Dark Wind
*Chapter Seven*
by Ashley (Hype)
Draco headed down three flights of stairs deep into the insides of the catacombs. Luckily, he saw no one on the way. He looked to the sides of the long, narrow stone corridors. Occasionally, there were puddles or drips of water that he came across. He carried a torch in his left hand while his other hand went unoccupied.
After walking fifty yards or so down the dank tunnel, Draco came across the first door on his right. It seemed as though there was some kind of a puzzle upon it; undoubtedly like there would be on Potter`s door. Of course, he assumed that Harry`s puzzle would be much more complicated than this one. Draco Malfoy did not stop long, only for a matter of seconds, before he resumed walking.
It was a good two hundred yards walk down the dimly lit path before he reached the third door on the right of the third floor down. And, as he had predicted earlier, there before him on the entire surface of the door was an extremely complex-looking puzzle. Draco sighed and leaned against the opposite wall so he was facing the puzzle-covered door. Thoughts endlessly chased each other in his mind as he mused over the puzzle that was shown before Harry`s brilliant green eyes.
The puzzle consisted of thousands of green lights of various sizes and shapes. There were eight red lights bigger than the rest. Draco sighed. This wasn`t going to be easy. To him, it looked like hundreds upon thousands of fairy lights settled on the surface of a door.
Malfoy folded his arms across his chest, leaning his head back until it slightly hit the stone wall behind him. Draco let his disguised green eyes slowly blur as he looked at the lights... Then something happened. The lights began to move, forming letters, then words, then whole sentences...
Draco stared unbelievingly, trying not to break the blur in his eyes for the fear that they would certainly vanish. And there it was- a question- formed by green lights when only Harry`s eyes became blurred only to a certain point. The question read: What did I see one morning as I lay in bed before I left? If he had not hated Harry Potter so much, he would have admired his work. It was brilliant.
Draco`s thoughts began to race, much as if they were horses in a jocky race finishing the last stretch. Left for what? What morning?... Draco racked his brain for answers. Let`s see...What did Harry leave? Draco smirked. His life, for one thing. His house, his friends... The answer slapped Draco so hard that he stumbled back a bit before the wall caught his back. His friend- his girlfriend... "Hermione," his voice cracked.
Nothing happened. He repeated the answer more clearly. Again, nothing happened. He frowned, knowing his answer was correct. Perhaps it had something to do with the lights. Maybe he had to arrange them to form his answer...But which lights? The red ones, of course, Draco thought, scolding himself for his temporary stupidity. He walked up to the door and reached for one of the red lights. Instantaneously, it formed an "M". He reached for another; it changed to an "O". Red light after red light changed into a letter as soon as his fingers touched it. He was left with eight letters : M, O, H, E, I, N, E, and R. The answer flashed quickly in his mind- unscramble it.
He did, spelling Hermione`s name. Quickly, all of the lights vanished and a screen appeared, asking him to place his eyes to the screen for a retinal scanning. Whatever a retinal screening was was beyond Draco; however, he obliged, knowing it was Harry`s eyes instead of his. Next, it asked him for a finger to be placed on the screen to test for fingerprints. Draco held up one of Harry`s hands and noticed that Harry had no fingerprints what so ever. He smirked at that moment and thought, no wonder I couldn`t track the bloody bastard. He shrugged and placed an index finger to the screen, hopping it was what the puzzle was looking for.
The door stood still. Draco would have reached for the handle, but this door didn`t have one. Then, quite suddenly, the door disappeared. Fearing it would come back soon, he wasted no time walking into Harry Potter`s office room. As soon as he had his other foot in the door, the missing door reappeared. There was no seem in the wall from where the door was.
It was an interesting room. It was lavishly furnished in deep crimson and gold furniture and walls. There were several muggle paintings by some Leonardo DaVinci and a rather large collection of sketches by another muggle artist, this one being titled "Rembrandt".
Draco let his eyes settle on two massive mahogany shelves behind Potter`s desk which were covered with little knick- knacks, keepsakes, odd metallic items that were spinning and twisting maddly and one considerably noticeable picture of Harry and Hermione holding each other. Their eyes seemed to smile into his own masked ones, but Draco`s did not match their jubilant expressions.
His eyes scanned the other side of the room and was somewhat surprised to find a prison cell. It seemed every out of place amongst the ornate room. Beside the cell was a small table which had, as Draco easily recognized, torturing tools of various sorts. Next to it was a bookcase that shelves reached the ceiling that contained books on everything from psychology to how to kill witches and wizards. He even noticed several Dark Art books that he had studied and practiced.
Draco did not like this feature of the room, for it instantly brought back memories of his childhood. He turned away and walked across the room to Harry`s desk.
Sitting down in Potter`s tall leather chair, he looked at the desk`s surface. It was strewn with doodles of people and creatures, all of which were labeled, classified, and color- coded. To what, he did not know; though he was curious. His eyes roamed and fell on the picture which was nestled neatly in the center of the desk. It was a picture of Harry and Hermione. A grinning Harry was holding Hermione in his arms, who was smiling very happily, a large diamond on her ring finger on her left hand in which she held out as if to show whoever passed how beautiful the rock truly was. Draco Malfoy was utterly horrified.
Draco had no time to truly react to the picture. He sensed someone approaching with an immense power and confidence. On instinct, he focused his energies on the oncoming force, poised to strike and stun what he supposed would be Harry Potter.
The door opened and a tall, dark figure entered the room. At once, Draco hurtled his energies from his palm to the figure, who dropped to the floor instantly. Cautiously approaching the figure, he saw that it was indeed the famous Harry Potter. And he knew that no matter how strong he may have stunned him, it wouldn`t hold off such a power as Harry`s for long.
Draco levitated Harry in the air and opened the door to the unoccupied prison cell, placing Harry in it. Draco pull a spell that would make Potter speechless do he couldn`t scream of talk back when he awoke from the stun. And, of course, before closing the door, he checked to get Harry`s wand. He was disappointed when he did not find one. Now he just had to wait for the stun to wear off before he began to explain the situation to his arch enemy...
It didn`t take long, perhaps two minutes or so, before Harry was fully conscious and pacing the cell, his green eyes never leaving the ones that were watching him. It was as if Harry were looking at him self; and in a way, he was. By the look in Harry Potter`s eyes, the cell`s steel bars were the only thing keeping him from killing Draco Malfoy. Of course, he wouldn`t know it would be Draco he`d be killing. If he knew, perhaps the bars wouldn`t matter. Harry had wanted to kill Draco since the first day he had met him, even the steel bars couldn`t hold that grudge. Still, Harry paced back and forth in the cage- like prison cell, striking a resemblance to a impatient tiger in a zoo. Even his eyes looked like a tiger`s before it was about to pounce on an unsuspecting prey.
Draco decided it was time to start explaining. "You`re not seeing things, Potter. I appear to be you- I made sure of that."
Harry stopped his pacing and stared at the person before him with eager eyes, waiting for more.
"I see I have your undivided attention now," Draco went on. "I`m your life-long enemy way back from our old school days. Ring a bell, Potter?"
Harry`s eyes grew wide, them squeezed with hatred, making his eyes appear as green, snake-like slits. Apparently, the bars did hold something. Or at least they held Harry, for he did not attempt to fight past them. Draco figured that they were enchanted; he was right.
"That`s right, Potter. It`s Draco Malfoy." If it at all seemed possible, Harry`s face grew even more grim than before. Draco could feel Harry`s hatred for him surging strongly from Potter in the very air around him. However, Draco tried not to pay attention to it and turned to the more serious matter at hand. "Potter, there`s no time to waste by hating me now. Hermione`s in trouble. She`s not in the best of company. Now, I`ll take that spell off of you, but if you sick your dogs on me, I`ll reduce you to a pile of smouldering ashes; and you know I would, too."
Harry nodded and Draco released the spell, but left Harry in the cell as a precaution. Harry`s severe features that had shown seconds ago softened. "What happened to her?"
"I`ll explain on the way. You must come with me. We have to save her from Death`s fingers."
Potter`s eyes widened, but his severe features returned, making his jew look extremely square-looking.
With a swift movement of his hand, Draco separated the bars, emitting Harry to join him. "I assume your belongings are at your house?"
"Some," Harry`s baritone voice mumbled as he began to take miscellaneous objects from around the room, including some tools from the torturing table. Harry turned to Draco, holding a gruesome metallic tool and said, " Just in case you get out of line." Draco couldn`t distinguish wether or not he was serious. He decided not to stay on it. Harry went back to collecting things, heading over to the DaVinci painting and moving it to reveal a safe.
A retinal scan from Harry`s eyes opened it and Harry pulled out a silvery sheet of something from it. Harry walked over to his desk and grabbed the picture Draco had been horrified by earlier. While he was approaching Draco, Draco`s eyes lit with recognition when he realized the silvery material Harry was holding was an Invisibility Cloak.
"I`ll use this to get out of here," Harry began. "Malfoy, tell Lavender that you`re taking two weeks to do some work away from the office for the new assignment. Will it take any longer than two weeks?" he inquired.
"No. At least, I hope not."
"Good. Tell her that you will find a way to notify her if any changes occur."
Draco nodded. Harry pulled the cloak over himself, instantly becoming invisible. The two temporarily identical men walked out through the door, only one of them being noticed. Before Harry was fully out, he grabbed one last object- a small metallic cube- and put it into the pocket of his black robes.
Draco and the unnoticed Harry walked up to the front desk in which Lavender and Seamus were in...er...deep conversation...
"Ahem.." Draco cleared his throat, looking at a...distracted Lavender Brown. "AHEM!" He attempted again. This time he caught her attention. She blushed.
"Oh!...Hi, Harry...Leaving so soon?" She asked, buttoning the top buttons of her shirt back in their place. Seamus was looking extremely disappointed at her movements.
"Yes. I`m taking two weeks off to work on the new assignment. I`ll find a way to contact you if any changes occur."
"Alright, Harry, have fun!"
He grinned, looking at her with a knowing face. "You too."
Lavender only blushed more and Draco and Harry turned to leave. They could hear Seamus shout a muffled, "I`ll make sure she will!" before Lavender burst into a series of giggles. The two disguised Harrys shook their heads and laughed, walking back out into the daylight. However, in the back of their minds, they grimaced, hoping Hermione Granger was alright.
Lord Voldemort sat in front of a green fire, contemplating over the Malfoys and the Dark Empire. Draco was to be filling his role as the ruler of the Dark Empire very soon. But a new problem has raised its ugly face. Draco had fallen for a muggle- born. It was this that deeply perturbed him. Killing mudbloods was the sole purpose of his dark armies. And here his successor had fallen for one.
But how? Draco Malfoy had be brought up in a society that despised all muggles of any shape or form. How could the boy have grown to love one? Or was he just using her? Tom Riddle tried to convince himself that this was what had happened, what Draco was doing- using her. Just as he had done countless times before throughout his life. Draco had used both pure bloods and muggle- born women since he was fifteen. He broke many hearts, making sure to stomp on them properly, shattering them into little pieces before he skipped off to find another woman. Perhaps this Hermione Granger was no different from the rest? It would probably give Draco great pleasure to seduce his enemy then crush her emotions by giving her to the Dark Side to dispose of. It could very well be true. After all, all the Malfoys he had ever met were that way and had been since the beginning of their existence. The Malfoys had some pretty harsh blood in them, including veela and vampire. But then again, maybe not...
Voldemort closed his snake-like eyes and sighed. What would he do with Draco? He was his only successor that could keep the empire stable; perhaps even more powerful. Draco was in a dead-lock tie for the most powerful wizard. One being Draco, the other Harry Potter.
Voldemort`s face turned to an even more terrible scowl, scrunching his long pointy nose up. Harry Potter. He was no longer i the public`s view, though they often wrote about him. They called him their only hope and the "General of the Light." However, no one had seen him in years. Or at least, never spoken to him. There were very few acclaimed glimpses of him all over the world, though none of them could be verified.
Draco and Harry had been enemies since they met. They would, as everyone figured, be enemies for the rest of their lives. The fact would gain more momentum over the years as they grew older into their age. Draco would be the leader of the Dark Side, Harry Potter the leader of the Light Side. Constant fights between their armies and each other would keep their childhood grudge up an running until the day they died. And it is such as shame, thought Tom, that they are so evenly matched.
Voldemort let out a frustrated sigh and thought, Shit... All that I have spent my life on building depends on two little boys...
DISCLAIMER: I own the plot. All characters and names mentioned in this chapter belong to J. K. Rowling, her publishers and her sponsors. Yada yada yada....
NOTE: Yes, I know Voldie doesn`t have a pointy nose. Well, times have changed and Voldie decided to upgrade his physical profile and give himself a nose.:) Anyways, two new characters entered! Yippie! The plot is going somewhere now!:) BTW, Darkbane will be coming in the next chapter, I think. Anyways, he`s a really cool character. You`ll love him, I promise! As always, please review. Anything is welcome under my roof:)
WAIT!!! I`M NOT DONE!!! ***composes herself**** Okay, I`m thinking of doing a Sirius comedy (boy, that sounds funny!) Anywho, it`ll be a romantic comedy. Anyone up for Dead Sexy Sirius? Let me know.
WAIT!!!! I`M STILL NOT DONE!!!! Trust me, this one`s really good. I drew a picture of a shirtless Draco!!! And trust me, it`s flawless. If there`s one thing I pride myself in, it`s art. Go see it at Elani Wrapdon`s page: http://www.goldenwand.diz.nu/ Tell me if you like it! (It`s under submitted art, the artist is Ashley).
