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Guess what! This story is now longer than some of the Harry Potter books! (excluding Author's Notes). I'm quite shocked at my self that I managed to find time to write a book-length story.
Right. So, lots of you were once more glad to see Draco back. But will you like what happens next?
Previously: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Griphook and Dean were all captured and taken to Malfoy Manor, where, of course, Hermione was separated and Bellatrix began to torture her whilst the others reunited with Eva and Luna. Then Draco walked in, and everyone froze.
Draco stood there, and for a long moment, nobody spoke,
Then he did what not one of them had expected. He strode forward, his wand outstretched, heading for Harry. The others tensed, preparing to fight. And he stopped, opened his hand and let his wand lie there.
"Take it," he said roughly.
"What?" Harry asked disbelievingly.
"Take it, go get Granger and get out. All of you, go."
Shock was written across all of their faces.
"You're giving me your wand?" Harry clarified, unable to believe his senses.
"That's what I said," Draco snapped. "Now hurry up, unless you want Aunt Bella to torture her again."
Harry stretched out his hand to take the wand, moving slowly. He still could not trust Draco, no matter what he was doing.
Eva's shocked gaze had turned to them the instant that she had heard Draco's words. Fear, jubilation, love, surprise – a whirlwind of emotions was raging inside of her and she found herself unable to speak.
Then, if she had been able to become more surprised, she would have been. A crack echoed through the cell and a figure appeared in the middle of the room.
"Dobby?" Harry asked, staring at the House-Elf. "How did you-"
"Dobby can do what wizards cannot, Harry Potter. Dobby is here to help you!" Dobby suddenly noticed Draco, and raised a finger to stun him. But Harry held up a hand to stop him.
"No, Dobby! He's helping us," he said, eyeing Draco with distrust. "I think," he added quietly afterwards.
Frozen in place, the others did nothing but stare. After so many months of nothing whatsoever happening, Eva's brain was going into overload. First Draco, now Dobby. Would Colin burst through a wall next and compound her confusion?
Thankfully, Harry's brain seemed clearer than hers. "I guess he gets more practise at this sort of thing," she thought wryly. "Then again, not many people have to deal with the brother who abandoned you and the house-elf who raised you both turning up to rescue you from your ancestral home."
"Right," Harry said. "I think I've got a plan. Ron-" He looked at Ron's resolute face. "If I take Draco's wand, you can come with me to get Hermione. Griphook, can you go in with Draco and cause a distraction, so that we can rush in and grab wands and Hermione. Dobby, if you can take Luna, Dean, Mr Ollivander and Eva out of here-" he was cut off by a squeal from the house-elf.
"Miss Eva! You are here?"
"Over here, Dobby," Eva smiled, relieved that she knew what to do here. Dobby hurried over, bowed quickly and then began fussing over her torn, dirty robes and bedraggled hair.
"Dobby did not know that you were here, Miss Eva, or Dobby would have come to rescue you straight away!"
"I know that. I was alright, honest." She thought guiltily of the panic attacks she had had since returning to her childhood prison, but was determined not to mention them. Particularly not with Draco standing there. The tumult of feelings concerning him were too fresh for her to understand them yet.
"A good plan, Mr. Potter, but with one flaw." Most of them jumped to hear Ollivander, speaking for the first time since Harry and Ron had entered the cell.
"What's that?" Harry asked warily.
"Mr Malfoy's wand. If he simply hands it to you, it will not transfer its allegiance and will be very unwilling to work in your hands."
"So what does he do?" Dean asked impatiently, clearly eager to be out of the dank, dark cell.
"Disarm Mr. Malfoy."
Harry voiced what they were all thinking. "How? I haven't got a wand."
"The simplest magics can be done without a wand, Mr Potter. Or do you not remember childhood?"
Harry nodded. "Alright." He turned to face Draco, who was still holding his wand outstretched. "Expelliarmus!" To Eva's relief, the wand shot out of her brother's hand and into Harry's.
"Okay," Harry continued, Draco's wand in his hand. "As I was saying, if Dobby takes you four humans out. Then, Dobby, can you come back? For Ron, Hermione, Griphook and I." He cast a look towards Draco. "And Malfoy, I guess."
Surprise and relief flickered briefly on Draco's face for a moment, but he masked them almost at once with his customary sneer.
"Where to, Harry Potter?" Dobby asked eagerly.
"Shell Cottage," Ron supplied. "Bill and Fleur's place," he added in explanation to the others. "Shell Cottage, in Tinworth."
As Dobby grabbed Eva and Luna's hand, and Dean and Ollivander gathered around to hold onto his shoulders, Eva watched her her brother leave, trailed by Griphook and the two Gryffindors. She had the mad urge to suddenly yell something out to him.
But what? 'I'm sorry?' 'I love you?' 'Be careful?' 'Thank you?' As she chose between them, she realised that the cell walls were dissolving in a swirl, and let it go.
"I can say it when we meet again," she thought happily. "We'll meet at this Shell Cottage, and he'll be on the right side again, then I can thank him and remind him that we're still siblings, no matter what I said.."
Slowly a garden appeared out of the swirling mists, followed by a cottage and a little fence. Their feet hit the ground with a thump, and they let go of each other's hands, staggering slightly.
Dobby prepared to go again.
Eva had fallen to the floor, and was now sitting on the grass, marvelling at the feel of the blades beneath her fingers. "Good luck," she called up to him.
"Thank you, Miss Eva," he chirped, and was gone.
Two people were running out of the cottage, people who Eva vaguely recognised from their wedding. But she left it to Dean to explain who they were, and what they were doing, and instead wandered towards the cliff, the sound of the sea unfamiliar to her ears.
"It's beautiful," she murmured to herself, and was startled when she heard a reply from Luna.
It was only a yes, but there was so much meaning behind it that Eva turned to look at her.
"I didn't think I'd ever see the sea," she sighed. "Or see the stars again, or feel the grass. But now….I'm free, and I've got so much I want to do." She laughed, pure happiness resounding in the way that it hadn't in her laughter whilst imprisoned. "I'm free," she repeated happily. "I'm free!"
Hands out, she spun in a circle. Then, dizzy all of a sudden, she collapsed to the ground and lay there, laughing happily. She gazed up at the sky, wondering what all the constellations were. "Now I have the time to learn them," she smiled. "I wonder which one it is that Luna chose for me?"
She couldn't have said how long she lay there. She might have dozed off, but the next thing she knew was a sharp crack. She spun and stood, all in one motion.
Her mind whirling from the sudden blood rush to her head, she squinted at the five figures who had appeared on the grass.
Cliffhanger! Aargh! I've succumbed again.
Sorry, everyone.
Maybe by the end of the story I'll get over my addiction to them.
x
