'I want to see it anyway. There might be clues.'
'Right, because bad guys love to leave clues lying around. It's really a desperate cry for help.'
'Give it here, Malfoy,' said Harry.
Draco handed the letter over with a shrug. 'If you insist on playing Junior Auror, I guess I can't stop you.'
Harry ignored him. 'This letter was written in Green Viridian Ink,' he said, his voice intent. 'Only bona fide Ministry officials can use it, you know.'
Draco was impressed. 'Really?'
'No, actually, I made that up. Here, take your stupid letter.' Harry tossed the letter back, looking disgusted. 'Who says 'Lo', anyway?'
'Who says 'bona fide'?' Harry was prevented from answering this when the letter in Draco's hand caught fire. Draco dropped it with an oath, and it turned to ash before it hit the stone infirmary floor. 'They always do that,' Draco said sulkily, putting his burned thumb in his mouth. 'I guess so I can't keep them as evidence.'
'What does that mean, your 'true birthday'?'
'No idea.'
'Didn't it ever occur to you to try to find out what a true birthday might be?'
'How?'
'Well,' said Harry, as if it were obvious, 'Ask Hermione. If she doesn't know, she could find out for you.'
'I'd rather not bring anyone else into this.'
'Hermione isn't anyone else,' Harry pointed out. 'She's…Hermione. You can tell her anything.'
'Which is why you told her about our little graveyard excursion?'
Harry opened his mouth to say something, then shut it with a snap.
'That's different.'
'Why, because it's your big secret?'
'Because nobody's trying to kill me.'
'Ha!'
Harry looked at him sharply. 'Did you just say 'Ha!'?'
Draco considered. 'Embarrassingly, yes.'
'By which you meant…?'
Draco yawned hugely. He was growing more and more tired. 'Someone's always trying to kill you, Potter. You wouldn't be you if they weren't. And in point of fact, who knows if someone was trying to kill me or if they were going for Rhysenn and missed?'
Harry was silent for a moment. His right hand was playing with the loop of his belt — actually, with the odd- looking scarlet bangle that he never seemed to go without. 'I don't think you should trust her,' he said finally.
'Thank you, I don't.' Draco yawned again. 'Potter, I was thinking…'
'What?'
'Well, if you ask Lupin to give you a Portkey that'll take you to Doon's Hill, won't he guess why you're going there? I'm surprised he put it on the homework, actually.'
'Right. That's why I'm going to tell him that we want to go to Shepton Mallet instead.'
'But we don't want to go there…oh.'
'Come on, Malfoy. Cunning plans, remember? The big thing is to get off school grounds, considering that we can't Apparate or fly away and don't exactly have time to walk.'
'So how are we meant to get from that Mallet place to Doon's Hill?'
'Leave that to me.' Harry smiled, then bit his lip. 'But you're sure…you still want to go?'
'Want to might be a little strong. I'm still willing. I'll be fine in a day or two, I'm pretty sure.'
'We can wait as long as you want,' said Harry.
'No, it's fine.' Draco leaned back against the pillows and shut his eyes.
'You do realize,' he said sleepily, 'that this means…we're going to have to do…an entire report on Shepton Mallet…for no damn good reason at all.'
He yawned a final time. 'Thanks to you,' he added.
He never heard what Harry said in response; he had already fallen asleep.
He was dreaming again. He was in the tower room once more, and his father was there, as was the Dark Lord. He stood at a different angle now, and could see out the tall and narrow windows. They showed an unfamiliar landscape: a ridged valley dropping away into wooded trees.
The night sky was high and black, the stars like naked daggers. Lucius and the Dark Lord stood together by a huge and circular golden cage, the kind that might have held a lion or a tiger. Instead it held a woman. A slender, tall woman clad only in her own long black hair, which swirled around her like smoke, hiding her body. It was not until she raised her face that he knew her.
Rhysenn.
Draco's eyelids flew open.
