Chapter Twelve: Madness After Midnight...
Victoria Potter yanked her jersey out of the grasp of a spiky bush that growled menacingly as she ran to catch up with the three waiting for her.
Draco looked immaculate as usual, but Harry, Hermione and Victoria all sported cuts, burns and ripped clothes from the fierce garden that guarded the entrance to Malfoy Manor.
"Why are the plants only attacking us?" Harry asked, his voice coloured with suspicion and irritation.
Draco looked coolly at him. "They're instructed to attack all intruders but members of the Malfoy family, for obvious reasons. However, they seem to be a bit listless tonight. Normally they'd have ripped you to shreds. Mother must have fed the carnivorous vegetation within the last three days... lucky for you." He added as an afterthought.
Harry gulped and Hermione gave a nervous glance at the few vines that wrapped themselves around the archway they stood under.
Draco smirked at their discomfort and pushed open the entrance doors, holding them open in a courteous manner.
Hermione and Victoria nipped in and Draco released his hold as Harry entered, slipping inside as the wooden structures closed.
It was dark inside, but the few streaks of moonlight that entered through the small archers windows high above provided enough illumination to avoid walking into any objects.
Moving quickly and as quietly as possible, the four crossed the entrance hall, ascended twelve flights of carpeted stairs and padded along the corridor that lead to the fencing room.
Halfway there Draco stopped suddenly, causing the other three to crash into each other.
He pointed to the end of the corridor, where a large shadow grew in the moonlight.
Draco grabbed Victoria by the arm and pulled her over to a large statue where they both crouched.
Harry dashed behind a velvet curtain that framed a large portrait of a Malfoy relative.
Hermione tapped herself on the head with her wand and appeared to melt into the wall.
Footsteps became audible and the shadow joined the darkness as the figure walked around the corner and along the corridor.
Victoria held her breath and tried not to wince as Draco's grip on her arm tightened.
The figure brushed by the curtain that Harry hid behind, and for a brief moment his feet were visible, but the figure didn't seem to notice.
It lumbered past the section of wall where Hermione had melted and stepped into a beam of moonlight.
Victoria choked on her breath as she realised what she was looking at.
The figure yawned and pushed scraggly black hair out of his half-closed eyes before scratching his bare chest and readjusting the red silk boxers that hugged his visible hips.
He moved out of the moonlight and past where Draco and Victoria crouched.
If he had been properly awake he might have noticed their faces staring at him with expressions of disgust and horror.
However, he continued along the corridor and down the flight of steps without the slightest notion that he was being observed.
Once the sound of his footsteps had faded, Harry stepped out from behind the curtain, puzzled by the expressions Victoria and Draco wore.
Hermione reappeared, pulling her bushy hair out of her eyes.
Draco let go of Victoria's arm and stated in disbelief, "To think mother is actually marrying that mongrel of a man."
Victoria wasn't listening. She was too busy processing what had just happened. "I didn't know Sirius wore red boxers..."
Hermione and Harry stared at them as they rose from their hiding place.
"Too much information Tori." Harry confirmed.
Victoria nodded in agreement and the four walked towards the fencing room, their minds now filled with unwanted mental pictures of Sirius and red boxers.
Draco pushed open the door and Victoria ran over to the glass case that held the item.
To her disappointment, she couldn't find a hinge, lock or anything that might allow access to the sword.
"How are we supposed to get it out?" She asked.
Draco pulled out his wand and with a Latin word, tapped the side that faced them.
The glass disappeared.
"Neat trick." Harry commented.
Victoria picked up the sword. It tingled in her hands and she felt a strange urge to go north, back the way they came.
Ignoring it, she grinned.
"This is one item that Voldemort won't get his hands on." She claimed proudly.
Draco clapped a hand over her mouth. "Don't say his name!"
Harry raised an eyebrow. "What, Voldemort?"
Draco glared at him. "Shut up! Stop saying it!"
The twins exchanged glances.
'Draco Malfoy is afraid of the Dark Lord. Well well well, isn't this an interesting discovery...'
Without another word from any of them, the four made their way out of the castle, dodged the aggravated plants and mounted their brooms.
Just as they were airborne, Draco answered before the question could be asked.
"No Tori, we're not there yet, and if you ask, I will hand you over to the Venomous Tentacular."
Victoria didn't ask.
#####
Ron was sitting on the steps outside the castle when they returned. As they locked their brooms in the shed, he ran up to them and burst into a full rant.
"What took you so long!? Class is about to start, I thought I'd have to explain to Snape why his best and worst students weren't there, and people have been asking me where Harry was last night, it's been driving me nuts, did you get the sword, how could you leave me behind, c'mon, we're late!!!"
Ron grabbed Harry and Hermione and ran off to class, leaving Victoria and Draco to lock up the shed.
Victoria shook her head in disbelief as she watched them leave.
"He's remarkable unobservant. How many people would fail to notice I have a sword balanced on my shoulder?" she scorned.
"Speaking of observation, how do you plan to get that inside without half the castle noticing?" Draco asked as he pushed the lock back into place.
Victoria turned and pointed to the window that connected to the Slytherin girl's dormitory. "I'll send it through there. I can keep it in my dormitory."
Draco turned and craned his neck upward to pinpoint the window. "So that's the girls dormitory..." he grinned and raised an eyebrow.
Victoria shot him a warning glance. "We don't welcome male drop-ins, Draco."
"Alright, so how are you going to get it up there? You can't just waltz up the stairs with a sword on your shoulder. It's not an acceptable accessory." He questioned.
"Yes, I realise that. But you forget, I have telekinesis." Victoria claimed, a twinkle in her eye.
He raised an eyebrow. "This sounds like a catastrophe in the making. I'm going to attend class now, rather than watch you make a mess of things. Try to keep that sword out of sight." He strolled off in the direction of the castle entrance, blond hair shining in the morning sun.
Victoria gazed after him for several moments, before she realised what she was doing. Slapping herself on the forehead, she returned to the task at hand, forcing the image of the slender blonde out of her mind.
Laying the sword at her feet, she took a step back, fixed a picture of the window in her mind and stared at the sword, concentrating on the idea of it soaring through the window by itself.
Nothing happened.
Sighing, she put her arms out in front of her body and held her hands like they had the sword resting in them. Concentrating on the sword, she raised her hands.
Nothing happened.
Feeling ridiculous, she grabbed the sword and pointed it towards the window and tried mentally pushing it.
Still nothing happened.
Looking at the sword in her hand, she considered throwing it towards the window and praying it would get there.
'Maybe if I get angry, it'll move. Yeah, It'll be like throwing Blaise around.'
She sat down and dropped the sword in front of her, trying to think of something that really pissed her off.
'Draco's smirk... no, that's too common. Ron being stupid... nah, that's just irritating. Harry walking in without knocking... no, that's disturbing. I know, the Dursleys! What have they done recently... Dudley ripped up my book, Petunia made me wear that stupid dress, Vernon went on about how all magical people should be executed at birth... god, he's such a racial bastard.'
Recounting on Vernon's speech, she stared at the sword intensely.
'...bloody hoons on their flying motorcycles, teacups turning into frogs, all useless party tricks, yet they dare to think they're better than us, calling us muglets and...'
Victoria glared at the sword, wanting to pick it up and ram it through her uncle's thick skull for saying that. 'Everyone's entitled to an opinion though, even if you don't happen to like it...'
Exasperated, she grabbed the sword and hurled it at the Quidditch shed, watching as it buried itself headfirst in a snow mound two feet short of its target.
"Why isn't this working? I'm pissed off, I've got the object, and I have a goal, so why won't it fly up there already!? Oh, such wonderful magical powers, too bad they DON'T WORK! Fly through the window already, I'm skipping class for this! Fly damn you FLY!" she yelled and pointed at the window, unaware that in her rage she had gotten to her feet and was stamping her foot in time to her rant.
A stone fell from the castle wall to land with a soft thud in the snow below.
Victoria jumped and turned to look at where she had pointed. There was a gap in the wall where a stone was missing.
Experimentally, she pointed at the sword and repeated quietly, "Fly damn you FLY! Fly damn you FLY! Fly damn you FLY!"
The sword quivered.
Lifting her finger she moved it slowly over to where the window sat.
The sword shuddered and snow began to shift as it rose.
Eyes widening in disbelief, she repeated faster "Fly damn you FLY! Fly damn you..."
The sword fell over.
Dropping her hand in disappointment, Victoria stood there for a while, staring at the silver blade shining against the bright snow.
'So it wasn't me... it just overbalanced...'Giving in, she pulled out her wand and used a banishing charm to send it away from her and up and through the window.
'I hope no one saw the sword fly past their window. Hallucinations from boredom aren't that common...' she thought as she trudged through the snow to attend the last few minutes of Potions class.
