Here is chapter 7!

Chapter 8 will be up soon, too Enjoy!

Speech note: Dialog is "tabbed". Writing in sand is not

Chapter 7

Draco's mind flashed a thousand outcomes for this situation. He wanted nothing to

do with ninety five percent of them. He found that all he wanted after these months

was to be OUT. To be free from this nightmarish place where he was treated as

nothing but a mindless animal. He didn't care where he went as long as he didn't

have to face either his serpentine tormentor or his father ever again. The Dark Lord

had at least been honest for all intents and purposes of making Draco into some

kind of pet, while his father had been deceitful. He called him "son", made a show

of bringing his boy up the proper way. But it was all a sham. He realized now that

his father was only a manipulator. He'd no doubt only feigned affection for him

because his mother wanted him to. There were time she wondered whatever

became of her.

But now was not the time for such meandering thoughts.

He didn't want to betray his true identity to Weasely by any stretch of the

imagination, but he didn't want to languish in this horrible place any longer.

He scrawled in the sand with a clawed digit.

"Why do you want to know?"

Ron raised an eyebrow at the question.

"Bit cheeky for an isolated fellow, aren't you?" he made it a statement more than a question.

"I want out," Draco wrote.

"Me too," Ron looked up at the dragon before him.

He saw its scales were dull in areas, undoubtedly an effect of being kept in such

cramped conditions and being in a state of unstimiulated mental health. Dragons

needed room to really move around. From the looks of this one, it hadn't been

outside for quite some time.

"How long has that bloody bastard Voldemort kept you down here, anyway?"

Ron gently inquired.

Just when he thought nothing could dig at his pitiful existence anymore,

Draco felt the muscles in his chest clench. With a shaking talon, he etched:

"I don't even know,"

Ron sensed some odd tragedy about the creature before him. He felt that it

had an acute awareness of its dismal lot in life. It must not have been kept here all

its life. It must have known freedom, or at least some form of it. Otherwise, it would

not be so melancholy. If one was ignorant of life, one could not mourn its loss or

realize its pitiful situation.

Ron sighed. He decided to press the subject of where such a peculiar

dragon came from again. Albeit, this time, he would have to be somewhat sneaky about it.

"So...where did they keep you before they brought you here?" he asked nonchalantly.

Draco pondered. He wanted to tell Weasley everything, if only he weren't Weasley. He settled on something vague.

"Far away. There was a forest...a lake...a castle,"

There! It captured the idea enough. It felt oddly relieving to have anyone just to

communicate that much to. He hadn't been here his whole life, he didn't want to be here

at all. There was just no one else who asked!

"Sounds nice. Its a shame they keep you locked up down here. I can't lie though,

its been a great thing for our people. But still, there has to be a way to get you out of her,

too. Its not right to keep a dragon in a hole like this. Can you fly?" Ron asked with

sudden hope.

"Don't know. Never Tried," Draco scrawled. His mind pounded. Weasley had just offered to get him out of here! If this day couldn't get stramger.

Draco had never tried. The room wasn't big enough to gain any altitude. The air

was still and stale, there were no currents that could be used as boosters. The ceiling

was far too low to even hint at even hovering. Besides, it was positively inhuman to fly.

Draco shuddered at the thought. Perhaps the real reason he had never seriously

attempted it was because it would prove that he was no longer human. He hadn't any

idea how long he had been kept in this ungodly cell, but he hadn't wanted to admit that

he was lost to the world of man. He didn't feel any different now than when he had been

a young man. He still had the same thoughts, emotions...the only thing that really was

different.

Ron sensed some uneasiness in his companion. He supposed it wasn't a good

idea to bring up flying to a dragon so unused to, well, anything outside this room.

"Look, I only mentioned it so I wouldn't have to use my secret stash of Floo. I

mean, I don't know if I have enough for both of us. I never flooed a dragon before. You're

a pretty small fellow, dragon wise, not to slight you, of course. But it is enough for two

people. I know you know some magic, or else you couldn't pull the bubble gum bit. I

know dragon's don't talk. so I'll say it and you concentrate really hard on where you want

to go, alright?"

"Nowhere to go. No fire," Draco wrote.

"You can come with me then, back to the Ministry. They'll probably be wanting to

give you a medal or some such thing. Fire wise, you're a bloody dragon. Just puff a little

fire out. Problem solved, mate! Or..haven't you ever done that either?"

Draco paused. He could try. He'd felt heat welling in his chest before. When he was angry, or thinking about would could have happened to HErmione. He decided to try it.

"Let's go. Now" he wrote.

Ron smiled.

"Now we're talking!"

Draco thought of all the lies he'd been told. He thought of how his mother was left

alone with a husband who spirited her son away...gave him away to a creature of

indescribable evil. He thought of how he couldn't be there to protect anyone he even

remotely cared for from the Dark Lord.

He felt hate and rage. He felt fire.

Draco shot an icy blue glare at Ron. Ron took his small pouch of Floo powder out

of his robes. He took off his outer robe and tossed it between them. This would have to

be quick!

Draco shot a plume of flame from his mouth. The robe caught fire. Ron threw

what remained of his Floo powder into the fire and leapt into it. Draco made tried to fit

into the fire as much as he could.

He could hardly hear what Weasely shouted. He didn't care where they went. He didn't

care if he died trying to get there. He wanted to be anywhere but there.

Suddenly, they weren't.

Suddenly, they were in the courtyard outside of the Ministry of Magic.

END of Chapter 7

BUM BUM BUM!

Who's inside? You'll just have to come back for Chapter 8. There'll be RL/NT And one original character. But it's not a Mary Sue! She's only 2 XD