"Where's Draco?"
Pansy came rushing up the girls' dormitory staircase frantically, her usual dolled up self rather dishevelled. There were only two other people in the common-room; the rest had already turned in. Astoria Greengrass, irritated at the disturbance, put down her Charms textbook at the table and looked maddeningly at the source of noise, but Pansy's wild gaze landed upon a surprised-looking Blaise Zabini, who sat up straight in his chair and stared at her.
"What's wrong, Pansy?" demanded Blaise.
"Where the hell is Draco?" Pansy was quite furious. "His mother's been trying to get him for ages, my fireplace is just ..." She noticed that Astoria was staring, and then with a poisonous look at the auburn-haired girl, she motioned to Blaise to move one side.
Astoria looked at them as they discussed, with Blaise's eyes widening with horror with every word Pansy said, and the raven-haired girl clearly getting distressed with every word she uttered as well. Blaise replied back, causing Pansy to gasp in horror as well. Just before Pansy was about to drag Blaise out of the common-room, Astoria stood up and asked,
"Is anything the matter?"
"Nothing to do with you, Greengrass!" retorted Pansy, but Blaise put his hand up to stop her. He then looked at Astoria. "Have you seen Draco?"
"Not last since he was being a complete jerk," said Astoria, with a sneer.
Pansy wanted to throw back something insulting, but Astoria's cool green eyes were fixed on Blaise as she continued speaking. "Is he missing? This is really strange, because I just heard something from one of the girls that he was at Slughorn's party just now – you know, when he wasn't invited."
Blaise looked back at her coldly. "Thanks, I knew that already. I was there."
"Did you hear what he said to Potter?"
"No, I didn't, but I reckon he ruffled some feathers with the Weasleys, given how the Carrot Boy jumped onto him."
Astoria's eyes gleamed like a cat's. "I heard Potter snatched his Invisibility Cloak off Draco, who must have obtained the Cloak with the help of a Gryffindor."
Pansy was seething with rage. "You spiteful little twerp! What are you insinuating?"
It was with that insinuation that suddenly the clockwork in Astoria's mind started to move doggedly. Hadn't her sister told her that Hermione Granger had insulted the taste of their grandmother with regards to the pendant? Draco Malfoy hadn't even shown the slightest bit of interest towards the pendants when she was talking to him, but Hermione Granger had.
She knew about the pendants! He was in cahoots with her?
It was such a preposterous theory, but Astoria remembered that she was told Hermione Granger had disappeared midway through the party, and so had Draco. Furthermore, only Potter's best friend would have access to his Invisibility Cloak! And they patrolled together! And –
Blaise saw her eyes deep in thought, and frowned. "Do you know something?"
"What can that little bitch know? She's just – "
Blaise shot Pansy a cold look, and she clammed her mouth shut angrily.
"If I were you," said Astoria, her eyes narrowing. "I would check if Hermione Granger of Gryffindor was missing too."
And she walked out of the common-room, leaving Blaise and Pansy to gape after her.
-.-.-.-.-.-
The Gryffindors were just out of their common-room when they saw Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson marching up to them. Harry was rather taken aback by the fury that was in both of their expressions, and halted the whole group as the Slytherins approached them.
Blaise scanned the group, and then a snarky expression came onto his face. "Where's Granger?"
Harry tried not to let his suspicion and astonishment show. "None of your business, Zabini. What're you doing out at this hour?"
He realised that was an ironic question to ask, because Pansy smirked. "And you, Potter?"
Ron gave a growl.
"Get out of the way," said Corrinne, coldly.
Blaise gave her a dirty look. "That's what you're good at doing, aren't you, Whitemayer? Getting people out of the way, even on the Quidditch pitch. Watch your back next time!"
Corrinne's red eyes flashed angrily. Blaise wasn't in the least intimidated; he merely glowered at her.
"Tell that meddlesome Mudblood that she shouldn't be messing around with Draco, or she'd be really sorry," said Pansy, with a sneer, and Ron clenched his fists. "She should know who he is, and who the people behind him are!"
"Let's just go and leave them," said Ginny, in a low voice, and Harry turned away from them, leading the group away. Blaise and Pansy were left staring after them.
"So it's true," whispered Blaise, a horrified look coming across his face. "Astoria is right; Granger's with Draco."
"Don't be silly, they didn't explicitly say that!" said Pansy, angrily.
"But they didn't deny it," shot back Blaise, and Pansy began to look uncertain. Both Slytherins found themselves quite speechless.
"So, here we are," said Ron, once the Gryffindors had reached Slughorn's office. Along the way, they had dodged a few ghosts and one or two staff members, met Luna Lovegood who was finding her missing sock, and Neville had accosted her along. Corrinne didn't look very pleased about that, but she merely marched on together with them. Now seeing them look uncertainly at one another, she gave a huff of annoyance and walked up straight to the door and rapped on it. The rest of them jumped a little by the confidence of her knocking.
"Come in!" Slughorn's voice boomed.
When Corrinne pushed the door open, Professor Slughorn was sitting at his desk trying to primp himself. It seemed however, that his papers were not right in front of him, but stacked messily at the side; it looked as if he had just been doing absolutely nothing at his table.
"What can I do for all of you?" Slughorn tried his best to sound pleasant, upon seeing Harry's face, and beamed appropriately. Then he realised the time, and looked rather disapproving. "What are you all doing out here at this hour?"
"Professor Slughorn, what were you talking about with Hermione just now?" Harry lost no time in putting the question forth. What he hadn't expected was that Slughorn merely looked at him with a rather perplexed look.
"I'm sorry? Are you referring to Miss Granger? Well, I haven't had her in my classes today!"
"You were talking to her at the party!" Neville stared at him.
Slughorn gave them a curious look. "What party?"
"The Slug – I mean, your party, sir!" Ginny was exasperated. "Neville and Hermione went up to talk to you, and then Hermione asked to talk to you alone! Now could you please tell us what she said?"
Slughorn looked completely bewildered. "I have no idea what all of you are muttering about! This is quite preposterous, I expected better of you, Miss Weasley, and Mr Harry Potter, well really! Up at this hour and blabbering to me about a party! Yes, I do hold parties from time to time, but I jolly well haven't had one today! Now off to bed, all of you!" His pudgy cheeks were flushed with annoyance by the time he finished, and he twirled his walrus moustache with vehemence.
Ron was quite beyond himself, and Harry had to restrain him a little. "What are you talking about? All of us went to your party today!" At this, Corrinne cringed, but said nothing. "You could ask all the students!"
Slughorn was about to get rather angry at Ron's rude outburst, when Luna calmly walked forward.
"Professor," she said, in her serene voice that seemed to quell the tension in the office a bit. "I think there might be Wrackspurts attacking your memory. It seems to have been modified. You might need a bit of Washurp Potion to get them out. I'm sure being a Potions professor," she looked around his office, "you might have a bit of those."
Neville resisted the urge to grin; Harry, Ron and Corrinne just stared at Luna like she was mad. But Professor Slughorn had had enough, especially with a student telling him about a Potion he hadn't heard in his life before, and sent them all out with a threat of detention if they bothered him again.
"He's barking mad!" Ron scowled, as they came out of Slughorn's office looking rather disgruntled.
"I think Luna's right though," said Harry, slowly. "It seems like his memory has been modified."
"I agree with you, Harry," said Corrinne. "I'm quite sure he wasn't lying when he said he had no idea what we were saying. In other words, Hermione must have modified his memory."
"I thought only Gilderoy Lockhart, bless that charmer, was good at that!" Ron retorted.
"Hermione was good at anything," said Harry, quietly.
"That doesn't help us though," said Neville. "If Professor Slughorn doesn't know anything about Hermione, how're we supposed to find out where she and Malfoy could possibly be?"
"Where's Hermione when you need her?" Ron lapsed into lamenting, and Ginny rolled her eyes.
Luna yawned. "I don't suppose it's very good to think about things when you're tired and wearing one sock, are you?"
Harry had to admit he was quite tired, but he shook his head (besides, he had both socks on). "You go ahead, Luna. We'll catch up with you tomorrow morning."
Luna bid them goodbye, and they stood around, still deep in thought.
Ginny chewed her lip. "Okay, you know what, you guys go back to the common-room, I'll get a headstart. I'm going to search Hermione's bed." She looked at Corrinne. "Help me?"
Corrinne nodded, and soon all of them were racing back to the common-room, careful to avoid any sign that Argus Filch would come chasing after them with Mrs Norris.
-.-.-.-.-.-
There was a dull ache throbbing in her head. It was painful, and yet strangely not overwhelmingly terrible. She could barely open her eyes, but when she did, not much light filtered in. Blinking hard, she winced as her hands flew to her ribs.
"Granger?"
She winced again, as she tried to focus, but she couldn't. Whatever hard flooring she was lying on was cold, wet, and definitely not comfortable for her broken ribs. Or at least, they felt like they were broken.
There was a hurried movement across her face.
"Can you see me?"
"Draco?" She squinted hard.
There was a grunt. "I can't believe you can still call me like you're my best mate."
The voice wasn't very harsh, but Hermione just couldn't get herself to focus.
There was a whisper and a jet of light that shot straight at her; she couldn't help squealing in reflex. Then suddenly, she realised her vision was cleared – the familiar of silver-blond hair was now in a complete mess. He was sitting on the ground before her, staring hard at her with a grim expression. Hermione tried to suppress her gasp when she saw him; Draco Malfoy's face was cut in various places, clean perhaps only because he had siphoned all the dirt and blood off with his wand, and he was only wearing his school uniform; Hermione saw a pile of torn robes cast aside carelessly.
"Now you can see me, I would suppose."
"Where are we?" Hermione winced as she tried to turn, her ribs still hurting.
"I haven't a bloody clue. I just managed to find this place swerving around that fat dragon."
"You defeated the dragon?" She stared at him, bewildered.
"I'm surprised you think so highly of my skills." Draco curled his lip, looking more sour and sullen than ever. For a moment, Hermione saw the Draco Malfoy when he was younger; his tuft had been swept back from the gusts of wind, leaving his high forehead, and his eyes were narrowed into slits; the same haughty, suspicious expression that was carved into his face everytime he passed by her; the scowl whenever she managed to outsmart him at something, leaving him to spit and mutter 'Filthy Mudblood!' in the most condescending manner.
But something about him now was different.
Maybe it was the way he looked so torn and dishevelled; never would a Malfoy be caught looking like this.
Hermione shook herself out of her thoughts. "What happened?"
"I can't believe that old swine said I was perfectly capable of handling it; I could have been killed!"
Hermione tried not to wince when he had used 'I' instead of 'we could have been killed'. But she did wince when a sharp pain ran up her side. Once it had subsided, she tried asking again. "What did you do to get us here?"
Draco's gaze was fixed on the ground in front of him. "I tried the Killing Curse on it before it bit off my head. But it knocked off my wand when I tried. Then I saw you falling." His gaze did not shift. "And then I have no bloody idea how that happened, but I just instinctively shouted 'Accio broom!' because that was probably the only thing that I could think of that I could possibly manouevre around this bloody dragon..."
"A broom?" Hermione's voice was incredulous.
Draco's head snapped up, and he glared at her. "That isn't the point, Granger!"
Hermione muttered something under her breath, then continued to look at him expectantly. She half-expected a dragon to suddenly sneak up behind her and make cinders out of them, but Draco was just looking very angrily at her rather than with an expression of growing horror. She tried not to make a nightmare out of her situation. A ball of pain seemed to be rolling about in her stomach, and combined with the jolts of pain in her ribs and head, she was just fighting to stay conscious.
"Yeah, a broom flew out of nowhere." Draco scowled, pointing at the grubby broom lying beside him, as if the broom was at fault. "Nicked it before the dragon ate me up. And caught you before you got eaten up too."
"Accio broom!" he screamed, just as the dragon took a large bite off his robes. The fire seared past his skin, scorching him – he wasn't thinking straight at all; this must have been what it felt when Potter was at the Triwizard Tournament, hoping that a pathetic broom would come and save him against the Hungarian Horntail. This must be what it feels like to be killed by a freaking dragon... To his utter surprise, a familiar thing came hurtling towards him, nearly knocking him off the draft of air that was keeping him afloat. He gasped and reached out for it; he had just managed to clamber onto the broom when he saw Hermione Granger slam against the rocks, her face contorted with pain and drenched in blood. The dragon gave a roar, flapped its large wings as much as it could in that claustrophobic space, and turned its deathly glare upon him. He was staring right straight at its bloody-red eyes again; for a moment, he thought of Corrinne Whitemayer with her sickly blonde hair and flaming eyes. Coming after him. Screaming at him. The way the dragon was going to devour him. His father's face floated to mind. "You cannot be weak," he had said, sneeringly. "Never are Malfoys weak." In an instant, Draco banked hard to the right, avoiding the crash of the dragon's head towards him; it slammed right into the rocks. Draco's gaze was now trained on Hermione, who was slipping off the rocks. Suddenly, she was falling, falling right down the chasm; the dragon's breath wasn't beneath her anymore to hold her up... "AHHHH!" Draco couldn't help yelling his head off as he hurtled towards her like she was the Snitch. He dove beneath her and caught her on the broom, only to be scorched once again by a breath of fire. The dragon twisted and its jaws came terrifyingly close, if not for Draco dipping downwards again, into the emptiness of the chasm. Then he saw his fallen wand resting on a ledge on the rock wall, teetering dangerously. Gritting his teeth, he sped towards it, only to have the dragon ram its side into the wall. His wand flew into the air, and Draco rode his broom at a hurtling speed after it, his arms pulling Hermione to lean on his back. One hand outreached, he grabbed the wand in midair, spun around, and rained jinxes and hexes as much as he could, but the dragon's flexible neck pulled its head aside nimbly. Its fiery mouth was just too near for Draco to do anything, and he was flying all over the place, nearly crashing into the rocks. Suddenly he saw something that looked like – An opening in the rocks! Yelling his lungs out, he zoomed straight into what he hoped was definitely not an illusion...
Hermione tried her best to stand up; she faltered a bit as every part of her body was throbbing with pain. Draco made no move to help her, but his eyes watched her as she struggled. When she nearly lost her balance, he suddenly stood up and grabbed her to steady her. Hermione winced at the pain once again, but then she held onto Draco's arms as she steadied herself, pulling out her wand as she did.
"How the hell are you going to carry on if you're like this?" demanded Draco.
"This is so strange," whispered Hermione, looking into Draco's eyes. He suddenly felt a little uncomfortable at their proximity, but couldn't risk dropping Hermione onto the floor in this state. He diverted his gaze away, the hard look still plastered on his face as she tried to maintain her balance by holding onto his arms. "First, there's a dragon at the only other exit one can go to if one is pursued by the Inferi. Secondly, a broom comes out of nowhere when you ask for it, and you can somehow get past a dragon with that and end up here?"
Draco had to admit she was right; it was all too confusing, complicated, and somehow coincidental. A broom in the middle of that abyss? They were milliseconds away from being dragon chomp.
Did Dumbledore know about that then?
"Episkey," whispered Hermione, her wand limp in her grip. Draco felt something rather hot clawing at his face, and he winced, before a cool draught took over. The pain from his cuts seemed to have diminished (not that he found that extremely distracting). He didn't thank her, but was about to pull out his wand to do the same, considering that she looked rather weak. However, she sort of collapsed into his arms, startling him.
Trying hard not to panic, he looked away from Hermione's head and noticed that the corridor they were at led to somewhere else. He had zoomed in here on the broom with Hermione, not knowing where he really was; he had zoomed past a few corridors. Now where on earth were they?
Unlike the narrow corridor flanked by uneven walls of rocks that they had gone through after Dumbledore had left them alone, the walls that surrounded them were very neat stacks of rocks and stones. There were also fire lights adorning the walls down the corridor. Draco stared in astonishment. It was like they were in a basement of a building, if not for the fact that he could swear he had entered a cave without a single building in sight.
Grudgingly helping Hermione along, he slowly moved towards the end of the corridor – only to see another long corridor. Draco let out a growl of frustration, and summoned the broom once again. Hopping onto it, he tried to get Hermione onto it, but only succeeded in having her flop onto him like a puppet. He turned to stare at her, but she was really quite weak now, having been moved about. Her eyes were half-closed and she murmured something that Draco couldn't hear. Getting increasingly frustrated, Draco had no choice but to grab her arms and put it around him so that she wouldn't get dislodged from the broom. When her arms were secure around him, he cursed inwardly and leaned forward, his Seeker instincts kicking in.
With the broom, Draco was more confident, and he was thankful for it too – the corridors seemed never-ending! He whipped past several corners, zooming down each corridor, but every wall looked the same, the same neatly-stacked stones with an occasional firelight. It was as if he was in a maze!
A maze?
Draco suddenly halted. He could feel Hermione jerk back, but his hand quickly flew out to press her arms against his stomach. His heart was thumping wildly.
A labyrinth of secrets.
This couldn't be! Draco ran his hand through his bedraggled hair, groaning. He hadn't even gotten close to the Horcrux in the cave that the Inferi were guarding, and now there was another one he had to find? Where the hell was Maldash Wentervale? Hadn't Dumbledore said that if they followed the corridor, they might find the way to where Wentervale was?
The thought of Dumbledore incensed him. He had left them to fight the dragon alone! He must have known that there was a dragon there! How could he do that? Was Dumbledore making a fool out of him? Maybe even Lanneria Wentervale was making a fool out of him. Draco could feel the anger boil within him. Maybe Dumbledore was pre-empting him and throwing him to feed the dragon before he could kill him.
All I want to do is avenge my father! What's wrong with that?
The anger probably made him want to complete his first mission for the Dark Lord all the more.
And I was just millimetres away from him!
He glared at the wall beside him. "Bloody hell!" He gritted his teeth as he thumped his fist against the wall.
To his utter amazement, there was a sound. A hollow, empty sound.
Draco stared at the wall, then his fist, and then the wall again. He raised his fist and thumped it again. The low sound echoed down the corridor.
"It's a hollow wall?" He stared at the wall in disbelief.
He pulled out his wand (with much difficulty, since Hermione was still somewhat draped around him), and then muttering a spell, a jet of light shot out from his wand and split into many little pieces, ricocheting off the walls and making the same low sound over and over again, like the sound of someone blowing over a bottle rim. It was a symphony of the same sound being played, and Draco's eyes widened as he heard them.
A labryinth of secrets. Secrets.
If this place was what the clue meant, then this place was hiding something.
If this place was just flanked by hollow walls, then surely beyond this couldn't be a cave. It was either an illusion, or a temporary place.
If that was the case, then what was his next step?
So many 'ifs' were swirling in Draco's mind, as he drifted along the corridor on the broom, with Hermione teetering on the brink of consciousness behind him. He glanced back to see her grimacing a little with her half-shut eyes, and his surly expression deepened. This was not good at all!
Feeling particularly violent with a wave of anger overtaking him, he swung his wand again. "Expulso!"
An earth-shattering explosion came next; he quickly cast a shield charm to protect Hermione and him from the blast. Half the wall on the left was shattered; beyond it was not the usual hard rocks of a cave, instead, it was just emptiness. Draco reached out; there was something like a force field preventing him from walking over the pavement into the emptiness. Completely mystified, he performed the explosive spell again, this time whirling the wand around to spread out the impact. Strengthening his shield charm, he watched as the walls burst apart, those further from the impact crumbling into bits, and the dark emptiness that reminded him of the abyss reigned on both sides.
It seemed like ages as Draco zipped around on his broom, wielding his wand about, casting explosions after explosions, bursting down the walls of each corridor, leaving only the stone pavement. But all he could see was a patch of darkness each time he brought a section of the wall down; it was a really queer labryinth if it was one. The corridors seemed never-ending; there seemed to be endless options to go down and blast off those walls. With a violent shudder running through his body, Draco snarled and hurtled a particular harsh explosive spell right in front of him.
"EXPULSO!"
The earth-shattering feeling came again, but to Draco's amazement, when the dust from the debris had cleared, the section of the wall in front of him remained solidly upright. Everything else had crumbled, leaving the pavement, and it led right to that unmoved section.
Draco hovered on his broom for a moment, before he tentatively edged forward. He cast the explosions left and right again, and then finally hitting in front of him again, knocking down everything, but still the section before him remained like it was.
Breathing heavily, he stared hard at it. There was no knob, no handle, nothing basically to hint that this wall led to anything. His fingers trailed all around it, but he couldn't find anything. He knocked against the wall – it was solid. Not hollow like the rest.
He flew backwards and hurled a couple of spells against the door. Nothing.
"Alohomora!" He felt stupid throwing that spell over without any effect.
"ARGH!"
"Try..." A faint whisper came from behind him.
Draco whipped his head around to try and see Hermione, but he couldn't, because her head was completely rested upon his back. She had been completely shaken by the violent jerks of the explosion and the twists and turns Draco made on his broom. Barely conscious, she managed to whisper,
"Room of Requirement."
Draco's eyebrows shot up. "What?"
But Hermione had no energy to say anymore. Draco looked confused for a moment, before it suddenly hit him.
The Room of Requirement! How does one get in?
Memories of fifth year floated back to mind, when he remembered how he and the Inquisitorial Squad had tried to open up the Room of Requirement to reveal the Headquarters of the DA.
He banked to the right, and then to the left, and then right again. Under his breath, he muttered, "I want to find Maldash Wentervale. Give me a route to find Maldash Wentervale. I want to find..."
He was on his fifth turn to the left when suddenly, a glimmer of light hinted from the point where the wall met the pavement. Draco stared at it, almost fainting from relief when he saw it. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he saw the light trace round the wall, like it was carving an opening. Slowly, before his eyes, a bright outline of a door began to emerge.
A labyrinth of secrets. Secret walls, that when brought to light, crumbled – only to reveal the truth.
It was legend that labryinths were constructed because the constructor wanted to test the true intentions of the person before he or she could have access to what lay at the end. Was this what it was? Was he stepping towards the truth?
A knob appeared. Draco swallowed hard and raised his wand. "Alohomora."
There was a click, and the door slowly creaked open to reveal a very brilliant light. It was bright, but not sharp enough to dazzle him. Draco held his breath.
"Granger, look!"
There was no response.
Draco shifted a bit. "Granger!"
Her arms were cold around his middle. Draco felt himself growing cold too.
"Hermione Granger!"
It was just pure light awaiting at the entrance, but light was hope, and Draco wasted no time in zooming through the doorway on the broom, with Hermione in tow.