to this, this age
“you got a letter” then the guard muttered under his breath, “though why anyone would be sending a letter at this hour is beyond me”
the guard was shaken out of his reverie as the letter was snathed out of his hand and the ell’s inhabitant retreated bak into the ell muttering inaudibly about manners of prisoners and its who sent letters at five in the m, the guard went on his way bak to his post where he had been shaken from his stupor by an eagle only a few minutes before
luius looked at the letter briefly before ripping it open drao had written it his eyes seemed to rae down the letter, an emon that was never seen by the world arent in his eyes as he read it luius smiled drao knew his pride, his son, was now just beginning to grasp the truth of the road that he himself had walked luius felt a small pang of regret that he would not be able to help his son beome austomed to this life…until he read the st paragraph the elder malfoy smiled in the shadows, and for one he allowed his emons through beautiful, wings that glistened in the moon-light streaming into the ell from the barred window, erupted from his bak and fluttered as if they were hy that their owner was hy the soft rustle of feathers filled the ell as the wings strethed, their wingtips touhing the eiling luius looked at his wings thoughtfully someday his drao’s wings would be this size, twie the length of a grown man and powerful enough to support his son in flight, and in battle if neessary out of usity luius rolled up the sleeve of his robe and looked at the pale flesh of his upper arm no blemish, not even a smudge of the dark mark to be seen
chapter 2: aspetus
harry hated mondays no, he really hated mondays beause mondays always seemed to start off badly, whih set the entire mood of the day to be a bad one why? one word: pons that was all that was needed to be said on the matter, that word and it didn’t help that there were luky people like ron who weren’t trying to be an auror and therefore ould afford to sleep te on mondays if they so wished, beause they weren’t taking pons of ourse, ron never did sleep te on mondays he figured it was the least he ould do to give his friend some enement before that…there wasn’t a word bad enough to desribe that ss in harry’s opin
and speaking of ron…it was ron who was urrently dragging harry down the stairs to the great hall for breakfast as par the normal monday routine and like every monday, herne was already there, ensoned in a book ron and harry slid into seatsto her that she had saved for them as she did every m, and began loading food on to their ptes
“oh, harry, did you hear? no pons today,” herne said as if she was ommenting on the weather
harry’s looked up hopefully “really?”
herne nodded, eyes not leaving the book “he’s not here today bsp;was aneled”
both ron and harry turned to look at the staff table and, sure enough, their pons master was not there
“i wonder why he’s not here,” harry murmured
“who ares why he’s not here,” ron muttered “i hope he never omes bak!”
both boys ignored herne’s, “ron!” of disroval
“but it’s strange he’s never ‘not here’” harry persisted
herne sighed “this might have something to do with it” she handed harry a opy of the daily prophet “our favorite slytherin isn’t here either,” she added sarastially
harry took one look at the headline, frowned, and passed the paper to ron, while gring at the spot at the slytherin table that drao would have been sitting at were he in shool at the time
“what?” ron stuttered, ign looks from the surrounding gryffindors and a few other students who had heard him
“yeah wonder how they’re going to pull that off,” harry muttered darkly
“well, logially, it’s within rights to have another trial,” herne pointed out “the only real ‘trial’ after the department of mysteries issue was a mass trial of everyone they aught no details were looked into for every single person and if, as the artile says, luius malfoy doesn’t have the dark mark…well, it’s harder to onvit him”
“but how an he not have the dark mark? he’s a death eater! we all saw him,” ron hissed under his breath so only harry and herne ould hear
“he probably pnned for it,” harry spoke sullenly “being a slytherin and all”
“the ministry of magi may have made a terrible error—oh please,” ron soffed
“well, we’ll know by tomorrow i guess,” herne spoke
they ate in silene for a while until ron broke it “oh look who deided to grae us with his presene,” he muttered
harry looked up from his breakfast to see that drao malfoy had entered the great hall and wa
