2
Wake up, here I go, cram it all down my throat
Stomach so full that I wish I could choke
7 a.m, my head's already in a spin
As soon as I'm out that door, bam, it hits me like a ton of those red bricks
Can't dig myself out of this highest ditch, this madness
I swear sometimes I can't tell which way's up, which way's down
It's all up in my face, need to push it away, Somebody push it away
So all that I can hear is a simple song
The noise, the red, the green, makes me wanna scream
What I'd give to turn it off and make it stop
Make it stop, you gotta make it stop
Simple Song - Miley Cyrus
Draco walked. With every step his old dirty shoes sank a little deeper into the carpet of leaves he was moving on. Although the sun was getting brighter by the moment, the fresh breeze of the forest gave Draco a cold hug.
He needed something to do. Something that disctracted him from his shitty situation. After all these weeks in the mountains with not a soul around, he could already feel himself becoming insane. A few minutes ago the depth of the forest had given him a taste of freedom but now it felt as if the branches were crushing him. So many trees, too many trees.
He just really fucking needed to kill something innocent.
Draco abruptly reached for his wand in his pocket and threw curse after curse into the forest, that answered him with explosions, followed by branches and leaves, that seemed to be appearing from nowhere, falling to the ground.
"Expelliarmus!"
Draco turned around to see his wand flying in mid air until Potter caught it.
His little outburst had exhausted him and Draco, who was fighting for breath, could feel his chest rising and falling painfully fast.
"Give me my wand back!", he managed to get out, anger taking over him.
"You expect me to give you a wand when you are blowing up half of the forest like some lunatic?"
Draco looked over his shoulder. There was a clearing now; stumps reminded where once were gigantic trees, big pieces of wood were covering the ground and a dusty cloud lay heavily in the air.
His empty fist reminded Draco of his wand and he ran towards Potter and grabbed him by the neck of his shirt, lifting the small wizard off the ground.
"My. Wand. Scarface", Draco hissed.
But a ball of magic hit him right in the stomach and he stumbled backwards, forced to let Potter back on the ground. He turned around without another word and stepped back in his tent.
This was bullshit.
Harry kept pacing up and down in the tent.
"He's been with us for only one day and has already blown up a forest! Why did we have to agree? We have more important things to focus on! He's always been horrible to us and now we save his life? I really don't want to know what he's up to next. Hermione, why don't you say some-"
"Uhm..sorry, what did you say?"
"Hermione, seriously! You need to focus! So what do you think we should do with his wand?"
"Well..we..I..let's keep it so he can defend himself in case there's an attack or something."
Ron snorted.
"I'd rather have him die."
Harry handed her Malfoy's wand. Hermione had never seen a wand like this one; it was straight and sleek and she could make out a blurry reflection of her nose on the polished piece of wood. She put it inside her bag and looked back at her two best friends.
"Anything else? I'm a bit tired.."
"Harry and I will think of a plan", Ron answered comfortingly.
Hermione nodded and tried a weak smile.
"G'night..", she mumbled and stood up.
She stepped out of the tent and let out the shaky breat she didn't even know she'd been holding. What exactly did Ron think? Plans? He obviously hadn't understood yet, that they were looking for objects, which meant, that a Horcrux could be any thing in the whole wide world. Maybe Voldemort had been hiding a teaspoon in Colorado? Who knew?
"Lumos", Hermione whispered when she found her tent in darkness
"Granger, turn the sodding light out", a voice from the other side of the tent hissed.
Malfoy.
"Well, at least I'm doing more meaningful things with my wand than exploding trees."
"I never knew you were such a whore."
A whore? Hermione was everything but a whore. She didn't understand what he was talking about but she was too tired to respond to his rude answer. She just really wanted to sleep. To forget.
"Uhm..I want to change, could you like, I don't know..look away?"
"As if I wanted to see you naked, mudblood."
Right. This would make her feel so much more comfortable.
Hermione removed her clothes in a hurry and put on warm pyjamas Mrs. Weasley had sewed her the year before, while she glanced over her shoulder every few seconds to make sure that he really wasn't looking.
"Hermione! Hermione! Guess wha-", a voice from far away shouted, bringing Hermione's head in that zone between sleep and reality, but suddenly fell silent. She turned around in her bed. She didn't want to hear that voice. It had been so quiet and peaceful but the sudden noise had brought chaos back in her head again, where just seconds before had been tidiness. The constant headache crept back into Hermione's body.
"...oh, sorry, didn't want to wake you up.", the voice murmured.
She'd slept well for the first time in weeks and now someone had to wake her up. Merlin.
"Well, you obviously just did, Ron!", she growled.
"Uhm...we...I just wanted to say that we'll leave to Grimmauld Place in fifteen minutes."
"What?"
Hermione sat up in her bed.
"But..Snape..Are you sure it's safe?"
"I think so. It was Harry's idea, he wouldn't let us go there if it wasn't safe."
She nodded and swung her legs around the edge of the bed. The idea of staying at Grimmauld Place for some time didn't sound like much of a brilliant plan to her, but at least it was something. Anything.
Ron nodded with an almost encouraging smile on his lips and stepped out of the tent. Words had been rare these past weeks. Somehow Hermione could feel their - her's, Harry's and Ron's - friendship slipping out of her hands. She could feel the spark between her two best friends, how their helplessness made differences grow. They were so desperate and didn't know where to put the anger that was building up inside of them, just like the walls around Hermione.
She changed in a rush and stepped out into the forest. The tent folded and flew right into her bag with a flick of her wand. Harry made his way towards her, his glasses sitting lopsided on his nose.
"'You ready?", he asked.
"Yes. Where's Malfoy? He wasn't in the tent when I woke up."
It was just now that she noticed it.
"Somewhere over there, he's been awake since hours", he said, pointing towards a few trees that were standing so near that their branches curled around each other, looking like one of those sceneries in the storybooks Hermione's mother used to read to her when she was little. She could make out an arm looking out from behind one of the trees. "Malfoy, come here, we'll leave!", Harry shouted.
His hand grabbed her arms and seconds later Ron was standing on her other side, taking her hand in his big and slightly sweaty one. Malfoy slowly stepped towards them, ignoring the impatient look on Harry's face. She could see that he was not sure whether to ask where they would be going or not but he kept his mouth closed. His eyes were dancing around between the three of them; he couldn't decide who of the three of them wasn't too disgusting too touch. He touched Rons arm with his fingertips and made a face as if the contact burned his skin. Pathetic little cockroach. Harry nodded and Hermione could feel the familiar feeling of invisible ropes tighting around her body and twirling her around the moment she closed her eyes. Then her feet landed on a soft carpet and she knew she was in the living room of Grimmauld Place.
Draco opened his eyes and hastily pulled back his hand from the Redhead. He found himself in a big room with lots of old furniture that was covered with a thick layer of dust. The favourite colour of the owner of the house might've been green and a few of the silver pillows on the emerald couch were decorated with a family crest he was sure he knew from somewhere. A magically glittering inscripture over the fireplace read "toujours pur". This was definitely the house of a pure-blood family he knew. What did the oh so perfect Gryfindors want to do here?
"The filth came back to my house again!"
A woman shouted with a raspy voice and then started screaming her head off. Draco turned around and saw a thick green velvet curtain, that was hanging in an entrance hall-ish room, jerking to the side and allowing sight to a portrait of an old woman that looked everything but pleased. Her oversized hat, that was covered with black feathers, was hiding lots of curly grey hair and kind of reminded him of Longbottom's grandmother. She stopped screaming and looked at Draco, her features softening to something close to proudness.
"Oh, a young Malfoy! Pleasure to meet you. Finally there's a pure-blood back in this house, that was occupied by that Order scum last year! You're a part of our family, boy, make yourself at home."
She turned her head and stared at Granger, a look of hatred and disgust on her face.
"Die! You filthy little Mudblood!", she spat while gesticulating wildly with her hands. "Leave my house!"
Weasly hurried to the portrait and covered it with the curtain, making the old woman fall silent.
"Shut it!", he hissed.
Potter headed to a door that must've lead to the kitchen.
"Now that you've gotten to know your great-aunt, go t-"
"What? How am I related to that wizen ol-"
He stopped midway and turned around to face Malfoy.
"She's your mother's aunt. This is my godfather Sirius' house, well..it's actually mine. Now get yourself a room, we have some stuff to do."
Draco rolled his eyes, just for good measure, and went up an old wooden staircase, as he expected the bedrooms to be on the first floor. He didn't want to talk to Potter, he didn't want Potter to speak to him in full sentences.
Darkness had laid its wings over the bleak grey sky hours ago but Draco's eyes were still open. He didn't know what time it was, probably 4am something. He'd actually slept well the night before but now insomnia had caught up with him again. The blackness was crushing down on him and tied up his throat with the magic of fear. He could feel his boxers and t-shirt, that were drenched with sweat, wet against his cold skin.
He just had to keep thinking straight.
Time seemed to stop existing and no matter how long Draco had been waiting for dawn to break through the thick layer of the night, morning just would not arrive.
Time was such a stupid thing.
Dreamless Sleep Potion would have been nice.
Hermione woke with a start. A faint sunbeam blurred her vision when she opened her eyes and she had to blink a few times until her eyes had adjusted to the sudden light.
Someone had been screaming. She was sure she'd heard someone scream.
She jumped out of the bed with a thud and knocked open the door.
"Harry? Ron? Everything okay?", she shouted into the empty corridor.
A rumbling sound came from behind a door further down the hallway before Hermione saw the doorknob slowly turning. It slowly opened with a squeal and the tip of a wand looked out of the ajar door.
Harry.
He murmured something and Hermione could feel magic revolve around her, checking the corridor for enemies.
"Hermione", Harry sighed and opened the door just enough for him to squeeze himself through it. Ron was still sleeping then.
"Why did you have to wake me up?"
He rolled his shoulders and yawned in protest.
"I...I thought I've heard something..."
"But there's nobody here, you must've dreamt."
"I'm sure...I heard someone scream."
"You probably just had a nightmare or something, Hermione", he answered while rubbing his eyes.
Of course he wouldn't believe her.
"Well...I'm gonna read some books now, hopefully I'll find something that might help us.", she said in the hope it would cheer Harry up a little. Hermione knew that she wouldn't find anything.
"Okay", he nodded, "I'll be looking around a little and then see if Kreacher would be nice enough to make us something...edible."
He turned around and headed towards a staircase. Hermione knew exactly that he was going to Sirius' room.
Kreacher gave Hermione one last disgusted look and then headed out of the room.
She felt so lost, sitting at this table. It had enough space for at least 20 people and every noise echoed off the high stone walls, making her shiver.
It was so cold. She was so cold.
Familiar footsteps reached her ear but Hermione didn't bother to turn around.
"Has Kracher cooked?"
"Mmm.."
"Ron sat down on the chair next to her and looked hungrily at the rather dry potatoes and his expression changed.
Hermione was glad that his presence brought a little spark of warmth in the room.
"Uhm..well..at least something", he murmured and shoveld the food into his mouth.
"Don' y'wan' an'thin'?"
Hermione was just about to tell him not to speak with a full mouth when Harry came running down the stairs and into the huge dining room. He was looking kind of shocked. He reached out a trembling hand and passed Hermione a piece of parchment and a picture, which showed a small black haired baby boy sitting on a toy broom, zooming in and out of the picture. She took a look at the paper and hastily skimmed through it.
"Oh, Harry.."
She handed it back to him.
"And that's not all of it! All of the bedrooms are a total mess, someone must've been looking for something. I'm sure it was Snape, he's the only one who has access to the house. And", he paused, his angry features making place for a very serious look on his face, "I know who R.A.B is."
A wave of joy took hold of Hermione but she kept silent, curious for more information.
"Regulus Arcturus Black, Sirius' brother. He was a Death Eater and got killed because he wanted to change sides. But we can't be sure that he actually managed to destory the locket. I couldn't find anything in his room, maybe we should scan the whole house-"
"Harry!", Hermione interrupted him.
"There was a locket in the cupboard in the parlour. Nobody could open it and we..."
She could see it in front of her eyes. They'd been handing it around until they tossed in the trash because noone could open it.
"Kreacher", Ron said, who'd been quiet.
Harry stormed out of the room and towards the basement kitchen, where the old house elf of the Black family had his cupboard.
He came back in the dining room not a minute later, panting heavily.
"Nothing. All of his things are away."
Ron shifted next to Hermione.
"Then call him", he said.
"Kreacher!", Harry raised his voice.
There was a loud bang and the house elf appeared behind Hermione. He was half as small as Harry and white hair grew opulently out of his oversized bat ears. He gave her and Ron a nauseated look. His wrinkled, brown-grey-ish skin made him look kind of sick and he was still wearing the dirty rags they'd seen him in the first day they met him.
"Master", Kreacher said, bowing down in front of Harry until his noise touched the floor of the dining room. "I see you are back in my family's house with the Mudblood and the Blood Traitor-"
"I forbid you to call my friends names", Harry commanded.
"I want to ask you something and you will answer completely truthfully."
"Yes, Master", the house elf answered with another bow.
"Two years ago, there has been a locket in the cupboard in the parlour. We threw it away. Have you taken it?"
"Yes, Master."
Hermione smiled triumphantly. She couldn't remember when she's felt this good for the last time.
"Where is it now?"
"Away."
The small smile on her lips disappeared.
"Kreacher, tell me-"
"Mundungus Fletcher", the servant whispered. "Mundungus Fletcher", he repeated now with a stronger voice, "has taken everything. The pictures of Miss Bella and Miss Cissy, my Mistress' gloves, the Order of Merlin first class, the goblets with the family crest and..and.."
A high scream escaped from Kreacher's mouth.
"And the locket, Master Regulus' locket, it's Kreacher's fault, Kreacher didn't follow his orders!"
Hermione shrieked the moment the house elf tried to hit his head on the edge of the table but Harry grabbed him by the wrist early enough.
"Kreacher, I'm ordering you to keep still."
He did as told and sank down on the floor.
"Tell me everything you know about the locket."
In spite of the names Kreacher always called her, Hermione felt very sorry for him. It was the worst that could happen to a house elf when he can't follow his orders. She remembered how she was so determined to give house elfs more rights in her 3rd year.
Good times.
Kreacher finally managed to control his sobbing and began to tell.
"Mister Sirius had ran away form home and it wasn't much of a loss because he was a bad boy and broke the heart of my Mistress. But Master Regulus was proud of his blood and parentage. He had always looked up the Dark Lord, his views, his wish to clean the world from the Muggles and Mud-..Mudggle Borns. He became a follower of the Dark Lord at the age of sixteen, he was so proud, so proud...so happy that he could serve him. And one day, about a year after he became a follower of the Dark Lord, he came down in the kitchen. He had always liked Kreacher. And Master Regulus said...he said...that the Dark Lord needed a house elf."
He paused.
"Master Regulus said that it was a honour that Kreacher was allowed to help the Dark Lord. He said that Kreacher had to do everything the Dark Lord says and that he has to come back home afterwards."
He started to sob again.
"So Kreacher went to the Dark Lord. He took Kreacher with him to a cave at the sea. And there was a big black lake inside it..."
Hermione looked at Harry who wrapped his arm tightly around himself. He had told her and Ron everything about that night. And what happened afterwards.
"...there was a boat..."
Hermione understood now. Voldemort had wanted Kreacher to drink the poison. In most wizards' eyes a house elf was worth nothing, for Voldemort he had just been a tool.
"...there was a sink full with potion on an island in the middle of the lake. The D-Dark Lord ordered Kreacher to drink it, all of it. Kreacher drank, and while he drank, he saw horrible things...Kreacher's insides burned...Kreacher screamed for Master Regulus, he wanted to be saved, he screamed for Mistress Black, but the Dark Lord only laughed...he let a locket fall in the sink and filled it with the potion again. And then..then the Dark Lord left with the boat and Kreacher stayed on the island."
His whole body shuddered.
"Kreacher needed water so he bent down and wanted to drink from the lake, but dead hands grabbed him and forced him underneath the surface."
"How-how did you escape?", Ron whispered.
"Master Regulus had told Kreacher to come back."
"But ho-"
"Merlin, Ron! He disapparated, isn't that obvious?"
"Let him continue", Harry murmured.
And Kreacher continued. He told them how Regulus Black had searched for his house elf and had told him to bring him to the cave, how Regulus told him to exchange the locket in the sink with another one that looked exactly the same, how Regulus drank the poison in front of Kreacher, how the house elf had to watch his Master being pulled into the water by inferi.
The three of them were still sat at the table in silence, shocked by Kreacher's tale. Until Harry broke the silence.
"Kreacher, we need Mundungus Fletcher."
Draco had heard them, mostly the house elf, talking for what seemed like an eternity. The house wasn't exactly new and he could easily hear that there was something going on through the thin floor. He hadn't really bothered to listen, but now he was angry with himself. They might've been talking about their oh so important task, he could've found out something.
Draco's night had been rather unspectacular. He'd fallen asleep some time in the early hours of the morning and found himself haunted by dark nightmares again.
Lord Voldemorts red eyes, the vanishing cabinet, Bellatrix' laugh, the astronomy tower.
He couldn't even remember waking up.
Hunger growled deep in Draco's stomach and he slowly got up from the bed he hadn't left. It was quiet downstairs. Could he just go and casually sit down on the couch? After everything? It was such a fucked up situation.
"Merlin..", he mumbled to himself and headed for the door.
"...have to wait until Kreacher comes back with Mundungus Fletcher, that's our only chance to find the locket and destroy i-"
Potter stopped talking the moment he noticed Draco entering the room. Weasley shifted uncomfortably in his armchair and suddenly found a portrait that showed and old beardy man quite interesting.
He opened a few cupboards in the kitchenette at the end of the dining room but could only find some plates that were covered with a thick layer of dust.
He turned around to see if there was standing anything on the table but there wasn't. Granger's hair had losed some of its bushyness and looked somehow lifeless, as far as hair goes. Potter and Weasel seemed to be extremely happy about whatever they had been talking about regarding Fletcher and a locket before Draco had entered the room but the Mudblood stared out of one of the windows, her lips in a thin line.
"Is there any food?", he asked into the awkward silence.
"There's potatoes in the basement kitchen", Potter answered drily.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series but I own quite a big shipper heart.
Author's notes: This chapter has taken some time! Chapter writing is so much different than song writing and it took me some time to get into it. I wrote the first 500 words in the past weeks and the rest (about 3500) yesterday and today. My perfect inspiration for this chapter were Innocent and Last Kiss by my hoe Taylor Swift. They dont even fit the chapter but..idek..it really helped me. I know Kreacher's story takes quite a big part of the story (I didn't exactly copy from the books. I only have them in German so I just translated some stuff into English.), the next chapters won't contain so much war-ish stuff. It'll take about two weeks until I can update again because I broke my arm and everything I do is kind of slow now. But when it's okay again I will write in the bus and at school and wherever I am whenever I can so it will take so much less time to update. The three reviews I got made me so happy! I really have to grow into the whole chapter writing thing, but I can already feel myself getting better. These notes are getting way too long again.
Love, Sori