Chapter 153: 2-1

The man slammed him into the wall. Too young to be called an adult, but with a level of resolve far beyond a child, the boy raised his voice, uncaring of the eyes around them.

"Why did you Apparate!? Maria—I hadn't grabbed Maria's hand yet! We left her behind—because of you!"

"Stop it, Harry! Draco made the right call. We couldn't wait any longer."

"So we just abandon her!? She's my family! She's my sister! If she gets caught—what will they do to her!?"

"She won't get caught."

The boy, struggling to maintain his composure even as he was hoisted up by his collar, took a short breath and looked at the boy in front of him with defiant eyes. A furious green. A nostalgic gleam. He scolded his own heart, which threatened to soar at this wildly inappropriate time.

"She won't get caught. Absolutely not."

"How could you—"

"That place is overflowing with her most beloved people. Your sibling won't crumble over something like this."

"How dare you speak like you know everything when you're the one who left her behind!"

"Harry, calm down! This is no time to be fighting. We need to at least change locations."

It was then that the boy, who had been shouting in a fury, finally noticed the curious stares piercing him from all directions. They were in the middle of a noisy, neon-lit street. —The Muggle world.

Out of the four of them, the one who had grabbed Harry and instantly Apparated was the pure-blood wizard, Draco Malfoy. The sheer unexpectedness of him knowing a Muggle street unwittingly cooled Harry's boiling emotions.

"This is no good, we stand out too much in these clothes. We need to change—hold onto me."

Even as she told them to hold on, Hermione grabbed both of their arms herself and Apparated once more. (Ron had been gripping Hermione's arm from the start and hadn't let go.)

Appearing in a place away from the blinding glare of the city, the group headed down an alleyway without a word of consultation. Draco, who had somewhat of a fastidious streak, frowned slightly at the trash-strewn corners and walls stained with exhaust and spray paint, but he seemed to swallow his complaints.

"You say change, but what about our luggage?"

"It's all in here. Yours too, Harry."

Hermione gave the beaded bag, upon which she had placed an Undetectable Extension Charm, a light shake. A heavy clattering sound, like a tiny avalanche, echoed from within.

"Oh, no! The books must have collapsed... And after I'd stacked them by subject, too."

"You really are..."

Ron, wearing an ambiguous expression—unsure whether to praise her or check her sanity—had a random set of clothes thrust upon him. Harry received the same. Then, glancing at the strikingly handsome blond, Draco Malfoy, Hermione awkwardly shifted her appraising gaze to Ron.

"Well, Draco is taller than Harry—and even though Harry doesn't look like himself right now, he'll be back to normal in a few minutes—um, Ron... I think your clothes would fit him perfectly."

Looking exactly as if someone had shoved something foul under his nose, Ron shot a sideways glare at the insufferable prat who managed to look effortlessly cool just standing there, looked back at Hermione, and gave a tiny nod. The sheer fact that he undeniably won in the height department was the only thing soothing Ron's masculine pride.

"Coming to a Muggle street was brilliant quick thinking, Draco. But we need to find a place to settle down and hide immediately... We can't live in hotels forever. Vol—"

"Don't say it!"

The three, now changed into Muggle clothing (Hermione, being the only girl, had borrowed Harry's Invisibility Cloak while changing), jumped at Draco's sudden barked order. Harry even pulled out his wand on reflex.

"Draco?"

"You must not speak 'You-Know-Who's' name."

Harry, still overflowing with resentment over the situation with Maria, took the opportunity to scoff at him.

"You're surprisingly a coward, aren't you, Draco?"

"That's not it!"

Draco snapped back childishly, then quickly cleared his throat. Whenever that face looked at him with such cheek—it was just a reflex for him, too.

"...No, let me correct myself. You're right. I am a coward. I'm afraid of dying, and I'm afraid of being hunted. I'm even afraid of losing things. I freely admit it. But that's not the only reason."

If Maria had been there, she likely would have teased him half-jokingly about how much the stubborn rich boy had softened up. However, the three of them didn't know the truly malicious side of the original Draco Malfoy. They could only hold their breath and listen to the suppressed persuasion of a young man they had come to respect.

"If you speak 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's' name, it will be detected. A Curse like that has already been put in place. 'He' knows that you lot aren't afraid to say it."

Ron opened his mouth to call it rubbish, but it was Hermione who stopped him.

"...It's possible. Vol— (Draco glared at Hermione, a hint of fear in his eyes.) Yes, yes, alright. 'You-Know-Who' is a genius, even Dumbledore admitted that—though he chose the worst possible way to use it. Now that the Ministry of Magic has fallen, he can easily rewrite the rules however he likes. It makes perfect sense."

Hermione stopped in her tracks, and Ron, Draco, and Harry stopped with her.

"But, how do you know that—?"

Draco, wearing his Muggle clothes surprisingly well, gave a fearless smirk.

"Have you forgotten? I am Maria's 'accomplice'."

As if on cue, the six eyes belonging to everyone but Draco met.

The three of them, who had shared their secrets and resolved to travel together, were completely at a loss as to what to do with the unplanned addition of Draco Malfoy. After all, he shouldn't have known about the Horcruxes, the very purpose of their journey—getting him involved was an entirely unforeseen accident.

But, judging by the way he was acting...

"—Maria, wasn't it?"

At Harry's vague confirmation, Draco borrowed the bag from Hermione and pulled a certain object out from within.

"You, that's—!"

"—You're looking for the rest of these, aren't you?"

Slytherin's locket, which was supposed to have been tucked deep inside Hermione's beaded bag, hidden within Harry's rucksack, was swinging back and forth on its delicate chain, gleaming menacingly.

"Why—"

"Harry, apparently you're the only one who can open this."

"...Maria told you that?"

"Exactly. And she wanted me to accompany you."

"…………"

The Horcrux was stowed back inside the bag. Hermione received it and carefully drew it shut, handling it as if it were an explosive.

"She saw right through us. Maria's signature charm, I suppose. It hasn't changed since back then, when she just sat and watched us desperately trying to protect the Philosopher's Stone, even though she already knew everything. That girl truly is—a 'wizard'."

"Maria's a witch, isn't she?"

Ron, who had instinctively resumed walking as his impatience grew, tilted his head as if to say, What are you on about now?

"In the Muggle world, people describe things that are mysterious, impossible, or miraculous as being 'like magic'. And she is exactly that—'like magic', isn't she?"

Harry, the only one of the three boys who understood Muggle common sense, burst into laughter. It seemed to relax him, just a little. Watching him from the corner of his eye, Draco recalled something. The words she—no, he—had spoken after Dumbledore's funeral.

"I want to give this to you."

Having been dragged to the Horcrux storage room and made to help unseal the box, Draco stared in stunned silence at the beautiful yet sinister locket resting in his palm. Maria had just smirked with a somewhat mischievous look in his eyes, saying, Don't you go getting captivated by it too.

"Weren't we supposed to keep it stored away until the final battle—?"

"That was the plan, but thinking about it, we'll need Parseltongue to open it. Unfortunately, that's completely beyond me right now. —Just scratching the surface won't destroy it. You have to pierce it directly on the inside. ...It's a promise I made to Dumbledore, too."

Draco traced the green 'S', feeling a strange unrest in his heart just holding it. ...Of course, he had fought—no, discussed with him many times that he would rather hold onto it himself than leave it with him.

Draco pondered the meaning behind Maria so casually handing over the Horcrux now, when he had stubbornly refused to entrust it to anyone since that incident. —Which meant.

"Are you telling me to join your journey?"

"—No."

Maria slowly shook his head. As the red hair swayed, it revealed a slender neck carrying a few scars. Draco couldn't help but be aware of the sudden skip in his own heartbeat. —And then, an even greater shock awaited him.

"I'm staying at Hogwarts."

"────Huh?"

Should I wrap it in something? I feel like that's better than holding it directly, Maria said at his own pace, trying to wrap the locket in a handkerchief. Draco grabbed his hand. Maria blinked, his large, cat-like hazel eyes going round as he looked up at Draco innocently.

"Are you out of your mind? Harry Potter will be wanted nationwide. I saw enough wanted posters of you back then to last a lifetime. And his blood sibling—is going to stay at Hogwarts?"

"That's right. I, Maria, am entirely unnecessary for their journey—and that's exactly why there are things only I can do."

A look of pure determination. Draco had seen that exact look in green eyes time and time again. It had been directed at him. Even though the color was now hazel—his soul remained the same.

Using one hand, Maria took back the hand Draco had grabbed, wrapping Draco's hand along with the locket within his own delicate, girlish palms. He smiled, looking up at the young man before him, who looked far more anxious than he did.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to just waltz right back in as a student like a complete idiot. I've got a plan. —There's something I absolutely have to complete at Hogwarts."

Harry Potter's journey had no need for Maria Potter. Therefore—I will become the place you can all return to.

"I want you to see it through. My journey. Not anyone else, you."

"────"

The brilliance he had once yearned for, hated, and sought, changed its color and pierced Draco Malfoy. It shook him. It captivated him.

"You don't need to intervene. You don't even have to give them hints. Because I will see it done. That journey is indispensable to Harry Potter's life. Earning Ron and Hermione was just as—important."

"I cheated with this locket because I wanted Sirius to know of his courage, but—I won't interfere any further. From here on out, I will fight my own battle, as Maria."

Pulling his hand, the hazel eyes drew closer to the ice-gray eyes situated higher than the girlish Maria. Reflected in them was a girl. —Himself. Maria Potter.

"Watch the 'Harry Potter' you hated, became friends with, and eventually went completely mad and fell for. Draco Malfoy."

Draco could no longer tell if the thing in his hand was pulsing, if it was the pulse of the girl's hands, or his own heartbeat. It didn't matter. ────He already understood.

"Challenge accepted, then."

Maria's eyes widened at Draco, who had agreed with his usual snide, infuriating expression. Then, he looked away, hiding his agitation beneath his eyelashes.

Maria knew just how grueling the Horcrux hunt would be. He had occasionally dropped hints to Draco over drinks, but that wasn't the half of it. How much the parting with Ron would crush Harry—how close the fangs of Nagini, wearing Bathilda's corpse, would come—Draco Malfoy had no need to know those things.

He would surely go through hell. One wrong step and he might actually──── Even so.

Maria 'believed' in Draco just as much as he did in his old partners.

"I forbid you from dying. Listen to me, the final destination of their journey is Hogwarts. They will return seeking Ravenclaw's Diadem. And you will be the one to unseal it. You have to be there. I won't ask for the impossible and tell you to come back without a scratch. ────Just live, and come back to me."

In response to the plea that sounded almost sweet, Draco slid a finger down the girl's cheek.

You are right here, at this distance. The person he was never supposed to have. Now that these feelings had grown so completely—as if he'd ever surrender his bond with him to something like death now.

"In war, the brave die, and the cowards survive. And I am a coward. My father and mother were cowards too. We were terrified of losing what we had. That's why we survived. We struggled and fought just to live."

"I will survive, no matter what it takes or what I have to use. I'm not going to do something as idiotic as throw my life away to protect you. I'll use any underhanded trick I have to survive—and I will come back to you. So you'd better do whatever it takes to survive, too."

"……As expected of my cowardly Malfoy."

Maria broke into a bright, crinkling smile in Draco's arms.

"──Draco?"

"……Nothing."

Where should they seek refuge── Draco, listening with half an ear to the discussion of the three he originally had no place interfering with, was brought back to reality by the strength of Harry grabbing his arm. Before he knew it, he had grown more accustomed to the softness of a girl than to this grip.

"A Muggle hotel would be fine for a few days... but they'd track us down in no time. Our best bet is,"

"Grimmauld Place."

Three pairs of eyes snapped to Draco Malfoy.

"How about your house?"

Meeting those ice-gray eyes head-on, Harry looked away toward Hermione, as if trying to escape the gaze.

"We can't, Draco. Snape can get in there."

"Then we just make sure he can't. The Black house is protected by the Fidelius Charm, isn't it? Meaning the only one we need to watch out for is Professor Snape,"

"'Professor'?"

"……Excuse me. Your natural enemy, Severus Snape, and him alone. I think it will be a far more stable setup than wandering around on edge all the time."

"But how?"

"We can think about that────once we get there."

The three of them understood the meaning behind Draco's irresponsible suggestion the moment they stood before the house.

"I have been waiting for you, Harry Potter, sir!"

"Dobby?"

The cheerful little neighbor to wizards──Dobby──was happily cleaning the house.

"Why are you here?"

"Dobby was asked by Maria Potter, sir! Kreacher is staying at Hogwarts, so Maria Potter wanted to entrust this important house to Dobby. To Harry Potter's friend, Dobby!"

Puffing out his little chest, Dobby looked at Draco.

"Because Dobby is a free house-elf, sir!"

Clearly challenged by his former servant, Draco shrugged, feeling as if he could see Maria chuckling in the shadows. ……Looks like the title of 'mastermind' is starting to suit him.

"That makes sense. Even though Kreacher's ownership──I hate using that word──passed from Sirius to Harry, I don't know if he could resist Bellatrix, a former Black. It's a sound plan. ……And I don't really want to show him that locket, either. Say, Dobby, it was Maria who told you the address to this house, right? Has anyone else been here since? Like──Snape, for instance?"

"No, miss. Dobby has been cleaning the house since the Hogwarts summer holidays, but Dobby has been all alone. Because Maria Potter said Dobby must not let anyone in, no matter who they are, except for Harry Potter and his friends!"

Harry's heart ached as he was guided into the sitting room, which looked exactly as it did in his last memories of it. He was no longer here──Sirius, the man he had looked up to as a father. And Maria wasn't coming back either.

Draco looked around the Black family's main residence, stepping into it for the first time.

"Dobby worked very hard! The house was covered in dust, and when Dobby got startled and yelped, Mrs. Black made a fuss too. So Dobby hurried and blocked up the door!"

"Ah……"

Harry groaned internally as he remembered the one time he had seen the horrifying face and heard the shrieks of Mrs. Black, whom Sirius had supposedly physically sealed away. It certainly was intense. As Dobby cheerfully prepared tea, the four of them took their seats. Naturally, the topic shifted to the remaining Horcruxes. Explanations for Draco were, of course, skipped.

"What we need to find is Hufflepuff's Cup. Ravenclaw's Diadem is──"

Green eyes looked at Draco.

"……When the time comes, I believe they'll hand it over to us."

"Who will?"

"Who knows. Anyway, we need to figure out where Hufflepuff's Cup is and find a weapon to destroy the Horcruxes. We used the Sword of Gryffindor for the diary, but the sword isn't here."

"Even though it officially became Harry's property in Dumbledore's will... Thanks to the stingy Ministry of Magic."

"There's no point complaining about that now. Scrimgeour died defying 'You-Know-Who', after all. How about this? Once we get Hufflepuff's Cup, we find a way back into Hogwarts and destroy all three Horcruxes with the Sword of Gryffindor."

"And how exactly do we get the Sword of Gryffindor out? Snape will be in the Headmaster's office anyway──"

Ron's words were cut off unnaturally. Harry had suddenly slumped over the desk with a groan. He was writhing in agony, clutching his scar. Dobby, who had just returned to the sitting room with a tea set on a tray, jumped in shock and fell over backwards.

It was the first time Draco had witnessed the connection between Harry's scar and Voldemort's emotions. ────It was gruesome.

"He's────furious."

"Harry! That connection is dangerous──you have to close your mind properly!"

"He's losing his self-control. Where is he──? He's looking for a wand──? Does this have something to do with my wand acting strange when I faced him?"

"Harry, stop!"

Hermione shrieked. Her piercing voice seemed to assault Harry's head even further, tormenting him.

"Calm down, Hermione. Hey, Harry…… it's not my house, is it? Can you see The Burrow?"

"No. But his anger is incredible──"

"Ron, don't try to use Harry when he's like this! It's too dangerous! The other side could show him false visions and trick him. What do you think Occlumency is for?"

"I can't do Occlumency! Just lower your voice a bit, would you? It's echoing in my head."

Draco pulled away, completely put off by the chaotic shrieking and yelling of the trio. No, the words had slipped out before he could stop them.

"You really were hopeless at it, weren't you……"

"Huh!?"

"No, nothing."

Intimidated by Harry's fury, Draco's inherent faintheartedness flared up, and he snapped his mouth shut instantly. ……What did he mean, 'he mastered it ages ago', that liar. He's actually terrible at it. ……She was just acting tough.

"Harry Potter is sick! This is terrible!"

Cleaning up the dropped tray and tea set with a flick of his finger, Dobby dashed out into the hallway. He might have gone to prepare fresh tea. Meanwhile, Hermione screamed again, and Harry and Draco unconsciously drew their wands.

The Patronuses of a weasel and a stag were standing in the center of the room.

"Family safe. Do not reply. We are being watched." ──said the weasel.

"Is my vampire there? I'm trusting that the three of you and the one tagalong are all together. No need to reply. Oh, and I'm safe." ──It was Maria's stag.

Hermione's legs gave out and she collapsed to the floor. Ron instantly rushed over to support her, earning a tiny bit of newfound respect from Draco.

"Everyone──everyone is safe──Maria, too. Ron, your family is safe."

"Yeah……"

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The stag circled around the four of them protectively before fading away.

There was one month left until the new term began at Hogwarts, which had just lost Dumbledore. ──And so began the life of four humans and one house-elf.