Draco groaned. His head was pounding, though he couldn't quite remember why. He kept his eyes closed, trying to dredge up his last few memories.

Vaguely, he remembered trying to leave the school in a panic. Blaise and Theo had been by his side, and Theo had remembered that Professor Snape had a floo in his private chambers.

They'd been on their way when Draco had run – quite literally – right into Harry Potter. It took about five minutes of wasting his time for Draco to snap and tell him the truth, ordering him to get out of the way.

Potter wasn't as much of a pastry as Draco liked to think, unfortunately. In seconds, he had called Weasley and they stalked across the castle alongside Draco, Blaise, and Theo.

"Shouldn't we have a plan?" Weasley asked uncertainly, and at that point, Pansy had spotted them. Blaise started telling her what had happened before Draco could stop him.

"We're going to trace her wand and find her!" Draco told her, lying as quickly as he could. He grabbed his friends out of her frantic grip and corralled everyone toward Snape's chambers.

"Do you know how to do that?" Potter had asked in awe. "I've never learned."

"Of course not." Draco scoffed. "But I'm not going to tell Pansy the real plan. She'll try to stop us."

"Er – mate, would you mind telling us the real plan?" Theo asked.

Draco gathered them around and looked over his shoulders nervously. "When we get there, I'll put all of you in position. I'm going to lower the wards and call her out, using myself as bait. There's no way Constantine will be able to resist that. She's been wanting to get to me for a long time. As soon as she enters, you all need to be ready to stun her, and anyone with her. Even my mother – I'm giving permission to you now. It's the only way to protect ourselves in case she's under the Imperius."

"This sounds like a terrible idea." Theo muttered.

"We'll help in any way we can!" Potter said firmly. "Should we gather more people? We can get an army ready for you in less than ten minutes."

As tempting as it was to send Potter and Weasley on a wild goose chase to gather an army while Draco slipped away with his friends, he shook his head.

"No. The less people who know, the better."

No one looked thrilled, but no one was particularly keen on arguing with him, either. Draco knew he was right. The more people who knew, the more likely the professors would find out…and they would stop him from saving his mother.

They'd crept into Snape's private bedroom. He'd watched for half a second as Potter and Weasley nosily poked around in his Head of House's home, but then snatched them back.

"I'll go through first and lower the wards for you. Blaise will follow me, and Theo, you go after the Gryffindors." Draco explained tightly. "Keep your wands up and be ready for anything."

He'd snatched up the floo powder and felt himself transported into his bedroom floo, which opened automatically at his presence. He hurriedly opened the gate for Blaise and changed the wards for the others, and then – then everything went dark.

He couldn't remember what had happened after that. There had been a sharp pain in his head, a head-splitting ache, and then…darkness.

That same headache was pounding through him right now. Draco let out a low groan and forced himself to open his eyes. For a moment, he didn't know where he was.

Slowly, images started to make sense. He started to recognize the polished bars and the damp, musty smell – he was in the dungeons of the Manor.

At this thought, Draco scrambled to his feet. He looked around wildly – he had been lying on the dirt, trapped behind solid, gleaming bars that hadn't been used in centuries. Past that, he could see one unmoving body in the cell across from him, but he couldn't make out who it was. He pressed his face against the bars to try and peer into the other cells, but he couldn't see anybody.

"Oi!" He whispered. "Who is that? What's happened?"

There was no response.

He pressed his hands to his head, trying hard not to panic. His wand was missing. He hadn't been in the dungeons since he was a little boy, first learning about the family history. His father had spent hours with him, telling story after story of the rancid muggles and dirty mudbloods who'd spent their last moments in these very cells…he remembered the pride those stories would entail.

His mother had despised the dungeons.

Draco frantically clawed at the bars, trying to somehow get out. He kept talking to the unmoving body, praying they were still breathing.

"Theo? Is that you? Or Blaise? Hell – Potter? If either you or Weasley get yourself killed, I'll never hear the end of it from Ginevra. Will you wake up? Pansy and Daphne won't be too happy either, Blaise – or Theo – I don't want to face any of your angry girlfriends."

The talking helped him concentrate, and he tried not to think about how the body wasn't responding.

"Focus Draco, focus. Where could your wand have gone?"

Something made a scraping noise from the shadows, and Draco froze. He scrambled to the back of the cell and dropped to the floor, his heart in his throat.

Just as he stopped moving, the shadows yielded a tall figure.

Narcissa Malfoy, as tall and regal as ever, swept into the corridor. She peered into the first cell and wrinkled her nose at the sight, then stepped closer and looked into his.

Draco knew with all his heart that this was a trap. He knew it couldn't be real. And he couldn't stop himself.

He leapt to his feet and rushed toward the bars. "Mother! Are you alright? I was so worried! What's going on? Why have you brought us here? And where are Blaise and Theo and…the others?"

Narcissa did not respond. She stepped back from the bars, turned, and swept out of the dungeons.

"Mother!" Draco screamed. "MOTHER!"

He heard the telltale sound of the dungeon doors closing.

Then, he heard the telltale sound of the dungeon doors opening.