DRACO SEETHED
this is just something I had to get down on paper.
Draco seethed.
He collected the many dog-eared library books from the ground by his feet, cursing the ripped pages his temper had caused him to tear when the spells the books promised him hadn't worked. Not one spell had improved the Cabinet's magically twisted insides today.
He took a vial from his pocket and uncorked it, letting the Wakefullness Potion drip sluggishly down his tongue.
It was a banned substance that in the past month he'd demanded that Crabb or Goyle keep concealed on their person for him at all times. Draco felt the jolting energy as he swallowed, and he shook his ice blonde head to settle the unnaturalness of the high in his sore, sleep-ridden body.
There would be much worse than this, much worse than death even, if he could not fix the Vanishing Cabinet so that it could bring fellow Death Eaters into Hogwarts on the night he would kill Dumbledore.
On the night he would have no choice but to kill Dumbledore.
As he walked down the long stone corridor Professor Snape followed him, at a marked distance.
"Where is your Hand of Glory tonight, Draco? You are being careless." He called to him.
Draco halted, "I did not think I would need to be out after hours tonight."
"It is almost midnight, Draco. You are most certainly out after hours."
"And?"
"And this is not a conversation we have not had many times before. Let me help you."
"No. I don't care about your vow, that's not my problem, is it?"
"Then I am afraid you will have to come with me. Night wandering cannot go unpunished." Snape raised his wand, and Draco felt his limbs bind together. It was like hovering on an invisible hook; the toe of his boots just a hair's breadth above the ground.
"Let me go, Professor, or my-"
Draco spat in anger but it carried no effect. Snape slowly propelled him through the air by what felt to be his collar until they were outside the office of Argus Filch. The injustice burned at his lungs.
This would mean no roast beef from the kitchens. It would be hours more before he could crawl onto his mattress for a few hours hasty sleep, and it would doubtless mean a detention that he would never attend.
This was no time for inane little games. Snape should know this.
"I am at my wits end, Draco. You are being childish." He said pushing him inside the office until Draco was forced against one of the walls where Filch kept his polished manacles. "Perhaps detention for your carelessness will wake you to the fact that you need help with your endeavors."
Snape sneered at him while clapping his wrists in irons above his head. Snape then put down his wand and fastened Draco's ankles tight to the wall. "Argus sleeps elsewhere. I will be back to let you lose at dawn."
Snape left Draco hanging, and with the click of the office door all light was shut from the room.
Draco panicked, swollen nerves jittering in his chest with the rest of the wakefullness. There was no light. The blackness in front of his eyes was infinite and lurked, teasing him with obscurities. For a few minutes he writhed in the chains, and the stone clanked dully against the well oiled metal. It was of no use. His own wand was in the back pocket of his robes, far beyond hope of retrieval.
He was not afraid of the dark.
