Draco Malfoy, Seeker Of Souls

Chapter Six

Return To The Blackschool

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I awoke to the feeling of pressure on my stomach. "Hop off, Nattie…Daddy is trying to sleep."

"Sorry, Daddy." I heard snickers.

I opened my eyes with a start and thrashed. "Potter! What the hell are you doing?"

Harry hopped off the bed. "Grumpy, are you?"

Snape swept into my part of the room, which silenced Harry. "Come boys, we're going on a trip."

I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Could it be Sunday already? I suddenly felt the coldness of the golden key that hung around my neck underneath my nightclothes. It was time. Time for Ginny to come home again.

I looked at the clock. It read two in the morning. I must have only slept for a couple of hours. I sat in something of a stupor of thoughts and fear mixed with exhaustion as I watched Snape bundling Harry up in a warm cloak and strapping a satchel on his back. "There are things for Ginny in here. I'm not sure if she will be wearing any clothing. Dress her warmly…the Black School is full of drafts, as you know."

Harry nodded. "Yes, Sir." Harry and Snape had found new respect for each other and I grinned. We were all such a happy family.

"Come on, Draco. Out of bed and into your clothes. We need to be there before first light. The earlier we get in, the better chance we have. I want to be in and out by seven o'clock."

"Before the students start to wake up?" I asked.

"Yes. They will sleep in for quite awhile. No one wants to get up early on Sunday."

"Especially Draco," Harry quipped.

I stuck out my tongue viciously and pulled on heavy jeans and a sweater. It was mid-spring, but the Black School was always freezing, as Snape had noted.

Once I was bundled in my cloak and we had our hoods on, the three of us exited the school by way of the front entrance and headed across the grass towards the Quidditch field. Hermione waved to us from the front door as we left, clutching groggy Nathaniel to her chest. A sulky Ron paced around behind her. He wanted to go, rather than stay at the school and baby-sit, but Snape had told them to remain. The fewer people in the Black School, the better.

Harry hurried to keep up with Snape's purpose-filled stride, and I was practically running to keep up do to my short legs and oversized jeans I happened to be wearing. "You look like a punk!" Hermione had noted, but I had ignored it. Now I was hoping I didn't trip and make an arse of myself in front of Harry.

"Sir, where are we going?" Harry asked, grabbing onto my arm to pull me along. Oh, the indignity!

"Feel like taking a bit of a fly this morning, Potter?"

"Oh, yes!" Harry's eyes gleamed with the very thought.

"We're taking the brooms?" I grinned and Harry and I slapped each other five like a couple of goofy kids.

"Come along, children." Snape rolled his eyes.

*****

In my opinion, things had been going quite well, except for one odd point. It was now approximately three o'clock, so we only had about four hours to get to Spain and find what was left of Ginny. Harry and I looked at each other as we climbed onto our brooms. The Firebolt II was fast, but not that fast.

As if Snape could read our minds, he pulled out his wand. "You will be there very shortly, you will see. Hold on tightly to those brooms, and don't let go, whatever you do."

Harry's voice trembled. "What are you going to do?"

"A simple spell that will make your brooms go so fast that the Muggle eye will not even see you unless they know you're there. That will solve both the problems of being seen and the amount of time it takes you to get there. You should be in Spain in less than an hour."

"Bloody hell!" I cried. I couldn't help it. I wasn't sure if I would be able to hold onto my broom for that long, going so fast and all. I wasn't really an expert flyer, even if I was moderately good at Quidditch. Even Harry looked unsure.

"Don't worry, Draco." Snape chanted a spell and a bolt of red light shot out of his wand and enveloped our brooms. They started to vibrate rapidly as the power surged through them. Our hands were suddenly bound to the brooms with the red light, guaranteeing that we would not fall off.

"Alright!" Harry yelled in delight.

"I'll be apparating. I'll see you boys in an hour." With a poof, Snape was gone.

Harry looked at me. "So that's it? How are we supposed to know how to get there?"

I was too busy looking at my broom in horror to answer. I was scared out of my wits. Suddenly, my broom rose above the ground without me even telling it to, as did Harry's. "Harry…I…AHHHH!" My broom gave a lurch and blasted off into the sky. Everything around me – sky, trees, buildings (Yes, buildings! Who knows how we streaked past a city in less than thirty seconds!)- were nothing but a blur. When I finally stopped screaming like a maniac, I could hear Harry's whoops and hollers next to me, so I knew I wasn't alone. I just closed my eyes and let the broom carry me wherever it wanted me to go.

*****

Before I had enough time to fully think though what was happening, my Firebolt II blasted to a stop and I went flying as the magical red cords unbound my broom. With a yell, I flopped over in a couple of summersaults and promptly landed in a heap of robes in the grass. The lump that was Harry quickly collided with me and we rolled more. When we were finally still, we lay there, dazed. "What a miserable landing," Harry muttered.

Pale hands reached down, seemingly from the sky, to lift us each by an arm. "Welcome, boys." Snape smiled at us. "Did you have a nice trip?"

I made a noise and tried not to fall over again on my wobbly feet.

"Oh, look!" cried Harry. He was looking at the sky, which was full of brilliant stars.

"I wish Ginny could see this," I lamented.

"She will very soon." Snape knelt and unzipped his own satchel. He pulled out Harry's invisibility cloak. "Mr. Potter was kind enough to let us use this for the retrieval."

Harry looked quite proud.

"Thanks, Harry." I slung an arm around his shoulders in a friendly gesture. "So what do we do, Professor?"

"I'll open the gate for you, and you two will go into the school under the cloak until you find Ginny. Then dress her and carry her back out, but be careful not to make a sound. If anyone realizes you are there, you may be forced to give up one of your Souls, and then we will have lost another one of you. Let's make this work the first time."

"But how will we know where to look?" I asked. "The school is huge."

"Try the lowest level under the earth. She will be down there somewhere."

I nodded and pulled the cloak over Harry's and my head. "We'll be back soon, and we'll have her with us."

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