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Warning for mentions of injuries and people getting turned into cats. Word count is 1,518. I hope you all enjoy A Cursebreaker's Trials: The Story of Draco the Cat.
"When this is over, remind me to kill you oaky?" Bill sighed as looked down at his trapped boyfriend Draco. The words that the head of the cursebreakers of this camp's words coming back and reverberating in his head like a ringing bell.
"Don't stray too far off into the unexplored parts of the temple. We don't know kinds of curses or weaknesses may be held in the floors or walls."
"If they didn't want people wandering into those areas," Draco huffed, trying not to move around a lot, "they shouldn't bring them up. Or at the very least they should rope them off."
"Would that have kept you from going after whatever it was you were going after, babe?" Bill shook his head and looked around for some way to get his boyfriend out of this trap.
"It was a golden tiara," Draco huffed, looking like he was making a sad attempt to cross his arms angrily. The only problem was that he'd landed rather awkwardly on his right arm. "You know I look damn good in a crown. Plus the mummies aren't going to need it."
"Draco," Bill sighed, looking down into the pit that Draco had pinwheeled into an hour ago, "you don't know if this treasure horde is cursed or not. That crown could be the death of us both."
"You just don't want to see me happy."
"Well, are you happy now?"
"No." Draco leaned back against the side of the pit that he'd fallen into. "I suppose that you're right on that count."
"There is no supposing about it, Drac," Bill said, looking around to see that they'd strayed farther away from the explored part of the temple. He then realized that scattered around him were a bunch of curses and hexes and traps. It was a wonder that Draco hadn't stepped on any of these in his run to grab the tiara. "Draco?"
"Yes."
"Sit right there. I'm going to go and get some help."
"But that will get you in trouble, won't it?"
"You've gotten yourself into a bigger spot of trouble than I will get in. The area you brought us into is littered with curses and traps and whatnot. It's a miracle that you didn't get worse than a broken arm if that."
"Oh," Draco said, sounding surprised at what Bill had just told him. "I didn't know that."
"That's why people give warnings like don't go into the unexplored areas of the temple. You don't know what could be lurking around the corner."
"I'll remember that for next time," Draco said, shifting slightly to make himself more comfortable. "But I would really rather like to get out of this pit sometime soon."
Bill chuckled and shook his head. Draco was still the same old Draco and probably would never change. He walked towards the direction of the explored area of the temple. He had to break a couple of curses that were in the path. But he was making good time in his mind. That is until he was almost out of the unexplored zone. Within sight of the other cursebreakers who were busy at work.
The sound of crumbling tiling brought Bill's gaze down to the tile he'd just put his foot down on. He could see the fractures and fissures opening up on that tile and the surrounding tiles. He certainly wanted to curse and was pretty sure that he let out a couple of good ones as he felt himself hurtling into a pit much like the one that he'd left Draco in.
This is just fabulous, he thought bitterly trying to make it so that the landing wouldn't cause any breaks. I was almost out of the danger zone and then this has to go and happen. This is turning out to be a really fabulous day for falling into pits in the floor.
"Mr. Weasley," said the head cursebreaker looking into the pit at him, "hadn't I warned you about wandering into the unexplored zones of the temple? There is certainly a good reason for that warning as you can now see."
"Um...yeah," said Bill, feeling his face heat up. "But you see...um...I'm not the only one trapped in a pit like this."
"He went after something shiny, didn't he?" asked one of Bill's colleagues laughing a bit. "That boyfriend of yours sure does like his shiny things."
"Yes," Bill said, nodding. "It was a golden tiara."
"Can you stand up, mate?" the man asked, leaning into the pit. "You didn't break a leg or anything when you fell in there, did you?"
"I can stand," Bill answered, getting to his feet slowly just in case he was wrong. "I've been at this job long enough to know how to protect myself from getting injured while dealing with a temple like this."
It didn't take long to get Bill unstuck from the pit he'd fallen into. All they really had to do was send down a length of rope that was tied to the wall for him to use to climb up. He had come to be quite the climber in his years as a cursebreaker stemming back to his first years on the job. He'd been much like Draco had been. He hadn't listened to anyone's warning and had gotten stuck in his fair share of traps. But each one he'd learned something new from. He only hoped that Draco would fare the same way.
"Lead the way, Bill," the head cursebreaker said, nodding. "But do be careful this time. We don't need any more people falling down in traps today."
"There are traps, hexes, and curses spread all through this next room," Bill said, leading them to the doorway of the room in which Draco was caught. "I'm truly surprised that Draco hadn't sprung any on his way in."
"Or you on your way out," someone murmured quietly.
Slowly but surely they picked their way across the floor to the gaping pit. When a strange loud noise started issuing from the pit. It was almost like the feather-soft purr of a cat. But there hadn't been any cat down there when he'd left to get help.
Looking into the pit and not knowing what he was going to find, Bill saw something that shocked him more than anything that he had ever seen on the job. Right where he'd left Draco sitting, was a light-colored cat with grey eyes.
"You have got to be forking kidding me," Bill said, running a hand through his hair. The cat Draco mewed in answer to his question.
"I think that was a no," his fellow cursebreaker said, putting a hand on Bill's shoulder. "That's a bit of bad luck though, isn't it?"
"You think?" Bill asked, sounding slightly annoyed at the man. He turned back to the pit where Draco was trying to claw his way out of the pit. But his broken limbs in human form didn't heal when he'd turned into a cat and he'd just fallen back into the pit once more. "See, this is why we don't go running headlong into an unexplored part of an ancient temple. This right here."
The cat Draco gave an irritated little tilt of his head and glared pointedly at Bill. Bill could almost hear the clipped reply of "You know when a person doesn't need to have their face rubbed into their mistakes. This is it. When said person has been turned into a cat by their own selfish need for a golden tiara."
"Alright," Bill sighed, tugging on the rope his colleague had just handed it to make sure that it was secured on the pillar it was tied to. "Just hold on and I'll get you out of there in a second."
He slowly made his way down to where the Draco cat was limping back and forth. Picking Draco up carefully so as not to further cause harm, he placed his boyfriend in cat form into the pouch he usually carried with him.
Draco made a disgruntled noise as the flap of the bag was closed so as to keep him from falling out of the bag. Then Bill started to climb the rope out of the pit. He could other cursebreakers in the background clearing the area. But his only concern was Draco. As soon as he pulled himself and Draco to safety, he pulled Draco out of his bag.
"I think the Healers might be able to fix him," someone nearby said, sounding like they were far away.
Bill's only concern was Draco and getting him back to normal. He quickly took Draco to the Healer's tent that had been set up when they'd made camp.
The head Healer was a rather old man who had a twinkle in his eye. He worked over Draco carefully and concluded that there was nothing to do but ride the curse out. Then he gave Draco's cat form a bone healing potion and sent them back to their tent to face the oncoming days ahead of them.
I hope you all enjoyed A Cursebreaker's Trials: The Story of Draco the Cat as much as I enjoyed writing it.