Harry pushed his chair back from the table with a screech. 'No way,' he said flatly. 'We are not bringing that thing with us.'
Draco's gray eyes spat angry sparks. 'Why not?'
'Because,' said Harry, as if this should be obvious. 'It's evil. It's an evil thing and I don't want it near me.'
'It's a very powerful weapon,' said Draco. 'It has powers we can't even imagine.'
'Yeah,' agreed Harry. 'Because they're really, really horrible.'
'You don't know that,' said Draco firmly. 'Even Lupin doesn't know that. He said he had to finish testing it. It's a Magid blade,' Draco added, 'and I'm a Magid and it belonged to my ancestors, it's been in my family for generations, and I want it.'
Harry suddenly heard Hermione's voice in his head, remembering something she had said to him two weeks ago-was it only two weeks? Didn't Dumbledore tell you that people want what's worst for them?
Yes, Harry had replied. But not everyone.
'Malfoy…' he began. But Draco had stood up from the table and was glaring at all of them, flushed with anger. 'Look,' he said. 'I don't know what we're up against, and neither do you. But if what we've seen so far is any indication, we're dealing with some serious, serious Dark magic. This sword is a gift, Potter. It can kill anything.
The Dark Lord himself could be destroyed by it. Lupin as much as said so.'
Now Harry looked angry. 'Don't you remember the book?' he snapped. 'You can bear that sword, but at a price.'
'I'm a Malfoy,' said Draco. 'We don't ask about prices.' He grinned without much mirth. 'I can afford it.'
'I don't think you can,' said Harry.
Ginny looked from one of them to the other. Draco and Harry were staring at each other, Draco with fiery red spots of anger on his cheeks and Harry very pale.
'What if you're not the one who pays the price, Malfoy?' said Harry in a deadly voice. 'What if it turns out to be someone else? What if it turns out to be — ' He almost said 'Hermione,' but he didn't want to be like Draco, didn't want to invoke Hermione's name as a whip to beat his opponent with. '-me?' he finished.
Draco's eyes were glittering. 'I'll take that chance,' he said.
This time it was Ron who spoke. 'You're a bastard, Malfoy,' he said flatly.
Draco didn't look at him, was still looking only at Harry. ' What if she's in danger and the sword's our only chance to get to her?' he said. 'Are you willing to take the risk that something might happen to her that we could have prevented if you hadn't been so squeamish?'
Harrys hands were gripping the table tightly, and when he spoke it was with an effort. 'Squeamish,' he echoed bleakly. 'I hope you remember telling me this somewhere down the line when you?ve gotten one of us killed.'
For a moment, nobody spoke. Then Draco said, without looking at Harry, 'If you don?t trust me, maybe you want to go on without me,' and there was something about the way he said it that was both wistful and angry at the same time. Ginny doubted he knew he sounded wistful at all; if he had, he probably wouldn?t have said anything.
'I don't trust you, Malfoy,' said Harry quietly. 'But I don't want to go without you either.'
Draco's shoulders collapsed a little with relief.
Harry looked down at his scarred hand, then back up at Draco. 'If what we did to Krum is any indication, the powers we have together are much more than what have alone. Maybe you're right about using every means at hand.'
'I am right,' said Draco, but he looked relieved all the same. The atmosphere of tension was fading as rapidly as it had appeared.
'You'll see,' he said to Harry. 'We're going to go back to school and get that sword, and then we're going to go after Hermione.'
He straightened up, and spoke with cold determination. 'I don't care what I have to do; I don?t care if it's the Dark Lord himself who's got her — if he's done anything to hurt her, anything at all, I'll grind him up into a powder so fine we can use it for instant soup mix.'
Draco paused. Harry, Ginny and Ron were all staring at him with peculiar expressions.
'Okay,' he said. 'That was just kind of gross, wasn't it?'
Harry nodded. 'Soup just isn't that scary, Malfoy.'
'Other than that, it was a good speech,' interjected Ginny encouragingly.
'I still think I'm right about this,' said Draco, although a great deal of the fierceness had gone out of his expression.
'And I still think you're mad,' said Harry. 'And maybe evil. But you're obviously very determined, and I kind of admire that.' He smiled. The first time he had smiled all day. 'It suits you, Malfoy.'
'It does,' agreed Ginny, rather unexpectedly. 'But that sweater definitely does not.'
'Look, Ron,' said Ginny, with a grin. 'Essence of Malfoy. Its magenta.'
She poked the potion simmering in the cauldron with her wand, and glanced around at Ron. He was sitting on the end of Harrys bed, not-very-industriously crushing beetle shells for the potion with a mortar and pestle and trying not to yawn. They had gone straight from breakfast to their broomsticks, and had arrived at Harry and Dracos school while it was still fairly early in the morning. All four of their broomsticks were now propped against the wall next to Harrys bed.
