Her heart was beating so fast, she was afraid someone would hear it. Katherina had to stay guard so that Gregory won't wake up too soon, their parents wouldn't come looking for them, and none of the house-elves would wander around and catch them in the act. Internally, she was praying that everything worked well because if it didn't? Neither of the two wanted to imagine the consequences.
Draco had climbed the oak growing in front of his parents' bedroom. He used Alohomora to unlock the window, then again for the enchanted item chest at the foot of their bed. With Wingardium Leviosa, Draco levitated every item out of the chest and quietly set it on the carpet until he found what he wanted, then he placed the rest back. He locked the chest with Colloportus, then levitated the item he desired to Katherina. He closed the window with the same spell as the chest, but as he was about to climb down from the tree, he heard her gasp.
As soon as Katherina touched the fabric, her hand felt like holding a piece of hot coal and so, she dropped it and took a step back.
"What?" Draco asked as he landed on his feet. He went to pick up the fabric.
"No, wait!" she whispered, but it was too late.
"Damn!" Draco let go of it as well. "Ugh! I should have expected this..."
"I think it has some protective spell on it," Katherina said as she was holding her burned hand. She tried to see in the faint evening light if she had any serious injury, but aside from some redness and a stinging sensation, she seemed fine.
"Obviously!" he rolled his eyes. "It's probably the Flagrante Curse. The goblins at Gringotts use it to protect items against thieves, that's what my father told me. Of course, they wouldn't leave an invisibility cape unprotected!" Draco kicked the pavement of the alley in frustration. "Come here. You do know the Counter-Spell, right?"
Katherina looked around cautiously. "I've heard of it, but I didn't actually study it."
"Seriously?" He rolled his eyes. "I bet Hermione knows it!"
Katherina wanted to turn her back on him that very moment - what did Hermione have to do with this? - but they were already in this together. "This isn't the time! Teach me and we'll cast it together. You're afraid you're not strong enough to break this spell on your own, is that it?"
"Please! I'm not afraid, I just know for a fact we'd better cast it together if we hope to even come close to the strength of one of my parents!"
"Then teach me!" the girl whisper-argued with him. "Please? It's our only chance."
"Right," Draco made a face. "This is the movement we have to make," he said as he drew it on the ground with the tip of his wand, "and the incantation for it is Finite Incantatem. Repeat it!"
"Finite Incantatem, I got it." Katherina pointed her wand at the cape and so did Draco.
"Concentrate! Ready? One, two..."
The two performed the spell at the same time and red light shot from their wands towards the cape. Bloody hell, it was bright!
They both looked at each other in panic. Draco recognized his father's steps coming down the alley. Oh, shit! His face had the 'do something!' order written all over it, so Katherina cast Reducio and Draco shoved the napkin-sized cape into the pocket of his dress pants, conveniently covered by his suit coat. They ran as quietly as possible by Gregory's side and Katherina cast red sparks from her wand, right above his face.
Draco tried to stay serious. Goyle was not only knocked out, he looked like he had been run over by a train! He was snoring and drooling all over the place. When his father was close enough, the blond ran to greet him.
"Father, Gregory smelled the flowers and passed out! We've been trying to wake him, but he just won't!"
"I warned him not to do it," Katherina said as she stood up and took a step back into the gazebo.
Lucius sighed. He looked honestly tired of dealing with the Goyles and their inherited stupidity. He stepped close to the boy and hit the pavement hard with the tip of his walking stick. The noise was rather loud and very close to his ear, which was most likely going to wake him from his slumber.
"You should have called someone," was all he said.
Gregory woke up with a grunt and choked on his own saliva before rolling on his side to cough. Katherina turned and bit her lip. 'Don't laugh, don't laugh, don't you bloody dare laugh!' but Draco let out a chuckle. That was it - they both began laughing hard again.
"...Wha? What happened? Ugh, my head hurts... Mr. Malfoy?"
Lucius turned and left as soon as the fat kid was awake. If his father wasn't a Death Eater, there would have been no chance in hell for the Malfoy Manor door to ever open for the likes of him. Such a disgrace... hard to believe they were pure-bloods.
"What are you laughing at?"
Draco wiped tears from his eyes. "Goyle, you're an idiot! We told you not to smell the bloody flowers!"
Gregory looked utterly confused. "Huh? I don't remember smelling any flowers."
Katherina pointed to his shoulder. "You have drool on your suit - ew!"
"Of course you don't remember!" Draco went on laughing, partly because of Goyle, partly because of how close they had been to getting caught. "You walked straight into them, then fainted!"
"Man, I fainted? You mean it?!" Goyle began laughing at himself. He ran his hand over the drool on his shoulder, trying to clean it, but he could only smudge the stain. He smelled his hand, then wiped it on his pants.
"What do you think? While someone was too busy laughing, I tried to wake you up, but you were- I mean, you..."
Draco took the chance to make even more fun of him. "You snored, Goyle! You snored like a tractor! My father made some noise and you began to wake up and choked on your own spit!"
"I remember that," Goyle began to laugh. "You're such a jerk, Draco, laughing your ass off! I was so lucky to have this pretty girl trying to wake me and-!"
When she heard the compliment, Katherina stopped laughing and shot him a killer glare. "Before you get any ideas, I simply didn't want you choking in your sleep. Believe me or not, I don't know how to get rid of a body... Yet."
Draco was still very much amused. "Oooh-hoo-hoo-hoo! Roasted, Goyle!" He shook his right hand in front of him, simulating a burn.
"Shut up!" the boy got up, but he couldn't be mad. He had a goofy smile on his round face. "I was just saying thank you."
Katherina crossed her hands over her chest with a smirk. "Not welcome."
"Why are you so mean?" Goyle asked with the same dumb smile. "You're really pretty, you know?"
That's when Draco placed his hand on his clean shoulder. "She'll eat you alive, you fool! You've got no chance!"
Goyle turned to walk with Draco towards the house. "But, like... why? Is it because I called her a muggle-born? Because I swear I didn't know she was pure-blood!"
Katherina walked right through the pair, forcing Draco and Gregory to part. "Thanks for the reminder - you both insulted me!"
"Hey, you don't really mean it, right?" Draco called out. "Katherina?"
"Oh, so you do know my name!" she continued to pretend that she was mad. In truth, she was ecstatic - the first part of their plan had worked better than they had expected. She could tell that Draco felt a similar way - he had a great disposition.
That night, after the Goyles had left and everything seemed back to normal, Draco and Katherina went into their rooms when told as if nothing happened. Earlier, Draco had assured her that his father rarely used anything from that enchanted item chest and that his mother barely went through it once a year at most. It was possible for them to realize the invisibility cape was missing, but very unlikely in such a short time.
They sneaked out of bed at 3 AM, as the Malfoys usually stayed up to talk about anything they didn't want the kids to hear. Katherina waited for Draco to get the cape over himself and give her the signal - three taps on her door, one second of silence, and then a fourth tap. She opened up the door for him and joined him under the cape.
"Are you sure they're asleep?" she whispered as they went downstairs.
"Trust me," Draco reassured her, "it's been quiet for almost two hours."
"Wait. Do you hear them when they talk? I mean, if you do, surely you hear them... at other times...? You get me."
"If I keep my window open and stay really close, I can hear something, but not a lot. No, Caesarius, I don't know what you mean. What do you mean?" he teased her.
Katherina pretended to punch his arm. "We've got no time for this!"
Draco suddenly stopped in front of a painting on the third floor. "This will take us to the hallway outside my father's office," he told her.
"A Portkey?" she asked as she reached her hand for its frame.
"What else?" Draco did the same and they were transported outside his father's office door. From there, they were in the living room in a matter of seconds. Now, it was Draco's turn to stay guard.
The girl levitated the book off its shelf with Wingardium Leviosa, then cast the Geminio Charm. An identical copy appeared all of a sudden and she dropped her wand trying to prevent it from falling on the ground. This earned her a panicked look from Draco. The whole point of sneaking around was to be quiet! Katherina put the original book back and they hid under the cape as a house-elf came in to take a look.
Draco's hands were trembling slightly. If his parents found out about this, he'd be in huge trouble! They stepped over Katherina's wand to cover it as well, then watched the house-elf walking around suspiciously. Neither of them was brave enough to move while it was in the same room. Thankfully, after about a minute, it left.
"What the hell, Caesarius?" he whispered.
The girl hit him in the ribs as she noticed the house-elf still investigating in the corridor. This wasn't the time to fight! She bent down and took her wand.
"Shh... Let's go," she whispered back.
Moving as quietly as humanly possible, they made their way into the hallway and past the house-elf, towards the Portkey painting. Once they were transported to the third floor, Katherina noticed that the painting depicted a young Lucius Malfoy posing in the Slytherin common room with a dark green cape and his graduation certificate. He had obtained the highest scores in his generation at Hogwarts. No wonder his expectations of Draco were high...
The boy snapped his fingers at her. "Earth to Katherina!"
"What?" She shot him a look.
"Let's go!" He led her back to her room under the cape. "Good night!"
She nodded. "Good night. Be careful!"
As soon as she closed the door and gazed into her dark, empty room, Katherina let out a sigh of relief. They had made it! She looked at the book under her arm. It was quite heavy, a blood-red hardcover. When closed together, the pages looked as dark as the night. Running her hands over the front, she felt a thrill run down her spine. She could feel that this book was dangerous, even if it only promised a few jinxes and hexes.
Since they had only one more day until they were to leave for Hogwarts, Katherina already had part of her things packed. She hid the book in between her clothes, next to her journal for the second year, and an empty notebook that she planned on using to take notes on the content before the copy would wither away. Taking one last look at her suitcase, Katherina laid down, trying to catch a few hours of sleep before the morning.
Author's notes:
It's going to be a very interesting year for them, indeed.
Please follow, favorite, and review, as usual.
PS. I was certain I had posted this already. I'm sorry, Ghostwriter71, I'm sure you were expecting this update. I'll post chapter 12 as well for this. My bad.