Disclaimer: Uhm, not mine. I won't bore you with these; those three words just about cover it.
A/N: this was originally going to be a second chapter to the oneshot Hurt Him that I wrote. Its plot got out of control, and was only going to be getting Draco back to Grimmauld Place - oh well! If you haven't already read that, please do :) As you may or may not be able to tell, this is un-beta'd, and if you spot anything a bit funny looking, please let me know :)
This bunny hopped over to me in the middle of Goldberg and Gnossienne #1. If you have no idea what I'm talking about... Google? Encyclopedia?
I hope you like it!
Harry willed his cold-numbed fingers to move faster. His breath came in quick, shallow bursts. He tried with all his energy not to breathe in through his nose, the stench of decaying vermin reaching his senses.
There. That was the last knot untied. Draco came lose from the tree he was unconsciously tied to.
What to do now?
That answer was obvious. Leave. Leave and leave now before the inevitable happens and you get caught. The answer to the unspoken question however was not quite so obvious.
How on Earth was he going to get Malfoy back to headquarters? There was no way he was going to walk back with an unconscious Malfoy to the Muggle train station!
There was no alternative. He'd managed to get this far without using magic that would surely give him away. Now he had no choice. He'd have to Apparate.
Oh Merlin, I've got to give away the rough location of headquarters!
All the while Harry was thinking this he was half-carrying, half-dragging a Malfoy that had been beaten to a pulp. A huge nasty-looking purple bruise was forming just below his bloodied platinum hair – probably the blow that knocked him out. There was a similar looking one at his temple.
Ouch, thought Harry. If he had the energy to, and not Malfoy's extra weight to carry, then he would've flinched. Harry scrunched up his face. He looks bloody awful! I suppose that's what you get when you don't fulfill your missions. You get left to die in your own Manor.
He rearranged Malfoy into his arms so he could move faster and get out of this bloody courtyard and into the maze of corridors that was the long-disused Malfoy Manor.
It was vast. It felt like some royal palace that the Muggle queen of England had.
The Malfoys consider themselves practically royal anyway, Harry noted with distaste.
He had no idea where to go. Or if the place was indeed booby trapped.
Oh well, he had made it this far, right?
Oh, thank Merlin. I recognise that staircase.
Sure enough, he ran down a huge marble staircase that uncannily reminded him of Hogwarts.
He heaved all his and Malfoy's weight onto the huge green door, flanked by stone snakes. You could never forget what house you belonged to in this place. Bloody Slytherins.
The door swung open.
We must be past the wards by now.
He clenched Malfoy's frail body to him and focused on the square of grass near Grimmauld Place.
What was it? Determination, Desperation, D-… Destination! Wait, that can't be right... Was Desperation one? I didn't think this out at all. I knew I should've told Hermione!
Oh well, here goes nothing... If Ron can do it, I can...
Again, he pictured the grass square near Grimmauld Place…
Crack.
He slowly opened his scrunched eyes he hadn't realised he had closed.
He dropped Malfoy on the floor in relief.
A groan elicited Harry from his sudden reprieve.
Shit.
Malfoy was in a bad state. Wow. Apparating had been a bad idea.
Well, there was no use hanging about. At least he could use magic now. He pulled out his wand, and conjured a stretcher and placed Malfoy on it. Whoa. In the glow of the seedy streetlight Malfoy looked terrible.
Harry wordlessly, or rather, in horrified speechlessness, levitated Malfoy towards where the door would appear.
Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, he thought.
No sooner as he thought it his house appeared.
A worried McGonagall was looking out the window and rushed away to let him in. It had been his rather rash plan from the start.
"…Potter?"
He glanced down.
"You'll be staying in my house now, Malfoy. Harry would be more appropriate," he said softly.
To his unsettlement, he felt no bad feeling towards that notion.
Please review whether you liked this or not. I used to be only a reader too, and didn't review much. Then I realised how it felt to have 200 viewers and only 1 review, and vowed to review whenever I had the time. :)
Flames that don't have a point behind them will be used to heat my bath. Still welcomed though :D It's encouraging to know that people managed to slug through this to the end.
A/N: So there I was, sitting on the loo, running this through my head and mapping out what Malfoy Manor was like… then BAM! A huge mistake! A huge plot hole! Draco was tied to a tree in a square-shaped courtyard (bit like Hogwarts in the films) and then Harry takes him down the stairs – but he's already on the ground floor! Oh noes! Please ignore this. Peeved that nobody noticed though.