Burning Memories

Author's Note, Sorry about the weird last post, I've been having some technical issues, IDK I'll figure it out, anyway, just wanted to say sorry for how long it's been taking me to update lately I've just been busy with school and work and life, also I've been trying to add more details to my stories, especially this chapter because when I first wrote it, it was like barely over a page in length and more of an outline than an actual story, so yeah.

Hermione rushed over to the door, pulling it open and out of Severus's frozen grip. When she got a good look at her obviously panicked friend she asked, "Harry, what do you mean he's gone? He was just in the infirmary, how could he be gone?"

Harry was breathing heavy and Hermione realized her friend was showing the signs of having a serious panic attack, but she couldn't worry about him right now. Harry bent double and said, "Once you guys were gone, I went back into the infirmary but when I went into Draco's room he wasn't there, I asked Madam Pomfrey and she said he was in the bathroom, so I went in to check on him but the door was locked. It took me a couple tries to get it opened, and he wasn't in there. Madam Pomfrey and I searched the entire Infirmary, he's not in there, and he's not on the map."

Hermione's and Ron's eyes widened, and Hermione asked, "Could he be in the room of requirements?"

Harry shook his head and said, "I ran over there, a couple of fourth years were using it to make out in secret, they said they'd been there all day and no one came in. How could he just be gone?"

Gabriel frowned and asked, "What map do you speak of?"

Harry pulled out the map, not even caring that Professor Snape might see it, and while Hermione unfolded it and scanned over it with critical eyes Harry explained, "The Maradures Map, it's enchanted to show the magical signatures of everyone in the castle, as long as they are in a room on the map we can see them. I checked it before, Draco still showed up even after his transition, he should be on there somewhere, he couldn't have gotten completely off the grounds this fast…"

Hermione put her hand on Harry's shoulder and said, "Breathe, we'll find him, you need to just calm down."

Harry took an obligatory deep breath, and was once again showed that Hermione was always right. Once he had managed to take one deep breath in he felt much better and continued to force himself to breath while Ron and Hermione quickly scanned over the map in an attempt to hopefully find something Harry had missed. The Golden Trio jumped when Severus said, "There are some Slytherin rooms missing from this map."

Gabriel frowned as he squinted down at the paper and quietly asked, "Where are they? We need to find Draco, and quickly. Right now he is very unstable, he's obviously starting to remember but that just means that right now he's even more vulnerable."

Severus worriedly looked at the map and after a moment of silence he said, "There's a secret stairwell here," He tapped a spot on the map to illustrate his point as he continued, "that leads directly to the reserved rooms, if he's starting to remember he's probably heading to his room."

Hermione frowned in confusion as she said, "I thought Draco shared a dorm room."

Severus nodded in confirmation and as he continued to scrutinize the map he said, "Draco chose to stay in the dorms but as the Malfoy Heir he inherited a reserved room. Draco uses the room as a getaway whenever the other snakes get a little too vicious, and he keeps all of his more valuable belongings in there because a few of the other Slytherins have the tendency to try and go through his belongings to see if there is anything they could use to their own benefits."

Gabriel gave Severus a considering looked and asked, "Can you take us there?"

Severus sighed and said, "We need to get Albus first, he's the only one other than a Malfoy who can open the door to his rooms."

Hermione tapped a dot labeled Albus Dumbledore, and said, "He's in his office right now."

That seemed to be all Severus needed to know as with a billow of his robes he turned and quickly swept out of his rooms and headed in the direction of the headmaster's office, not even waiting to see if they were following him. With that the group quickly made their way out of Severus's courter, they had to practically run just to keep the fast moving potions master in their line of sight. When Severus saw the stone Gargoyle he quickly said, "Nougat Bar." The Gargoyle jumped out of the way, and Severus rushed up the stairs, once again not bothering to check if the others were following him. When he reached the top of the stairs he did not bother knocking simply slammed the door open with a loud and resonating bang. His eyes met those blue eyes that for once did not seemed to be twinkling with laughter. Dumbledore gave him a polite smile that for once seemed rather forced before saying softly, "Please take a seat, all of you."

Severus frowned, unsettled by how the headmaster was acting, like he had been expecting him and already knew the horrifying news. He quickly stepped forward and ignoring the headmaster's request he said, "Albus, Draco is…"

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow and said, "Severus, I am aware of the situation, now please, have a seat, all of you."

Severus frowned, and with an angry flourish he did as Dumbledore bade, the other's, who had finally made it up the stairs, quickly took their seats and looked to Dumbledore with nervous yet expectant eyes. Once they were all situated Dumbledore looked at a large ornate clock on the far wall before saying, "Approximately ten minutes ago I was notified by Madam Pomfrey that Draco was indeed missing, and exactly three minutes ago, I received notification that an emergency Port Key had been activated. Based on the locations, where the port key was connected, it is safe to assume that Draco was the one to activate it, whether it was intentional or not is unknown. I've managed to acquire a secant Port Key that will drop you off outside of that same location, it's the best I could do with short notice. Severus, I trust you know the wards at Malfoy Manor well enough that you can get inside and locate Draco, hopefully before he has the chance to do anything dangerous."

Severus nodded and Dumbledore turned to the others, "Mr. Longbottom, I'm afraid I have to ask you to return to your dorm room, I can't allow a minor under my care to go to a dangerous and potentially hazardous environment."

Neville frowned and asked, "What about Harry, Ron and Hermione?"

Dumbledore smiled as he said, "They are Draco's bonded, if they choose to go I cannot legally interfere nor would I want to."

Neville nodded his understanding and quickly got up and left, once Neville had left the office Dumbledore pulled out a chain that had a large ornate ring with the Malfoy Crest hanging from it. Dumbledore said, "This will take you to the back gate at Malfoy Manor, I assume I don't need to warn you to be careful and not to touch anything in or around the Manor unless it is completely necessary."

With that said Dumbledore held the chain out to Severus, who carefully took it without touching the ring. They all got into a circle and Severus counted to three, they all reached in and place a finger on the ring. They all felt the familiar pull at their naval and then they were spinning so fast they lost all direction. When the spinning finally stopped and their feet touched back down onto solid ground, The Golden Trio couldn't stop from collapsing onto the hard ground which was softly padded with loose dirt and grass. Severus staggered a bit but managed to stay on his feet and Gabriel looked like nothing had happened at all.

It was a few minutes before the Golden Trio managed to get enough of their bearings enough to stand up and slowly make their way to the back gate of Malfoy Manor, which Severus was already standing in front of. While the front gate was elaborate and obviously intended to show off their wealth, the back gate was simple wrought iron the impossibly tall privacy walls on either side were covered in all sorts of fauna that had to be magical in origin.

Severus had his wand out and was muttering under his breath as he pointed towards the metal, and as they looked on they realized that although the could see through the bars they could not see anything past beyond. Hermione whispered, "The Malfoy family wards are rivaled only by Hogwarts, I doubt even Severus could alter them enough for us to enter if he weren't technically the head of house."

Harry turned and asked, "What?"

Ron explained, "Lucius can't hold the title as long as he's in Azkaban and Draco is underage, since Severus is Draco's Godfather he holds all of the Malfoy's inheritance and titles in trust until Draco comes of age, if something happened to Draco though, the Malfoy titles would move on to the closest of kin, but I'm not sure who that would be."

Severus did several complex wand movements and then one of the gates opened with a very loud and eerie squeak. Severus sagged a bit as though he was exhausted and he jumped when Gabriel placed a hand on the bare skin of his wrist. Severus looked like he wanted to rip his hand away and snarl an insult but Gabriel cut him off by saying reasonably, "Right now you are the only one who even has the slightest idea where we are going, I would not have you at anything less than your best, for Draco."

Severus eyes narrowed in mistrust but he refrained from voicing his mistrust or pulling out of Gabriel's grasp, after a minute even the Golden Trio could notice that Severus looked less pale, they hadn't even realized how sickly their professor had looked until he looked well once more. Finally after a few minutes Gabriel released his hold one Severus's wrist. Severus took one deep shaky breath, before quickly pushing forward, pushing the medal gate wider open with a loud squeak, and without waiting to see if they were following he quickly made his way inside, before he had gotten to far, Severus gasped out, "Salazar!"

Gabriel and the other quickly rushed to enter the Malfoy grounds, and when they finally got past the wards and could see the rest of the grounds, they gasped, even Gabriel looked completely surprised. The Manor was quite a long distance away, so far in fact it looked like a tiny miniature toy house, but closer to them were several building that were easily twice the size of the burrow, and even more startling was that one of the closest buildings was on fire. It wasn't just the fire that was startling, but the sound, which was almost indescribable. It was a loud screeching that was painfully loud, and although it sounded like some sort of strange magical creature, they all got the impression that the sound was somehow sad.

Severus was frozen in shock, and it took Hermione asking him softly, "Professor, shouldn't we find Draco and make sure he's alright," for Severus to shake off his surprise.

Severus quickly headed towards the flaming building and when he was almost halfway there, suddenly the shrieking stopped. Severus, who had been walking at a fast speed, paused for a secant before breaking into a full out run. The others quickly fell behind as he sprinted around the burning building, and for a moment they lost sight of him, but when they came around the bend they were both surprised and relieved to find him, but the relief quickly dissipated when they saw the figure who had the potions master's undivided attention.

Draco Malfoy look completely different than they had ever seen him. The past few days they had gotten so use to being able to read his expressions, but at that moment his face was completely blank, something they had never seen before. Before the transition his face was always covered with the Malfoy mask which seemed to drip negative emotions. Not even his eyes, which where what normally gave away what he was really feeling, showed any emotion in that moment. If they hadn't seen the faint rise and fall of his chest they might have suspected he was dead. What was even more startling, and unsettling, was that the beautiful white wings they had grown so accustomed too, where gone.

Severus was looking at Draco with sad and worried eyes, and once again it appeared he was frozen in place. Gabriel slowly walked around Severus and approached Draco from the side. Draco's eyes were slightly hazed as he stared at the flames, and he didn't seem to notice anything going on around him. Gabriel slowly reached out and gently placed a hand on Draco's bare shoulder, as Draco was only wearing a pair of infirmary pants, Draco flinched a bit at the contact but did not completely pull away. The contact seemed to be what was needed to bring Draco back to reality because his eyes finally moved from the flames as they looked up and met Gabriel's gaze. Whatever Gabriel saw in Draco's eyes, let him to whisper, "You're not alone."

With those words Gabriel pulled Draco into a hug. Draco didn't not return the gesture. Gabriel ran a soothing hand down Draco's back, and for a moment the others felt a prickle of warmth, then suddenly Draco sagged in Gabriel's arms. Before any of them could start to panic, Gabriel explained, "He's alright, he just needs his rest, he's been through a very trying experience."

Gabriel quickly reposition the unconscious blond so that he could easily carry him, and the others let out relieved breaths as they saw that Draco was indeed asleep. His eyes were closed and his breathing was slow and regular. Ron asked with wide eyes, "What the hell just happened?"

Severus said, "It appears Draco has remembered quite a bit if not all of his lost memories, he likely would have burnt the rest of the building down as well if there were not wards against fire."

Hermione frowned and asked, "Why would they put fire-wards on some buildings and not all of them."

Severus said with slightly wide eyes," There are fire-wards on this building, at least a dozen in fact."

As Severus turned to look at the flames he was not surprised when he saw they were slowly dieing down and said, "It would take an astronomical amount of magic to even start a small fire let alone a blaze that large, and I couldn't even calculate the amount of magic it would take to sustain such a blaise."

Gabriel nodded and said, "That is why we must hurry back to Hogwarts and the Infirmary, I think he pushed himself to far, and with how bad his condition was before this could be very dangerous for his health. Severus nodded and pulled out the same chain with the ornate ring dangling from it. The others hadn't even noticed he had pocketed the item. Severus said, "This will take us back to Dumbledore's office."

Hermione frowned and said, "That's impossible, port keys can only go out, not into Hogwarts."

Severus sighed and said, "Granger, this is a very ancient Malfoy Family Heirloom, it can create a two way port key from wherever a person is to the back gate of Malfoy Manor, it is one of the few relics that can actually penetrate Hogwarts wards which was why Dumbledore confiscated it from Draco his first year."

Ron snapped, "Why the hell would he have that? He could have brought all sorts of nasty things into the school!"

Severus glared at Ron and said, "Draco was using it to visit his mother without alerting his father to his presence."

Ron paled for a moment before turning Red with embarrassment and he said, "Sorry, I didn't know."

Severus looked like he wanted to make a nasty retort but Gabriel stepped closer with the bundle in his arm and reached in, stopping just short of touching the actual ring. They all forgot their quarrels momentarily as they realized the priority right then was to get Draco to the infirmary. Hermione counted to three and they all placed a single finger on the ring. When they arrived in Dumbledore's office, the headmaster himself was still sitting in the exact same spot. The Golden Trio had once again collapsed to the floor, and Severus staggered over to one of the chairs and collapsed into it. It was a couple minutes before they all gathered their bearing enough to notice that Gabriel and Draco where gone. When they started to look around in panic Dumbledore said, "I expect Gabriel rushed out so quickly so he could get Draco to the infirmary. I think when you are all feeling a bit better you should head to bed, Draco will likely be asleep for a long time, and you all look like you could use a good night's rest, you can go see Draco in the morning."

Drawing Hearts