Chapter Text
“Boy, get the door!” Harry’s Uncle Vernon shouted.
Harry rolled his eyes but compiled without complaint. It wasn’t worth the argument he would have with the man.
“And tell them we’re not available.” Aunt Petunia called from the kitchen.
Harry opened the door, expecting one of the neighbors again. But as soon as he saw the faces of their guests his jaw clenched and he reached for a wand that wasn’t there. Damn his relatives, their blind hatred of magic was going to get them all killed.
Harry fisted his hand and took a deep breath, their wands weren’t drawn and they had knocked instead of barging in. “Malfoy, Mrs. Malfoy, to what do I owe this pleasure.”
Malfoy scowled and his mother sighed. “We’re just here to talk, no harm will come to you. Isn’t that right, Draco?”
“Yes, mother.” Malfoy’s face instantly went blank.
Harry examined them both for a moment. “Just to talk, huh?”
Mrs. Malfoy nodded.
“Aunt Petunia it was nobody, I’m going out. If I’m not back by morning, assume I’m dead.” Harry yelled back behind him.
“Don’t yell so loudly.” Aunt Petunia chastised at the same volume but much more shrilly.
“Best thing you could ever do to our family.” Uncle Vernon yelled from the living room, probably about the death thing. He was not in a good mood today.
Harry glanced back longingly at the cupboard where they had locked away his wand once before closing the front door behind him.
Both Malfoy’s looked confused and a little offended. “This really won’t be a short conversation, it would probably be best…”
Harry interrupted Malfoy’s mother. “Be best if we talk anywhere but here. My muggle relatives have a strict no wizards in the house rule. If I invited you in I’d never hear the end of it, and any hope for a summer I had would be gone. They hate magic and anything to do with our world.”
Malfoy scuffed.
“How’d you sneak past my guard, because we’ll need to do it again.” Harry asked as he started leading them back out into the street.
“They’ll only be knocked out for a few hours.” Malfoy stated. “They’ll be fine.”
“Okay, I know a nice cafe nearby… if you don’t mind the muggle food. The owners like me, so we should be left alone.” Harry offered.
“That would be lovely.” Mrs. Malfoy smiled. Her smile wasn’t too bad.
Ten minutes later, they were seated at a booth with coffees in front of them at Harry’s favorite cafe.
“Well, you haven’t attacked me yet. I guess I’ll hear you out.” Harry said, taking a sip of his coffee.
“Well, first I suggest that we all call each other by our first names, so there is no confusion.” Mrs. Malfoy said.
Harry nodded his agreement, “I’m sorry, but I actually don’t know what your first name is.”
“Narcissa.”
“Okay, Narcissa, what is this about? How did you find me? And if you did, why is my house not flooded with Death Eaters?” Harry asked.
“We need your help.”
“No we don’t mother. I’ll be fine.” Draco protested.
“You will not be fine. You are just a child.” Narcissa hissed.
“I am actually technically younger than him so…” Harry trailed off, why was he trying to convince her that he was also a child. “How exactly am I supposed to help you? And with what?”
“Draco is only a child, he’s still in school, not even of age and the dark lord…” Nacissa sniffed and Draco looked away.
“My father is in Azkaban, so it was decided that the dark lord would recruit me early.” Draco clarified.
“You’re a death eater.” Harry stated.
“Yes.”
“He didn’t have a choice. Our family is not in his good graces at the moment. Draco couldn’t refuse. When the dark lord is angry…”
“I know what he does when he’s angry.” Harry reminded her, it looked like it was painful saying all of this. He tapped his temple, “Front row seat into his mind, remember. So what, Draco had to become a death eater so Voldemort wouldn’t kill or torchure the both of you. It’s not like Draco is very useful to him, unless he’s forcing you out of school.”
“He’s already given me a very important task, a mission.” Draco muttered.
“An impossible task. He knows that you’ll fail.” Narcissa corrected.
“So you need my help with an impossible task? Usually I’m all game, but not if it’s for Voldemort.” Harry replied.
“I have to… while we’re at school I have to kill Dumbledore.” Draco admitted.
“He’s insane. He’s too scared to face Dumbledore so he’s sending a 16 year old to do it for him. That fucking coward.” Harry then muttered some nasty things in some indian language neither of them understood. “Alright, I see why that would be a problem.”
“Draco’s going to get killed.” Narcissa stated as if it was already over.
“You want me to protect him? I don’t exactly have a track record of keeping other people alive. I always manage to get out fine, but protecting others is not exactly one of my strong suits. No matter how hard I try.” Harry said. “Go to Dumbledore, he’s big on second chances and forgiveness and shit.”
“He doesn’t exactly have a track record of keeping other people alive either.” Narcissa shook her head. “And no one can know about this. If we go to Dumbledore, we have to switch sides and then everyone will be out to get us. You’re good at keeping secrets. You kept my cousin’s secret for two years.”
“Lot of good that did him.” Harry scuffed. “But I guess you do have a point. I wouldn’t ask you to outright defy Voldy, Dumbldore probably would. But I am just a kid myself, I can’t offer you a place to hide or any kind of real protection. I don’t have a place in government to keep you from being arrested, how could I possibly help you?”
“You could help me kill Dumbledore for one.” Draco smirked.
Harry didn’t bother giving that a response.
“There is a spell that only you can do that will protect his mind.” Narcissa said.
“Why can only I do it?” Harry questioned.
“It's an ancient magic tide to the relationship between the two of you. Similar to your mother’s blood protection.” Narcissa explained.
“It’s more than just that I am obviously outmatched by the old fool. I’m a Healer, I am magically incapable of killing another person.” Draco sighed. “The spell is a kind of linking magic as well, you can use my healing magic and I can use your magic as a block against the healer magic to protect myself at the very least.”
“I would just like to make it clear that you are very lucky I have heard of the healer magic stuff on my own. Because no one has ever told me, and generally that means I don’t know about it. And if I didn’t already know about it I wouldn’t have believed you. I’m surprised you have it. Do the other death eaters know?” Harry said.
“No one knows but my mother, and now you.” Draco shook his head.
“Okay I can do the spell, but that surely can’t be everything you need.” Harry agreed.
“We’re going to ask you to make an Unbreakable Vow. That if I can’t kill Dumbledore. You will.” Draco said.
“And what makes you think I can, if you could get me to agree. I can’t beat Dumbledore in a duel any better than you can.” Harry questioned.
“He trusts you, you could kill him without a duel even being necessary.” Draco argued. “He needs you, so he’ll keep you close.”
“And what is an Unbreakable Vow?” Harry asked.
“Just like it sounds. It’s a vow on magic that you can’t break, if you do you’ll probably die. If you are even capable of dying.” Draco explained more patiently then Harry was expecting.
“Hmmm…” Harry stroked the edge of his coffee cup gently. “Anything else you guys want me to do out of the generosity of my own heart?”
“Just help him.” Narcissa pleaded.
Harry stared at his cup for a long time. “Can I ask for something in return?”
“Yes, almost anything.” Narcissa agreed. Draco doesn’t even bother protesting even though he looks like he wants to.
“I need a potions tutor, no way am I going to survive NEWT potions if I go on as I do. And Hermione’s study method doesn’t help me.” Harry said.
“Sounds easy enough. Though I am actually better at charms.” Draco agreed.
“I need to learn more about the wizarding world. There is so much there that no one has bothered to tell me because they think it’s just common sense, and I don’t know what I even have to ask.” Harry continued.
“Could be worse.” Draco nodded.
“I want to be updated on everything you're doing. I’m tired of having to figure out what is going on, on my own.” Harry said.
Draco clenched his jaw then took a deep breath. “Fine. I’ll keep you in the loop, as long as you don’t try to stop me.”
“No one can know about this. But in public we leave each other alone. Whether that’s because we have more important things to deal with or we simply don’t care anywhere.” Harry said.
“How does me being your tutor fit into that?” Draco questioned.
“Don’t tell anybody about it, and we have no reason to find an excuse.” Harry shrugged.
“So you really will do it?” Narcissa checked.
“Yes, you’re lucky I'm not as much of Dumbledore’s golden boy as everyone thinks. I know he’s trying to manipulate me, I don’t know why. But let’s just say I’m not his biggest fan at the moment either.” Harry looked away, watching one of the staff at the cafe whipping down one of the other tables. “If he had just done something… anything Sirius would still be alive right now.”
They sat in silence for a long moment.
“Do we have a timeline? How much time does Draco have to do the deed before I need to step in?” Harry questioned.
“At most we have until the end of the school year. Before Draco comes back home for summer vacation.” Narcissa sighed.
“Okay, if you haven’t killed him by the beginning of june then it’s my turn to figure it out. The death eaters need to think it was you right? So I’d just need to make it not obvious that I did it and then tell you how I did it so you can tell them it was you.” Harry ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath. “Okay, which one do we do first? The Vow or the Spell?”