Disclaimer: The Blah.
A/N: Once again, this is a compacted version of the same things you guys have read, for those of you who have already read these chapters- so don't bother. :) But read the end note and give me a suggestion quick please if you can/want!!!
Cornered
"Accio, cloak!"
Draco frowned in confusion for all of about a quarter of a second. There was a flutter around him, and suddenly the fluid material in his clenched fists was tugging and escaping from his fingers. His first instinct was to let go in fright- cloaks don't move!- but then cold, cruel realization trickled down his spine, and almost too late, Draco's arms launched in front of him, fumbling frantically until he caught hold of, and fastened onto the folds of slippery fabric once more, holding on for dear life.
With a kind of convulsion, his knees curled to his chin, and his hands, holding the jerking cloak firmly, wound underneath them. The wand tip was now pointing straight at where he was, and Draco almost thought for a second that Snape had located him, but then, while he struggled invisibly, the point wavered, and Snape's arm swerved slightly to Draco's right, yelling "accio cloak!" again, haphazardly.
With each utterance, Draco felt the material wrenching to get free, it's ends flipping up, threatening to expose his feet until he had to stomp on the hem with his toes.
He was so busy in his struggle that he almost lost his balance when a new voice joined the silent, but deadly fray.
"YOU THINK YOU CAN HIDE FROM ME?!" came the unmistakable, shrieking tones of Argus Filch, and Draco barely managed to swallow a horrified groan.
This is all that bleeding Weasley's fault! Draco suddenly thought, acidic bile tickling the back of his throat. If it weren't for that bloody do-gooder, he wouldn't be in any of this mess at all! His dignity would have been in eminent shape, his privates would have been comfortably Potter's taint-free, and he would never have found himself at the receiving end of his infamous head of House's wrath. And now he had to deal with Filch!
Is there anything else you want to add? He asked the Universe.
The corridor was only so wide, if Filch decided to walk down it, Draco had absolutely no chance of escaping undiscovered.
Well, hell, thought Draco in slumping resignation.
As if thinking the same thing Snape's spell lost its hold quite suddenly. Losing his balance at the sudden loss of tension, Draco's back hit the wall with a thump. The sound was completely masked by Filch's yelling however, as he seemed to be coming closer.
"Mrs. Norris, don't let the brat get away. Fourth past-curfew outbreaks in a week! I will have Dumbledore know this time. There is no way he can deny us a flogging this time! Flogging and detention for a year! Tiresome, bloody welps! When I get my hands on -!"
Watching the two Professors apprehensively, Draco took a moment to collect himself. Glancing to his immediate left, Draco theorized that perhaps, with some very slimming effort, he could conceivably slip past the unnervingly still Sinistra and reach the safe sancuary of his House common room. But feeling the jittery state of his skeleton, Draco quickly discarded this idea entirely. Pressing his back against the wall, and beginning a slow process of sliding up to a standing position, Draco instead, looked directing in front of him at Snape.
The pasty features engraved with a livid scowl seemed to be deepening and gaining more contortions by the minute, but to Draco's intense relief, they were now turned towards the caretaker's ever rising voice.
Gulping, Draco waited for the Professor to decide if he was planning on unleashing any more surprise attacks on the invibility cloak, or if Filch had completely caught his attention.
With the right distraction, Draco decided, he could book it back down the way he had come and hide somewhere until they were gone.
"…hang him upside down in the dungeons, I still have a room prepared for the day the headmaster signs th-"
"Argus!" Snape's angry bark rang in the empty corridor and was answered by a ringing silence.
"P-professor Snape?" Came the hesitant reply finally.
"Yes, it is I," Snape snapped impatiently. "What is the meaning of this ruckus? In case you hadn't noticed, it is well past midnight."
Draco shifted quietly towards the more spacious end of the corridor, leading towards the Entrance Hall. Stepping toe-first, Draco did his utmost not to make a sound, as he slid slowly past Snape.
Don't smell me! Don't smell me! He silently chanted, hurrying his steps.
"B- But Professor Snape, sir, a student…" came Filch's suddenly much more tamed and deferential voice.
"I am aware that there is a student on the prowl, you idiotic man! And he's wearing an invisibility cloak! Now stay quiet, and help me find him, instead of aimlessly hollering-!"
"Invisibility…? But I just-."
"Silence, you foolish man! And stay where you are, and make sure nothing walks past! He's over here."
Draco's heart seemed to have stopped beating, but he continued his trek towards Filch's voice. He didn't know how Filch had figured out he was out here, but he found that his terror completely obliterated any amount of respect he might possibly have gained for the shriveling old caretaker.
Looking back at Snape, Draco saw that he was waving his arm steadily in front of him with that same dangerous expression on his face that he took on whenever Longbottom's potion turned an unhealthy purple. Behind him, Sinistra finally moved as well, and seemed to follow suit, making sure that Draco could not possibly escape in the other direction.
Tensing from head to toe, and looking back at the only remotely hopeful direction, Draco thought if he just got to the corner before Filch did….
All three parties had gone dead silent, and Draco inanely felt as if he was put on highly acoustic, domed opera stage with a giant spot light and a sore throat. Even the sliding of his muscles seemed to resound in his ears.
Draco found himself desperately wishing he had never stolen the wretched cloak in the first place. Sure, Sinistra might have taken some points away for hall wandering, but at least he would have been assured of his life.
Draco wondered what he would say if he were caught at this point. It's alright Professor, we all need love, he imagined, but even in his mind it did not sound very convincing.
I have always had a secret, mad passion for Professor Sinistra, as well" also failed to sound very honest.
Swallowing another lump in his throat, Draco decided to completely obliterate the mental monologue, and instead focused on the darkness ahead of him. It would not have done if he had walked right into the prickly bastard. As if awaiting Draco's mental queue, Filch appeared out of nowhere five feet before Draco.
If Draco could have, he would have sworn.
The man's lined face, in the darkness looked ghostly, his eyes wide and swerving in their sockets, as if he thought he could pierce through the invisibility cloak through sheer will. His arms were outstretched like Snape's, and grazed the stone walls on either side as he entered into the much narrower corridor and there was a morbid determination in his stance which Draco found that he really did not like.
I'm SCREWED!
Bringing both of his lips into his mouth and biting them shut, Draco bent his knees until he was about half his normal height. The caretaker's extended arms were still too low. Thinking extremely fast, Draco surmised that he would have to crawl underneath. Ducking his head in preparation, Draco was just about to do just that when Filch's arm abruptly jerked down, clearly suspecting the very same thing, and groped at the empty air lower down the wall.
When he found nothing, his arms swung back up. Draco froze in horror.
After a pause of uncertainty, Filch decided that the gaping space was definitely a flaw in his defenses, and promptly began to wave both of his arms in the air from shoulder to sides. Flicking a wide-eyed glance at the space to his side, Filch's expression turned calculating, and then just as abruptly, his knees collapsed, and he slumped knees bent, arms waving, making absolutely sure that nothing could crawl beneath his arms.
Draco watched the ancient warden with his jowls quivering, his eyes wide as cauldrons, and his arthritic joints manically waving at the arms, and creakily shuffling at the legs and felt his stomach clench. A wave of hysterical laughter pushed against the back of his throat, and tears sprang in his eyes. Cornered desperately against the wall, Draco inched backwards knowing full well that Snape was probably using the same method behind him. Knowing full well that he absolutely lacked the kind of self-control required to keep his laughter at bay if he saw that, Draco smartly decided against glancing behind him.
All he could do at this point was delay the inevitable for as long as possible, and hope to whatever deity Potter prayed to that simply by virtue of being a Malfoy, all would go easy on him, and he would not end up getting expelled.
***
It had been such a close shave that Ginny felt like she should have had a bald spot on her head.
The old man, despite both his age and mal-health was only one turn of the winding stairs behind her when she had broken through the door and made a mad dash for the Entrance Hall. She could not remember ever running so fast in her life. Her breath came out in stinging puffs, her eyes were blurred seeing moving shapes in every corner, and there was an odd and disheartening burning sensation all along her muscles.
Ginny really did not see the point in having muscles, if they did not naturally maintain their fitness.
We don't all have the luxury of being chased around by hyenas all the time!
Ginny shook a mental fist.
Almost stumbling in her haste, Ginny stepped out at the end of the corridor, at last, where the ceiling above her rose in a sudden steep climb to the domed height of the Entrance Hall. Behind shadowy pillars across where she stood, Ginny could just make out the closed doors of the Great Hall. At a bang behind her, Ginny dived sideways, in the direction of the marble staircase.
Almost instantly, Ginny wanted to kick herself. If she had dived the other way she could have snuck out the Entrance doors and hid outside in the bushes. But now that she was on the opposite side, the only way she could do that was to cross the corridor opening again, and risk being seen. A risk that would totally ruin the whole point in her sneaking out in the first place.
Damn.
Heaving a rather long and untimely sigh of regret, Ginny looked around wildly while her ear perked towards Filch's nearing footeteps, ready to send a siren when it became too close. Meanwhile, Ginny's eyes roved the perimeter to search every potential hiding spot, but all the options seemed to blatantly obvious.
Ach! Ginny mind-screamed. Swiveling her eyes to the huge doors of the Great Hall, Ginny tried to measure her chances of getting across the unobstructed terrain, with the, once again, indubitable chance of crossing the oncoming caretaker's line of sight. Realizing that once there she would also need to getting those massive oaks to open- if they were not magically locked- Ginny quickly dispatched that idea. There were tall columns that jutted at the outskirts of the hall in a circular fashion, but she knew that she could only inch behind them and remain hidden if there had only been one person in her pursuit. But thanks to bloody Mrs. I think I'm A Cat, Eventhough It's Apparent That I'm Clearly Not, that's not an option either.
Damn, she thought again.
Ginny was right on the brink of hyperventilating when the ear siren gave a shriek.
Ginny almost shrieked in response but luckily, her tongue had turned to solid rock. Before she could even think about it, Ginny had swerved left and was dashing towards the nearest pillar, determined to play it for as long as she possible could, her wand automatically clutched in her hand.
She was behind the first glowing white artifice when Filch turned the corner yelling. Under the domed and echoing ceiling of the entrance hall, the very acute thumping sounds of the old man and his cat's feet became ten times louder, sending Ginny's heart into a race. Trying desperately to listen, Ginny realized that the reverberating sound was now making it impossible for her to judge where the hell exactly the stupid man was.
Breathing in deep through her nose, Ginny turned around and hugged herself close to the vast column. Inching her way to one side Ginny attempted to peer out with as little of her face showing as possible. With a mighty jolt of relief, Ginny's eye poked out right when Filch's back turned, now announcing his pledge for revenge to the school at large.
Idiot man! He's going to attract all the teachers out of their beds at this rate!
Biting her lip in irritation, Ginny wracked her brain harder than ever. How come Harry never got into crap like this? she wondered. And as if had been waiting for her to ask this question, the tip of her wand scraped gently against the smooth surface of the stone. Jumping a little in surprise, Ginny thought, Aha.. Magic!
I should be expelled, she thought in shame. As if called by her thoughts, Filch whipped around. Eep! Snatching back her hand, Ginny hastily tucked herself behind the safety of the pillar's shade.
Careful what you wish for!
Gulping a ginormous ball of phlegm, Ginny grabbed her wand in two hands and brought it in front of her, face gripped in the utmost concentration. Alright, Ginny, Scarlet Fevah paced behind her eyelids, fists curled in the passionate beginnings of a very effective pep-talk: you are a witch. Eyelids drooping slightly, Ginny hoped like hell that this was going to be worth it. And, pause, as a witch, magic flows through you like...
...Like air through an unsealed hole, she finished off lamely, taking a slightly at-a-loss, imaginary deep breath.
So...
Ginny waited, eyes fastened to the long shaft of wood before her. In the darkness it seemed even longer than its actual 8 1\2 inches length and Ginny felt confused for a moment.
So... Scarlet Fevah recovered, you have to use a spell. Yes. A very ingenious spell which will somehow turn time back about 3 hours, and you can decide instead of following Harry, to go up your little dormitory stairs, and slip right into your safe, warm little bed and go to sleep early.
Ginny frowned. She didn't think she knew any spells like that.
Or?
Or... an ingenius spell... which will.... Scarlet Fevah trialed off, the enthusiasm that had spurred her first two words now completely gone. Ginny, throat spasmodically gulping now, shoulders tense, waited with eyebrows raised. She almost expected a bolt of lightening to hit her mental prototype, but if anything, the fiery red hair only blazed more strongly than ever -
And suddenly something clicked in her mind. Her hair... it was such a give away, no matter where she managed to lurk, so the only effective means of protection was to become invisible. Huh. She didnt know how, and she didnt have a cloak... but when Mad-Eye Moody had picked them up from The Burrow last year to go to Grimmauld Place, he had cast a disillusionment charm on them all! That was it!
Rather pathetically, Scarlet Fevah finished -which will make you invisible!
Ginny rolled her eyes, but her heart suddenly felt like it was a slimy something on the back of her tongue. Its thumping jarred through her brain, as Ginny moved the too-long wand to her scalp, closed her eyes, tapped once whispering "Novitus!"
For a moment nothing happened, but a weak tremor of magic coursing through the wand. Then, like a sigh, something felt like it got deposited from the end of the shaft and trickled wet and thick over her head, rapidly covering her entire length. Ginny felt the tingling charm rolling over her torso, and looked down to see her clothes diminishing into the dim, white marble of the column behind her. Her candy blue buttons disappeared, and slowly the faded pink with the yellow dancing duckies in her pajama bottoms melted away as well. Ginny felt a surge of happiness in the form of a giant smile stretch across her face. She could still see the outline of her clothes and the lines of the folds, but they were just like bleary silhouettes against the air. Bringing down her wand to admire her non-hands, Ginny felt the tip catch at a lock of her hair. Shaking her head, Ginny watched with dawning horror as bright, flaming locks of hair moved across her vision.
What the hell?! Taking the wand back to her head, Ginny repeated the charm again, holding out her hair and just tapping the wand against the strands, but nothing continued to happen.
Ginny panicked.
"Novitus! Novitus! Novitus!" she repeated over and over, and then nearly screamed when something furry and alive brushed against her shin. Looking down with wide eyes, Ginny stared right into the lamp-like eyes of Mrs Norris.
"What's there Mrs. Norris?" came Filch's excited voice from not very far behind. Ginny jumped, and the cat meowed. Shaking in a sudden shot of fight-or-flight, Ginny grabbed the neck of her top, in a mad, desperate impulse, and yanked it up, over her head.
"You found the devious little culprit, did you? Heh Heh... You're caught now you vile-"
The cotton slid over her shoulders, and was up her neck, blocking her vision, just as Filch's breathing came from around the curve of the column. Blindly, Ginny pressed herself against the pillar and circled the other way. There was another "meeeoow," and Ginny realized that the cat was following her. Blinded, she just hoped to all that was good and holy that her skin was disillusioned. Although a nude, hovering torso might have been just the thing to frighten the old care-taker away, it would have been ridiculously humiliating. Not to mention that the freckles would have been very suggestive evidence.
"Come on little student, there is nowhere to hide now..." Filch was saying, circling the pillar himself. Lungs heaving, Ginny shifted further away. The shirt twisted a little more and she found one of the gaps between the buttons widen in front of her eyes. Glancing down quickly Ginny was reassured that her skin was a comfortable mix of moonlight and marble.
Filch's voice got closer again, and Ginny shifted carefully this time, not to lose her eye-hole. She knew that once they had circled the pillar once, Filch would get smarter and try to catch her the other way, and then it was only a matter of time before he became unpredictable and he caught her. Feeling a cold shiver up her spine, Ginny realized that he would probably grab, too. This thought ignited another mad impulse to shriek; she did not want his arthritic hands anywhere near her skin, let alone skin-to-skin around her middle.
But where the hell was she supposed to go?!
***
By the time Harry reached the corridor leading up to the portrait hole, his head felt like it was about to split. Vaguely, he wondered if he should go down to the Hospital Wing and get it checked, but the humiliation of admitting that Malfoy had actually gotten him was too overbearing, so instead he kept walking towards the two dimensional lair of the Fat Lady, veins stinging with indignant fury. The prat had even somehow stumbled over his carefully hidden cloak and snatched it. Harry could not believe he had been stupid enough to have given the boy a fair fight. But the worst part was that, since he had lied about being at Dumbledore's office, there was no one that he could admit any of it to, either.
He felt so dishonorable.
But really, he had known that Malfoy was up to something, and he had been right. But for some reason, this year Ron and Hermione did not seem to care in the least. Secretly, Harry knew that it was because they had noticed something far more interesting- raging hormones, and each other- but he was perfectly happy not delving too deep into that insight, so Harry insisted on his bafflement.
I mean, Malfoy is part of the whole evil we're trying to defeat! Why couldn't they see?
And now he could not even shove it in their faces, because he had lied. He had lied and he had had his cloak stolen, and he had a really sore head.
His dignity was another matter, entirely. Harry liked to think that at some point during sleeping in a closet and getting his trashed by the Womping Willow, he had gotten over that.
But this, this was indignity of a manly sort, and Harry did not think that he could just ignore it. In fact, the very same circumstance of his outrage, also happened to put the entire school in danger, so he technically had the right to be doubly outraged. Who knew what havoc Malfoy with wreak upon the school now?
In the darkness, emerald eyes narrowed. Clenching his right fist in front of him just as a lucky and unlikely breeze whirled in the hallway around him, Harry vowed that he was going to make Malfoy pay, even if he had to curse him in the Great Hall, in front of Dumbledore.
Feeling somewhat accomplished, Harry frowned, returning his hand back to the back of his head to rub the sore spot, and randomly remembering the parchment that he had risked such abuse for.
Hah! Harry thought in a rare moment of vindictive satisfaction, as he realized that in his haste to get away, Malfoy must have forgotten all about it. He supposed that he had nothing but Slytherin cowardice to thank for that.
Pulling away the hand still idling through his hair, Harry muttered the password- "intrepidity"- and climbed through the hole in the wall.
The sight that greeted him as the portrait swung shut behind him made the pain in his head immediately slink to the recess of his mind. Two meters away, under roughly strewn drapes and a slightly open window lay the twin corpses of his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.
***
And then she saw it- another corridor, wider slightly than the one that she had come out of, but depressed into the floor, no doubt, leading down to the dungeons. Surprised, Ginny faintly recalled taking it years ago for detention with Snape.
Awesome! she nearly announced out loud. Instead, biting on her tongue to make sure she made no unnecessary noises, Ginny crept forwards really slowly, glancing behind her and finding, not suprisingly, Mrs Norris staring right at her. The end of Filch's night robe just flickered forward when she turned around, sick of tarrying, and booked it in a stream of wavering ripples through the air before diving into the corridors shadowy depths.
Tucking herself safely there, Ginny frantically wretched her arms from the mass of crumpled cotton and got the shirt off her head entirely.
Beyond the threshold, Ginny saw Filch finally turn the corner, and not surprisingly, decide to make a fast circle the other way. As Ginny watched, he leaped one way and then changing his mind zoomed in the opposite direction, circling the pillar with his arm outstretched before him so fast that she thought he was going to fall. Biting her lip to prevent the laugh bursting to get out, she shook out the top and quickly wound it around her head, to hide her hair.
"Oh, Mrs Norris, this time when I find him, there will be no getting away. No useless detentions polishing the trophies! Pah! No, not after the doors Dolorous- my precious Dolly!- opened here. Even Dumbledore can't stop me this time!"
Tying her sleeves into a safe, 40's-style knot below her chin, Ginny felt her lips curl in a snarl.
Tucking in stray strands of her still not un-disllusioned hair that stuck out, Ginny heard the old man's grumbling, between puffs of breath, gain volume.
"Too soft on them... real lesson…hang him upside down in the dungeons, I still have a room prepared for the day the headmaster decides to come around-"
Mrs Norris meowed evilly, and Ginny saw her creep over towards the corridor, calling Filch's eyes to her. Ginny spun around and ran two steps into the darkness when-
"Argus!"
Ginny's heart stopped.
A painful, full second of ringing silence passed while Ginny's eyes felt like they were ready to take leave of their sockets, blindly trying to accommodate both her horror and the limited size of her pupils. As her shock slowly settled into morbid fear, Ginny registered the smooth, icy tone as Snape the Potion Master's.
Great, that's just great, Ginny thought. She had absolute no idea how she was going to escape now.
This time I'm really screwed. I know I always think I'm screwed, and this has not been my night at all- maybe it's some kind of unholy Malfoy God retribution for my too elated, elation in the beginning of the week for kicking his arse, but I'm definitely screwed this time. Ginny felt beads of sweat pop above her top lip and resisted the temptation to wipe it with the back of her hand.
No sudden movements.
Behind her, Ginny could hear Filch gathering his own wits.
"P-professor Snape?" Came the hesitant reply finally.
"Yes, it is I," Snape impatient snap followed somewhere from the shadows that Ginny had been planning on dashing into. "What is the meaning of this ruckus? In case you hadn't noticed, it is well past midnight."
The voice sounded far enough down, and Ginny, cornered, delicately placed a foot before her. Ah! There had better be a branching corridor somewhere between me and Snape, or my days in Hogwarts are over. Between Filch and Snape- literally- there was going to be no mercy if she were caught.
Reaching out a hand before her and trialing the other one along the stones beside her, Ginny took another hesitant step in front of her.
Shuffling his feet and walking closer to the steps behind her, Ginny heard the caretaker's voice, lowered and defensive say, "B- But Professor Snape, sir, a student…"
"I am aware that there is a student on the prowl, you idiotic man! And he's wearing an invisibility cloak! Now stay quiet, and help me find him, instead of aimlessly hollering-!"
Ginny squeaked, her eyes squinting before her. What? Where was he? Ginny whipped her head around, bewildered. Oh my god, he knows! I don't even know how he knows, the stupid bloody slimy git, but there is no point hiding anymore.
I'm dead. It's not even just an expression, he's a DeathEater, and he is going to kill me, because he hates me and my entire family, and I am prowling too near his dungeons, and WHO ELSE walks around the halls in the middle of the night except creepy Death Eater professors who could see through disillusionment charms and -
Wait.
Ginny frowned. No... he had said "invisibility cloak". Ginny's brain wheeled rapidly through this new piece of information. The only "he" who was not a Slytherin, had an invisibility cloak and would definitely bring a labored excitement into Snape's voice, if he thought he had him, was Harry. And Ginny knew for a fact that Harry was out this night.
Aha! Ginny thought in mild hysteria. What was that about Harry never getting into messes like this?
Behind her, Filch finally seemed to grapple with his own confusion: "Invisibility…? But I just-."
"Silence, you foolish man!" Snape's labored voice came from much closer ahead. "Stay where you are, and make sure nothing walks past! He's over here."
Review! Hmm.. can't decide.. should Ginny come to the rescue, or should she chicken out and Draco accidentally saves them both??