Written for 'A Myriad of Challenges', 30. Write a fic on this prompt: 'Chasing the dragon'.

Summary: "I'm trying to save your life!" she exclaimed, for the sake of his life. "I don't need your help." he snarled, removing his hand from her grasp. "The Ministry's bound to find you. You must come with me." her voice was stern.

Spoiler Warning: Post DH, if you have not yet read Deathly Hollows, then I suggest that you do not read any further. I also suggest that you should read DH if you really want to read this.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the characters mentioned in this fanfiction. Nor do I own any of the spells, curses, or places. I merely own my own imagination and the creativity in this story.

Chapter One:

'Is Draco still alive? Is he in the castle?'

The female's voice was barely audible; her lips were inches away from the boy's ear. Her head was bent low enough to cover the boy's face with her long silver hair.

'Yes,' the boy breathed. He felt her hand contract, then, it was withdrawn from his body.

Though his eyes were still tightly shut, he could sense the woman proceed to her leader.

'He is dead!' her voiced called to the masked watchers feet away from the body.

'Harry! Harry, what's the matter?'

The heavily bruised boy's thoughts had been interrupted by Hermione Granger, the bushy haired girl sitting on Ron's empty bed.

'It isn't your scar is it? It shouldn't be hurting anymore, you've already defeated Voldemort,' Hermione questioned, concerned about her friend.

'No, it's not my scar,' Harry replied, 'It's just – Narcissa Malfoy saved my life, and I can't help but think that something wrong is going to happen.'

Hermione held her breath. 'Then you haven't read the Prophet this morning, have you?'

Harry stared at her with confusion in his eyes. It had been days since the war had broke out in Hogwarts. 'What do you mean?' he asked.

Hermione withdrew the morning's issue of the Prophet. She held the front page in front of Harry, as he grasped it in his own hands for a better look at the newspaper. Pictures of the Malfoy family in motion were scattered all over the front page. The headline caught Harry's attention the most. 'Malfoy Resists Arrest and Escapes'.

MALFOY RESISTS ARREST AND ESCAPES

On the 25th of June, Ministry's Officials have captured and sent Narcissa and Lucious Malfoy to Azkaban Prison late that night. Due to their status of being well known Death Eaters, the Ministry's decision was to find and capture all Death Eaters at once. The son of Naricssa and Lucious Malfoy – Draco, unfortunately resisted arrest and escaped Malfoy Manor…

Harry had stopped reading the article in the Prophet. He could not bare to read any more of it. He had to do something about his, some how. Narcissa had saved his life, why couldn't he save hers or even Draco?

'I have to do something about this,' Harry stated, breaking the silence between the two of them. 'But first, I need to find Draco.'

'Harry, there's nothing you can do about the Malfoys', they're in Azkaban already,' Hermione stated.

'Hermione, there's nothing you can do or say to stop me,' Harry interjected, folding the newspaper in half.

'Then you must take me with you,' Hermione said, softly. 'You must, you can't do this on your own.'

'I have to do this by myself,' Harry repeated.

'Harry, you must take me with you,' she said, 'but we mustn't take Ron. He has gone through too much, with Fred's death.'

Harry gave in, if he was going to do something about this, he was going to have to have some help through the duration of the search for Draco Malfoy. He nodded slightly, as Hermione's lips curved into a false smile.

Draco's old wand was stuffed inside of his jean pocket; he pulled it out muttering the Summoning Charm for his Invisibility Cloak. The cloak soared to him from the other side of the room in the Burrow. He easily grasped it in his hands and set it on his lap. In the corner of his eyes he could see Hermione gathering things that they needed into the beaded bag that became so useful earlier that year.

'When exactly are we going to leave?' Hermione asked, closing the beaded bag shut.

'Tomorrow, if we're going to look for Malfoy, we'd better get a head start tomorrow,' Harry implied, putting his Invisibility Cloak into Hermione's beaded bag.

Harry couldn't help but think that this was going to be the same journey that they had when searching for Horcruxes. Excuding the fact that they weren't going to destroy Draco, in any way. The search for Draco would probably last as long as it did for one Horcrux.

Hermione looked just as nervous as she did when the three of them had left the Burrow earlier that year. Anything could happen at the point where they start looking for Draco. After all, there were still former Death Eaters out there, seeking revenge for the death of their precious, Lord Voldemort. Could it be possible that they could be killed in the midst of searching for one of the students that they've hated for most of their years at Hogwarts? Just thinking about death caused Hermione to shudder.

'Hermione, are you absolutely sure that you want to do this?' Harry spoke up, as he captured the look of nervousness in Hermione's facial expression.

'Oh – yes, I most definitely want to do this,' Hermione replied, reluctantly. 'It'll be just us two, like it was when Ron ran out on us.'

'Why can't we take Ron?' Harry asked.

'Ron wouldn't like the fact we're trying to save Malfoy, for the third time,' Hermione stated, reasonably. 'and it just wouldn't be right for him to come along after Fred's death. Even so, I have things to deal with Malfoy, which I do not want Ron to be a part of.'

'And what might those things be?' Harry questioned, raising an eyebrow.

'Oh for Merlin's sake, you're so nosy!' Hermione said, shrilly. 'I just have questions that need some answers.'

'OK,' Harry replied, nodding.