AN: I told you I'd have the
next chapter up really soon! Thanks Joyce for being such a great beta-
and I apologize for any little grammarical errors. And thanks you to all
who reviewed before- that's what inspires me to keep writing. The day I
get no reviews is the day I'll stop writing, but until then, I'll be here
and typing away! On to the fic!
Dealing with Danger
by: Adel Swiftrider
"Damn, damn, damn...," Draco growled as he paced the floor of his dormitory. "How did he find out?" Slumping into a chair, he ran his hand through his sleek hair, unable to think clearly.
"Hey Draco..."
He looked up to see Pansy standing in the doorway of his dorm.
"What do you want now, Pansy?" he asked, tapping his fingers on the hardwood desk before him.
"I just wanted to see how you were doing," she answered, walking forward so she ended up behind his chair. Putting her hands on his shoulders, she leaned down and whispered in his ear, "How's your little Weasel doing tonight?"
"Why you!" Standing up, he whirled around to face her evenly. Without warning, he pushed aside the chair and grabbed her neck, and promptly shoved her into the wall. "You told him, didn't you?" he snarled.
Pansy refused to answer, only managing to shake her head a little due to his hold on her. She was rewarded with his grip tightening, cutting off the air.
"Okay," she rasped, "I did. I told him!"
At this point Draco was as mad and as irrational as a wild bull, and he would have killed Pansy had it not been for Crabbe and Goyle who entered just as he was beginning to increase his death grip.
"Draco, man, what're you doing?" Crabbe asked stupidly as though he couldn't understand the scene laid out in front of him.
Releasing Pansy, Draco grabbed his cloak and rushed out, leaving a breathless Pansy and two confused roommates behind.
"I..he...what..."
Pansy spluttered, her face pink. There were red finger marks on her neck.
The realization of what could have happened struck her- leaving her speechless.
Oh,
Draco, you're in for it now...
"Hey, Harry, have you seen Ginny?" It had been a few hours since the blackout and nearly everyone had returned to their rooms. Harry was seated in the Common Room, staring at the fire while waiting for Ron to come down to play a game of Wizard's chess.
"No, I haven't," Harry said to Hermione. Where had she gone?
"Oh, Hermione, I think I saw her in the library a little while ago with Draco Malfoy." Lavender had overheard her question as she passed by carrying some newly borrowed books.
"Thanks!" Hermione called out after her retreating figure before returning to Harry. Sighing, she looked at the portrait hole anxiously. "She should have been back by now," she stated, even though it was obvious.
"Maybe she's off snogging Malfoy," Harry answered absentmindedly. "What?" he asked when Hermione turned to glare at him.
"Don't you know she broke up with him?" Hermione said in a low voice.
Harry raised an eyebrow. "She what?"
"Well, I don't have all the details, but they broke it off about a week ago. Haven't you noticed how withdrawn she's been?" Seeing him pull away she shook her head. "Oh right," she added sarcastically, "You were mad at her because of Malfoy."
They sat in front of the fire, not saying a word.
When Ron came down in search of Harry a half-hour later, they were still in the same positions, staring at the fire as if it were the most fascinating thing in the world.
"Hey Hermione, Harry," Ron greeted, sitting beside Hermione and slipping his arm around her waist. "Harry, is there something wrong?"
"Nothing," he answered, "except for the fact that your little sister is missing and the last person she was seen with was Malfoy."
"What?!" Ron quickly stood up. "But they broke up! Who knows what they're up to!" Angrily, he stormed towards the portrait hole.
"Ron!" Hermione jumped up and grabbed his arm. "Where are you going?"
"To find Malfoy and my sister!" He was about to step out when he pivoted on his feet to face Harry. "I want the map." He was referring to the Marauder's Map Harry had gotten in his third year from Fred and George.
"No," said Harry, "I'll get the map and we'll go find her together. "I'm coming too," Hermione added firmly.
Harry rushed upstairs and quickly unrolled the map. Ginny was nowhere to be found. But then there was Malfoy. He seemed to be in the dungeons, walking around.
"Let's go," Harry
ordered as they snuck out under his invisibility cloak and went in pursuit
of Malfoy.
Draco had gone to the dungeons hoping he could find a way out of Hogwarts. He knew where his father had taken Ginny. He just didn't know how his father had gotten out of Hogwarts without Apparating. When he was younger, he remembered his father talking about a way into Hogsmeade through a secret passageway in the dungeons leading to an alley or something of that sort.
Resting against the wall, he his head against the cold stone in frustration. I wish I'd never agreed to that bet. Closing his eyes, he thought, Ginny wouldn't have been in this mess. A small, nasty part of him then chose to speak. Why should you care about her? After all, she is a Weasley- a no good mudblood lover and a disgrace to the wizarding world...Suddenly an image flashed in his mind. His father holding his dead pet cat saying, "Caring is a weakness, Draco...we do not allow the weak in this family." I am not weak!! he yelled in his mind. Another small, much quieter voice added, but you love her. Draco turned to the wall, pounding it with his fists to get rid of his pent-up stress and anger. Towards Pansy. Towards his father. Towards Ginny. Ginny... he thought, I'll save you...just hold on...
"Malfoy..."
A calm, clear voice immediately caused Malfoy to stop punching the wall. He turned around but already knew who to expect.
"Potter." He said simply.
Harry removed the cloak to reveal him, Ron, and Hermione.
"I see you've brought your little friends along with you," Draco sneered, ignoring the glares they sent.
"I'm only going to ask once," Harry warned, "Where is Ginny?"
Draco laughed. He looked almost crazy. "Even if I knew where she was, I wouldn't tell you," he spat.
Harry was about to go over and punch him in the face but Ron held him back while Hermione tried to ask.
"Malfoy," she said, "We're worried about her. Are you aware that she did not return to Gryffindor tower this evening? We're trying to look out for her-trying to help her like any concerned friends would."
"You can't help her!" Draco shook his head. "Where she's been taken, it would be a miracle if she ever saw the light of day again."
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, bewildered.
"She was kidnapped. During the blackout. That's why there was even a blackout in the first place," Draco explained, rolling his eyes.
"Why would anyone want her?" Ron demanded to know.
"Because of me...of what we had. It's all my fault..." Draco faltered, looking down at the floor again.
"Where was she taken?" Hermione persisted on obtaining more information.
Draco paused. "Malfoy Manor," he said finally, his voice hoarse, "Most likely to the dungeons." He slumped against the wall and sank down to the floor, burying his face in his arms. His knuckles, Hermione noticed, were bleeding, the crimson blood standing out on his pale skin.
"Malfoy!" Harry growled and pulled up the shaken boy. "Tell us how to get there!"
Draco looked up and shook his head. "I'm not permitted to tell."
"Good grief, Draco, at a time like this, you choose to be stubborn. Ginny's life is at stake here," Ron yelled in exasperation.
"Don't you think I know that?" Draco yelled back.
Hermione considered another option. "If you can't tell us, could you take us?"
Draco thought of her idea for a moment. "I suppose...," he answered slowly, "but, if you get caught, you cannot reveal to my father how you got there or who told you. Do you understand?"
Harry narrowed his eyes. "Why not?"
"Because," Draco replied, "if this were to pass on to him, I would be disowned and thrown out of the Malfoy household without a knut in my vault."
"Why should we care?" Ron snorted in contempt, thinking of all the times Draco had teased him, Harry, Hermione, or any of his Hogwarts friends for that matter, including his sister Ginny.
"That's only my lightest sentence. The next best thing would be having the Killing Curse laid upon me. Now what would your sister say if she found out the reason I died was because of you three?" he rebutted instantaneously.
Ron thought it over. Reluctantly, he saw Draco's point. "Fine," he agreed for the three of them, "We won't tell."
"That means you have to stay hidden when we go rescue her. The entire time," Hermione said as she thought of rescuing Ginny.
"I have an invisibility cloak of my own," Draco replied smugly.
"Then let's go!" Harry exclaimed.
"No." Hermione stopped Harry. "We have to wait a few days. At least one day. Make it look like we're trying to figure out where Ginny is- to Mr. Malfoy- and try and cover up her disappearance in school so as not to worry a lot of people. If we tell any of the teachers, they'll never let us go. We have to keep it between the four of us."
"Good idea," Ron said, although still bothered by the fact that his sister would be left alone for an entire day in a dungeon.
"Fine. We'll meet on the fourth floor tomorrow. Midnight," Harry told Draco.
Draco nodded and
set off towards the Slytherin dungeons while the other three went back
up to the tower.
Virginia Weasley was definitely not having a good time.
"Let me out!" she yelled from her prison cell, her voice echoing through the rest of the dungeon. She rattled the bars, trying to get one loose, but to no avail. She was locked up and locked up good. The only way she'd get out was if she was released, and she shuddered to think of the torture they probably had in store for her.
After a while, she sat down against one of the walls, quietly trying to think of a way out. She knew there was no way out, but there was nothing much else to do.
Suddenly, her thoughts turned to Draco. Her tall, handsome, boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend, she corrected. His cocky smile. His arrogant personality. His inner turmoil. I miss him...she sighed. Please, Draco, save me...
Elsewhere in a Slytherin dorm room in the Hogwarts dungeons, Draco Malfoy was just crawling into bed when he though he heard a voice in his head. Please, Draco, save me... It was Ginny. It had to be.
Don't worry,
I'll save you...he said firmly. Just hold on...
The next day, Hermione slipped Draco a note as she passed him in the hallway.
Bring your broomstick, it wrote.
Ron and Harry convinced Ginny's roommates that she'd been with Hermione the whole night and was feeling somewhat sick so she wasn't going to attend class. They bought the excuse and went about their business without another thought about Ginny except for the initial, "I hope she feels better later."
The day seemed to toil continuously- classes slowly crawling by. Lunch taking forever for people to eat and drink. Finally, after a seemingly endless day, the time came.
Draco showed up with his Firebolt Extreme and his cloak draped over his arm. Harry had his own Firebolt Extreme while Ron carried Harry's old Firebolt. Hermione wasn't the best at flying so she was going to ride with Ron.
"Well, Potter, how are we getting out?" Draco asked him.
Harry pulled out his map. "On this floor, behind that mirror (he pointed), there's a passageway that leads into Hogsmeade. It was caved in but Fred and George somehow cleared it during their last year here. I haven't used it before so I don't know exactly where in Hogsmeade it leads." He walked over to the mirror and promptly said, "Ouvredium!" and it quickly opened up for him.
"Let's go then!" Harry walked in quickly followed by Hermione and Ron- and finally Draco. He whispered Lumos and held his want out before him as the mirror closed behind him. He gently donned the cloak and sat on the broom.
"Get on your brooms," he ordered, "We can't waste time walking." He took the lead as they zoomed off through the passageway following the light coming from the ends of their wands, which was also the only part of Draco that Harry, Ron, or Hermione could actually see.
They arrived in Hogsmeade a short while later, coming out of a storage room used for recycled brooms.
Draco flew up to
scan the area before setting off. The four of them swiftly rushed to Malfoy
Manor to save Ginny Weasley from her impending doom.
Okay...well, all I have to say is I
hope you liked it!
*Adel Swiftrider