lomonaaeren | Chapter Eight of 'Forgive Those Who Trespass'- Ten Little Pieces

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forgive those who trespass

Chapter Eight of 'Forgive Those Who Trespass'- Ten Little Pieces

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Chapter Eight—Ten Little Pieces

Harry had fully expected Draco to refuse to accept those memories back into his head. When he had described them, as tersely as he could, Draco’s face had paled, and he had drawn away to stand with his eyes shut and his hands resting on each other in front of him. Harry supposed he was trying to calm his upset stomach, or come to terms with the fact that his fingers had been bitten off, and waited patiently.

But soon enough Draco opened his eyes and crowded towards the Pensieve, extending an imperious hand. Harry drew his wand, eyeing him with disbelief that he made no effort to hide. Draco sniffed and threw him an even more demanding look, once again pointing.

“All right, if you must, then,” Harry muttered, and dipped his wand into the Pensieve. Up came a silvery strand of memory. Flinching, unable to keep from wondering if this were a moment shared with Pearl or a moment involving intense pain, Harry pointed the strand at Draco’s temple. Draco stood with his eyes shut and a frown on his face, even after the memory coiled about, shining, and then shot into his head.

When Harry did nothing, Draco cracked an eyelid and gave him a disgusted glance.

“If you can take it so calmly, you’re a better man than I am,” Harry muttered, and squashed another surge of helpless longing for Ron and Hermione. He took up another strand of memory, and another, and another. He watched Draco’s knuckles go white with strain and his throat work, uttering some sound Harry, of course, couldn’t hear. He swayed on his feet at intervals, as if the returned memories were a physical weight dragging his head down.

But he stayed upright, and he beckoned Harry on each time he tried to hesitate. Harry was reluctantly impressed.

A final flick and swish, and the last of the memories vanished. Draco stood breathing with his mouth open. Harry retreated a few steps, frowning at him and ready to catch him if he fell.

He didn’t fall. He did slowly open his eyes and frown at the far wall, as if the returned memories had triggered others. Then he reached out a palm and scooped up the communication sphere floating beside him. Harry edged nearer to make out the exact sequence of words the nubs of Draco’s fingers chose.

I want Unspeakables suffering.

Harry grinned tightly. “Vengeance?”

Draco gave him a sneer, to make it clear that his vengeance on the Unspeakables would be stupendous, monumental, beyond anything Harry meant with the word. Then he wrapped his arms around himself and swayed. Harry quickly stepped up beside him to offer him the support of an arm.

“Are you cold?” he asked. “Hungry?”

Draco shook his head in answer to both, but reached for the glass again. Tired.

“We’ll rest here.” Harry spread out the blankets for Draco, layering them abundantly; he didn’t intend to sleep, so Draco might as well have twice as much cloth to rest on. Draco blinked up at him sleepily when Harry laid him down, however, and made a beckoning gesture with one hand.

“I have to stay up and keep watch,” Harry explained. “It was stupid of us both to sleep at the same time last night. And if I lie down with you, I’m afraid I’ll fall asleep.” He felt his face flush, and looked away. That wasn’t the only thing he was afraid might happen if he lay down next to Draco, now that he had got over his hatred again and was seeing him with the eyes of sympathy.

The heel of a hand rapped against his hip. Harry glanced at Draco, and found him arranging himself so he sat halfway on his haunches. It was an awkward posture, one that he would surely fall from if he didn’t have someone to sit behind him and support his shoulders.

Harry saw what he meant at once: if he sat behind Draco, he was unlikely to fall asleep as easily as if he were sprawled on the floor. It could still happen, though, and Harry wasn’t inclined to gamble with their safety—or, at least, not inclined to gamble with Draco’s safety, anymore. If he proved himself to be an enemy, then he would have to. And if the scenes in the third Pensieve outweighed the ones in the second as far as the evidence of the tale they told, then—

Draco hit the back of his knee, reminding Harry that there was someone here who didn’t know about his reverie and might become impatient with it. He beckoned again, curving his whole hand inwards, since he didn’t have the fingers to be understood otherwise.

Harry swallowed and moved gently behind Draco, sitting down with his legs crossed. Draco promptly sagged back, and Harry realized how well-chosen the position really was. Draco rested against his chest and lap, but Harry still had his arms free to fire curses around the other man’s body, and he could easily open his legs and move them sideways in case they went numb. The only question was if Draco could really sleep like that.

“Can you—“

Draco gave him an eloquently disgusted glance, as much to say that he’d slept in far worse accommodations while he was a prisoner of the Unspeakables, and then curled into Harry with a small sigh. His breathing immediately became calm. Within a few minutes, the hand Harry hovered over his mouth and nose seemed to reveal the soft, easy breaths of sleep.

And that left Harry alone, as he badly needed to be, if he was to stand a chance of putting the puzzle that was Draco Malfoy together.

What do you do with someone who’s done both good and bad things? he thought, staring into the darkness that lay beyond the lighted Pensieve room. Idly, he cast enough protection spells to make the doorway glow like a firefly. Someone who might not have had the most admirable motives, but hardly deserved what befell him?

He might have tried to think of the situations with both Dumbledore and Snape, but those were different. He had thought Dumbledore perfectly good and Snape perfectly evil until after they were safely dead. Then he could question and feel anger and wonder and betrayal all he liked, but he didn’t have to deal with the person on a day-to-day basis. And it was easier to forgive Snape because he’d been in love with Harry’s mum and easier to forgive Dumbledore because he’d been a mentor and a friend.

Malfoy had never been a friend of any sort, and his particular error—crime? sin?—here had nothing to do with Harry. Harry probably shouldn’t even have made the judgment; Malfoy’s friends or the Wizengamot should have. But they weren’t here. He was the one stuck in the darkness, stuck with deciding how to treat Malfoy, and conscious of the fact that they might both live or die depending on what he chose.

Harry took a deep breath. He tried to ignore the sensation of edging out on a thin blade, maybe the Sword of Gryffindor, poised over an abyss and that a tumble from it would result in nothing but darkness and pain.

He evidently couldn’t do anything about his tendency to call Malfoy “Draco” and feel sorry for him. He also couldn’t do much about his anger, but he was better at putting his temper aside after a year under Auror training. He didn’t have the defenses Ron would have, the family feud between the Weasleys and the Malfoys that gave him an unending source of hatred and strength.

So it was better that he accepted Draco as a companion, trusted him for the present, and attempted to help him. He wouldn’t be foolish, of course. He wouldn’t give away his own weaknesses or get himself into a position where his life depended solely on Draco’s intentions. But at least, if he accepted the judgment his instincts wanted him to make, then that would be one less obstacle for him to fight against.

Decision made, he felt his eyelids droop. Harry rolled his eyes at himself. It had probably been less than one full day since their last rest, and though Draco’s tiredness was understandable and permissible, his own wasn’t.

Besides, he wasn’t ready to fall asleep while Draco stayed awake and guarded him yet.

He carefully aimed his wand at himself, and murmured, “Cognosco.”

The charm hit him like a dash of cold water in the face and lemon juice in the mouth; he barely managed to keep from shaking like an idiot and waking Draco. It did its work, though. Harry had used it before when he needed to stay awake most of the night to study for exams. He was aware, now, his brain humming and his senses reaching out. He could hear the soft song of magic sung by the floating communication sphere and his little ball of light, though still no sound from Draco. He could smell dust in the air and see the faint joints where the stones of the wall were fitted together. He could—

He could hear scraping coming from beyond the doorway on the far side of the room.

Harry hissed and sat upright, making Draco shift against him and roll his head like a waking baby. Harry tried to stay still and listen, then, though his heartbeat had almost obscured the faint noise in his ears. No need to wake Draco if this was just a false alarm or his own imagination.

The sound repeated, again and again, the heavy sound of a chain being dragged across stone. Harry wondered if it were more of the bone-creatures. They had made a more delicate noise, though, a skittering, insect-like one. Harry cast a Disillusionment Charm on them both, hoping fervently that his protection charms and wards on the far doorway would hold.

The scraping continued until it came to what Harry thought must be the final twist of tunnel before the doorway. There it paused. Harry strained his ears. He swallowed his breathing as best he could. He had to be prepared for anything, even an assault of other bone-creatures or a sudden rush from Ron and Hermione.

A figure glided into the room, stepping through his charms and wards as if they didn’t exist. Harry had only a moment for consternation before he noticed what—or who—the figure was.

It was Draco.

A chain was tied around his leg, in the exact same position that Draco had been chained when Harry first found him. His gray eyes were vacant, and he was gray of skin and shivered with cold, and he was covered with tattered robes, just as the Draco in Harry’s arms was. He staggered a step forwards, and then clutched himself with his hands, head swaying back and forth as he stared. Harry thought he was probably voiceless, too, or he would have spoken by now on recognizing Harry and his double in Harry’s arms.

The Disillusionment Charm—

But for this Draco, they didn’t seem to be Disillusioned. He was staring straight at them, and then he nodded and smiled. And then he walked straight towards them, his eyes full of yearning.

Harry swallowed, his mind dropped straight back into the tumult from which his decision was supposed to have rescued him. Was this the real Draco? Was the one he held only a copy? This Draco looked exactly the same as the one so peacefully sleeping in Harry’s arms. He could have been the one who lost his memories to the Pensieves, his voice and his ribs to the Unspeakables.

He reached out a hand.

And Harry saw long, intact fingers on that reaching hand, and made his decision at once.

A Blasting Curse, harshly uttered, sent the other Draco flying backwards. He hit the wall with a cry that proved him not voiceless after all, and woke the Draco sleeping in Harry’s arms, and summoned a procession of other, identical Malfoys from within the tunnel, all of them sweeping past Harry’s protections without stopping.

Draco moved hastily against Harry’s chest, trying to scramble to his feet and be careful of Harry’s wooden foot at the same time. Harry rose, supporting Draco with one arm, but keeping his wand trained on the mass of Malfoys. They had halted and were looking at them gravely, their eyes blinking, as if Harry and the original Draco were problems in Potions.

“Do you know what they are?” Harry whispered into Draco’s ear.

Draco held up his hands in answer. It wasn’t until he flexed the nubs that Harry understood, or thought he did. “They made them from your fingers,” he murmured, and the head under his chin nodded.

And, from the signs of it, they could locate their original no matter where he was, no matter what spells were in the way or how he might be concealed. Harry kept the cursing in his head. It wouldn’t do any good voiced aloud, and for all he knew, the sound of a raised voice might agitate the copies into attacking.

“Immortality of body?” he whispered into Draco’s ear.

A swift nod.

“Immortality of mind?”

A headshake.

Harry dragged a slow breath into his lungs. These Malfoys didn’t know what Draco did, then, at least if he understood the concept “immortality of mind” correctly. From the bright curiosity in their eyes, they didn’t even quite understand what Harry and Draco were. Now and then one started to come towards them and reach for them like children, but the first one, the one Harry had cursed, held them back. He was the only one to watch with eyes that held any wariness.

Harry didn’t want to attack again. He couldn’t kill them anyway. He whispered to Draco, “Do you remember anything else about them? Are they hostile?”

Draco nodded, then shook his head, answering the questions in order. Harry licked his lips, and looked up as the Malfoys began a concerted mass movement towards them. He tightened his grip on his own Draco and bared his teeth in a snarl, prepared to Levitate them into the air again or crash through a wall if that’s what he had to do.

But the first Malfoy to reach him only patted at Harry’s clothes and hair, with an expression of childish delight on his features. He laughed and gabbled at the others behind him, but if they understood him, Harry couldn’t tell. The others crowded round him, tugging at Draco’s robes and his own, staring in deep interest at his wand, making passes in the air with their hands as if to imitate spells. Even the one he’d cursed seemed inclined to accept him, now, and Harry saw him extending his arms, showing the others how he’d flown across the room.

Then one of the Malfoys coughed loudly to get the others’ attention, and pointed towards the far doorway. All of them turned to look that way. Harry looked, too, but saw nothing unusual or worthy of attention.

Then one of the Malfoys got behind him and began to push him and Draco steadily in the direction of the doorway.

Harry tried to brace his feet, but Draco clamped his hand down on Harry’s wrist and gave a rapid shake of his head. Harry took a deep breath, unhappy with his decision being tested so soon, and gave trust its head. He relaxed as much as he could, and concentrated mostly on making sure that Draco would take no harm from the pace the Malfoys wanted them to adopt.

There really were ten of them, Harry saw when he had time to count. They looked as Draco would have with fingers and a voice, though they were missing ribs. But their faces were different, lacking the lines of pain and suffering that cast shadows around Draco’s expressions. They bounced and bounded about like puppies, now and then making sounds that didn’t seem to be words and certainly weren’t English. They clapped and twined fingers and pointed at the walls and ceiling and floors and kicked the dust in front of them with the same manifest delight.

Harry saw nothing for the present but to go along with them. If they were dangerous, then hopefully Draco would let him know later.

Beyond the Pensieve room, the tunnels twisted out in a bewildering array of patterns. Harry thought he saw a few flame-like carvings on them, the same that had surrounded the wooden table in Draco’s memory, and would have liked to stop to examine them, but the Malfoys hurried him along. Draco faltered now and then in his steps, maybe out of fear, maybe because he was still too tired. Luckily, Harry had enough energy for both of them thanks to the awareness charm, and always managed to provide a stolid support and a comforting murmur in time.

The Malfoys finally stopped in front of a wooden door and regarded it for long moments, as if searching inadequate memories for confirmation of its existence. Then one of them stabbed a finger straight into the air and said something that made no sense, but which galvanized the others. Harry barely whisked out of the way in time as they sprang forwards, seized the door’s iron hinges, and dragged it open with a scrape and a groan, louder than the sound of their chains on the floor. The room beyond brightened suddenly in the rays of Harry’s light globe.

Harry felt Draco stiffen even before he recognized the room. It was either the same chamber where Draco had sat before the fire with Pearl or an exact replica. There were even the canaries and parakeets fluttering in their cages, fluting delicately and cocking their heads at the newcomers. One canary voiced a throbbing complaint at having his cage nearly upset when two Malfoys dragged Harry and Draco past.

They settled them into the two tall chairs before the fireplace, separating Draco from Harry gently but firmly when he objected, and settled on the floor before them like children ready to listen to a story. Then they stared at Harry in expectancy.

Harry looked at Draco. His face was drawn, but his eyes were narrowed and sparking, and Harry thought his mind was probably racing faster than it had during their entire journey through the maze so far.

Draco sat straight up. The Malfoys nudged each other and clasped their hands on their knees, leaning eagerly forwards.

Draco reached out commandingly. Harry was floating the communication sphere towards him before he consciously realized what the gesture meant. He wondered, ruefully, what Ron would say to see him instinctively obeying Malfoy.

Draco spent some moments ceremoniously cleaning off the glass sphere, though Harry thought it couldn’t have acquired much dust. Then he leaned forwards and began tapping out a sequence. The Malfoys made soft squealing noises of appreciation as the colors flickered and flashed.

Immortality of body, Draco signaled. Fingers. Maze. Not immortality of mind. Torture. Unforgivable curse.

Harry started at the last phrase, one he hadn’t thought they would ever use, but which Draco had insisted on including in the sphere anyway, perhaps because he wanted to tell Harry how he had suffered under the Cruciatus. “The Unspeakables cursed them?” he asked, staring at the Malfoys and wondering what in the world the Unspeakables had created them for.

He glanced back to see Draco shaking his head impatiently. He tapped his closed fist on his chest, then let his eyes widen and his mouth hang slack.

“The Imperius Curse,” Harry muttered, still not sure what the point of Draco’s little story was, but sure of what he was indicating. The Malfoys all laughed among themselves, as though he had made a particularly good joke.

Harry felt like doing the same himself, or else slamming his head fervently against the back of the chair. He had never realized how frustrating it would be to speak with someone who could not speak. He had to fill in the gaps between the words himself, and he wasn’t good at that.

Give me something to curse, please, he asked whatever fate might be listening, and then added, Something my curses can affect, anyway.

“Let me see if I understand this,” he said, sitting up. “The Unspeakables made these things out of your fingers.” He waved his hand at the Malfoys, and they hopped up and down in place without standing, hooting like monkeys. “But even though they’re immortal in body, they’re not immortal in mind. They didn’t inherit any of your memories, or your language skills, or your oh-so-charming personality.”

Draco raised an eyebrow at him. It was a cool gesture that would surely have been accompanied by a cruel retort if he could have spoken. Harry scowled at him, a bit happy to return to his earlier dislike, and kept scowling until Draco nodded.

“This had something to do with the maze,” Harry said. “But I still don’t know what. How did the Unspeakables turn the Department of Mysteries into this maze? I’ve been here before—“ Memories of Sirius reared up to sting him like a scorpion. He swallowed twice before he could continue. “And it wasn’t like this,” he managed to finish, though he knew his voice sounded thick.

Once again, Draco tapped the facet that meant maze on the communication sphere, and then signaled himself.

Harry blinked. “You’re the maze? That doesn’t make any sense.”

But even as the words ran out of his mouth, he was remembering his earlier idea that Draco’s body and his memories in the Pensieve represented the nine balls that Draco had positioned for Richard in the carvings. Why one person and eight Pensieves, though? Why not nine people, or nine Pensieves? Harry didn’t understand why—

Why everything had to come from Draco.

He sat up abruptly and stared at Draco. Draco had a faint smile on his face now, but it was intolerably sad. Harry’s dislike drained away again.

“That’s it,” Harry whispered. “That’s what you read in that book that you concealed from Pearl, wasn’t it? That a person has to be sacrificed to make up the maze. A body and a mind, always suffering and never dying, have to go to construct the maze that makes people immortal.”

Draco nodded, and nodded, and nodded again. Harry wasn’t sure he had much control over his head and his neck muscles left. His nostrils were fluttering with the force of his breath, his eyes swimming with tears.

“They made these copies of you to serve instead,” Harry whispered. “But these copies were mindless, and for whatever reason, they had to have your mind involved. So they used your memories.” He paused. “But then I don’t understand where the Imperius Curse comes in.”

Draco touched the facet on the sphere that meant free will.

“You had to agree to sacrifice yourself?” Harry stared.

Draco looked away from him and made a kind of complicated pass with his hands. That was hardly the whole story, Harry thought, but it was more or less the truth. The Unspeakables must have hoped to break Draco with their torture—or maybe they’d chosen him to be the sacrifice for the maze in the first place because he’d “betrayed” them—but since they hadn’t, they’d cast the Imperius to give him the parody of a free will in making the choice.

“And so, this maze—“

Draco touched another facet. Useless.

Harry narrowed his eyes, remembering the mentions of “intention” and “willingness” Draco had dropped into his conversation with Pearl. “The Imperius Curse didn’t count as true willingness?”

Draco shook his head.

“That would make sense,” Harry muttered, slumping back against his chair in thought. The maze didn’t seem like an obstacle course someone would willingly walk in order to become immortal, if only because there was so many dangers that could kill you along the way. This was an experiment that had gone wrong, with the Unspeakables not realizing until too late that their sacrifice hadn’t been truly willing.

He lifted his eyes to Draco’s face again and asked what seemed to him the most urgent question at the moment. “But then, how do I rescue you and restore your voice and your ribs and your fingers?”

Draco shut his eyes. The tears that had filled them earlier were now leaking down his cheeks. He shook his head, slowly.

“Oh, come on!” Harry leaned forwards. “There must be some way—“

He found himself abruptly pinioned. Two of the Malfoys had risen and come around the back of his chair without his noticing, and they were holding his shoulders so tightly Harry felt his spine bow. Two of the other Malfoys went over and held Draco likewise.

Harry shouted, but the Malfoys didn’t back off this time. They were giving him disappointed looks, in fact, as though he had failed at some task they expected of him.

The other six Malfoys came back into Harry’s line of sight a moment later. They were holding jagged, serrated knives.

Harry’s heart began to pound like a funeral drum.

Chapter 9.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh this can't be good.

Then again, nothing in this fic has been good! It's all been EVIL AND WRONG! Run, Harry, run run run!!!

*hyperventilates*

I feel better now. Okay, not really.

If Harry was smart, he would have run long ago.

I am glad this fic gets you so worked up, though. :)

(no subject)

cmwinters.livejournal.com - 2008-08-24 06:19 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

dysonrules.livejournal.com - 2008-08-25 15:17 (UTC) - Expand

O_O WOW! WTF?! From mindless monkeys into dangerous knife wielding maniacs?

Yay! We're getting some more info on Draco's circumstances now~!

Well, technically they could be mindless maniacs.

Yep! And more is forthcoming.

AH NO! I knew those little buggers were up to no good. I could just see it in the way they hopped around. As for the news about Draco, what a fascinating idea. I cannot wait for more pensieves; those are my favorite parts because it forces Harry to see Draco differently. I think Harry will save him. It just has to work out! I mean, they practically cuddled!

Well, I won't make the next villains hop, then. :)

Harry does start picking up some information that could lead to a solution. Of course, whether he gets there depends on if Draco is faithfully sharing all the information he has access to with Harry...

:O Please write more before I die of anticipation!
*Falls off chair*

Another update should be posted Wednesday. *comforts*

Uh-oh! OMG, you're story is so fucking thrilling! Scary, intense and full of excitement and suspense! And hey, that rhymes!

Thank you!

And yes, it does.

Oh sweet heavens almighty. This fic is FABULOUS!!!!! That's really all I have to say.

Thank you! I'm certainly pleased you're enjoying it; my brain seems to keep coming up with things that might make people back away from the story. :)

This story gets better and better.

The maze feels a bit like a dungeon in a creepy fantasy videogame, which I like.

Thank you!

I won't deny that the design of the maze has that influence, though maybe more from roleplaying games than videogames.

evil cliffie!!!!!!!!!!!!

Truly.

Oh, Harry, your heart is just pounding? MINE is about to have a heart attack!
I want officially announce cliffhangers a nerve-wreaking and overall life-threatening factor, that should be forbidden to use.

Argo

But it was the perfect place to stop the chapter! *puppy eyes*

Sweet mother of god! You are hitting all my literary loves. Have you read 'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas' by Ursula Le Guin? It asks the same essential questions you are exploring in a similar fashion. And Harry stumbling toward a more pragmatic ethical view is fantastic; I love witnessing this development. And the horror! The image of the replicas morphing from child-like to murderous is fantastic and very creepy. I love the image of the fingers and ribs literally binding Draco to the maze. Thank you so much for sharing!

Thank you!

Yes, I've read 'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas'- one of my favorite Le Guins. In this case, I wouldn't say the story covers all the same points, since the Unspeakables' intentions were conscious from the beginning, but it's certainly designed to force Harry to reconsider his ethics.

Originally the clones were just going to be mindless attackers, but I like this version of them better. And they do have a specific purpose in taking those knives nearer Harry...

(no subject)

corvusdea.livejournal.com - 2007-12-18 05:03 (UTC) - Expand

Well I am about a day behind now on reading your updates...I haven't read this one yet, but I at least wanted to let you know I'm following it.

Like all the rest of yours, I'm really enjoy this fic, as scary as it is. And it takes a lot to scare me too, so you're doing a good job with this one.

Thanks! This is my first experiment with full-out horror instead of angst; glad you like it.

uh-oh! OMG!!!! The suspense is killing me! and MORE THAN ONE DRACO!!! I love you! lol great chapter and great ending! i cannot wait to see what happens next. those other malfoys are very creepy. ooh. I shall say it again...I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE NEXT ONE!

Thank you! The next update shouldn't be that long in coming.

(no subject)

damedbx.livejournal.com - 2008-02-18 20:46 (UTC) - Expand

Aw, and here I was liking the 'baby' Dracos. Those knives certainly don't bode well! :O It's a good thing you update quickly. ;)

Yeah, that's one reason that I don't feel bad about leaving cliffhangers. :)

It's probably just as well that the maze is flawed given that Harry is walking it. I don't think he'd deal well with immortality.

To say the least.

Wow, so many (incomplete) answers in this chapter! So if this is just the spell gone wrong, how is the real maze supposed to be like? I hope wherever the Unspeakables are, they are suffering. Or no, because I want Draco to take his revenge. Whatever he has in mind, it'll be 100 times worse than what they've done to him. As Harry interpreted: his vengeance on the Unspeakables would be stupendous, monumental, beyond anything Harry meant with the word.

“That’s it,” Harry whispered. “That’s what you read in that book that you concealed from Pearl, wasn’t it? That a person has to be sacrificed to make up the maze. A body and a mind, always suffering and never dying, have to go to construct the maze that makes people immortal.” That's so awesomely creepy! Question: the mind has to be always suffering and Draco was suffering not only in body. However, most of his memories about the torture are in Pensieves... do memories count as mind too? Is that why they are about pain? I don't know if I'm being clear, I'm not sure what my doubt is ::lol:: And why did he concealed the information from Pearl? Richard had read the book, he must have known about the sacrifice. Unless he couldn't understand all of it and that's why they needed help...

He had thought Dumbledore perfectly good and Snape perfectly evil until after they were safely dead. Then he could question and feel anger and wonder and betrayal all he liked, but he didn’t have to deal with the person on a day-to-day basis So he did know people could be other that totally good or totally bad but those he can deal with, is the people in the middle he can't. That explains why he wanted to fit Draco in one of those two categories so much.

I loved that Draco wanted his memories no matter how terrible they were, and Harry's respect. Please, let it be a way out of this for Draco... there has to be a way! (For my peace of mind :P)
And this: He wondered, ruefully, what Ron would say to see him instinctively obeying Malfoy ::lol:: To find out, Ron will have to come out of his shock first. Then be able to form coherent sentences. XD

No!! Evil cliffhanger! Are the mindless Malfoys being controlled? Can't wait to find out!

The real maze would presumably be much safer and more straightforward, with fewer obstacles.

Well, since the maze went wrong, just about anything could have happened to the Unspeakables, maybe even worse torments than what Draco would devise.

Harry hasn't grasped all the magical theory behind the maze yet, for understandable reasons. (That's one reason the Pensieves are there). So I can't answer your question yet. :) Answers will be coming.

Harry's life would be much more comfortable, at the moment, if he could despise Draco.

Oh, there's a way to free Draco. The question is whether Draco will think it's worth the cost.

And thank you!

OMG!!! I thought they were docile children!!! What are the knives for? What are they going to do? I sooo need more!

Thanks! You'll find out soon!

Oh. My. God. Are you trying to give me a heart attack? Serrated knives and 10 Malfoys gaining up on you (which I knew they were up to something)... and suspense... Jesus! Post another chapter quick!

Next chapter is not long in coming! I just want you to sweat for awhile. :)

Arg! Evil cliffie! This is why I usually don't read anything until it's finished. Can't wait for the next part.

At the worst, I would hope to update this at least once every three days.

This is just so good and creepy!!! I can't wait for the next installment. Normally, I can't read horror because it just scares me way too much but you blend the right amount of suspense and the fantastic and the horrifyingly weird to keep me hooked! I shall follow where you lead and OH, BE CAREFUL, BOYS!!!! *clutches her hair in suspense*

Thank you!

There's more gore and torture ahead, but you might say that it grows less horrific. At least, it feels more like a suspense story to me from here on out (but I might not be the world's best judge).

OH MY GOSH. *shrieks* I should not be reading this late at night. *looks around the room shiftily* Wow, you really nailed one of the things on my top 5 creepiest things to have in a story. The mindless/crazy/deceptively innocent children and/or adults that TURN on you in the end. Just, wow. My heart's pumping. Fantastic work.

Oh another note, I really wish I could Cognosco myself. Ugh, 2 exams tomorrow...Haha, thanks for the study break!

Thank you!

Urgh, I always get creeped out by children, too. Stephen King and his stories about evil kids did bad, bad things to me.

I would give a lot to remain awake at night for the better portion of a week, just to get things done.

Before the baby Malfoys turned feral they reminded me of the Taltos(from 'The witching Hour' by Anne Rice). Sweet, gentle creatures but with no concept of right or wrong, which is kinda like the baby Malfoys.

That cliffie is indeed evil, and I suspect Harry might lose some important bits of anatomy. Am eagerly awaiting the next chapter!

Kind of, yes. Basically, they serve the Unspeakables' desires, and don't care about right and wrong as long as those desires are fulfilled.

And thank you!

OMG... WOW! What's going ON?! This is getting so interesting! The clone like things, and knives, and... the whole maze.. thing, that still confuses me. This is the worst cliffhanger yet!

And I just realised I'm a little slow on the up take, this is the first fan fiction I've read read from you that is only from Harry's POV. It adds a certain mystery towards Draco (much like the rest of the story elements) and I really like it! I'd love to see more stories from you done like this... maybe I just haven't read them yet because I haven't read all of your fan fictions yet -- I only started reading your fan fiction a few weeks ago! (I'd really been missing out!)

I haven't left any other messages for you yet and I feel really badly about that so I'll just do that now. I hope that's ok? I read all of the Frames of Mind series and thought it was FABULOUS, one of the best fan fictions I've read, I loved the whole idea surrounding it and the way they came together in the story, it was very realistic.

I then proceeded to start three of your other fan fictions at once because I loved the first so much (IGYAWM, Worn-Out Tools & A Year's Temptation), and got really confused with what's going on because I keep switching around and getting the plots mixed up... heh. I'd have to read read parts to get things in order! I'm almost finished A Year's Temptation and I think it is so spectacular! Just earlier today finished Building with Worn-Out Tools and I really loved it as well, even if Ginny was, err... not seen in the best of light, which is something I don't usually like reading. I hope you do some side stories for that fan fiction, I'm still really curious about exactly what will happen to Ginny, the baby, the confrontation with everyone now that Harry and Draco's secret is out, where their relationship will go... XD I could go on and on, I know the story has to end at some point and you picked the best place but I can see lots of possibilities for little stories to add on to it that would be a real thrill to read (and hopefully, for you, to write!).

I might very well keep going on about how wonderful your fan fictions are and how much I look forward to your updates and future fan fictions, but it's 1:30 in the morning and I have to be out of bed at 8! Ahh!

Thank you!

Basically, if Draco's information is correct, he is being made into the foundation of the maze; it's literally built on his body, his memories, and his suffering. The Pensieves are like anchor points to keep the whole thing steady.

I've done a few one-shots in the past from only Harry or only Draco's POV, but in general I like to alternate their viewpoints for the longer stories. It lets me have a fuller picture of them both.

I'm so glad you like the other stories. The BWWOT universe is one that feels very sewed-up, to me, as far as the major romance goes, but I could return there via secondary characters.

If it helps, I really didn't mean for Ginny to be so absolutely awful in BWWOT! I was trying to encourage sympathy for her, via Harry being an apathetic layabout, and then it got away from me.

Well, it seems after failed attempt with Draco unspeakables try again but now they use Harry as perfect, willing victim. After all, he wants to go through maze to save friends. But what a twisted way! Use his trust, his willingness to help reach their foul goals.
He already maimed physically. It seems there’s more maiming on the way. It seems also that our heroes don’t realize for now that Harry is the next victim. Now I really, really want to see how Harry and Draco will avenge themselves. Revenge of person who cracked ancient riddle and then was betrayed and used must be remarkable.
I also hope that damage inflicted on Draco is not permanent.

Yeah. If Harry becomes the victim, he's much more likely to actually be willing. On the other hand, the Unspeakables meant the first attempt with Draco to work, so luring down Harry to become the next victim was not really on their agenda.

Draco will make his vengeance as horrific as he can.

this is such a new and fascinating idea! I love it! I can't wait to read more. I love how dark and...well gory it is. Sheer brilliance love! I eagerly await more.

Thank you so much!

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