In The Shadows² ★ Draco Malfoy

*And so it begins

"Aberforth's getting a bit annoyed," said Fred, raising his handin answer to several cries of greeting. "He wants a kip, and his bar'sturned into a railway station." Right behind Lee Jordan came Harry'sold girlfriend, Cho Chang. 

"I got the message," she said, holding up her own fake Galleon,and she walked over to sit beside Michael Corner. 

"So what's the plan, Harry?" said George. 

"There isn't one," said Harry 

"Just going to make it up as we go along, are we? My favouritekind," said Fred. 

"You've got to stop this!" Harry told Neville. "What did you callthem all back for? This is insane —" 

"We're fighting, aren't we?" said Dean, taking out his fake Galleon. "The message said Harry was back, and we were going to fight!I'll have to get a wand, though —" 

"You haven't got a wand — ?" began Seamus. 

Briar rolled her eyes and marched firmly up to Harry, and grabbed him by the arm "Why can't they help?" she said quietly

"What?" 

"They can help."

Ron nodded nervously and looked at Harry "Wedon't know where it is. We've got to find it fast. We don't have totell them it's a Horcrux." Briar furrowed her eyebrows

"I thinkRon's right. We don't even know what we're looking for, we needthem." Hermione murmured. And when Harry looked unconvinced, "You don't have todo everything alone, Harry."

"All right," he said quietly "Okay," he called tothe room at large, and all noise ceased: Fred and George, who hadbeen cracking jokes for the benefit of those nearest, fell silent, andall of them looked alert, excited. "There's something we need to find," Harry said. "Something — something that'll help us overthrow You-Know-Who. It'shere at Hogwarts, but we don't know where. It might have belonged to Ravenclaw. Has anyone heard of an object like that?Has anyone ever come across something with her eagle on it, forinstance?" He looked hopefully toward the little group of Ravenclaws,

Luna answered,perched on the arm of Ginny's chair. "Well, there's her lost diadem. I told you about it, remember,Harry? The lost diadem of Ravenclaw? Daddy's trying to duplicate it." 

"Yeah, but the lost diadem," said Michael, rolling his eyes, "is lost, Luna. That's sort of the point." 

"When was it lost?" asked Harry. 

"Centuries ago, they say," said Cho, "Professor Flitwick says the diadem vanished with Ravenclaw herself.People have looked, but," she appealed to her fellow Ravenclaws, "nobody's ever found a trace of it, have they?" They all shook their heads. 

"Sorry, but what is a diadem?" asked Ron. 

"It's a kind of crown," said Terry Boot. "Ravenclaw's was supposedto have magical properties, enhance the wisdom of the wearer." 

"Yes, Daddy's Wrackspurt siphons —" 

But Harry cut across Luna. "And none of you have ever seen anything that looks like it?" They all shook their heads again. Harry looked crestfallen and the room fill silent.

However, Chospoke again. "If you'd like to see what the diadem's supposed to look like, Icould take you up to our common room and show you, Harry?Ravenclaw's wearing it in her statue."

Again Harry suddenly seemed woozy, and Briar only now realised it must be because Voldemort was in his head

"He's on the move," Harry whispered to them three "Listen, I know it's not muchof a lead, but I'm going to go and look at this statue, at least findout what the diadem looks like. Wait for me here and keep, youknow — the other one — safe." 

Cho had got to her feet, but Ginny said rather fiercely, "No, Lunawill take Harry, won't you, Luna?" 

"Oooh, yes, I'd like to," said Luna happily, and Cho sat downagain, looking disappointed, whilst Briar stifled a grin 

"How do we get out?" Harry asked Neville. 

"Over here." He led Harry and Luna to a corner, where a small cupboardopened onto a steep staircase. "It comes out somewhere different every day, so they've neverbeen able to find it," he said. "Only trouble is, we never know exactlywhere we're going to end up when we go out. Be careful, Harry,they're always patrolling the corridors at night." 

"No problem," said Harry. "See you in a bit." He and Luna hurried up the staircase and disappeared. 

"What do we do now?" Seamus asked and everyone turned back to the other three

"We need to get ready to fight" Briar ordered "Everyone grab your wands and do whatever you have to to get ready. Call as many DA members here as you can get. Either by the coins or patronuses it doesn't matter, they'll already know we're in the castle."

The room turned from one of calm, to one of chaos instantly. People were scrambling around grabbing wands, coins, or casting charms.

"Briar!" Hermione exclaimed and began searching through her beaded bag "I forgot you gave me this!" From deep in the bag she pulled out a familiar long wand and when it touched Briar's hand, she had never felt more comfortable

"Thank you," she smiled in relief

"Also, what's Malfoy doing here?" Ron spat

"Long story" Came the drawling voice of none other than Draco himself "But I left the Death Eaters and I'm here to fight with you. Whether you trust me or not is irrelevant, but you need me right now, Weasley. So can we put it all aside for this?" He held out a hand and Ron eyed him angrily. But after a harsh elbow to the ribs from Hermione, Ron reluctantly shook his hand

"Okay now that you two are done eye-hating each other, move on" Briar interrupted and they quickly dropped their hands, flushing furiously. Draco shook his head and began racing for the door, but Briar quickly grabbed his hand to stop him "Where are you going?"

"I have something I need to do," he answered "I'll be safe. I promise"

"But-"

He took one large step towards her, cupped her cheek, and brought his lips down against hers firmly. The kiss was nowhere near as long as the last one, and when he pulled away Briar wished he hadn't "I promise," he whispered and then turned his back and hurried out of the room

Just as that door closed, the back door opened, and when Briar saw who was coming through, her heart filled with pride and hope. "Dad?"