The Half-Blood Princess

Draco's Plan

"It's here! Draco, the owl came!" Harry came tearing through the manor, waving the small package they had received from Albus and Scorpius.

"All right, calm down. You're acting like a third-year after his first Honeyduke's trip," Draco drawled, but he was smiling. And he had to admit, now that the final potion ingredients were in his hands, he was excited and a little nervous. Being the godson of Severus Snape taught him many things, most of all that an untested potion could be deadly. Draco knew that this potion might in all actuality harm both him and his lover, but he had to try.

He went into the room he had cleared for his brewing, looking at the extra-large cauldron bubbling with a silvery substance. Daffodil root, unicorn hair and horn, the petals of one finely-ground sunflower, lacewing flies, dried nettles, white dove feathers, thirty-eight eggs (Harry had asked him if he was making a potion or omelette), water from a running spring, and now the final two ingredients necessary to complete the potion.

If this went wrong, he'd be devastated. Or dead. Or both. If it went wrong, maybe it was better he was dead, because if it went awry and he lived, he knew of one person who would make his an Harry's lives a living Hell. If it went right...well, that was the plan. That was what he wanted and had been working for since Christmas.

"Wait," Harry said.

Draco sighed. "What now?"

"What if...y'know...what if this doesn't purge the darkness from the second object? What will you do?" he asked.

Draco held his wand in his free hand and said, "What I have to."

Harry stood behind him, holding him close as he began to final two steps of the potion, using his wan to recite the proper Latin incantation.

"Esse apud vos modo in luce resurrectionis."

Plop went the first ingredient, and the silver turned slightly pinkish, swirling now faster than it had been before.

"Anima perditas ad nos in nomine dilecti lumine."

Plop went the final ingredient, melting down in the bubbling potion. Harry and Draco both held their breaths to see what would happen now...

****

"They're gone! Good bloody fuck, how could they be gone? The stone is enchanted, so maybe it moved itself: it's possible, but where is my necklace?" Harley was shouting at the house elves in the kitchen.

She'd gone to bed once she'd been done crying the night before, rewrapping the stone in the cloth and placing her Prince family heirloom right next to her bedside as she did every night. When she had woken this morning, both had disappeared. Her engagement ring from Fred was still there. She warded her chambers and office at night so that none could enter but she...and the house elves. Unless she had been sleepwalking, it had to have been one of the elves that took it.

"One of you had to have taken it, and I demand you come forth...now!" Okay, even I heard my father in my voice just now.

They all looked shocked and scared, as usual Winky was crying, but none looked guilty. And none came forth with a confession.

Eventually, Minerva came and got her, reminding her that ghosts were impervious to any wards she might have put into place, which aroused her anger even more. If Peeves had taken them, she was sure to never see them ever again, The thought that her special gift from her father was gone made her feel worse than she already had.

She sat down to breakfast with a sigh, unwilling to deal with the noise and chatter of the students. James was glaring holes into his porridge; he had obviously gotten her notice that he should leave the Invisibility Cloak at home from now on. The kids hadn't used it last night, but who knew how many times he had?