The Reason Why

Chapter Eight – The Reason Why

The three people jumped to their feet as one. Harry hurried to recover Mrs. Black's portrait while Tonks and Ron went to open the front door, wands drawn. The sight that met their eyes was more than unexpected.

"Charlie? What do you... who is that?" Tonks asked, both curious and startled.

"The young Malfoy. The details will have to wait for later. He isn't very well. Can you Floo Poppy for me?"

"Sure," Tonks replied, stepping aside for them to pass.

"You can put him in Fred and George's room; they won't be back anytime soon," said the calm voice of Molly Weasley, who had been woken by Mrs. Black. She eyed the unconscious boy speculatively.

Ron followed his brother up the stairs and motioned for Harry to come along.

Once the Malfoy heir was settled in and Molly was out of earshot in the kitchen, the questions burst out of the two boys.

"What did you bring him here for?"

"You brought an enemy into headquarters?"

"Have you forgotten what he did and tried to do?"

"What if the Death Eaters are following him?"

It was such a jumble of questions that Charlie couldn't distinguish most of them. "Calm down. Bill and I found him in a Muggle hospital in London. It seems that he sustained severe nerve-damage, Cruciatus, I reckon," Charlie explained. "Maybe he can answer some of our questions, maybe he knows where Hermione is. If not, well, we can always hand him over to the Aurors."

Harry huffed and reluctantly accepted the situation. Malfoy was surely no threat in his current state.

Moments later Poppy Pomfrey, closely followed by Mrs. Weasley, brushed past the boys, shooing them out of the room.

"I'm hungry. Let's make some breakfast," Charlie suggested, and together the three descended the stairs. Ron nearly fell when he crashed into something solid.

"Ouch," a high voice squeaked, pulling the Invisibility Cloak away. "Ginny! What the hell?" Ron huffed, the collision had momentarily knocked the breath out of him.

"I wanted to know what happened. Mum caught me when I tried to sneak down to look what was happening, so I..." Her voice trailed off as her eyes fell on the dark haired boy she missed so much in the last weeks. "Harry!" She squealed, pouncing on him. Her arms went around his neck, and she buried her head in his shoulder.

Harry held on to her, his stomach doing flip-flops. They may have split up, but he still felt strongly for her. The loud clearing of a throat broke them apart.

"Now that we are all awake," Arthur Weasley announced, "we can set the table and have a family breakfast. You have a lot of explaining to do, Charlie."

~o~o~o~

The bright sunlight streaming through the bedside window roused the wizard from his almost comatose sleep. He cracked an eye open only to growl and roll to his side. Someone had pulled open the dark drapes on the window. He couldn't sleep like that, although he felt as if he were dead. His head was so heavy; he had no energy to get up just yet.

A nagging thought in his mind kept him from drifting off again, something important. An image of a young woman's frightened eyes made its way to the forefront of his musings. His hand wandered to the other side of his bed. Nothing. He sat up. Hermione wasn't there. Panic gripped him. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and padded into the bathroom. It was empty. 'She has left me,' he thought. 'What if she didn't go willingly? What if Lucius came back?'

Severus hurried out of the door and down the stair. He grabbed his travelling cloak and was about to bolt out of the door when the clinking of glasses met his ears. The kitchen door was closed, but the sound of light footsteps was unmistakable.

In five big strides, Severus had crossed the room. He opened the door and breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Hermione was busy with breakfast preparations. She had already set the table and was at the moment rummaging through the cupboards. The logical part of his mind broke out into laughter, and rightly so. His house was so heavily warded she would never have been able to leave without his help. All means of magical travel were inhibited; his doors and windows were guarded by dark magic.

"Morning," she greeted him brightly. "I made something to eat. I hope you don't mind." She then turned to look at him. "Are you going somewhere?"

"No... I just... never mind," he grumbled. "I was a bit... erm, cold," he lied.

"See, I told you, you would catch a cold. I'll make you a camomile tea, and then it's off to bed again," Hermione stated firmly. Severus took the seat right in front of him, amused that she tried to boss him around. It reminded him of the way Molly Weasley had fussed over him whenever he had come to report after a summoning.

"I'm fine, no need for such drastic measures," he argued. She finished her preparations and plopped down opposite him. "Your stores are really impressive, considering you don't leave this house," Hermione stated conversationally.

"Albus charmed them for me a long time ago," Severus answered her implied question. "I lived here during the summer holidays, and he insisted that I was provided with food in case something happened that would make me unable to venture outside."

Hermione only nodded. She had detected the bitterness in his voice when he spoke about the deceased headmaster. The whistling of the teapot broke the awkward silence. Hermione rose and busied herself with preparing the tea. Severus' eyes followed her every move.

"I'm sorry for my behaviour last night. I shouldn't have shouted. I took my anger out on you," he said when Hermione turned to place a cup in front of him.

Hermione took a deep breath, seated herself, and raised her eyes to his. "It's okay," she acknowledged. She didn't tell him that she had panicked because he had shared her bed. She had admitted to herself when she had gotten up earlier that she felt more secure with him so close by her side. He was no monster; he wouldn't hurt her. It had been her own jumbled emotions that had dictated her reaction to him.

"Who was at the door last night?" She dreaded the answer, but needed to know.

Severus sighed heavily before setting his fork down and answering. "Lucius Malfoy. He informed me that I would be summoned soon. Apparently the Dark Lord has work for me. I wondered when the moment would come; why he hadn't bothered to have me killed yet." Hermione almost choked on her juice.

'And if it weren't for you, I would have taken my own life yesterday,' he added in his head. He had considered it briefly. But the remembered feeling of Hermione's small frame pressed to his made it impossible.

"What does he want you to do?" Hermione inquired, her eyes wide with fear.

"He needs me to brew a potion." He wanted to spare her the details, but knew he had to tell her. "He wants the Adficio Affectus," he trailed off, trying to gauge her reaction. Her face went from puzzlement, to understanding, to puzzlement.

"It means to exhaust or drain emotion, but I have never heard of a potion by that name," Hermione said, her food quite forgotten.

"I'm not surprised. It's a very Dark potion. There is no record of its formula in any of the books I have ever seen, but Lucius led me to believe that the Dark Lord has found the recipe. I only know stories about it. It is said to require unicorn blood and some other cursed ingredients."

"What does it do?"

"Exactly what the name suggests. Whoever drinks it is able to draw on the emotions of the people around them. Magic feeds on emotions; Potter is the best example of that. It leaves the victims in a state not unlike that of a Dementor's kiss victim."

"How do you know that much, if you can't even be sure it exists?"

"You misunderstand me, Hermione. I don't doubt that it existed once, as there are many references to it in the more questionable potions texts. The potion is legend, just as the Elixir of Life."

The rest of the breakfast passed in silence, the two occupants of Spinner's End deeply lost in thought.

~o~o~o~

"You did what!" Molly Weasley was in a rage. She towered over Charlie, her right index finger poking into his chest repeatedly. As demanded by his father, Charlie had recounted the events that led to Malfoy's presence at number twelve, Grimmauld Place. "First you break into a hospital, then you bribe the goblins to lend you a flying car, and to top it all off, you kidnap a patient – a Malfoy at that!"

"Mum, he would have wasted away in there. What if he knows where Hermione is? You taught us that even an enemy deserves respect," Bill had just returned and immediately came to the defence of his brother.

"You... you... wait until Fleur hears about that. You are lucky she is staying in Paris with her sister until the weekend. That should give you enough time to think up ways to pacify her," Molly admonished.

"I am glad you brought him," Poppy Pomfrey said in a clipped tone. "He would be beyond my aid, if he had stayed there a day longer. I had to treat not only his nerve damage but also the addiction to a strong Muggle sedative."

Molly's anger deflated just as quickly as it had built. She let herself fall backwards into a free chair, only to jump up again. She picked up the object she had accidentally sat on. "Who's is this?" she asked the assembled.

Harry eyes went wide with shock at seeing the Weasley matriarch dangling Slytherin's locket over the table. "It's... I came down to talk to Remus about it... I found it in a box in the attic... it is... belonged to Slytherin," Harry stuttered.

"Would you all leave the kitchen? I need to have a private word with Harry," Arthur Weasley ordered, snatching the locket out of his wife's hand. The protest died in her throat; quickly she shoved her children out of the door, Pomfrey and Tonks trotting behind them.

Once they were alone, Arthur beckoned Harry to step away from the table. He sat the locket down in the middle and unsheathed his wand. "Specialis revelio!" he intoned clearly. The locket remained unchanged. Several revealing charms later, Arthur sat down, shaking his head in disbelief.

"The locket once carried strong dark power, Harry." Arthur Weasley explained. "I don't know what destroyed it, but the object is now harmless."

"It was a Horcrux," Harry said in a hushed voice. "Dumbledore told me. He wanted me to know how to destroy Voldemort," here Harry paused. Locking eyes with Arthur he continued, "You know, don't you? He told you as well."

"Yes, I know how He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named survived all those years. His soul was still bound to this world by the soul fragments he left behind."

Harry nodded and repeated the tale of the accidental magic.

"Who knows about the Horcruxes?" Arthur asked, after hearing the story.

"Ron and Hermione know everything Dumbledore told me about Voldemort. And I told Ron about finding the locket earlier," Harry said earnestly.

"The Order will need to be informed," the older man said, seeing Harry's look of protest, he quickly added, "At least some members, Remus, Tonks, Minerva, and maybe Kingsley."

Harry nodded. He knew that he needed help to find and destroy the remaining soul fragments.

Jacob's Notes: This is my fiancée's story, but since she has a broken elbow, I'm in charge of uploading for the time being. I realize that this is important to her and her readers, and so I will assist her to the best of my abilities.