"I've read about it." Draco's eyes were glittering with determination. "It's a thing twins can do. Twins are special, you know? We share the same magic, or at least our magic is more similar to each other's than it is to anyone else's. And some people think we share the same soul. I'll feed you part of my soul if I have to, Henry."
Harry shuddered and slumped against his brother. Draco promptly wrapped an arm around him, murmuring into Harry's ear.
"I love you. I'm always going to be here for you. I promise. No matter what, I'll be there for you."
Harry turned his head and grabbed onto Draco with all the strength he had. Draco held him back.
"Are you sure that this is the best idea, to do it so soon?"
Narcissa didn't look up from where she was slowly pacing the length of the ritual circle that occupied the cavernous space in the Malfoy cellars. Andromeda had only been here once before, when she had begun preparing the space to take the shard—the cancer—out of Henry. "Henry wants it done before he goes back to Hogwarts. So we are going to do it."
Andromeda shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself. The space was deep and cold and echoing. She could feel flickers of motion and strength and intelligence in the walls, up and down the carvings of dragons and lizards and bats with faces like a lizard's.
Something was watching her. It thought of her as a stranger. It didn't want her here.
Andromeda shook her head violently. This was the most well-protected space in the Manor, and the only one that was capable of containing the kind of concussive shock she expected to cause Henry once she started using the healing spells to hammer on his soul. Or, well, to contain the Horcrux once it realized it was being interfered with.
Andromeda had brought up that possibility to Narcissa and Lucius, to see if it would change what they said. But Narcissa had only given her an incredibly patient look, and Lucius had scoffed a little.
"You think that we would hold back on healing our son, freeing him from this, because of fear of the thing?"
That wasn't exactly why Andromeda had brought it up in the first place, but she also knew that she wouldn't get anywhere by saying that. So she held her peace, and walked around the outside of the ritual circle again.
It was a ring of pure silver, set into the stone floor and overlapping more carvings of dragons and lizards. Andromeda had been uneasy about that, worried about breaching the integrity of the circle, but Lucius had assured her that it would be all right. Apparently, dragons and lizards had some kind of ancestral connection with Malfoys, and having their representations here would ensure that everything would go right.
Or something to that effect.
The things Andromeda had added were sketches of stars and constellations all along the edges of the circle, in between the carvings of dragons and lizards. She would have liked to carve them, but then they would have competed with the other carvings and possibly drained their power. She would have nothing go wrong while she worked to save Henry.
"You realize that we may call on more than ourselves with this ritual," Narcissa whispered. She had halted by the constellation of Ursa Major that Andromeda had sketched at the northernmost point of the circle.
Andromeda looked at her steadily. "Do you think Henry would be in danger from that? I promise, he will not be."
"No. I simply wonder what the reaction will be."
Andromeda shook her head. "I don't care."
After a moment, Narcissa inclined her head in acknowledgment.
Sirius flung himself back on the couch and stared at the ceiling of Grimmauld Place's drawing room with a sigh. He didn't even have Remus to complain to, since he was on a mission for Dumbledore.
Dumbledore.
Sirius scowled and took a swig of his Firewhisky so big that it made him cough and splutter. Maybe he shouldn't have done that. Maybe he shouldn't have confronted Harry, for that matter. Maybe he should have gone along with the bloody indirect plan where he wandered around the school and chatted to portraits and let Harry overhear and grow curious enough to come to him.
But he had thought…Harry had seemed so close, when Granger had talked to Sirius and mentioned her fears that their friendship was falling apart.
Sirius closed his eyes. He wanted to think that he was doing important work, cleaning Grimmauld Place of Dark objects and doxies and the like. A pity that he couldn't get rid of Kreacher, but the place needed a house-elf to keep it up. And he was the only one who could cope with dear Mum's portrait, anyway.
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