Chamber of Secrets (Part Two)

Draco slumped in his chair, gulping for air. His back was soaked through, his shirt clinging to his skin, cold and clammy and unbearable. But he did not dare move.

He sat there for about five minutes before slowly getting to his feet.

He walked to the window and pushed it open. The night wind rushed in, carrying the chill of late autumn and the scent of pine from the distant Forbidden Forest. He took several deep breaths, filling his lungs with cold air, before his mind finally began working again.

He turned, ready to leave.

Then he saw the crow perched on a branch outside the window.

The crow was huge, nearly twice the size of an ordinary one. Its feathers were as black as the deepest night, with a dark blue sheen beneath the moonlight. It sat motionless on the branch, head tilted, watching Draco with one eye.

That eye was scarlet.

Draco's breath caught.

He had seen eyes like that before. On Lord Madara's face, on the faces of the Shadow Society's core members, and on certain vessels of a higher power he had not dared ask about.

It was a Sharingan.

The crow tilted its head, blinked its scarlet eye, then spread its wings and vanished silently into the night sky. It flew at an astonishing speed, shrinking to a black speck on the horizon in an instant before disappearing altogether.

Draco stood at the window, staring in the direction it had gone for a long time.

Then he closed the window and left the Prefect's lounge.

His footsteps echoed down the empty corridor, one after another, like a countdown.

Malfoy Manor, the study.

It was late into the night.

Lucius Malfoy sat at his desk before a thick stack of parchment. The pages were covered